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GARDAÍ ARE MONITORING the activities of an Irish chapter of the Bandidos motorcycle club, which formed last weekend in Limerick.
An initiation ceremony of a ‘full patch chapter’ took place at the Crossagalla Industrial Estate.
According to gardaí, the leaders of several Bandido chapters from across Europe attended the initiation ceremony last Saturday.
Some members of the gang were seen wearing t-shirts in support of an alleged Bandido member who is charged with shooting dead a fellow biker.
A garda source said: “They are a serious outfit.
There are growing fears about them coming across from Europe as they are involved in criminality and violence.
“The head honchos of the Bandidos came to this event in Limerick from across Europe.
“Some serious criminal elements showed up. What may be coming down the road is unknown.”
International police
A number of Belgian police were also present at the Limerick gathering to “liaise” with their garda counterparts.
The garda source added: “They were liaising with gardaí as part of their policing operations. There has to be cross border co-operation on these type of gangs because they can suddenly spring up anywhere across the world.
“Senior members of the Bandidos travelled to this event in Limerick, not the low level guys. It’s sending out a signal that this was an important event in their calendar.
“If they decided they wanted to open a chapter in Italy, for example, then the President of the Irish branch would pick members of the club to go there and represent Ireland.”
Large crowds
Around 200 bikers gathered in Limerick for the event with around 100 travelling from outside of the country and staying in a number of Limerick city hotels.
According to gardaí, two senior members of the Irish chapter have been convicted of attempting to rob a bank in Munster.
The garda added: “The gang is well known for criminality. I would watch this space. Many of the smaller Irish motorcycle clubs are afraid of the Bandidos. Their overall aim is to take over the rest of the clubs and increase their own membership. The Bandidos see themselves as having status and power.”
The Bandidos Motorcycle Club, also known as the Bandido Nation, was formed in the 1960s in Texas. It promotes itself as a “one-percenter” motorcycle club with members getting promoted through the the ranks and presented with badges. The “1%” patch is said to imply the gang’s division from the 99% of all law abiding motorcyclists.
The Bandidos are said to have estimated 210 Chapters with approximately 5,000 members across 22 countries. The club’s motto states: “We are the people your parents warned you about.”
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How are you supposed to rob them from the hotel if they are not in small plastic packaging
@Mark Mccormack: Bring your own bottle and pump the dispensers dry?
@Charles McGuire: that’s the kind of thinking outside the box that will save the planet
@Darren Byrne: Genius
What a joke country in crisis and he is concerned about little plastic bottles Rise up paddy
@John Hartigan: yes, biodiversity crises, climate crisis, environmental crisis. His suggestion seems reasonable, no?
@John Hartigan: Ya, they should give them to the homeless.
@John Hartigan: I hope Paddy when he rises up is smarter than John
@John Hartigan: why are we in crisis?
@John Hartigan: Is climate and pollution not a crisis? It’s an easy change to remove these plastics. Lots of baby steps can be as good as one big one.
in hotels in america they have on the shower bath walls, refillable body wash, shampoo and conditioner. No need for those bottles
@Charles McGuire: you mean like in the Merriott hotels, as mentioned in the article?
@Vocal Outrage: Precisely good sir or ma’am.
The mini plastic bottles can be refilled, but obviously dispensers are a better option. Apparently the mini bars of soap are a huge ecological problem. They’re never fully used, so they’re thrown out and don’t biodegrade. Amazed that hotels still provide shower caps and plastic cups wrapped in plastic in bathrooms. Seems a bit strange that these practices continue especially when hotels advise you not to use too many towels in order to help the environment
@Anne Marie Devlin: you’d imagine that in a lot if these cases it would also be cheaper for hotels.
@Anne Marie Devlin: the soap problem is not in fact a high ecological problem at all, but the solution that hotels have been using for years isn’t publicised to widely as for all our virtue signalling some solutions we still aren’t comfortable with. The unused remnants of hotel soap are processed and recycled into yet more bars of mini soaps for hotels. So next time you wash your face in a hotel bathroom just think, how many people have used this soap before me?
Airlines should stop using plastic cups and be forced to use compostable cups, these could be disposed of on airport grounds in that case …
@Shane Murphy: You can bring your own reusable cup on board..
Speaking of waste let’s reduce his salary…. Should not earn that much
Someone needs to tell him we went metric a long time ago
Seriously have they nothing better to be looking into!!!
@Amy Keane: Probably. But it’s an easy fix that can save millions of plastic bottles going to landfill or our seas
@Amy Keane: you think plastic waste is not an issue?
Never noticed the country’s awash with miniature shampoo bottles in the waste centres. Who would have thought that that’s whats been filling up the tips all this time. This man is going places!
Nit picking and a fraction of plastic compared to the amount of plastic cups, pint carriers and ponchos discarded at the numerous concerts over the weekend.
@Matt Connolly: actually I’d imagine the amount of mini single plastic bottles dumped after one weekend in all Irish hotels is equally substantial and its ongoing . Both issues should be tackled
Rock. The td who was looking for match tickets from john delaney in the aviva when the matches weren’t even close to being sellouts!
Classic virtue signalling from Rock. Still though, he had John Delaney on speed dial for match tickets and found a way to feel sorry for Pat Hickey after the Olympic ticket scandal. Claimed he wouldnt claim expences if he got elected which also turned out to be bull s h i t e!
@Doubtchya Boy!: I think he said he wouldn’t claim untouched expenses as a councillor, I have no issue with vouched expenses as they have to be justified, and from what I can gather he didnt make unvouched claims, and then got rounded upon when he said he would do the same as a TD.
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/youre-messing-it-up-for-the-rest-of-us-tds-round-on-noel-rock-in-dail-pay-fury-35172862.html
Leo says “green Wave” B U L L S H I T E ……………do they take us for F00LS
Noel rock should be banned he produces too much co2
How about the hotels fleecing people Noel.
Great idea and an easy fix! Don’t get the negativity in these comments!
@Eoin Stapleton: i think some of the negativity is partly because we have a country that has so many obvious problems (crisis ! ) that need addressing , over the weekend the 4000 people over 75 years old on trolleys for longer than 24 hrs in a+e – think about that , housing crisis , transport is congested and banjaxed , pretty much any govt project is billions , billions being wasted and the people we elect in are trying to grab media headline talking about the ‘trendy’ topic of the day instead of doing their f&&&ing job. Just a thought.
@Dave Hammond: I get your ‘thought’ and agree that it needs to be sorted but it’s slightly off topic.
Ireland has c.60,000 hotel bedrooms. By implementing a relatively simple strategy we could eliminate the use of near 50 million plastic bottles a year with little effort! (Assuming each has a 75% occupancy year round and each contains 3 plastic bottles (shampoo, conditioner and shower gel))
Just because the idea came from a politician doesn’t automatically make it bad!
@Eoin Stapleton: not bad , populist – at the moment shampoo bottles in hotels in ireland is whats ‘off topic’ mate.
@Dave Hammond: Ha, and I’m the populist?!
Does that mean we can take a full bottle of shampoo,deodorant Tec.. onto a flight..this makes no sense..Sound bite bollix.
@Patrick Lavery: ‘Individual hotel chains have made efforts to reduce plastic use in their rooms, such as Marriott which last year began to swap the plastic bottles for in-shower dispensers in over 400 of its hotels.’
Right in the article you just commented on. In-shower dispensers. Makes plenty of sense.
What a side show. How about doing something really, really useful, like sorting out the housing crisis, health and our outdated education system.
You know, things that really matter. Instead we referendums, and stuff like this. All smoke and mirrors from a do nothing government.
Noel Rock brings his own cornflakes away with him. Pass it on.
He would have more impact if he targeted used car tyres. And don’t tell me they are all recycled!
@davey boy: no, that would be bike tyres
Think of the millions of little plastic bottles going into landfill. Ban the damn things!
Typical FG jumping on whatever they deem is gonna get votes.
Trying (badly) to surf the green wave now
Ban Happy Meals and the likes, it’s criminal
have your say