February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Patrick Markey
It was the sort of Christmas visit that perhaps gave Fr. Ralph Lawless nightmares.
The Connacht Tribune recently reported that Fr. Lawless, a Galway priest, went outside during the seasonal holidays to investigate noises coming from his churchyard. At the side of the church he discovered a gang of local teens involved in a sex-and-drugs romp on the consecrated grounds.
"It was what could only be described as an orgy of drink and sex. There were over a dozen young people, only aged 15 and 16 and they were in various states of undress," Lawless told his congregation from the pulpit. "They were staggering around the place high on drink or drugs and there was one girl lying on the grass and there was a queue of boys waiting for their turn with her."
After their were caught, the teens hurriedly tried to dress and flee the cleric’s wrath. The incident is not the first sinful encounter Lawless has had on the church grounds. The priest said he often caught the "sweet smell" of marijuana as he rounded the side of the building.
British flu hits Kerry
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While the British are often blamed for much of Ireland’s historical misfortune, a new mainland invader is being touted as the source of wintertime suffering in Kerry: the flu, British flu that is.
The Kerryman newspaper reports that emigrants returning home for Christmas and British tourists visiting the region during the festive season have brought with them a new strain of the flu virus, which is expected to spread rapidly throughout Kerry over the next few weeks.
According to local Dr. Eamon Shanahan, this particular strain of flu, which is sweeping Britain, is extremely contagious and a significant number of cases have already been diagnosed in Kerry.
A spokesman for Tralee General Hospital also confirmed that there was a significantly high number of admissions to the hospital over Christmas of people suffering from the virus — elderly people in particular.
"A lot of people think they have the flu, but what they have in fact is either coughs and colds, a bit of bronchitis or a tummy bug. The real influenza virus is something different entirely," he said.
"Most families in the county would have had some contact with people who came home from England over Christmas and who might have contracted it over there. So I’d say that Kerry GPs will be very busy in the coming months."
Limerick crime up
Despite a dramatic drop in national crime figures for the third year running, crime in Limerick has increased over the last year by the highest percentage in the country, the Limerick Leader reported recently.
Unpublished crime figures suggest that up to the end of November, national crime has fallen by six percent. Nationwide, crime dropped 10 percent the previous year, and 10 percent over the same period the year before.
But in Limerick, the figures are less promising. Over the last year, crime has increased by 8 percent, the highest increase in the country, the paper reports.
Limerick, and the Southern Garda region in general, performed well in terms of crime containment. Between 1995 and 1996, crime in Limerick fell by 11 percent, and again by 11 percent the following year, 1996 to 1997.
Garda officials in Limerick city have suggested that 1997 in particular was a quiet year, partly because of the murder of Det. Jerry McCabe in June 1996. A crackdown followed the murder, which may have led to a reduction in crime, and a corresponding, if misleading, fall in the crime rate.
In addition, groups of prisoners sent to jail at the same time can be released after two or three years, and turned back onto the streets, where some of them re-enter the criminal equation.
Other areas recording an increase in crime were: Galway (1 percent), Waterford-Kilkenny (2 ) and Wexford (3 ). The national figures were buoyed up, however, by the 10 percent fall in overall crime in Dublin, with the eastern division alone registering a 22 percent fall.