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Elm Hill, Co Limerick

Elm Hill, County Limerick, was built around 1790 for the Studdert family as an elegant Georgian country residence. The six-bay, two-storey house stood over a raised basement and contained spacious reception rooms, nine bedrooms, servants’ quarters, kitchens, cellars and service rooms. Following the Great Famine, it was offered for sale and described as being in excellent repair. The property remained substantial for generations but gradually fell vacant and deteriorated. A 2008 architectural survey praised its limestone doorcase, carved timber entrance, slate-hung elevations, fireplaces and decorative plasterwork. Its recognised importance led to designation as a protected structure under Irish planning legislation.

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Dutch Billy Houses, Mary Street

Dutch Billy houses were once a distinctive feature of Limerick’s Englishtown and Irishtown districts. Characterised by narrow brick façades, steeply pitched gables and tall windows, the style developed in Irish towns during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Many examples survived along Mary Street into the early twentieth century, preserving the appearance of Limerick’s merchant quarters. Their name is traditionally associated with King William III, although the term was applied broadly to gabled urban houses of the period. By around 1900, these buildings stood as reminders of the city’s commercial growth, architectural character and changing streetscape across previous centuries.

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Painter Born

Gerard Hannan 4 weeks ago

Maurice Joseph MacGonigal was born in Ranelagh, Dublin, on 22 January 1900, the only son and third child of Francis MacGonigal and Caroline Lane. His father was a painter and decorator from County Sligo, while his mother belonged to a family already connected with Irish craftsmanship and art. Growing up within that environment exposed him to colour, design and skilled manual work long before he entered formal training. The child born in suburban Dublin would eventually become an influential painter, teacher and administrator whose landscapes, portraits and scenes of Irish life secured him a prominent place in twentieth-century Irish art.

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Teampall Nua in Ruins

The old church near Holycross, County Limerick, was recorded as a ruin by 1642. In 1679, Rachael Bourchier, Countess of Bath, restored the building, just one year before her death. Thereafter it became known as the New Church, or Teampall Nua in Irish, and served local Church of Ireland parishioners. A belfry was added during the restoration, giving the structure a distinctive profile. Although the church later fell out of use and returned to ruin, its surviving walls, arched openings and graveyard remain important reminders of seventeenth-century religious life and the long history of worship at this historic site today.

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Limerick Market Day, 1937

This photograph, dated 1 March 1937, captures a busy market day in Limerick city. Horse-drawn carts, traders, shoppers, and farmers crowd the wet street, creating a vivid picture of everyday commercial life. On the right, a man drives a horse and trap, a form of transport commonly associated with more prosperous Irish farmers. Market goods are displayed on carts and stalls, while pedestrians move between the buildings lining the street. The scene records the importance of markets to Limerick’s economy, bringing rural producers and urban customers together during a period when horses remained central to transport and trade throughout Ireland.

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Baker Place, Limerick c.1900

At Baker Place in early twentieth-century Limerick, Saint Saviour’s Dominican Church stands at the centre of a broad cobbled streetscape, its Gothic stone façade, rose window, pointed arches, and carved doorways giving the scene a strong ecclesiastical presence. To the right, Tait’s Clock rises above the roadway as a civic landmark, balanced by red-brick industrial buildings and smoking chimneys behind it. Period pedestrians, a horse-drawn cart, street lamps, and a small wooden kiosk add everyday activity. The view captures a city shaped by faith, industry, commerce, public memory, and the architectural confidence of Edwardian urban life in Limerick’s historic core.

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Elm Hill, Co Limerick

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O’Connell Street, 1937

This 1937 view of O’Connell Street, historically known as George’s Street, captures Limerick’s principal commercial thoroughfare during a period of urban transition. Georgian façades, prominent shopfronts and the landmark clock tower frame a busy scene of pedestrians, cyclists, motorcars and public transport. Heavy coats and formal dress reflect everyday life before the Second World War, while traditional businesses line both sides of the street. Several buildings and upper storeys shown here were later altered or demolished during redevelopment. Despite extensive modernisation and pedestrianisation, O’Connell Street remains central to Limerick’s commercial, architectural and social identity within the changing modern city today.

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The Monument Gathering

This reconstructed image depicts the Treaty Stone in Limerick as it may have appeared around 1880, standing on its substantial stepped pedestal as a powerful emblem of the city’s past. Groups of townspeople, including men, women and children in period clothing, gather around the monument in a lively public setting. In the background, traditional buildings, stone walls and the nearby tower reinforce the historic atmosphere of the riverside area. Long associated with the Treaty of Limerick of 1691, the stone remained an important civic landmark, meeting place and symbol of memory, identity and local heritage in nineteenth-century Limerick.

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