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| Map - Lahinch to Limerick |
Today's excursion took me a little further afield, to Limerick, where I was meeting my 4th cousin Madeleine Lynch. Maddie's mother, Eileen, is the sister of Marie's Dad, Patrick, so she is the same relationship to me as Marie. For those who have been following my blog for a while, I discovered Maddie quite by accident last year in Kilrush, where her Mum had a shop back in the day.
We have kept in touch since then and I was very glad to catch up with her again today in Limerick, where she lives.
So I set off on my adventure quite early by my standards, and headed for the car park at the Potato Market Merchants Quay. My Google Maps behaved impeccably and I arrived there right on 11am, which was when we agreed to meet. One slight problem, the car park was full..
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| Potato Merchants Quay car park |
Luckily I spotted Maddie just walking in and after a quick word to the car park attendants, and a mention that I had come all the way from Australia (!!), they told me to go round again and eventually I found a lovely under cover spot which was easy to get into and out of!
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| Nice park! |
So we took off with my own personal guided tour. Maddie knows heaps of stuff about the history of Limerick, which I can never remember, but she suggested wikipedia gives a good over view if you're interested.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LimerickToday's post might be nearly all visual, because I can't remember all those facts, but it might give you an idea of what it is like
The town of Limerick is situated in the County of Limerick and sits on the river Shannon. Back in the day it was a very prosperous town with many quays servicing the merchants.
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| River Shannon |
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| River Shannon |
Right now the local Shire is constructing a preventative measure against flooding, so there were lots of construction works along the banks of the river Shannon.
Limerick was famous for it's lace making and used to provide lace for Queen Victoria.
We had actually stopped for a coffee earlier and that was at a lovely little coffee place in a lane in the city. However, their idea and my idea of a skinny flat white were slightly different. The Irish have mostly mastered the coffee scene, but sometimes their versions can be slightly different. This one today was a double strength coffee, but just a drop of milk in the top.... bit strong, even for me!
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| St Michael's Church |
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| Arthur's Quay Shops |
Limerick has also suffered from quite a bad reputation and has been commonly known as "Stab City". But Maddie says it's not quite like that any more, although the city does have a drug problem. But then, which major city doesn't these days! I was telling her about the tobacco wars in Melbourne... There will always be some sort of crime wherever there are human beings.
Apparently there are 22 Churches in Limerick. We did a couple of them, including one that used to be owned by the Franciscans, , but they ran out of priests, so the American Franciscans came in, but they just wanted to live among the people, so the big Franciscan Church has been deconstructed and now lies empty. Part of it is a museum.
There are lots of Protestant Churches too..
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| St Mary's Cathedral |
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| St Mary's Cathedral info |
Limerick is also famous for it's King John's castle
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| Castle in the background |
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| King John's Castle |
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| Steps of the castle |
One more of the River Shannon
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| River Shannon |
Here's one that Maddie sent through
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| Sunset over the Shannon |
So eventually it was time for lunch, and there was a pub right at the back of the Castle, called Katie Daly's. There must be a lot of famous Katie Daly's in Ireland!
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| Katie Daly's pub |
This was a lovely little pub with the real "Irish Pub" flavour..
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| Katie Daly's pub |
So that was basically the end of the tour for us. Maddie went and collected her dog Daisy, and walked me back to the car. It was a fabulous day exploring the city of Limerick. I just wish I could have remembered all the interesting things that Maddie was telling me throughout the day...
So thanks Maddie for a wonderful day in Limerick.
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Added extra...
This is a bit like the Royal Show on steroids!!! They can get up to 80 000 people per day and is a big national event for Ireland.
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| Marie with a candidate for the Presidency |
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| What's on today |
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| Patrick and the lads |
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| Looks like fine weather |
They were expecting rain overnight and there was to be a lot of muck!
Wellies were recommended as appropriate footwear!
Looks like it was pretty fine there though, for their day out!
