With many public spaces off limits for the time being, why not take a trip down Limerick's memory lane and explore Limerick Archives fascinating resources available online? Through a collection of images, short films, oral accounts and publications, you can explore key aspects of Limerick’s history, as well as a number of publications that act as a homage to Limerick people and Limerick’s industrial heritage.
From Limerick with Love
From Limerick with Love is a major photographic collection of Limerick in the 1970’s - a story of Limerick men, women and children at work and at play. The Limerick Leader, along with Limerick Museum & Archives digitised a decade of images that present an affectionate snapshot of Limerick during this time. Click here to browse the collection.
Ranks Flour Mill
Ranks Flour Mill was a key part of Limerick’s milling industry for decades and is one of the most fondly-remembered businesses in Limerick. ‘Ranks Mills: The Industrial Heart of Limerick City’ tells the stories, and recounts the memories of former Ranks workers and their families, and how a world-class milling operation on the Dock Road became synonymous with Limerick. Click here to download the book or, to listen to the interviews given by former Ranks Mills employees, click here.
City of Churches
City of Churches looks at the architectural legacy and the social history of the city’s many places of faith. The city has more places of worship on its main street than any other city or town in Ireland. A short film and publication examine all known places of worship of all faiths in Limerick, looking at the history of each site, its architectural context and decorative features and the changing uses of many of these sites over time.
Pigtown and Limerick's Bacon Industry
Pigtown and Limerick's Bacon Industry looks at the four bacon factories, O'Mara's, Matterson's, Denny's and Shaw's (later Clover meats), operating at the heart of Limerick City, playing a vital role in Limerick's economic and social life. The story of the pork butchers, the pig buyers, the sounds of the city with factory horns signalling the call to work, all still resonate in Limerick in the memories of its citizens and former workers. Click here to download the book Pigtown; A History of Limerick's Bacon Industry or, to listen to the testimonies of the many butchers and bacon company employees, click here.
Mount Saint Lawrence
Mount Saint Lawrence digital recreation preserves the history of the graveyard and allows historians, researchers and the general public to trace their ancestors’ deaths and burial places. Limerick Archives and Mary Immaculate College also compiled a video of a brief history of Mount Saint Lawrence Cemetery which you can watch here.
Limerick Through The Looking Glass - The Ludlow Collection
Limerick Through The Looking Glass; The Ludlow Collection, is a collection of photographs by amateur photographer John Riddell who came to Limerick from Glasgow, Scotland in 1880 to run Walker’s Distillery on Brown’s Quay, Thomondgate. Click here for a short video capturing a unique view of Limerick in the late 1800s through a compilation of images by John Riddell from the Ludlow Collection.
Limerick Lace
Limerick’s lace-making industry was one of the city’s most famous exports. The history of Limerick Lace is important to us as it represents an international brand, but was also considered by many to be a family treasure. The publication Amazing Lace celebrates the beauty and importance of Limerick Lace, and its impact on the society of Limerick. Click here to download Amazing Lace.
Decade of Centenaries
Decade of Centenaries commemorate and celebrate Limerick’s major role in the eventful period of 1914-1922. As part of this project Limerick Museum and Limerick Archives produced an exhibition and publication that highlights Limerick men and women who participated, fought or died during WWI and the role of Limerick in the planning of the 1916 Rising. It examines all aspects of life in Limerick in 1916. Click here to download They Dreamed and are Dead.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
St. Joseph’s Hospital was founded as the Limerick District Lunatic Asylum in 1827 and records of the institution survive in the archives from that date. Compiled in 2013 from the 'Morning Statement books' of the hospital, the collection is a record of the daily activities of the management and administration of the hospital and the people that passed through its doors. Click here to download St. Joseph’s Hospital Archive Collection or, to listen to the interviews given by a number of former staff members, click here.
Poem and Place
Limerick has given its name to the most famous type of poem in the English language, the little five-line witty limerick. Click here to explore this beginner's guide, Poem and Place, and discover the rules to writing a limerick, and the link between the poem and the place.
Limerick City Council Retrospective Exhibition
Retrospective Exhibition details 800 years of Limerick’s governmental history, from the Vikings to the Normans, the Sieges and the transformation from a colony to a Republic. Click here for more about the exhibition and to download the brochure.
Shannon Fisheries Archive
Shannon Fisheries Archive is an oral history project that details the life experiences of the people and their families who worked along the River Shannon and the Shannon Estuary. Click here to watch a short film or click here to listen to the fishermen recount their stories and their lives fishing along the River Shannon in Limerick.
JFK Project
In June 1963, US President John F Kennedy visited Limerick for a brief 30-minute visit on the last day of his trip to Ireland. Limerick Archives has a large collection of photos and records in relation to the visit. A digital collection of these archival documents and photographs are available to view here.
Limerick Clothing Factory
As part of Limerick Clothing Factory project, A Stitch in Time; A History of Limerick Clothing Factory, written by Sharon Slater, weaves together the threads running from Peter Tait’s foundation of the factory until its closure in November 1974. Click here to download A Stitch in Time.
Click here to explore Limerick Archives.
