From: mbrennan@swift.cs.tcd.ie (Micheal O'Braonain)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.celtic
Subject: Re: student exchange with Ireland/Univ of Limerick
Date: 7 Apr 92 17:31:48 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Department, Trinity College Dublin

What started off as correcting a slightly inaccurate reply to a question 
about student life at the Univ of Limerick has unfortunately degenerated
into a disorganised squabble about the city of limerick as a whole
as well as the university and its environs.

As a graduate of the university I am proud of it.  I think it is 
based on a very sound academic footing and can more than ably compete
with the best in Europe.  Despite the many changes which have taken 
place since my graduation, and of which I have endeavoured to inform
myself, there still exists a lack student facilities - both housing
and of a social nature.  The university is still relatively new, and I 
understand that it takes time to build an infrastructure.  My hope is 
that the energy directed towards defending the indefensible be 
channeled towards effecting change and improvements for the benefit 
of students, both present and future.

>It has, where have you been?.......Mars!!!??!!
I have been back to Limerick in fact - and since you ask, the car was
broken into for my troubles, on one visit.

>Plassey village has been renovated and extended
>and came accommodate approx 500 students.
Not at at cost of 12 pounds per week it can't!

>Secondly all foreign exchange students who come to UL are placed in 
>Plassey village .....so they do not have to suffer Elm park. Also there
Is this a case of show the visitors into the parlour, while the 'natives'
live with the 'pigs in the kitchen' standards of Elm Park and Milford Grange.

>....I don't know what yuppie Trinity boys are used to but for the vast 
Kindly don't apply an incorrect knee-jerk generalisation about the 
socio-economic standing of a contributor based on an email address.
Would it be unfair of me to suggest that the yuppies of UL
live in Plassey village with their private data lines, while the plebs
commute and queue?

>year. In fact very few UL students are now forced to suffer ELM PARK.
I wish that were true, but I visited two student households there during
the current academic year - things have not changed much.  I am glad to
see you use the adjective 'suffer'.

>> I mean 1 pub !!!  
>
>Well once again things have changed....There's the on-campus pub the
>Stables which is very handy indeed, The Hurlers just above Elm Park,
>and the new Castletroy Park Hotel just outside the entrance to UL.
When Castletroy Park Hotel opened its doors about 1.5 years ago it
certainly did not welcome students.  If this has changed then yipee.
Hurlers pub operates its own apartheid system - students in barn
at the rear, natives in the pub at the front.  Initially this rule
was enforced as an over-26 rule which is fair enough, but when the 
university aquired a few mature students, it applied a bland no-students
rule to the bar.
Likewise the Parkway frequently operates a no students policy, I have seen
them U turn on 3 occasions on this one though.
What do you estimate as the maximum combined capacity of Hurlers and 
the Stables?  Does about 400-500 sound right?  Do you seriously expect me to 
believe that this is adequate for a college community of 5000 plus
a local community.  In any other city in Ireland you would get laughed
out the door if you said you had to go 3 miles to the pub.  

> Also the ENTS crew is very active lately....Two or more live bands a
>week in the stables...Gigs organized in town every week with free buses
It is telling that the ENTS crew have to work so hard to provide 
entertainment.  Is there such a dearth of activity in the city that 
the students must be spoon-fed music?  What of young limerick people
who don't attend college, where do they go? and why to UL people not
go there too?

> Contrary to popular belief we're not all a pack of
>"Knackers" in Limerick.
I never suggested anything of the sort.  You are getting hysterically
defensively here.
__ 
 ,   ,  ,      ,              ,       ,          ,          ,  ,      ,
Micheal O Braonain     Roinn Riomheolaiochta, Colaiste Na Trionoide, BAC 2.
Email                  mbrennan@cs.tcd.ie
"Indecision is not an ignoble condition" - Brian Friel.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.celtic