New book is a rare look at Limerick’s history

LIMERICK’S past as a hub of enterprise, trade and commerce are the backbone of a new book about Limerick but in what is a fascinating and novel approach, politics, personal tragedies and even a bit of romance are also part of its warp and weft.

Entitled, Limerick: Snapshots of the Treaty City and County 1840-1960, it does exactly what it says on the tin: providing concise but illuminating and illustrated glimpses into Limerick history and social history. In a glorious mix, which can be dipped into at will, it ranges from Apothecaries and Bacon Merchants to Printing and Undertakers, using old advertisements, receipts and photographs as launching pads.

Written and compiled by Tom Donovan and Vincent Carmody, it is described by latter day Limerick business magnate JP McManus in the foreword as a wonderful addition to Limerick’s proud and storied history. “A depiction in word and in picture of bygone times that are superbly brought to life by its authors”.

Writing in the preface, Dr Matthew Potter of Limerick Museum explains that the book deals with a golden age in Limerick’s commercial and industrial history when city and county were “populated by a dazzling variety of commercial enterprises”. It is also a book, he notes, where a lot of famous people have walk-on roles.

Writer Jane Austen is one such famous person and the connection was Liston’s Medical Hall at 108 O’Connell St, built in 1793 by Colonel Anthony Lefroy whose son Thomas had a brief romance with the novelist. And poet Robert Burns was uncle to Gilbert Burns, who was the business partner of William Todd, whose department store, now Brown Thomas was completed in 1874.

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The Fenian John Daly is another well-known name who, having served prison terms for his politics in England, returned and set up his own bakery in Sarsfiled St and William St in 1896. He was elected as Mayor of Limerick three times and his nephew Ned Daly was one of those executed after the 1916 Rising. His niece Kathleen married Tom Clarke, one of the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation who was also executed.

On a lighter note, in the section headed Hotels, Music and Entertainment, we are told that Franz Liszt, the famous Hungarian pianist and composer, performed at Swinburn’s Hotel on what is now Sarsfield St in 1841.

Film star Richard Harris also a look-in, but less for his own success as for being the great-grandson of James Harris who established the Mount Kennett Mills in the 1850s while broadcaster Ryan Tubridy’s links with tea merchant David Begley of William Street is also catalogued.

Limerick’ pioneering role in the history of the Co-Operative Creameries is also told in words, photographs and documents in this book along with a large number of stand-out gems such as a photograph of Catherine Hartigan driving a car in the 1920s; another photograph of Kathleen O’Callaghan one of only two women to be elected to Dáil Éireann from Limerick in the course of 100 years and a little ditty in praise of Tylers shoes.

The book yields up lots of tiny but telling details. An advertisement from 1897, for example, tells us that a bed inj Mrs Barry’s Select Private Hotel on Great Denmark St cost one shilling and sixpence to two shillings while a five-course dinner cost five shillings. And a receipt from 1874 shows that a Rev Thomas Weston PP one pound and 16 shillings for two gallons of Jameson Whiskey.

The book, which was launched by Deputy Mayor of the City and County of Limerick, Cllr Tom Ruddle in St Mary’s Cathedral, took almost two years to put together, Tom Donovan has revealed. It is, a book that owes a lot to generosity, he adds, as so many people were generous and helpful in allowing material to be used and those who did help are acknowledged in detail by Tom and by Vincent Carmody.’

Published as a hardback with over 250 illustrated pages, Limerick, Snapshots of the Treaty City and County 1840-1960 is available in O’Mahony’s Bookshop and the Crescent Bookshop in Limerick and in Listowel bookshops. It is also on sale at the Hunt Museum and at Limerick Museum. It costs €35.