Friends heartbroken as local man diagnosed with long term relationship

The friends of a local Limerick City man have appealed for support after news broke that James O’Driscoll has been diagnosed as being ‘in a long-term relationship’, which followed Alice Murphy (22) of Westbury, posting pictures of herself and James (24) on Facebook.

It is not known at this stage if Jimmy knew of or approved of the social media post, and friends of Jimmy held an all-night vigil in Flannery’s Bar in the city centre after the post was widely circulated.

Never knew things were so serious

Tosser Murphy, a lifelong friend of Jimmy, told reporters; “We had no idea that things had gotten so serious between them. One minute he was grand, laughing and joking and generally acting the gowl with the lads.

You know the kind of craic, he’d be knocking back pints to beat the band, so he would and then going on to Nancy Blakes for the few more and the late-night sessions, so he would,” a visibly upset Tosser said.

Jimmy will be missed

“We’re going to miss him terribly so we are. Like, ’tis supposed to be a terrible affliction altogether, so it is. One minute sipping pints with the lads and the next minute looking at curtains and saving money and talking about babies and that sort of stuff.

“Once this ‘in a relationship’ thing gets hold of a lad, well, that’s that — there’s often no return,” Tosser said solemnly as he downed a pint of his own.

Empty chair left in memory

Eyewitnesses to the vigil told us; “‘Twas like a dark vale had descended on the misfortunate group of lads who were sitting at a small little bit of a table — the table where they always sat. But this time ’twas different.”

“The lads, God bless them, had left an empty chair and an unattended but half-drank pint at the spot where Jimmy used to sit. Ah ’twas terrible altogether. The poor lads were sobbing and trying to hide the tears.”

“Questions such as ‘What’s he going to do with his season tickets to Thomond Park?’ and ‘Will I ever get the fiver he owes me back?’ were being bandied about. Shur the poor lads were in an awful way altogether.”

Didn’t show any symptoms

Another friend of Jimmy’s, Lefty O’Shea, told us; “He didn’t show any of the signs you’d see in one of them lads that normally get struck down by relationships, God bless them.

“I mean he was here every single night of the week, so he was, knocking back the few pints and then going on to the auld night club, so he would. The odd couple of nights he’d pull a young-wan and take her back to the flat for a bit of the ‘you-know-what.'”

“But that’s as far as it went — pure casual monkey business and none of that ‘in a relationship’ shite. Jimmy was too much of one of the lads to get caught up in that class of behaviour, or so we thought.”

Go Fund Me campaign

A ‘Go Fund Me‘ campaign has been launched to raise funds for pints to help the lads get over Jimmy’s premature passing. Limerick City and County Council have confirmed that a book of condolences will be opened in City Hall from tomorrow so that people may pay their last respects to Jimmy, who is not expected to attend.