Some people who own their houses in Moyross regularly put them up for sale but there are few bidders.

Just a few hundred yards from the scene of last weekend's petrol attack on four-year-old Millie Murray and her six-year-old brother Gavin, there is a high perimeter wall, not unlike the peace lines in Belfast. The wall separates the residents of Pineview Gardens in Moyross from the Caherdavin estate where houses sell for over 100,000 more than properties in Moyross.

Built in 1974, much of Moyross is dotted with dilapidated and unoccupied houses . . . many are burnt out, have broken windows and overgrown gardens. Horses are tied in the green areas in the estate. Litter is scattered everywhere. A large black mark on the kerbside in Pineview Gardens is the only visible remnant of last weekend's car fire. But the horror of what happened to two innocent children will not go away easily.

"Last weekend, another little bit of Limerick's and Ireland's innocence was taken away, " Allen Meagher, editor of the Moyross-based Changing Irelandmagazine, said. John Ryan, a councillor for the area who's heavily involved in local community work, added: "This is the first time I have actually started to despair for solutions."

A handwritten sign in the petrol station at the Watchhouse Cross Shopping Centre near the entrance to the estate reads "No sale of fuel to persons under 16 years".

Opened in the last two years, the shopping centre represents one of the moves to dispel Moyross's negative image. But the estate was poorly planned 30 years ago. It was built where the boundaries of Limerick city and county meet. Many residents are completely disenfranchised by a bizarre line on the political map.

Three of the estates on the most westerly end of Moyross are in the Bruff electoral area. Although close to Limerick city, they are governed by the county council. Pineview Gardens . . . the area with the most physical scars . . . is in this area. Its problems are made worse by not having its own local councillor. There is no directly elected political voice for Pineview Gardens.

"While places like Pineview are in the Bruff electoral area, councillors from Bruff know more about headage payments than social welfare payments so these people are left disenfranchised, " John Ryan said last week as he called for all of Moyross to be consolidated into one electoral entity.

Most parents bring up their children well against all the odds in Moyross. There have been positive developments in recent years. New classrooms are being built at St Nessan's community school. The local Corpus Christi pipe and drum band has won awards all over the world. One of the community workers in the area believes that there is a more genuine community spirit among most of the local residents than there is in the middle-class area where he lives.

Paddy Flannery, manager of Moyross Community Enterprise Centre, said that 80% of Moyross is covered by a community-run CCTV system. There are plans to extend this system to the whole estate. Two community gardai are based in the centre. Locals say they have a good working relationship with the residents. However the events of last weekend have fuelled calls for a much more visible garda presence. At the moment there are no garda foot patrols in Moyross.

The tragic events of last weekend filled the airwaves on Limerick's Live 95FM throughout last week. Callers put forward everything from more gardai on the street to army patrols as solutions to solve the problems in Moyross.

However, Allen Meagher argues for a different approach. "The solution needs to come from within the community. There is no need for more laws.

We just need to enforce the ones that are there. All children should have the right to grow up in a safe environment."

Crime is a serious problem in parts of Limerick despite the work of community workers in areas like Moyross and the laudable record of local gardai in putting many of the city's hardest criminals behind bars.

John Ryan explained, "After all the family feuds in Limerick, a lot of the worst criminal elements were put behind bars.

We had a period of ethnic cleansing in the city where families involved in feuds were moved away from each other and enclaves have been created.

But the jailing of the hardest criminals left a vacuum which has been filled by teenagers who have no fear of the state and even the threat of going to jail does not act as a deterrent."

None of the community workers or politicians in the area believes that last weekend's events were connected to the feuds of the past. But all believe that something has to happen to stop the current unrest. "The burning of innocent children has shocked and disgusted everyone and maybe this is the wake-up call we all need to put things right in Limerick. There is complete revulsion about it, " Ryan said.