Limerick Local Heros: Public Meeting Monday 30th January Posted on January 24th, 2012

A large group of Limerick people drawn from all walks of life have come together to launch Limerick Local Heroes, an initiative that aims to energise Limerick people to create new and sustainable jobs for the people of Limerick.

Local Heroes is a community driven programme aimed at giving a voice to all Limerick people in the future development of the city.

A Public Meeting will take place in the Strand Hotel at 6pm on Monday 30th January at which all the people of Limerick are invited to come along, give their opinions on how to improve Limerick economically & culturally and see how they can get involved in creating an environment in the city for jobs creation. The event will be facilitated by RTE broadcaster and producer Aonghus McAnally.

Tony Frawley, spokesperson for the Limerick Local Heroes Steering Group, explained, “Limerick Local Heroes was born out of a frustration amongst genuine Limerick people drawn from the arts, business, sporting & community sectors who believed their voices haven’t been heard in developing a future vision for Limerick, particularly in terms of job creation.

The initiative is Limerick’s version a similar project in Drogheda which has seen a reinvigorated community working together to deliver measurable results for their community and was documented in an RTE television documentary. We therefore put the wheels in motion to try and replicate their success on a much bigger scale in Limerick city. Our initial meeting of 15 people in early December has now grown into almost 60 and we have put together a structure which will allow the people of Limerick to come out on Monday January 30th and have their say as to what needs to be done to get our city back on track.

The great thing about this initiative is that it is for the people of Limerick driven by the people of Limerick and its success will ultimately be measured by the participation of Limerick citizens. It is not organised or tied to any public or state body, just simply the citizens of Limerick getting together and getting something done for the city.

The Public ‘town hall’ style Meeting we are holding offers the people of Limerick their one chance to have their say on what can be done to help improve the city. No suggestion too big or small will be overlooked as the whole premise is to give everybody a voice. Job creation is our main aim but growing the community spirit and creating a sense of increased pride in our city is hugely important also.

Let’s encourage all Limerick citizens to attend the meeting and grab this opportunity to make a difference in the development of the city going forward. The more people that attend the more diverse opinions and ideas for the development of the city can be explored as the programme moves forward. With developments like the Opera Centre coming on stream this is the one chance for the people of Limerick to have a voice so we should grasp it with both hands.”

The Limerick Local Heroes initiative is not for profit and the steering group behind the initiative is made up of individuals from all sections of Limerick society, business, sports, arts, community, education all of whom are giving their own time to developing an environment for job creation.

Those interested can find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/localheroeslimerick

Twitter @LmkLocalHeroes or at www.limericklocalheroes.com

The Drogheda project on which the Limerick Local Heroes initiative is based upon was the subject of a television documentary on RTE and details can be found on www.rte.ie/localheroes