Support

How Limerick Archives is independently funded and how visitors may support its continuing work voluntarily.

Limerick Archives is an independent project founded and curated by Gerard J. Hannan. Its website, research, writing, cataloguing, digital storage and image restoration are developed without relying upon compulsory visitor payments. Much of the work is supported personally and through income from Gerard’s books. Independence allows the archive to set long term priorities around Limerick’s historical record rather than commercial trends or temporary funding programmes. It also means resources must be used carefully. Visitors can browse public material freely regardless of whether they buy a book, make a contribution or provide any financial support to the continuing archive project online.

Free access remains a permanent principle of the archive. Support is never required to view photographs, read articles, search collections or contribute a correction. Limerick Archives does not create a privileged historical collection for paying members while withholding ordinary access from everyone else. Voluntary assistance helps maintain the project, but it does not purchase ownership, influence historical conclusions or grant special control over what is published. This separation protects the integrity of the archive. The public can use the resource confidently, while supporters understand that their contribution helps preservation and access rather than buying a private benefit or editorial influence.

Visitors who value the archive may use the optional Buy Gerry A Coffee facility. The phrase describes a small voluntary contribution rather than a subscription or payment for access. Contributions can help meet routine expenses such as website hosting, domain renewal, software, security, backups and online storage. They may also support scanning, research materials and preparation of new archive records. No contribution is too small to be appreciated, but nobody should feel obliged to give. The archive remains available on the same basis to supporters and non-supporters. Gratitude does not alter copyright, permissions, priorities or the treatment of historical evidence.

Website hosting and digital storage are essential because an online archive must remain available, secure and capable of holding growing collections. High resolution photographs, working restoration files, backups and database records require more space than ordinary web pages. Reliable hosting also helps visitors search and download material without excessive delay. Voluntary support can contribute towards these practical services, although the archive remains responsible for choosing appropriate providers and maintaining backups. Funding technical infrastructure may not be visible within an individual article, but it protects every record published and helps ensure that the website can continue serving visitors throughout the world.

Research involves expenses as well as time. Newspapers, books, directories, maps, databases, travel and reproduction services may be needed to identify a photograph or verify an event. A single archive description can require comparison across several sources before details become reliable. Support can help Gerard obtain materials that strengthen published articles and catalogue records. However, contributions do not determine which historical conclusion is reached. Historical evidence remains the deciding factor. The archive will continue correcting mistakes and acknowledging uncertainty regardless of who supports it. Financial help assists the research process, but it never purchases a preferred version of Limerick history.

Image restoration also requires time, storage and suitable software. Damaged photographs may need careful scanning, cleaning, tonal correction, colourisation or reconstruction before their details can be appreciated. Voluntary support can assist with the tools and technical resources used in this work. Restoration decisions remain guided by historical evidence and transparent labelling. A supporter cannot request that a building, person or event be altered to suit a private narrative. Original source images are preserved wherever possible, and reconstructed material is identified. Supporting restoration means helping fragile visual records become clearer and more accessible, not replacing history with attractive invention or distortion.

Buying Gerard J. Hannan’s books is another way to support the wider historical work. Book income helps sustain the independent strategy behind Limerick Archives while giving readers access to Gerard’s fiction, history and other published writing. The books and archive remain distinct projects, and purchasing one does not create special rights within the other. Readers who enjoy the books may discover the archive, while archive visitors may choose to explore the publications. This relationship allows creative and historical work to support preservation without charging admission to the website. Every purchase is optional, and free public archive access remains completely unchanged.

Nonfinancial support is equally valuable. Visitors can share archive links, identify people, correct dates, contribute photographs, provide source information and tell others about the project. A reliable identification may be worth more historically than a financial contribution because it restores a person’s name to the record. Teachers can use the archive in classrooms, families can preserve credits when sharing images and researchers can cite archive references properly. These actions expand the usefulness and reach of the collections. Supporting Limerick Archives therefore includes participation, accuracy, respectful reuse and community knowledge, not simply money, donations or book purchases alone within this project.

Limerick Archives does not seek to hide the fact that independent preservation has limits. Time, storage, research access and technical capacity affect how quickly material can be processed. Voluntary support can help, but it cannot remove every constraint or guarantee that a particular item will be published immediately. Priorities may depend upon historical importance, condition, copyright, privacy and available evidence. The archive will aim to explain delays honestly and continue working steadily. Independence means accepting responsibility for realistic decisions while remaining committed to the long term goal of preserving as much Limerick history as humanly possible for future generations everywhere.

The purpose of support is to help Limerick Archives survive, grow and remain free for future generations. Contributions, book purchases, shared knowledge and public encouragement all strengthen an archive built without compulsory fees or outside control. Gerard J. Hannan intends the collection to outlive him and continue serving Limerick people everywhere. Support assists that mission, but the historical record remains a shared public resource rather than a reward for donors. Every visitor receives the same opportunity to explore. By combining independence, voluntary assistance and free access, Limerick Archives can preserve local history while remaining accountable to its evidence and purpose.

About Page

Books Supporting the Archive

Every Book Purchased Helps Support The Continuing Work Of Limerick Archives.

Ashes

The Ashes Trilogy, Book One

Ashes begins the story of a group of children growing up in the streets and lanes of Limerick, where poverty and hardship are balanced by humour, imagination and fierce friendship. Their city is more than a setting: it watches, remembers and gives voice to lives often absent from official history. As the children explore their neighbourhood, they encounter family pressures, faith, hunger, danger and the first signs of a changing world. Through their adventures and loyalties, the novel captures the resilience of ordinary people and introduces the characters whose lives will unfold across the three volumes of The Ashes Trilogy.

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Gurriers

The Ashes Trilogy, Book Two

Gurriers continues the lives of the Limerick children introduced in Ashes as childhood freedom begins to give way to work, responsibility and harsher choices. Their friendships remain strong, but poverty, family expectations, faith and the pressures of growing older test loyalties once taken for granted. The streets and lanes still offer humour, adventure and belonging, yet the wider world increasingly intrudes upon their lives. Through vivid dialogue, memorable characters and the watchful voice of Limerick itself, the novel explores resilience, identity and change while showing how even the closest companions can be drawn towards futures by circumstances beyond their control.

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Scattered

The Ashes Trilogy, Book Three

Scattered concludes The Ashes Trilogy as the friends who once shared Limerick’s streets and lanes face adulthood, work, hunger, faith, family duty and emigration. Time has altered their ambitions, tested their loyalties and carried some beyond the city that formed them. Yet memory continues to bind Louie, Seamus, Joe, Sean, Peter, Tony, Bardy, Maura, Eileen, Nora, Lingo and the mysterious Gleamer. Narrated through the enduring presence of Limerick itself, the novel explores separation, sacrifice and survival while recognising the humour and affection that remain. Together, their scattered lives complete a moving portrait of friendship, community and change across changing generations.

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Threshold

The Troubles Trilogy, Book One

Threshold opens in Belfast in 1968, where the Catholic Devlins and Protestant Morrows confront a city divided by religion, memory and fear. Civil rights marches, police violence, riots and internment transform ordinary streets into dangerous frontiers while political conflict enters homes, workplaces and schools. At the centre are Aileen Devlin and Thomas Morrow, whose relationship challenges the boundaries their families regard as essential to survival. As loyalty hardens into suspicion, both must decide whether inherited allegiance excuses injustice. Through family arguments, upheaval and private courage, the novel explores love, conscience, division and survival during the opening years of the Troubles.

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Hunger

The Troubles Trilogy, Book Two

Hunger is Book Two of The Troubles Trilogy, set in Belfast during the 1980s. Aileen Devlin and Thomas Morrow have built a fragile life across the city’s sectarian divide, but the conflict threatens the home they created for their daughter, Claire. As hunger strikes, the Anglo Irish Agreement and violence reshape Northern Ireland, republican Declan and loyalist Billy exploit fear, grief and vulnerable young men. Against them stand Aileen, Kathleen and Elsie, whose quiet strength keeps their families human. This is a story of love, survival and the courage to place people before causes in a divided society under pressure.

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Crossing

The Troubles Trilogy, Book Three

Crossing concludes The Troubles Trilogy during the decade from 1990 to 2000, as Belfast moves from violence towards negotiation, ceasefires and uncertain peace. The Devlin and Morrow families face political change alongside grief, ageing, divided loyalties and the consequences of choices made across three decades. Relationships once threatened by religious boundaries are tested by memory, mistrust and the fear that compromise may betray the dead. As the peace process gathers momentum, ordinary people must decide whether reconciliation is possible. The trilogy closes with a story of endurance, forgiveness, loss and hope beyond inherited division, proving that peace begins with courage.

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Severance

Historical Novel

Severance is a historical novel set in Ballingarry, County Limerick, during Ireland’s struggle for independence. A torn and bloodied dispatch passes through fields, kitchens, lofts and hidden routes, placing everyone who handles it in danger. Michael Enright carries the burden of trust, while Mary, Molly and their neighbours struggle to preserve the message and protect one another. Against them, Captain Edward Harcourt studies every delay, wound and fragment for clues. As loyalty, fear and betrayal tighten around the hidden network, ordinary people must decide what they are willing to risk when history enters their homes and silence itself becomes dangerous.

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Limerick Generations: 1900 to 1909

Limerick Decalogy, Book One

Limerick Generations: 1900 to 1909 opens the decade by documenting a city and county entering the twentieth century amid political debate, commercial activity, poverty, faith and technological change. Month by month, the book connects major Irish developments with local events, institutions, streets and communities. Public meetings, labour, transport, education, sport, business and everyday life reveal how national questions were experienced in Limerick. Historical reports and carefully reconstructed narratives bring forgotten moments and ordinary people into focus. As Book One of Limerick Decalogy, it establishes the foundation for a ten volume journey through one hundred years of local history and memory.

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Limerick Generations: 1910 to 1919

Limerick Decalogy, Book Two

Limerick Generations: 1910 to 1919 traces a decade of political transformation, labour conflict, war, revolution and social change across Limerick city and county. Home Rule, unionist resistance, trade union organisation and the First World War entered streets, farms, schools, workplaces and family life. The Easter Rising, conscription crisis, influenza pandemic and general election altered public loyalties and expectations. The decade culminated in the Limerick Soviet of 1919, when workers challenged military restrictions through organised collective action. As Book Two of Limerick Decalogy, the volume preserves local experiences of hardship, courage, grief, endurance and change during years of intense historic upheaval.

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Restoring History

Limerick Archives preserves, enhances, restores and colourises historic photographs, sometimes presenting fresh angles on familiar scenes. When no suitable public-domain image exists, we create carefully researched AI illustrations for archive articles. We also invite the public to submit photographs for restoration and possible publication, with ownership always remaining entirely theirs.