Limerick entrepreneur hopes gaming museum dream is just put on pause

A LIMERICK entrepreneur, who helped to propose plans for a city gaming museum, believes there may still be hope for the project after it narrowly missed out on funding from Fáilte Ireland.

Rian Mac Giobúin, from North Circular Road, who founded EireannachTharLear.com and designed the Limerick Walking Map, helped to propose a project under the name of GameCube to the Fáilte Ireland Platforms for Growth initiative in 2019.

The project was initially pitched to Mr Mac Giobúin in 2018 by Liveable Limerick chairman, John Moran, while the two were at an event in Copenhagen, and was later led by Jill Cousins, then CEO of the Hunt Museum.

The investment project from Fáilte Ireland pledged to invest €150 million into the development of several new visitor attractions across the country.

While Fáilte Ireland ultimately went with several other projects, Mr Mac Giobúin hopes the project may still come to fruition without the investment project's funding.

Mr Mac Giobúin said that the concept of GameCube is an attraction that will bring visitors on a journey through the “history of games”, starting from the very first games played in pre-historic and ancient times up to modern day and beyond.

“Over three floors, visitors would have the chance to learn about, engage with, and most importantly play games from each of the eras,” he added.

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Mr Mac Giobúin believes that GameCube would offer a year-round tourist attraction and that there are several locations it could work, including the Franciscan Church on Henry Street.

He also believes it could tie in with Limerick’s history of developing electronic games such as Atari.

“This is a project that one of the directly elected mayoral candidates could really get behind and I would hope that whoever gets elected will try to really drive this project forward for the benefit of Limerick as a whole,” he added.