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Harry Potter returns to Limerick

When two years ago JK Rowlings fictional hero featured in another best seller, there was not just a fanfare of welcome for the book but a party-like atmosphere of celebration as children of all ages, parents and grown-ups who were owning up to being avid Potter fans waited with patient anticipation for the bookshops to open when they could hand over their money for a crisp, newly printed copy, just hot off the presses.

Colette Cotter, manager at O`Mahonys bookshop said the queue stretched from outside the shop up as far as Leavys shoe shop on the corner of Shannon Street.

"We had opened at midnight on Friday and opened again at 8am on Saturday morning and there was a marvellous, good-humoured atmosphere among the adults and children. On the Saturday a lot of the kids had dressed up as characters in the book and this year for the arrival of Rowlings Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, we made Saturday a family fun day with storytelling going on all day, a magic show and a fancy dress competition at 12 noon."

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince takes up the story of Harry`s sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy as Voldemort`s power and followers are increasing day-by-day in the midst of this battle of good and evil.