Limerick's Life

This project on Limerick and the Great Famine, researched and curated by Sharon Slater, has been funded by the Royal Irish Academy Commemorations Bursary. Select “Presentation Mode” to view full exhibition.

The travel writer John Gibbons published Tramping Through Ireland in 1930, in it he mentioned his very brief stop in Limerick. And by the time I got to Limerick in the dark, I was so tired and wet that I went straight inside the first public-house I found and stopped there the night without going out again. And the only point of interest about the place was its cat.

Charles R. Barry was a Limerick man. His father was a Solicitor, and his people were well known and respected in his native City for a very long time. He was a man of broad outlook and very sound judgement in law and business affairs, and in everything which a practitioner might have to consider or advice upon. He had a large business from an early stage of his professional career, which was not limited to his native City, but extended to the Circuit generally and to the High courts.

Richard Wallace was a silversmith and jeweller in Limerick city from at least 1832 until 1841, when he had a partnership with H Smith. On June 1, 1841, Wallace opened his new store at 125 George Street (O’Connell Street) where he had an observatory built into the top of his house. Richard Wallace married Bridget Bunton in 1829, and they had thirteen children: Anastasia, Anne, Bridget, Mary Jane, Alfred, George, Timothy, Richard, William, John Henry, Selina, James and Octavius.

Walking along the banks of the Shannon just off Shannon Bridge there is a large anchor memorial to merchant seamen who lost their lives at sea during the course of their duty. At the foot of the memorial is a plaque bearing the names of some of those merchant seamen and the ships on which they served during what the Irish referred to as “The Emergency” (World War II). Irish Mercantile Marine 1939-1945.

The following letter, originally published in The Times of London and reprinted in the Limerick Chronicle on 5 November 1845, provides a valuable contemporary account of Limerick city. Written by a correspondent for The Times, the piece offers observations on the city’s industrial development, commercial activity, and urban infrastructure, as well as social commentary of pre-Famine Ireland and the prevailing attitudes of an English observer encountering provincial life in the west of Ireland.

On 26 April 2025, I was invited to speak at the closing of Daniel Tuomey’s exhibition Stuck, a decomposition in Ormston House. I relayed the following story of a young boy, Michael O’Brien, who lost his life in the space where Ormston House now stands. A number of years ago I was tasked with uncovering the history that lay beneath our feet and above our heads here in Ormston House.

Many thanks to family historian, genealogist, Tara @msfrugalone on BlueSky for bringing this incredible addition to a Limerick census return to my attention. The story begins in 1901 when Joseph Adderley completed his census return at Gortroe, Castletown, County Limerick. On the night of the census, his wife was missing from the house, but four of his daughters remained at that family home with their father.

If you love history, have a curious mind, or just enjoy a good story with a dash of humour, you will enjoy the new Limerick’s Life Podcast. I’ve spent years digging up the wild, wonderful, and sometimes downright weird history of Limerick—now, I get to share it with you. And I won’t be doing it alone. My co-host, Peter, has no credentials, no formal historical knowledge… but he does have a microphone and a whole lot of questions.

Inside Christ Church on O’Connell Street is a memorial plaque to the members of the congregation who died during the First World War. “To the glory of God and in the abiding memory of…” Harold Austin – (No further information found) James S Dunn – the son of Janet and the late John Dunn and lived at Castle View Gardens. Before enlisting, he was an assistant at J Stewart’s Pharmacy, 45 George Street.