Breaking the bonds of poverty, drugs and crime

EVEN in a week when the news was dominated by the findings of the Moriarty Tribunal and the battle to save the corporation tax rate, community violence in Limerick still featured in the headlines.

Last Thursday, five people were arrested as part of an investigation into the murder of 72-year-old ex-soldier Jimmy Boyce in St Mary’s Park.

Residents of Limerick’s disadvantaged estates who greeted the launch of the Limerick Regeneration programme with such optimism in 2007 dared to hope that such headlines would be consigned to the dustbin of history. Yet, in March 2011, after four years of solid work by the Regeneration team, backed by considerable investment from the state, problems generated by poverty-related criminality in the city seem intractable.