(Spoken in the Limerick dialect of the 1930s and 1940s)
Ryan Family, Island Field, Limerick
Me fahdur packed up and left us whin I was only eight years old, just whin I was gettin’ to know and really love him.
For some reason or other, I don’t know what, a fella called Jeezez ‘called him away’.
Jeezez read more...
Burton's Billard Saloon c. 1946
Burton’s Billiard Saloon was for many a Limerick man a house of refuge in the ‘forties and early ‘fifties.
Every morning of the week men stood in wait for ”Baw” Sullivan, the caretaker, to arrive. The long, mirrored, mosaic corridor, where men would have a final glance at their quiffs before going up to read more...
Frank with the two casks containing the ashes of the aunt of Gina LLollabrigida and the Co. Limerick colonel
Frank Thompson, one of Limericks oldest established Funeral Undertakers, was born at 43 Roches Street on the 30th. of November 1919. He had an unusual birth because he was born with a broken leg which resulted from a beating his mother received from the read more...
Presbyterian Church Henry Street Limerick
Recent references to sectarianism in Limerick has aroused curiosity about what exactly happened here in 1935 – a date that deserves to go down in infamy in the history of Limerick. The really curious should consult Denis O’Shaughnessy’s Limerick: 100 stories of the century – read more...
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.
Even the promise of a bed to myself would not entice me from my hiding- place in the loft of McNamara’s house. Jim Mack, or Black Jim as he was known to his fellow fishermen, stood at the bottom of the ladder which led to the loft. ”Come down”, he said, ”they are gone”. I knew they had gone. I had kept watch out through the read more...
I have read many little stories from the beautiful writers of Limerick, sure enough, some are maybe my school mates whom I have little recollection of now since 60 odd years have been like a slow drawn blotter on the blackboard of my life, erasing,erasing with that terrible screech every now and again as the chalk falls like snow onto the well worn wooden floor at Creagh Lane.
It started in the island field in 1935 read more...
A record of the Limerick – city and county men – who died in the Great War
The Widow's Penny
When I started to compile the record of Limerick Men who died in the Great War, I had fewer than ten names. This would turn out to be a gigantic task, but I felt it had to be read more...
Growing up in Ahane in the late ’60′s and 70′s was quite similar to growing up in any rural community in Ireland. Many of the old ways were on the wane, as mechanisation was taking over. The pony and car were making way for the tractor, empty fields were being developed as industrialisation was coming to our area, and with it, an increasing number of new people were moving in and taking up residence in read more...
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 it for him as he disappeared inside. There were two or three men at the counter and a brightly dressed women read more...