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Limerick Travel Guide: 267 reviews and 293 photos
I was born, bred and buttered in Limerick city and lived here (Hi Ma!) until I was 18, when I accepted a university place in Dublin.
Limerick does have a tough reputation, there is no point denying it, but like with any city, just dont look for trouble and you wont get it back. it's all about Karma :-)
Shopping here is pretty good and the pubs are not bad either, (drink is so much cheaper here than Dublin!) but I dont think the nightclubs are that great, IMO. IKON niteclub in Denmark street is ok but not very sophisticated :)
The main thing about Limerick is that it is a place that tourists tend to pass through or bypass on the way to Kerry or Clare. People do not really stay here for long, even though it's Ireland's third largest city and it's relatively cheap to stay here.
Origins of the name "Limerick"
To figure out the origins of any Irish place name you'll need to know Irish Gaelic. So let's break it down to the translation, which is "Luimneach" (pronounced Lim-nach). Luim can mean "bare, dull, grey" . Thus it means something like "barren land", "bare place"
A little bit of history
Limerick was invaded in the 7-9th centuries by the Vikings sailing up the Shannon Estaury. In due course they settled down in Kings Island and intermarried with the Limerick locals. You can see plenty of monastic settlements outside Limerick, notably Ardagh and Mungret. Limerick's city charter dates back to 1210.
Most Limerick street names are named in honor of Limerick's most respected families - the Arthurs and the Perys, eg Pery Square, Newton Pery, Arthurs Quay.
Limerick is Ireland's oldest chartered city.
As history is a great love of mine, I'm going to corner the VT Limerick History market in my travelogs :) So I've written about the German Palatine colony in Rathkeale and I will add more when I'm bored at work and have nothing else to do ;-)
Stab City
Inevitably whenever I say to my Dublin friends that I'm going home to Limerick for the weekend, I always get some kind of smartass comment along the lines of "Well make sure you dont get stabbed while you're there", "Dont forget your knive",etc. Any time I'm introduced to someone and I say I'm from Limerick, I get the automatic reply "Oh right, Stab City" .
It gets pretty damn annoying, I can tell you. I mean, we do use firearms as well ;-)
Limerick is often regarded by the irish media as the Crime Capital. In fact, a few years ago, some wag came up with this little ditty - to be sung to the air of "Country House" by Blur
"He lives in a house, a very big house in O'Malley,
Gets stabbed in the chest
So he needs a lot of rest in O'Malleeeey" and so on.
(see my warning section re: O'Malley)
Stabbing incidents in Limerick are basically limited to a number of families living in Southhill & its environs (including O'Malley Park) and their tit-for-tat feuds dating back from the late 70's/80's, Weapon at the scene of these crimes were usually knives (easier to find and carry & cheaper) But pitchforks & crossbows are alleged to have been used as well. Whatever the case, the image stuck and gave the city an inferiority complex. However, to be fair, Limerick city council have worked very hard to clean up the city over the past 10 years, but the name still lingers on.
Limerick is not the most obvious place to go to for a holiday, but it's not that bad, really :-)
*DISCLAIMER* for the likes of uptight narrow-minded readers like a certain prospectmichael - this is just meant to be a joke. I have similar versions on my Cork & Galway pages, so I'm NOT picking on Limerick here, ok!?
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People seem to be scared of you when you say you are from Limerick.
You have an urge to steal.
You keep going on about how great Limerick and Garryowen are.
[rugby clubs]
To you, organised crime is putting petrol in the getaway car.
Your voice gets very high-pitched when you become agitated, up to the point where only dogs can hear you.
You start to cry when you hear
'Beautiful Munsters' or "There is an Isle".
You think anyone from Limerick has a great sense of humour.
You think everyone's heard of John The Man.
You think Dubliners are 'soft aul jackeens'... until they kick your head in at rugby.
You deny that it rains all the time.. as you struggle home with the shopping in yet another torrential downpour.
You'll threaten to stab anyone who thinks "Angela's Ashes" was a great book
You know Clare people from Clonlara, Parteen, Meelick etc are just Limerick Wannabes ;-)
You'll only go to either Ballybunion or Kilkee for the summer holidays
Star Wars - Limerick Style!
- Pros:Historical Heritage & Great Shopping! And I was born here ;-)
- Cons:Certain suburbs have given it the reputation as "the murder capital of Ireland"
- In a nutshell:Not as bad as the media claim, there is more to the city than expected.
Reviews (46)
People's Park
Things to Do
(10)
Where many a Limerick teenager had their first kiss (except me :'( ) It is across the road from the rail and bus... more travel advice
Old Quarter
Things to Do
(10)
Actually, they tell a lie - it is not THAT old because the area was only developed in the past 10-15 years! There is a... more travel advice
Taits Clock
Things to Do
(10)
It is near the Limerick train station and Pery Square. It's a 4-sided clock, dating back from the 1800s in honour of a... more travel advice
Smirting & The Smoking Ban
Local Customs
(4)
Smirting is a combination of the words smoking + flirting, geddit? It started when people had to go out for a ciggie... more travel advice
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Comments (42)
Parkway Shopping Centre has improved greatly in recent years, with good clothes shops like Josef, Tally Weijl and No Name now welll established. Parkway has a good selection of phone shops and computer game outlets
Cruises cafe is gone as at 3 jun 07 also Java cafe and Captain Jacks (these latter two due to an apartment block developement)
Where could one find the Cornmarket? And when does it occur, e.g. weekends-only, weekdays, 9-5, etc...? Thanks
I've lived all my life in England. (How sad!) My mother grew up on the Island Field in the 30s. When I read Angela's Ashes, I was fascinated to find it was just like the tales she told. So Frank has not exaggerated the case too much, I am sure.
Looong time no talk. How are you? I finally started to build my Limerick page, and remembered that you were from there. : )
Smirting - I love it! My cousin spend loads on a smoke eating system at Finn's - who would have thought they would ever ban it? Nicely done Limerick pages young lady!
So much has been written about Limerick in literature. A nice page with good tips.
Hello. Nice page with interesting tips. Greetings!
Today when I go home I just have to 'dig' up my photos of Limerick. Looking through your wonderful pages made me miss Limerick. The language! We asked a policeman for help and had problems to understand what he said. It just wasn't English!
beautiful page with great tips and pictures