There was a time where you could have gone from January to December and not have heard a single story about an armed raid in Kilkenny, however, clearly those days are long gone.
With the Post Office raid on Friday and another armed raid on Wednesday on a shop on Walkin Street, we really are taking our lives in our hands when we step outside the door.
There was a time when a simple robbery made the headlines, nowadays it would need to be a full armed robbery - like the one witnessed by many on the Post Office on Friday, before it makes headlines.
Luckily there was nobody injured in the attack, however, it left a lot of people terrified after the incident and many of these people were older people who had been collecting their pensions that morning. Everyone knows there is a recession, but really is there a need for these drastic money-making conspiracies?
The robbery on Walkin Street occurred at a newsagents where a woman was working on her own. How would anyone be comfortable working on their own in a shop in future when there is always the possibility that someone may attack you with a knife?
The only answer to dealing with these thugs is to punish them accordingly. Criminals are not afraid of the law in this country and that is because there are so many loopholes and ways out. When you look at a country like Singapore, where residents feel safe walking home from work at night or walking home from a club even later. People would be mad to do that in this country because the chances are you will be attacked, robbed and/ or raped. You will also be told that you were asking for it for walking home on your own in the first place. However, isn’t it unjust that we cannot walk around without feeling that we are looking for trouble....
On a lighter note - Minister Martin Cullen was in Kilkenny yesterday to open our new pool and leisure centre before heading home to Waterford. We have to be extremely proud of this facility. It is a wonderful amenity for the people of Kilkenny. We were lucky that we had this facility planned and the wheels were in motion before now as if we had been looking for funding for such a facility in this economic climate there is no way we would have been successful. However, the Government only funded a small fraction of this facility and it must be noted that it was the forward-thinking council that decided that funds should be put aside to fund the pool over the past number of years. Well worth saving the pennies when we see what we have today.
I must also note the sad passing of John Martyn who was a renowned singer songwriter from England and Scotland but who spend much of his latter days here in Kilkenny with his partner. He will be sadly missed by his fans and by those that knew him. Already there are tributes to John on websites and music publications. He was held in very high regard - Ar dheis de go raibh a anam.
