Gangland violence - Public want action, not promises

AS the Government moves to crack down on gangland thugs waging open war on society, it is alarming to hear that children as young as nine and 10 are turning a once peaceful community into a living hell for elderly people.

Today’s dramatic picture illustrates the depths of lawlessness to which some children have descended in the Southill area of Limerick where the homes of elderly people are being targeted in a systematic fire-bombing campaign.

As local parish priest Fr Pat Hogan put it, the once desirable Astor Court area has been turned into “a war zone” with rampaging children laying waste to a whole neighbourhood. Inevitably, the result is that many elderly couples, some of them in their 70s and 80s, have been forced to flee their homes in recent months.