Georgian gem awaits revival in the heart of Limerick city centre

WHEN no 4 Patrick Street, Limerick was constructed c.1780, it formed part of a handsome terrace of redbrick Georgian townhouses which assumed their place in the new city known as Newtown Pery.
No 4 is a terraced two-bay four-storey over concealed basement, red brick building with shop unit dating to c.1860.
Patrick Street was named for a member of the illustrious Arthur family who constructed Arthur's Quay.
The Lawrence Collection of photographs, dating to between 1860 and 1910, and held by the National Library of Ireland captured the street in its heyday teeming with shoppers.
Sadly, in more recent years, the distinctive shopfront of no 4 Patrick Street, resplendent in striking green, has been hidden from public view by the long-erected hoarding around the Opera site.

READ MORE: Grace, grandeur, and generations at Limerick's Killeely House
Perhaps the most well-known person associated with no 4 Patrick Street is Catherine Hayes who was born in the house in 1818. She went onto international acclaim as an opera singer; Queen Victoria was among her legion of fans.
Hayes died in 1861 and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in London. Aside from links to famous performers, no 4 served a more ordinary function as a shop in which several merchants made their living over the centuries.
For example, in 1803 it was the premises of Gerald Fitzgerald who boasted an ‘extensive and fashionable assortment of linen and woolen goods.’
Retiring from business in 1805, he offered the building for rental noting that there remained a ‘lease of 850 years’.
The next person to set up business in no 4 Patrick Street was John Joyce who operated a tailoring establishment and enjoyed nearly 30 years in business until his sons, Stephen and Joseph took the reins following the death of their father.
Placing an extensive notice in the Limerick Chronicle of January 1838, the brothers Joyce informed the public that the ‘good workmanship and fair dealing that characterised their progenitor for the last thirty years and which won him the patronage of the nobility and gentry, will continue to be the hallmark of their enterprise.’
It is unclear whether the Joyce brothers lived overhead the shop, but certainly by 1845, Mrs Kenny, wife of the late Hugh Kenny Esq, gave her address as no 4 Patrick Street.
Before the death of her husband, Mrs Kenny resided at Ballygreen House just outside Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co Clare.
When Hugh died, the house and its contents were sold, the notice appearing in several newspapers including the Limerick Reporter of December 2, 1844.
Hugh Kenny’s father, Matthew lived at Corbally House.
Right throughout the nineteenth century, no 4 Patrick Street continued to prove an attractive location in which to conduct business. From 1846 to 1856, Mary Ryan and Thomas Carmody operated as confectioners from the premises.
Between c.1860 and 1875, James Keogh & Co traded as a clothier and from 1877 to 1884, James and Charles Kelly ran a tobacconist shop.
Between 1886 and 1891, John Ryan transformed the shop into a hairdressing saloon.
After the departure of Ryan, Reilly & Co established a drapery in the premises. By 1912, Guy’s Directory listed James Williams & Co as fancy good merchants of no 4 Patrick Street.
James Williams was the son of Henry David Williams and Mary A Williams.

READ MORE: Little Ellen Street is Limerick's small lane with a big past
In 1901 James was living with his parents, three sisters and four brothers at no 8 Barrington Street.
His father, who hailed from Co Louth, worked as a railway agent. His mother was born in Liverpool.
It seems that Henry D Williams moved most of his family to Dublin sometime before 1911 when they were recorded in the census living in 68 Hollybrook Road, Clontarf.
Only James and Arthur Williams stayed in Limerick where they were recorded as boarders living in no 14 Upper Mallow Street.
James’s occupation was given as a fancy goods merchant.
By 1916 James Williams was advertising his business in the local press, for example the Munster News of November 25 informed the public that his store had ‘the best assortment of Irish cards, made by Irish hands, in the city’ available at no 4 Patrick Street.
He also stocked ‘toys, dolls and games in his extensive store situated between John Quin & Co and the Town Hall.’
Alongside their selection of cards and toys, Williams & Co sold statues, prayer books, rosary beads, medals, pictures, frames, holy water fonts, altar candles and colza (rapeseed) oil.
While the shop continued trading into the late-1970s, advertisements for Williams’s Stores stopped appearing in the mid-1950s.
Similarly, mentions of the family in newspapers ceased in January 1954 when James Williams’s brother, John Peter McCardle Williams, a retired engineer and secretary of Dundalk Harbour Commissioners died at ‘no 4 Patrick Street, Limerick’.
The name McCardle relates to the well-known brewing enterprise, founded in Dundalk in 1850.
The brewery became part of Guinness in the late 1960s.
As 2025 draws to a close, the weathered red brick and faded façade of no 4 awaits conservation and reuse as part of the Opera project.
Hopefully, the historic Georgian townhouses of Patrick Street will continue to provide an aged frame around the modern buildings on site.
While we might lament the loss of no 4 as a busy shop in the commercial heart of Limerick, we await its renaissance perhaps as a museum dedicated to the memory of Catherine Hayes and/or a ‘museum shop’ preserving the original nineteenth century interiors and layout while celebrating the rich retail history that characterised the birth and growth of Newtown Pery.
It would certainly be another attraction to draw visitors to the city centre.
If any descendants of the Williams family would like to get in touch with me, please do so at my email or address below.

Dr Paul O’Brien, assistant professor in Pedagogy of History, Faculty of Education, Mary Immaculate College