The Little Book of Limerick (eBook)

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DID YOU
KNOW?

Did you know that in 1574 Limerick was described by a Spanish Ambassador as, ‘stronger and more beautiful than all the other cities of Ireland, well walled with stout walls of hewn marble’? Below is a collection of more ‘did you knows’, each of which offers an impressive, curious, intriguing, shocking or amusing anecdote of a moment in time of Limerick’s history. You may have come across some already, but others will leave you puzzled and in search of further information.

PEOPLE

In 1373 the Mayor of Limerick was Nicholas Blackadder and in 1504 the Sheriff was Nicholas Lawless.

In 1841 there were: seven girls married at thirteen years old, seven girls married at fourteen years old, twenty girls married at fifteen years old and one boy married at fifteen years old.

Bruce’s Bank was located at 6 Rutland Street. Bruce only had one leg and the other replaced with an iron stump. To help himself get around he used a blackthorn cane. Whenever a defaulter came begging him for clemency for an overdue loan he would pull out his iron stump and whack it with the blackthorn exclaiming, ‘This is the softest part of me!’

The first Mayoress of Dublin and founding member of Cumann na mBan was Limerick-born Kathleen Clarke (née Daly). Kathleen passed away on 29 September 1972, at the age of ninety-four. She was the widow of Thomas S. Clarke, who was executed in Dublin, 3 May 1916.

At the height of his fame as a writer in the 1830s, Gerald Griffin (1803–1840), author of The Collegians, which was based on the Colleen Bawn’s story, burned all his manuscripts and joined the Christian Brothers.

At least 189,429 Limerick residences emigrated from Ireland between 1851 and 1911, many of whom left for America, Australia and England. The population of Limerick in 2006 was 184,055.

George Geary Bennis, a Limerick man who once had a cafe opposite Cruises Hotel, had no interest in shop keeping and left Limerick for Paris in 1822. There he became an editor for Galignani (The Times of Paris). In 1848 he saved the life of King Louis Phillipe in a street fracas for which he was awarded the title of ‘Chevalier’. When he died in 1866, he bequeathed his large collection of books to the people of Limerick.

John Ferrar founded the Limerick Chronicle in 1768, which is the oldest continuously run newspaper in Ireland. The playwright John O’Keefe is quoted as saying that John was ‘very deaf, yet had a cheerful, animated countenance, thin and of middle size’.

The baptistery of St Mary’s Cathedral is the burial place of Catherine Plunkett, who died in 1752. Her husband, Walter, was commissioner of the Limerick mint in 1689.

Joseph Fisher Bennis (1839–1928) and his brother had a shop at 26 Patrick Street, which they later moved to George’s Street. The brothers had a keen interest in phrenology and were given permission by the governor of the city gaol to examine some of the heads of the prisoners. One evening in 1860, after closing their shop, the two brothers walked the 15 miles to Quin Abbey and filled a sack each with skulls and walked back to Limerick with the sacks on their backs. Bennis put these skulls on display for the next fifty years. Interestingly, it was the Bennis brothers who first mass imported bananas to Limerick.

In June 1688, on the official birthday of the Prince of Wales, the Mayor of Limerick, Robert Hannah, gave three hogshead of wine to the populace.

Limerick-born Sir Thomas Myles, CB (20 April 1857–14 July 1937) was president of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. In 1914, he was recruited by James Creed Meredith to help in the importation of guns for the Irish Volunteers.

Thomas Blake (1894–1921), a member of the Irish Volunteers, was shot and killed on St Alphonsus Street. He worked in Laird’s Pharmacy on the main strip of O’Connell Street, where his knowledge of chemistry was put to use in the manufacture of munitions and explosives used during the Irish War of Independence.

PLACES

Rutland Street derives its name from Charles Manners (1754-1787), the Fourth Duke of Rutland. He was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1784 and visited Limerick in 1785.

In the terms of the 500-year lease for what would become the People’s Park, the Earl of Limerick stipulated that no political or religious meetings would be allowed in the park and no bands would be allowed to play on Sundays.

The recesses of the foundation stone of the Carnegie Building, now the Limerick Art Gallery, contain four bottles. Each of these bottles contain the currency of the day (1903) as well as a copy of the Limerick Leader, Limerick Echo, Limerick Chronicle, Munster News and a parchment recording the event.

In 1911 Limerick there were three Barrack Lanes as well as a Barrack Hill, two Church Streets, two New Roads, a New Street and New Walk, a Hall’s Range, Hall’s Lane and Hall’s Bow.

Clare Street was built in the swamp lands originally known as Móin na Muice (the moor of the pigs). James O’Sullivan, a tobacconist who constructed the street, dedicated it in spite to the infamous John FitzGibbon, First Earl of Clare, a staunch anti-Catholic.

The first residents of No. 1 Arthur’s Quay were Francis Arthur and his wife Ellen Barrett.

The Park Canal was constructed between 1757 and 1758 to transport goods to and from Limerick City. The canal system was invaluable in the transport of heavy goods, such as turf, potatoes, coal etc. By 1929, with modernisation of transport and the building of the hydroelectric plant at Ardnacrusha, the canal became obsolete and fell into dilapidation. The last barge on the canal was transporting Guinness in 1960.

In 1224, in a royal valuation of King John’s Castle, it was found that the goods within it were ‘scarcely worth 18 pence’.

On the 21 November 1813, a house in May’s Lane, Thomondgate blew up when the occupants were trying to dry gunpowder in an iron pot over an open fire.

BUSINESS/TRADES

In the 1840s there was an extensively high demand for guano (bat droppings) as fertiliser in Limerick.

One of the last coppersmiths in Limerick was called John Heffernan and he conducted his business opposite the city courthouse in the Merchants’ Quay. Once when the court was in sitting, Judge Ball sent word that he could not hear witnesses over the sound of the copper hammering. Heffernan sent back the message, ‘Tell the judge that he gets paid for talking and I get paid for hammering’. He did eventually shut down works for two days, after which he sent the judge a bill for lost earnings.

In 1787 merchant Philip Roche set out to develop the area that is called Roches Street today. Due to the Penal laws of the time, he was not permitted to buy land as he was a Catholic. He managed to purchase the sites needed using the name of his friend, Dr Pery, who was the Church of Ireland Bishop of Limerick.

The United London Gas Company was contracted to bring light to the city in 1824. Public lighting was not new to Limerick though as the first street lamps were erected in 1696 by Thomas Rose.

Between 1824 and 1870 there were fifty-three straw hat makers recorded in Limerick city, all women.

Between 1769 and 1900 there were twenty-five gunmakers in the city, including one woman, Mary Meel, who operated out of Mary Street in 1788.

In 1957 Limerick had an umbrella factory on Catherine Street. It was owned by a C. Holland.

In 1796 there were 171 recorded flax growers in Limerick. Flax was used for both food and clothing.

In 1906 the number 1 in the telephone exchange belonged to McMahon, Day & Co. Apothecaries on 136 George Street (now O’Connell Street). In 1911 Limerick had two telephone operators, both women, one telephone worker, one telephone wireman and two national telephone inspectors.

Clay pipes were produced in the nineteenth century in Merrit’s factory on Broad Street Limerick. Twice a year 50 tons of clay would be imported from Liverpool for the process.

WEATHER

William Wordsworth remarked on the Limerick weather when he visited here in 1829, saying, ‘it is raining hard now, and has done so all day’.

From the 3 November 1683 to 9 February 1684 there was a severe frost which caused ice up to 7 or 8 feet thick on the Shannon. Carriages and cattle frequently crossed the river from Kings Island to Parteen, Co. Clare on the ice.

On 6 December 1705 a storm, which lasted from 10 p.m. until 8 a.m. the following morning, ravaged the city. The tide covered half of Thomond Bridge and forced up part of Baal’s Bridge. In the St Francis’ Abbey, several people trying to save their possessions were drowned. A West Indian vessel laden with indigo and tobacco was driven a considerable distance on land.

The summer of 1723 was so warm and dry that the fruit trees produced fruit twice.

The year 1739 was known as ‘The Year of the Great Frost’, which lasted forty days. It caused some to survive on ‘cats, dogs, mice, carrion, putrid meat, nettles and docking’.

On 4 February 1775 a high tide hit Baal’s Bridge and caused several of the houses built on the bridge to collapse.

During the dry summer of 1775 the Abbey River was so low that boys could wade in and pick up the eel, flat fish and...