WHEN the then Mayor of Limerick, Gus O'Driscoll, breathed life into Limerick Civic Week, few would have forseen it survinging some 30 years later. Festivals tend to have a natural lifespan.
Hardy perennials are the exception rather than the rule.
Civic Week is another case in point. There is an understandable reluctance to criticise the Limerick event both because to do so might be seen as somehow unpatriotic and because so many people have given so much of themselves for the cause. Even the normally outspoken media have not always been frank. He is also factually right. Civic Week, it is true, has achieved much for which its organisers merit credit.