Closure plan announced for Limerick's main thoroughfare at Christmas

LIMERICK City and County Council has formally announced its intention to partially close the city's main thoroughfare for a Christmas market.

It comes despite uncertainty around the Christmas offering for Limerick, after Mayor John Moran delegated power for planning the festive season to the local authority's director general Dr Pat Daly.

Limerick Live revealed back in September that council had kicked off a search for a firm to provide services around the delivery of a festive market in the Georgian quarter.

At the time, it was suggested, but not confirmed it would take place at The Crescent, adjacent to the Daniel O'Connell monument.

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If it goes ahead, it's understood this market will operate separately to any plans put together by the council overall, with this element coming out of Mayor John Moran's own devolved funding.

In a public notice, council has stated it will close the inbound lane at The Crescent in O'Connell Street between its junction with Newenham Street to its junction with Lower Hartstonge Street.

If the plans go ahead as the notice outlines, it will mean the lane heading inbound towards the city centre being closed to motorised vehicles each day on a 24/7 basis, from Monday, December 1, until Christmas Eve, December 24. No parking will be allowed in that period.

However, traffic will be only interrupted in the outbound section at weekends in the final month of the year, according to the notice.

The outbound section of O'Connell Street in this area towards Raheen and Dooradoyle is projected to close each weekend from Saturday, December 6 up to Sunday, December 21.

This will be from 10am each Saturday morning to midnight Sunday night/Monday morning, the notice states.

Since it emerged he was delegating the lion's share of the Christmas programme to Dr Daly, Mayor John Moran and the council have both remained tight-lipped, with a number of queries from Limerick Live to both parties going unanswered.

Earlier this week, Fine Gael councillor Dan McSweeney said it is his hope that a full programme for the festive season in Limerick could be in place by the weekend.

A spokesperson for Limerick Council stated: "A road closure would be required to deliver this event. In order to abide by statutory requirements for road closure notifications, a road notice has been issued advising the public about a possible closure of O’ Connell Crescent on the dates advertised. Submissions are invited and a decision on the road closure will be made in due course."