Sir, - Permit me to jump to the defence of your correspondent Adrian Weckler (February 2nd), whose letter describing his unhappy experience during a recent visit to Limerick has elicited a hostile response from some residents of the city.
I do not find the incidents documented by Mr Weckler in any way unusual. I live some three miles from Limerick city centre and work in Castletroy, which lies to the east of the city. Each morning as I drive to work I am forced to run a gauntlet of uncontrolled dogs chasing each other down or across the city's main roads, kids on horses who seem to enjoy holding up early morning traffic, and motorists who fling all manner of objects out car windows, littering the roads and streets.
Limerick resident Helen Christie asks Mr Weckler to "look with a kindlier eye" on her home city. She correctly mentions St John's Castle and the Hunt Museum as two notable examples of why Limerick people should be very proud of their city. However, this is only half the truth. Although parts of Limerick city are being rejuvenated, other parts are being neglected.
If Ms Christie doubts me she should take a walk to the Milk Market area off Ellen Street any day of any week and look with horror on the open dump, replete with household and commercial refuse, which the corporation has allowed to develop here. The Milk Market should be one of Limerick's tourist selling points. Instead it is an eyesore, surrounded by filth and litter, and a place tourists would be well advised not to visit.
It is not my intention to demean Limerick. This is my home city too. But it is far from perfect. St John's Castle, The Hunt's Museum and the University of Limerick (UL) are wonderful places, but again visits here are spoiled by the omnipresent litter. UL has spent millions of pounds expanding its large campus. It always strikes me as strange, when I visit there, that there is not one public litter bin in places other than the entrances to buildings.
I would be the first to admit that Limerick Corporation and County Council are trying to make their respective boroughs cleaner and more attractive, but the sight of uncollected litter everywhere one travels in Limerick, and especially at roundabouts, bus stops and roads into and out of the city, must be unpalatable for Limerick people and tourists alike.
Helen Christie is right to want to defend her home city. But before she or others set sail on such a course, I would recommend they accept Limerick for what it is, warts and all. Limerick has changed and is changing. It is no longer a pleasant place to take leisurely scenic walks. It should be, but it is not. One of my favourite Sunday strolls used to be a four-mile walk along by the River Shannon at UL, a journey which took me round Castletroy Golf Club by the Golf Links Road. I stopped walking this course in 1997. Nowadays one can hardly see the grass margins for all the litter and domestic waste which peppers this route. - Yours, etc., Michael Gleeson,
Foxfield Raheen, Co Limerick.