IF WALLS COULD TALK
"The Limerick Athenaeum The story of an Irish Theatre since 1852"
Research & Text: James A McMahon Produced by Seamus Flynn
The Legacy
of the Limerick AthenaeumThe citizens who founded the Limerick Athenaeum in 1853 were inspired by high ideals. The calamity of the Famine was clearly a motive for their decision to establish a "Temple of Learning", or what we would describe today as an Open University. And if the horrors of the Famine "pushed" them towards taking positive action to counter-act the effects of that great holocaust; the Great National Exhibitions at the Crystal Palace in London in 1851 and in Cork in 1852 provided the "pull" of new ideas and inspiration necessary to create a spirit of industry and above all to engender a new spirit of national self-reliance in the Irish people.
The founders reached back to ancient Greece for inspiration. They needed the intellectual tools and the freedom from the bitter religious sectarianism that had stifled plans for a University in Limerick in the 1830s and that had closed the Limerick Philosophical Society in the 1840s. They needed a new forum to create a new dynamic that would propel change into the moribund attitudes of a Famine wasted Ireland. Their proposals were radical. They created the Limerick Athenaeum. They knew that education was the key to their future.
With the Athenaeum, the founders established a forum where all citizens irrespective of class, creed, or political persuasion could assemble to participate in free and open debate with the great literary and scientific intellects of the day. Their initiative fused a powder keg. This publication highlights the brilliant achievements of these founders, our ancestors, at work in their Athenaeum. Their legacy is a magnificent gift. It relates the dramatic story of how an Irish city emerged, from what John F. Maguire MP described in 1855, at the opening of the Athenaeum, as the "darkest night" of Irish history, the Famine years, and to create from the ashes of the dead of that era, a totally new spirit of enterprise and self-determination in Limerick. The effects of this sea-change in attitudes was ultimately to transform Irish society from a state of virtual feudal slavery to political self-determination and national Independence within a period of 70 years.
The Athenaeum was the forum of political and social change in the city. It was also a theatre, a music-hall, a cinema an art school and gallery, a venue where sports clubs met and socialised into the night. A variety of perspectives into Limerick life from the Famine to end of World War II are reflected in the history of the building.
Advert #1. Reception for The Earl of Carlisle, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland to open the Limerick Athenaeum Advert '2 A sub-committee of Corporation sample the wines