There’s much pleasure to be had in grabbing a coffee at Harper’s, where locals converge for their caffeine fix, and strolling with it between the artisan bakers, organic dairies, cheesemongers and award-winning preserve-makers, all offering samples of delicious local fare.
It’s easy to lose hours happily browsing, but for a taste of some of the highlights, the Limerick Food Trails from Val O’Connor, a food writer who organises market tours, are the ideal way to discover more about the local produce and some of the individual traders.
But with more history to discover, it was time to board our horse-drawn carriage to the picturesque King John’s Castle. Travelling by horse and cart really evokes the spirit of the Emerald Isle, the gloriously slow pace of life and high value placed on being sociable and sharing great stories.
There are hair-raising tales aplenty in the 13th century castle itself, built on the orders of England’s sovereign back in 1200. One of Europe’s best preserved Norman castles, the site dates back further to the times of the Vikings, with archaeological excavations uncovering the remains of a settlement.
Surviving repeated sieges during the centuries of Ireland’s turbulent history, Limerick itself continued to prosper as a major port through wars and endless changes of governance, thanks to its location 60 miles up the wide Shannon estuary on Ireland’s west coast. In the 17th century, the city was even known as Little London for its affluence and sophistication.
As well as telling the history of both Limerick and Ireland in a succinct and vivid way, the castle’s tower and vantage points provide magnificent views of the city rooftops and the wide river.
Nearby sits the even more ancient St Mary’s Cathedral, notable for a rare stone altar, removed by Oliver Cromwell’s troops (who used the cathedral as a stable) and only reinstated in the 1960s. It’s also home to the only complete set of misericords — pews against which monks could perch discreetly while appearing to remain standing for hours on end during prayer — remaining in Ireland. There are also cannonballs from a 1691 siege, one of many Limerick has endured, for good measure.
The next port of call ought to be the Hunt Museum, housing the private collection of antiques dealers John and Gertrude Hunt in the city’s Palladian customs house, with around 2,000 works of art and antiquities from the Neolithic period to the present.
Travelling across the city once more is the only reminder you need that Limerick’s cultural side continues strong today. The Limerick Art Gallery is an excellent showcase for Irish contemporary art, including the National Collection of Contemporary Drawing. But it’s literature which has helped create the most recent rise in interest in the city. Frank McCourt, acknowledged as one of the country’s greatest modern story-tellers, set his Pulitzer-winning novel Angela’s Ashes here, his account of a hard but colourful and occasionally humorous life growing up in the city.
The ornate fin de siecle pub down the road, South’s, where he celebrated the award is not to be missed. And now the schoolhouse he attended across the road from his home has been reinvented, classroom intact, as the Frank McCourt Museum, with a mock-up of the tenement flat he shared with his family — not exactly what you’d expect from the grand Georgian exterior.
The wonderful architecture of Limerick’s extensive Georgian Quarter is one of the city’s great glories, best explored with a word of explanation from Declan Hassett on one of his Limerick Walking Tours. This is a historian who loves his town, knows it inside out and is full of great anecdotes.
Shocking to think that all these grand Georgian houses were simply built above an existing layer of street level as it was cheaper than excavating to create foundations, although the new subterranean layer thus created did at least bring sewers to what was was once a filthy and plague-ridden city.
Pery Square, where the Georgian city started life, may be the most handsome part of town, but one of the loveliest streets is Ennis Road, across the bridge over the Shannon. This is where Oscar-nominee Richard Harris used to live, as well as the creator of the music for Riverdance.
Keep travelling in this direction and you’ll come to Shannon and our own base at the Radisson Blu, equidistant from both city and airport, and ideal for exploring the pretty nearby village of Adare too. Along with a spa, swimming pool and kids’ club, there’s excellent food in the restaurant and sports bar — the latter arguably better than its more formal sister thanks to that famous Irish craic — and an hourly bus service into Limerick for those who without their own transport.
But it would be a shame to visit the west of Ireland and not discover some of the famously beautiful scenery. To the south lies the Ring of Kerry and lovely villages of the West Cork peninsula, to the north another great cultural city, Galway, and beyond it the romantic reaches of Connemara and County Mayo.
Exploring this 20 years ago, I thought I’d “done” the west. But I did myself a great disservice bypassing Limerick, a jewel in the Irish cultural crown that extends far beyond its poetic reputation.
