History Archives

From Limerick to France:

The Life and Times of Marie Edme Patrice Maurice De McMahon, Duc De Magenta (1808-93), President of France Marie Edme Patrice Maurice de McMahon, Duc de Magenta, was President of France from 1873 to 1879. He was the only one of the Irish in Europe to become a head of state, and as President of […]

The Maritime Influence on Limerick History in the Eighteenth Century

There are two significant considerations which are often omitted in eighteenth-century studies of the Shannon region and which appear to me to explain much of the historical legacy of counties Limerick, Kerry and Cork. These are the distance of the region from the seat of power in Dublin and London, and its relative proximity on […]

Limerick – City of the Sieges

Limerick endured three major sieges during the seventeenth century. In each case they were part of vital military campaigns which would determine not just the fate of the city itself but of the entire country. It can also reasonably be argued that they had important implications for British and European history as they involved both […]

The Sarsfield Bar

I must have been twelve or thirteen when I had my first prohibitive glimpse inside No. 1 Rutland Street. My father had told me to wait in the car as he delivered a case of whiskey and a gift of blinking black & white dogs. He had problems negotiating the heavy door so I held […]

Images Of Limerick In The 70’s

These are images commissioned by the Limerick Corporation from photographer Michael Cowhey to record the last vestiges of old Limerick before it was transformed into the modern city of today. Click on an image to see an enlargement.

The Fourth Siege of Limerick

A HIGHLY interesting and original account of the Civil War in Limerick is published in an edition of the Old Limerick Journal (No 38). For many years, one of the participants in that bloody conflict, city man PJ Ryan, tried to get his account of what was to become known as the Fourth Siege of […]

Remembering the Hiring Fairs of County Limerick

The hiring fairs was part of the Irish scene for at least two hundred years up to about the late 1940s. Hiring fairs were held in two centres in County Limerick in the grounds of the railway station at Kilmallock, and in the Square at Newcastle West. The hiring fairs in Kilmallock commenced on the […]

Memories of the Island Field

I was the first child born in the Island Field on August 29th 1935 at 76 St. Ita Street. I now reside in Canada. I went to Gerald Griffin, and Leamys before being incaserated in St. Josephs Industrial School, Glin. Frank McCourt and Malachy also went to Leamys and on top of that he has […]

Where Are All The Characters Gone?

Any of you who grew up in Limerick in the 40’s and 50’s will remember, like me, some of the “characters” that were to be found on our streets. These were people that maybe had fallen on hard times or as they say today ” were socially deprived” or had experienced physical or mental abuse […]

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