Shattered Dreams

In the first of a two-part series on Limerick Regeneration, David Young talks to locals who are disillusioned by broken promises and broken homes

IMAGINE your neighbourhood. When there’s trouble outside, no one calls the gardaí; they won’t come, especially not after dark. There are cameras throughout your estate — no one seems to be manning them.

Guns shoot as drug deals go sour; people get stabbed; and you lie awake at night, worried about the unoccupied house next door, because it draws unwelcome nocturnal activity. Young lads, off their heads, given to lighting fires and violent acts, haunt these abandoned buildings.