Limerick's historical ANTISEMITISM, a shameful chapter in 20th Century Irish History.

Today we’re going to walk the length of O’Connell Street in Limerick City, (a full mile in total).

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Just as we cross bridge street we join with O’Connell Street and pass the attractive cut stone building of the Hunt Museum. This building was Limericks old Custom House and in 1996 this place opened as a museum to house the art collection of dealers and collectors Jack and Gertrude Hunt, who donated their collection.

As we jump further down O’Connell Street it’s worth noting that you’ll find O’Connell Streets in Dublin, Ennis, and Sligo all places that I’ve previously made films about. I even have a whole film dedicated to Dublin’s O’Connell Street. And there are many other O’Connell streets dotted around the country. Maybe if there’s one near you that I haven’t mentioned, you can pop it in the comments? The main street in North Adelaide in Australia is even named O’Connell Street. I wonder what nationality the people who made that decision were!

Anyway why O’Connell Street? Well Daniel O’Connell was an important patriot in Irish history. He was a political leader in the first half of the 19th Century, best known for securing Catholic Emancipation in 1829, which essentially was the removal of many of the restrictions on Catholics in Ireland. He won a British parliamentary seat on two occasions. Dubbed “the Liberator’ he galvanised the support of Irish Catholics in a non-violent political movement.

And what you’ll notice about this part of central Limerick is that it’s layed out like a grid, in blocks, rather like an American city. And when you see a modern city layout like this it’s hard to believe that Limerick was founded by Vikings way back in 812, and there were settlements here even before that.

The earliest map of Ireland, from 150 AD, shows a place nemed Regina, on the site now called King’s Island. History also records an important battle here in 221 and a visit by Saint Patrick 434. So this is all long before the Vikings sailed up the Shannon and pillaged the area, before being repelled by the Irish who gave them a damn good thrashing… on that occasion anyway. It was the Normans who were instrumental in remodelling the city in the 12th century. Their significant contributions were King John’s castle and St Mary’s Cathedral, both of which I’ll visit in future films.

The city has a population of around 105, 000, making it the 4th largest city in Ireland after Dublin, Belfast and Cork. It’s located in the Provence of Munster in the mid west of Ireland and lends its name to the county.

We pass St Augustine’s. You’ll notice that it has a very spectacular window above the entrance. This is best viewed, like all stained glass, from the inside. Apparently the evening time is best, if you look back from the alter you’ll see the light illuminating the panels.

Now that red brick building coming up on the other side of the road is interesting for yiu sports fans. This is the International Rugby Experience. Now some of you will probably be aware that Rugby is a big thing in Ireland, in fact it’s something that we’re rather good at! This place describes itself as a fully -immersive experience designed to engage and inspire, so if you’re a rugby fan you won’t want to miss this.

Another sport synonymous with Ireland is Hurling and this statue opposite the International Rugby experience celebrates both sports simultaneously. It’s called Ruck and Puck and the sculptor is a northerner, Robin Buick from Ballymena in County Antrim.

The city has a past steeped in conflict. It was besieged in 1651 by Oliver Cromwell, an historical figure not particularly admired in Ireland, and besieged again in the Williamite wars twice in the 1690s. The city has a motto: urbs antiqua fuit studisque asperrima belli (an ancient city well studied in the arts of war). The treaty of Limerick, signed at the end of the Williamite wars, was a landmark moment in Irish History. The treaty was supposed to offer tolerance and full legal rights to catholics if they swore an oath to William and Mary. In the end it wasn’t the case. This sealed Ireland’s fate to be dominated by British and Protestant influence for some time to come. However the period which followed was more peaceful, and prosperous, for some at least and this is why we can still see such Georgian splendour in Limerick today.

We’re now going to end the video up at the O’Connell Monument. Unfortunately, there’s some construction work going on around the monument, but we’ll try and not let that spoil our enjoyment too much.

You might be thinking, Limerick will be nice when it’s finished.