Limerick is quieter since it attracted national attention earlier this year, writes Carol Coulter.
One thing unites Limerick people of widely different views on many matters - indignation at the image of the city as a place with an unusual amount of crime.
Gardaí and residents - whether living in the well-off suburbs or on the estates at the centre of recent criminal events - all insist that there is no more crime in Limerick than anywhere else.
Statistics released by the Department of Justice last month showed Limerick below Dublin and Cork for the number of sexual assaults and no higher for crimes like larceny. However, there was a higher number of murders and serious assaults, often of a brutal nature.
"Feuding adds to the serious assaults and murders," Supt Willie Keane of Henry Street station in the city said.
"The feuding has been there for years and years. There are only a handful of families involved and there is a high detection rate, but it seems intractable.
"If a person is arrested, convicted and jailed, a younger person will take their place. They will make references to incidents that occurred 20 or 30 years ago. Even when cases go through the courts, people still want their pound of flesh and to perpetuate the feud. It gives a bad image to the city and it does contribute to a sense of fear."
The Emergency Response Unit was called in last January when two brothers were allegedly abducted as part of one such feud.
At that time too, Kieran Keane was murdered and six people are before the courts in connection with that crime. The investigation into the alleged abduction is ongoing.
There are still armed patrols around to deter those who might consider continuing the feud, according to Supt Keane. "This has been effective. The situation has been calmer during the past three months."
The brother of the dead man, Christy Keane, is serving a 10- year sentence for possession of cannabis resin and the superintendent said the drugs trade was part of the problem.
This mainly involves cannabis and ecstasy, with a small and select trade in cocaine. Seizures of heroin are rare in Limerick and there is little drug-fuelled robbery of the kind which has bedevilled Dublin for decades.
Random violent attacks on the streets are also rare, according to Supt Keane.
"There are no major public order issues outside nightclubs. You could have 10,000 to 13,000 coming on to the streets from clubs on a busy night and by and large there are very few problems. It is not unsafe to be out and about at any hour. Most incidents are connected in one way or another to the feuds."
He admitted that there had been a number of firearms finds, including a Kalashnikov and another machine-gun.
Last Thursday night a man was shot in the chest in Moyross estate and was seriously injured. However, Supt Keane did not consider this incident to be linked to the feuds.
It is also true that in a number of local authority estates, there is sometimes trouble.
On April 30th, four firefighters were attacked in the same estate while attempting to douse a bonfire.
Bonfires are traditional in Limerick on May Eve and dozens were blazing around the city.
One in Moyross threatened the gable of a house and the fire brigade came to douse it. About 25 youths attacked them with baseball bats and stones and one firemen was taken to hospital with a suspected broken collar-bone. The other three were less seriously hurt.
Gardaí described this as "an isolated incident."
Sgt Dave Mulcahy has been a community garda in the area since 1989. "I never had a situation I could not handle or where I had to call for assistance," he said.
He is involved with the local community in a number of development projects, ranging from environmental projects to running a pipe band and helping with various sporting activities.
Almost 200 people are employed by these projects, involving FÁS and the community employment schemes.
He said most people in the Moyross estate were employed nowadays. A number were running taxis.
The phenomenon of third-generation unemployment exists no longer and some of the young people in the estate go on to third-level education. The estate houses about 6,000 people in 1,130 homes. While there is a church and a primary school, there are no supermarkets, no public telephones, no café or pub, no pharmacy and only a handful of small local shops. There is a community centre, a health centre and a credit union, but nothing even resembling a town centre with indoor facilities.
There is a lot of green space, home to several ponies. There is no through road and children play on the streets and in the open spaces when the weather is fine, as it was last week.
Sgt Mulcahy said the estate was clean, with little litter, due to a locally organised environmental project.
But in the evenings there is nowhere for young people to go except into town or hang around the estate. One can easily imagine the excitement provided by bonfires on a fine late spring evening or how quickly a fight could flare between groups with a history of antagonism.