New website documenting Limerick's history deemed 'incredible resource'

LIMERICK Libraries’ new Local Studies Website has been launched with “a complete redesign and reimagining of the old site”. 

The new website contains additional content now presented in “a much more visual and user-friendly style”.

Local studies librarian at Limerick City and County Council (LCCC), Mike Maguire, says even more important than the redesign of the website, is the content: “There are fully digitised books and journals, immense database tables of information, an array of the projects that were undertaken during the Decade of Centenaries, and photographs of the city and county showing ‘then and now’. Also included are video links to Limerick history and genealogy talks. The old site was exclusively about digitised content, whereas we think the new site also gives a more complete picture of what local studies at Limerick Libraries is all about”.

Damien Brady, Limerick city and county librarian, added, “Information needs to be more fluid, more available to people and not just at a single geographic location. We are in the information age and we need to be able to respond to that reality. Limerick Libraries have certainly responded. The new website  has a remarkable amount of the history and heritage of Limerick, now made available across the world”.

Mayor of Limerick, John Moran, launched the website at the City Library, Barrow House.

He observed: “Limerick is a county steeped in history, from Viking invasions and castle sieges to dramatic War of Independence events, and so much more. Limerick also has a great story in relation to culture, sport and the many other elements of the social fabric of a society. Capturing all this history and heritage is such an important task for us, so that ours and future generations can fully appreciate and understand the story of our city and county”.

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“The Local Studies Website is an incredible resource for the researcher, the historian, the student and the casually interested reader. It is a website of which Limerick can be proud, and I am delighted to officially launch it,” he continued.

As well as this new website, the Local Studies Centre of Limerick City and County Library captures all of the historic material available about Limerick for research, for reading, for study and for posterity.

“Limerick is most fortunate to have a wonderful history community. From the academic and cultural institutions to the local history societies and individual local historians, there is a constant flow of books, articles, talks, walks, lectures and exhibitions, all of which combine to most effectively tell the story of Limerick,” a spokesperson for LCCC commented.

Local Studies attempts to capture all of this flow of material, curate and document it, so that it can all be accessed in a single location. 

Anyone can visit the Local Studies Centre, which is currently at Watch House Cross Library, and gain access to “all this richness” of Limerick’s heritage.

Mayor Moran commented on the importance of the Limerick Local Studies Centre as a tourist destination and resource: “The centre is an access point to their heritage for the tens of thousands of people across the world who claim Limerick descent. Many come to Limerick specifically to trace this heritage, and the Local Studies Centre is very often their starting point on this journey. It is so important for us to make sure that the visiting diaspora has an excellent experience at this starting point, and the Local Studies Centre provides that.”

The Limerick Libraries’ new Local Studies Website can be accessed at limericklocalstudies.ie