THE labour of love which Janesboro man, the late Gerry O’Riordan, carried out in tending a green area, was remembered last weekend when the local Tidy Towns unveiled a plaque in his honour. And at the same time, the committee unveiled the magnificent stone which bids the visitor ‘welcome to Janesboro’ In recent weeks, the tidy towns volunteers moved in on the area at the side of the school on Casement Avenue. “Gerry did a wonderful job for many years of looking after it but sadly, he has now passed and it was very overgrown,” said committee member, Rachael Rice.
“We cleaned it up and put a plaque to remember him on his house which is next to the area he looked after,” she told the Limerick Post.
The inscribed rock was bought through a fund-raising drive in conjunction with Our Lady Queen of Peace primary school, at a cost of €1,700.
The volunteers have been putting in a lot of hard work, moving more than 24 tonnes of soil, hanging flora baskets, putting out planters, planting shrubs and flowers and strimming a dog-walking area, as well as painting and removing grafitti.
“We come out two evenings in the week and we have plans for more to do. We’re delighted with the support we’ve got. Some people have been a bit negative, saying it will all be ruined but it hasn’t. In fact, if people see plants torn up now, they go and plant them back and we don’t know about it until afterwards”.
Limerick’s Mayor, Gerry McLoughlin, unveiled both pieces at a special ceremony.
