Peace process and garda surveillance reap dividends
FOUR months after the Limerick Post exclusively revealed that a peace process between the city’s leading feuding families had been brokered by a group of businessmen – a story since highlighted by the Sunday Independent – figures just released by the Central Statistics Office confirm a significant decrease in serious crime in Limerick.
Co-ordinators of the peace process have confirmed that none of the parties to the agreement was involved in two recent shootings, one in the Hyde Road area and the second in Downey Street.
In March, a spokesperson for the four member group of highly esteemed professional people engaged in brokering the peace agreement, told this reporter that all but one of the families involved were unified in their resolve “to end the violence and bury the guns”.
The group’s spokesperson said this week: “The fact there there has been little or no violent criminal activity over the past months, and is being sustained, bears out what they say – that for the sake of their children, they want to live in peace”.
It is believed that last week’s gun attacks were not carried out by those families who signed up to the peace agreement.
The first of the recent shootings was directed at a house on Hyde Road, belonging to a member of the Dundon family. John Dundon had just returned to the city and contacted gardai at Roxboro Station, declaring his willingness to present himself before the District Court for previous public order charges.
The gardai have arrested two men in connection with a shooting attack on a house in Downey Street, not believed to be feud related.
Meanwhile, the gardai have confirmed a drop of 18 per cent in crime in Limerick for the first six months of this year. They attribute the decline to a number of factors, including the deployment of the Regional Support Unit, comprising two sergeants and 10 gardai and the Emergency Response Unit, to areas that are regularly subjected to shootings.
Yet another initiative – Operation Focus has led to the arrest and imprisonment of a number of burglars.
Latest reports show in excess of 600 gardai operating in the Limerick division.
