Understanding Limerick is an edited collection featuring contributions from leading Irish scholars in Sociology, Social Policy, Criminology and Urban Geography. Limerick city has some of the most severely disadvantaged neighbourhoods in the Republic of Ireland. The city has also experienced a range of problems in relation to organized crime. This collection shows how social exclusion and poverty-related criminality developed in Limerick city. In a special study on fear and feuding, Niamh Hourigan examines the distinctive contours of gangland feuding and community violence in Limerick. The success of criminal justice, child protection and Regeneration responses to these problems is evaluated. Contributors with expertise in gender studies, urban deprivation, media analysis and housing underline how the social exclusion evident in Limerick is linked to broader patterns of inequality in Irish society. By piecing together these expert perspectives, a picture emerges of a city with tremendous strengths which is nevertheless facing significant challenges.
ISBN 978-185918-484-4, €25, £20 Softback, 234 x 156 mm, 316 pages
This book vividly explains how our society, in denying respect to its most disadvantaged citizens, creates the conditions for gangsterism and criminality. Its inequality stupid! – Vincent Browne, Irish Times
This book is original, innovative, nuanced and important. It is a major contribution to our understanding of how social exclusion and inequality currently works within late-modern cities. It combines a remarkably powerful explanation of what has gone wrong in Limerick with strong evidence of how to move forward – Professor Máirtín Mac an Ghaill, University of Birmingham
Feuds, drugs, poverty and neglect coexist in Limerick with loving families, intimate communities, sporting prowess and pride in place. To really know a city requires observation from several vantage points and the multiple perspectives provided in this book yield a rich understanding of what makes Limerick special – Professor Ian O’Donnell, UCD Institute of Criminology
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