hlymrekr

As Arthur’s Quay Park is currently either first or last place many tourists to Limerick see when the M7 Express pulls in, it is worth considering what impact the park makes on visitors to Limerick city. The below are a series of photographs of Arthur’s Quay park in its current condition.

Arthur’s Quay Park is built on a parcel of land reclaimed from the river. It seems extraordinary to go to the effort of reclaiming land from the river, and then construct a public park on that land, for the park to be left in it’s current condition. Arthur’s Quay Park has never really been adopted by the city of Limerick. Indeed, until recently it had a reputation for being unsafe, something that was resolved by removing the thick foilage and railings which surrounded the park. The provision of flowerbeds in their place has added a small bit of colour to an otherwise park who’s greatest feature seems to be it’s featurelessness.

Is this the image that best serves tourists when they come to or leave our city?

In addition to considering the impact of the park on tourists, it’s even more important to consider how the park interacts with life in the city. It isn’t hard to imagine the Park was meant to be a public amphitheatre, with considerable space for the provision of temporary seating in a hemispheric pattern around the slightly elevated point in the centre of the park, with the larger tiers at the edge of the park to provide further seating in addition for popular public shows. Indeed, in the early years of the park, it was a venue of sorts to the short lived Paddy Expo, a musical festival held throughout the city. However, apart from the weekend of Riverfest and the temporary Ice Rink in December, the Park is under-utilised for civic events during the year.

Riverfest has had the effect of showing casing what the park can be when it is utilised correctly. The decision to move the Riverfest village into the park has been a success. Ideally, the mooted plan to establish a speaker’s corner in the park will also make the park a greater part of the fabric of Limerick life. However, the city council need to make sure the park is a more pleasant place to spend time in.

It’s not hard to imagine how the park would be more pleasant with the provision of flower beds, grass instead of the brick centre and the provision of a playground. Credit must be given to Chez le Fab for opening an excellent café in the old tourist office. They are utilising the space not just as a café but also as a cultural amenity, hosting diverse nights and bring life back into the city centre. The space outside the cafe and by the old rostrum of the Wild Geese statue could be an ideal place for coffee and a concert on sunny days, but for some reason the fence was maintained between the space in front of Chez le Fab and the park itself. This division doesn’t appear to serve any purpose apart from isolating the café from the park.

Ideally, the success of the Riverfest village will inspire and lead to the provision of a Christmas market in November and December. The Christmas markets of France, Germany or Belgium could easily be imported to Limerick, with the one in Eyre Square in Galway proving a considerable success. The ice rink could be moved back to the Potato market.

However in order for the park to become a more pleasant place for the city to enjoy, the council should considering refurbishing the entire park. Arthur’s Quay Park is so evidently unappealing that it isn’t too surprising that it is under-utilised. Ideally the entire park would be remodelled, with the brick centre replaced with grass lawns and flower beds, but even the provision of flower beds on the existing green areas would add some colour to the park.

Hopefully the provision of colourful flower beds on the base of the old railings will be continued to actually providing flower beds in the park itself.

Arthur’s Quay park could be the civic space the city badly requires. It should be the centre piece of civic events all year round, not just for the Riverfest weekend. The city deserves better than the park as it currently is. Even if it is not possible to conduct a refurbishment of the park, it should be possible to make it more pleasant for Limerick people and tourists alike.

Limerick, by and large, does not suffer from the same traffic problems as other cities in Ireland so it might seem unusual to say we should make a serious and dedicated effort to transition from driving cars to cycling as the main form of access to the city. The problem is we tend to think only as traffic as a problem if it involves traffics jams. Limerick has a traffic problem in that too many cars pass through the city centre. The issue is that cars are removed from the environment they traverse. A driver doesn’t have the same interaction either the street they drive down, or the city they drive through, that a pedestrian or a cyclist has. The effect of having two lanes of traffic as our main street causes Limerick city centre to be noisier, more polluted and less pleasant than it should be.

The word boulevard comes from the era when the defensive walls surrounding European cities were removed and replaced with wide streets where the walls had stood. It shows, in a minor way, how cities adjust over time. O’Connell street is currently a one-way dual carriageway running through and dividing the city centre when it could be pleasant boulevard. Most major cities are planning for a car-free or car-shared future (where people no longer own cars but rent them as necessary). Limerick is a long way from this point, or even needing to engage with this point, but Limerick city centre remains strangled by the unconscious effects that cars have on our streets. How we choose to develop O’Connell street will impact of the pleasantness of the city centre for the next twenty years.

For Limerick city centre to be a more pleasant place we need to find a way to remove or reduce the number cars that share our civic spaces. While certain road lay-outs and pedestrianisation attempts will make this inevitable, we should try to incentivise people to cycle by making cycling more pleasant rather than just by making driving unpleasant. There will always be a need for some cars to access the city centre, but it should not be the default mode of transport into the city centre, or at least, should not be the default mode of transport for distances that could be walked or cycled. Very often cycling or driving are presented as either/or options. In Limerick we have wide enough roads, and numerous distinct access points that allows cyclists and drivers share the road space. We should encourage people to cycle if that’s what they want to do and make it safe so that that they are able to do so.

How do we make Limerick city a more attractive city to cycle in? By rights, weather aside, there’s very little reason for Limerick not to be a more cycle friendly city. Unlike other cities in Ireland, we have straight, wide roads which should facilitate cycling. The city isn’t particularly hilly, our suburbs don’t extend too far outside the city. Even villages such as Cratloe or Patrickswell are theorically within easy cycling distance. A reasonably fit person would cycle 10 kilometres in 30 minutes or less.

The following table shows the distances involved in cycling to the GPO on Cecil street from various outlying suburbs. Only Patrickswell and Cratloe come anywhere close to the sort of distance that would probably start to discourage the casual cyclist.

Suburb	Distance to GPO, Cecil Street (km’s)
Annacotty	7.2
Patrickswell	10.6
Ardnacrusha	7.6
Cratloe	12.3
Raheen	5.9
Castletroy	4.8
Mungret	5.6

However, what the other areas lack is safe cycle routes into the city centre, and any discussion has to call for increased investment in safe cycle paths for cyclists to use. The cycle path to UL and the bike scheme in the city has led to more cyclists around the city, showing that people will avail of facilities if they are provided. The Dock road, Clare street and Musgrave street, in particular have poor cyclist facilities for what are a main access points to the city. The recent facility upgrades by the Condell road through Westfield park should be replicated on the Dock road.

Even if we had the infrastructure to allow people cycle safely into the city centre, would they feel safe in parking their bike anywhere in the city? Limerick smarter travel have set up safer bike locking stations in certain car parks around the city but these stations do not have continuous monitoring and are often in parts of the car parks where it’s possible to access the bikes without being seen by CCTV or staff.

A far more effective solution, albeit one that would be more expensive, would be to establish a monitored bike-only lock up in the city. This lock up would have one entrance and one exit, which would be monitored while the facility was open. Users would be given a barcode which they would later require to remove their bike from the lock up. Once inside the lock-up, users should also use their own locks to secure the bikes.

Apart from the cost of having this facility monitored, the equipment needed to maintain such a lock up would be pretty rudimentary. The cut de sac road by the old goods access point to Dunnes stores beside Sarsfield bridge would be an ideal temporary location for such a facility, it is central, it has good access points from Henry street via either Quinn street or the quays. It could effectively be utilised without disrupting the traffic in the city in a meaningful way. It is a straightforward way to making cycling into the city a more pleasant experience. People respond to incentives, if a cyclist could be absolutely certain their bike was safe while they were in the city centre, it is likely that more people would cycle. At the very least a trial run could be arranged to determine the feasibility of a more permanent facility.

If this concept was successful, it should, and ideally would, be utilised out by the Gaelic Grounds, Thomond Park and the Market’s Field on match days to ensure people who wished to cycle to the game had a secure place near the stadium to leave their bikes. People already walk to these games in significant numbers, having parked their cars in city centre car parks. This initiative would be an attempt to add another option for people who wish to cycle to games, it would not be an attempt to dis-incentivise people who wish to drive to games.

In addition to this rather simple proposition, the city bike scheme should be expanded out to UL and LIT as soon as possible, and bike stands should be built near popular destinations such as the above stadia, and Dolan’s gig venue and expanded out into the near-lying suburbs. Anyone who wishes to have access to the bike scheme should be able to avail of it, at least within the confines of the Caherdavin, Corbally, Casteltroy and Raheen area.

Limerick has a distance to travel before it could be considered a bike friendly city, but it has the fundamental attributes to make the transition relatively quickly, if the political will is there to achieve it.

Listening to the various commentators about the state of the Midwest’s economy it is hard to get an accurate picture of the overall health of the region. What would an economic recovery in Limerick look like? Is it already happening? If it is happening, when will it be complete? When will Limerick be back to pre-recession levels? And just how bad did it get?

One crude measurement of how the economy of Limerick is progressing is by comparing the levels of unemployment in Limerick from pre and post recession. The CSO publish figures for the numbers of unemployed people in Limerick city, Limerick county, Kilmallock and Newcastle West from March 2002 to date. They give some indication of the health of Limerick’s economy over the past 15 years. I have included the full table below but it’s worth looking at four months in particular to get an overall picture of the the last 15 years.

In March 2002 there was 15,352 people unemployed in Limerick city and county. This figure dropped down to 13,506 in November 2005. November 2005 represents the best month Limerick had in terms of unemployment figures in the last 14 years. There is an theory that every economy has a natural rate of unemployment, that is a figure combining both structural and frictional unemployment which would be expected to hold steady in a long term economy outside of cyclical influences. For Limerick that figure would appear to be somewhere between 13,500 and 15,000 people considering the overall health of the National economy at that time. With this figure in mind, just how bad did things get in the recession?

By August 2010 the number of people signing on as unemployed had reached a staggering 46,830. It is worth reflecting on the number. It is over three times as high as unemployment was in in the stable years from 2002 to 2006. It represents the collapse of Ireland’s economic sovereignty (as played out county by county), it represents the return of mass emigration after 20 years of inward migration but more than that it represents on a human scale the level of damage that Limerick suffered in a extraordinarily short period of time. Every one of those figures is an individual who had to defer their plans and was unable to live the life they wanted to. Collectively it is the stark figure of families separated by unemployment, of the struggles the Midwest endured along with the rest of the country. It is a number that still echoes throughout the region. 46,830 represents 24.24% of the entire population of the county. It is a tragic figure and it is one we should remember when we speak about the reality of unemployment in Limerick.

It is important to though to acknowledge that from that nadir things have improved. The most recent figure for people signing on is from November 2016 and is 22,288. It is a huge credit to the people of the city and the county collectively the economy of the region has recovered. There is a prevailing sense that any recovery is exaggerated or not being felt outside Dublin and the east coast but these figures do indicate there has been a substantial reduction in the number of the people registered as unemployed.

At 22,288 people the unemployment rate is still at a high figure, certainly too high a figure to forget how much hard work still lies ahead but it is important to acknowledge how much has been achieved. The below graph demonstrates the massive economic shock Limerick suffered in from July 2007 to August 2010, combined with the period of stability beforehand and the relative recovery that has occurred since.

It is worth comparing the above graph with a graph which represents the entire country.

It is interesting to post these figures because, as mentioned, there is a perception that Limerick’s recovery still lags behind Dublin and the east coast. It is quite clear that there has been a substantial recovery in terms of figures. It is also quite clear that Limerick is somewhat in sync with the rest of the country.

In order to be sure that these figures don’t represent emigration it is worth noting that the population of Limerick has actually increased over the last 5 years, from 191,809 in 2011 to 195,175 in 2016. While this is a very modest increase for the county the size of Limerick it is encouraging that the number didn’t stay static or decline. As the population is increasing and the unemployment rate is improving it is clear that the economy is recovering somewhat.

Limerick	Number
Population 2011 (Number)	191,809
Population 2016 (Number)	195,175
Actual change since previous census (Number)	3,366
Percentage change since previous census (%)	1.8
Limerick City
Population 2011 (Number)	57,106
Population 2016 (Number)	58,319
Actual change since previous census (Number)	1,213
Percentage change since previous census (%)	2.1
Limerick County
Population 2011 (Number)	134,703
Population 2016 (Number)	136,856
Actual change since previous census (Number)	2,153
Percentage change since previous census (%)	1.6

Of course, these figures are blunt instruments. They do not reveal how many people returned into education, are on work placement schemes or are not receiving assistance. Crucially these figures do not tell us who is actually working. We know from a recent Central Bank study that the Participation Rate in the Irish Labour Force has not yet recovered to it’s pre-crash levels. It currently stands at 60% as opposed to a pre-crash high of 64%. These figures also do not reveal that nature of the work, if the work is permanent or contract. At best they give another indication that Limerick is on the right path. Taken with other figures such as the 14% house price rise in Limerick in 2016 and the increase in FDI jobs in the Midwest it is clear that a recovery of sorts has taken hold in Limerick.

The city and county are still some distance from the heyday of November 2005 but it is important that we acknowledge that things are getting better if only to discuss what happens next and how we can use this recovery to ensure everyone benefits from the improvements as they come. We need to ensure that workers aren’t being exploited by instruments like zero hour contracts or unfair work practices. It is important that we do take the time to acknowledge that even if we haven’t recovered to pre-crash levels that at least we are in the midst of a recovery. These figures remind of us where we have come from, and how much we still have to improve on. 46,830 in August 2010 to 22,288 in November 2016 is a significant change, even if the numbers do not tell us the full story.

 

 

 

 

Figures for the numbers of unemployed in Limerick month on month from March 2002 to November 2016.

Social Welfare Office	2002M01	2002M02	2002M03	2002M04	2002M05	2002M06	2002M07	2002M08	2002M09	2002M10	2002M11	2002M12
Limerick County			7676	7382	7423	8054	8583	8593	7927	7784	7714	8281
Kilmallock			874	771	808	867	910	897	781	789	806	905
Limerick City			5878	5738	5780	6325	6742	6769	6281	6157	6088	6526
Newcastle West			924	873	835	862	931	927	865	838	820	850
	2003M01	2003M02	2003M03	2003M04	2003M05	2003M06	2003M07	2003M08	2003M09	2003M10	2003M11	2003M12
Limerick County	8540	8760	8572	8664	8097	8786	9262	9273	8263	7854	7697	8123
Kilmallock	948	961	946	936	895	933	1017	1042	903	870	861	956
Limerick City	6709	6879	6720	6812	6310	6902	7217	7221	6508	6157	5987	6280
Newcastle West	883	920	906	916	892	951	1028	1010	852	827	849	887
	2004M01	2004M02	2004M03	2004M04	2004M05	2004M06	2004M07	2004M08	2004M09	2004M10	2004M11	2004M12
Limerick County	8166	8271	8154	7800	7615	8269	8674	8676	7772	7219	6938	7245
Kilmallock	962	928	880	854	811	859	939	947	841	821	788	827
Limerick City	6264	6394	6322	6052	5941	6502	6776	6773	6063	5522	5308	5538
Newcastle West	940	949	952	894	863	908	959	956	868	876	842	880
	2005M01	2005M02	2005M03	2005M04	2005M05	2005M06	2005M07	2005M08	2005M09	2005M10	2005M11	2005M12
Limerick County	7273	7241	7195	6834	6830	7488	7977	8019	7152	6823	6753	7106
Kilmallock	838	818	765	723	710	763	818	813	762	719	757	815
Limerick City	5516	5475	5479	5188	5212	5781	6146	6163	5479	5203	5113	5356
Newcastle West	919	948	951	923	908	944	1013	1043	911	901	883	935
	2006M01	2006M02	2006M03	2006M04	2006M05	2006M06	2006M07	2006M08	2006M09	2006M10	2006M11	2006M12
Limerick County	7170	7204	6983	6863	6982	7810	8182	8253	7205	6888	6889	7314
Kilmallock	782	811	777	773	773	849	917	920	798	811	819	881
Limerick City	5426	5431	5293	5189	5337	6025	6257	6327	5530	5205	5088	5382
Newcastle West	962	962	913	901	872	936	1008	1006	877	872	982	1051
	2007M01	2007M02	2007M03	2007M04	2007M05	2007M06	2007M07	2007M08	2007M09	2007M10	2007M11	2007M12
Limerick County	7278	7375	7252	7227	7243	7967	8421	8362	7395	7286	7630	8236
Kilmallock	871	871	821	855	828	884	928	937	822	814	872	976
Limerick City	5347	5434	5362	5338	5400	6020	6349	6282	5526	5468	5704	6123
Newcastle West	1060	1070	1069	1034	1015	1063	1144	1143	1047	1004	1054	1137
	2008M01	2008M02	2008M03	2008M04	2008M05	2008M06	2008M07	2008M08	2008M09	2008M10	2008M11	2008M12
Limerick County	8545	9004	9583	9373	9911	10710	11448	12048	11457	11836	12864	13999
Kilmallock	988	994	1082	1024	1094	1219	1286	1300	1305	1415	1526	1722
Limerick City	6255	6630	7101	6926	7350	7928	8530	8970	8431	8616	9295	10044
Newcastle West	1302	1380	1400	1423	1467	1563	1632	1778	1721	1805	2043	2233
	2009M01	2009M02	2009M03	2009M04	2009M05	2009M06	2009M07	2009M08	2009M09	2009M10	2009M11	2009M12
Limerick County	15743	17176	17981	18456	19732	20922	21695	22086	21055	20326	20700	21375
Kilmallock	1944	2123	2245	2289	2324	2476	2596	2667	2523	2577	2628	2762
Limerick City	11228	12188	12646	13155	14080	14973	15557	15817	15091	14403	14715	15092
Newcastle West	2571	2865	3090	3012	3328	3473	3542	3602	3441	3346	3357	3521
	2010M01	2010M02	2010M03	2010M04	2010M05	2010M06	2010M07	2010M08	2010M09	2010M10	2010M11	2010M12
Limerick County	22010	21995	21703	21663	21794	22275	23148	23415	22236	21459	20580	20970
Kilmallock	2807	2832	2826	2793	2791	2840	2919	2898	2724	2653	2591	2707
Limerick City	15617	15574	15282	15324	15475	15819	16490	16778	16023	15332	14638	14779
Newcastle West	3586	3589	3595	3546	3528	3616	3739	3739	3489	3474	3351	3484
	2011M01	2011M02	2011M03	2011M04	2011M05	2011M06	2011M07	2011M08	2011M09	2011M10	2011M11	2011M12
Limerick County	21116	21038	20729	20700	20928	21728	22397	22611	21160	20534	20228	20339
Kilmallock	2724	2756	2697	2692	2686	2759	2884	2837	2679	2621	2571	2650
Limerick City	14857	14787	14589	14543	14801	15537	15946	16210	15159	14630	14350	14313
Newcastle West	3535	3495	3443	3465	3441	3432	3567	3564	3322	3283	3307	3376
	2012M01	2012M02	2012M03	2012M04	2012M05	2012M06	2012M07	2012M08	2012M09	2012M10	2012M11	2012M12
Limerick County	20396	20332	20034	19876	20131	20810	21333	21265	20178	19571	19038	19228
Kilmallock	2655	2658	2651	2609	2625	2726	2753	2725	2561	2536	2486	2563
Limerick City	14336	14296	14071	13972	14084	14752	15194	15162	14460	13926	13443	13504
Newcastle West	3405	3378	3312	3295	3422	3332	3386	3378	3157	3109	3109	3161
	2013M01	2013M02	2013M03	2013M04	2013M05	2013M06	2013M07	2013M08	2013M09	2013M10	2013M11	2013M12
Limerick County	19304	19239	19037	18754	18688	19151	19615	19573	18501	17691	17216	17539
Kilmallock	2549	2529	2565	2503	2522	2614	2577	2496	2365	2272	2243	2283
Limerick City	13577	13527	13322	13154	13104	13434	13872	14008	13334	12600	12214	12402
Newcastle West	3178	3183	3150	3097	3062	3103	3166	3069	2802	2819	2759	2854
	2014M01	2014M02	2014M03	2014M04	2014M05	2014M06	2014M07	2014M08	2014M09	2014M10	2014M11	2014M12
Limerick County	17511	17430	17061	16955	16724	17240	17801	17579	16310	15474	15146	15358
Kilmallock	2292	2268	2204	2204	2165	2200	2204	2146	1977	1912	1890	1902
Limerick City	12415	12357	12144	12094	12006	12427	12965	12812	11966	11276	10963	11119
Newcastle West	2804	2805	2713	2657	2553	2613	2632	2621	2367	2286	2293	2337
	2015M01	2015M02	2015M03	2015M04	2015M05	2015M06	2015M07	2015M08	2015M09	2015M10	2015M11	2015M12
Limerick County	15025	14763	14409	14160	14267	15043	15662	15444	14344	13620	13339	13600
Kilmallock	1893	1873	1834	1789	1778	1832	1878	1883	1719	1698	1666	1719
Limerick City	10841	10665	10412	10206	10317	11019	11537	11357	10665	10022	9787	9957
Newcastle West	2291	2225	2163	2165	2172	2192	2247	2204	1960	1900	1886	1924
	2016M01	2016M02	2016M03	2016M04	2016M05	2016M06	2016M07	2016M08	2016M09	2016M10	2016M11
Limerick County	13437	13270	13046	12724	12831	13528	13774	13795	12126	11473	11144
Kilmallock	1702	1671	1652	1569	1566	1629	1618	1664	1464	1372	1339
Limerick City	9831	9710	9494	9387	9455	10043	10271	10262	9056	8558	8297
Newcastle West	1904	1889	1900	1768	1810	1856	1885	1869	1606	1543	1508

There has been an understandable hue and cry about the closure of the White House Pub, partly because people feel they are losing another part of the city’s fabric, partly because of the fears of what the new owners will try to make the bar turn a profit. Unfortunately, the White House Pub shows that while cultural activities are enjoyable they aren’t always or often profitable.  It’s a brave choice of pub considering the restrictions placed on the exterior of the building and probably has too small a floor space (currently) to be anything other than moderately successful. I don’t know what the new owners have in store for the White House but I wish them well. Hopefully they can find solutions that everyone favours but it profits no one to preserve the past to the point where the present functions are unsupportable.

All that said, it does leave the question of where our poets should gather now. Limerick city and county has long been a haven for bards and it would be a shame if the current crop weren’t able to extend that legacy to another generation. Tom and Jerry’s Pub is giving them sanctuary but rather than restricting themselves to bars though, a novel, if obvious suggestion presents itself but first, a small bit of a digression. Arthurs Quay Park is built on the site of an old carpark, which itself was placed on land reclaimed from the river. In many ways it is a good symbol of the city. A great idea, badly realised, and poorly maintained.

The park’s greatest feature might even be its featurelessness. There is no playground to attract in young families, there are no statues or sculptures to commemorate or celebrate our city. It is largely under-utilised for 11 of the 12 months of the year, though this year’s Riverfest showed what can be staged there with a bit of imagination and German beer and EV+A have held memorable exhibits there over the years. (To digress further, Limerick is crying out for a Christmas market, we have the ideal place for it, why not make it happen?)

In one corner of the park however, there used to be a statue. It was of wild geese in flight and was a present to the city from our sister city Spokane to commemorate the Treaty of Limerick. After vandalism the statue was moved to the small park between City Hall and the river. The plinth was left behind, presumably to accommodate a new statue though none has been forthcoming, nor has any been suggested. It stands, almost impressively, as a monument to “what-could-have-beens”. The city does not appear to have a plan for it at present. I would suggest that the poets of Limerick do not wait for permission but rather adopt this plinth as their lectern while they seek out a new permanent home. There can be no better backdrop to poetry than the river and the Clare hills on one side and the bleak reality of a shuttered Dunnes stores on the other.

The plinth and the park tell the story of modern Limerick to a sad degree. It is unfortunately a story of good ideas not quite realised, of public spaces not maintained, under-utilised and unloved. Perhaps the idea of Poetry in the Park is too small an idea to ever catch on but the city deserves better and the poets deserve a platform.

“THERE are “no limits” on the design of a new river crossing in the city, Limerick council’s economic director Dr Pat Daly has said.

“Speaking as he launched the public consultation on the footbridge project – which could cost between €8m and €17m – Dr Daly says the local authority is “staying open to any approach and any ideas.”

“We are limitless in terms of interpretations,” he said.

The above is a direct quote from the Limerick Leader’s coverage of the latest meeting about the proposed new footbridge and to give Dr. Daly his due it’s a fair and reasonable stance.

Leaving aside the myriad of issues with whether a bridge is needed ahead of many other projects (Nicholas Street, the Market Quarter) and starting with the assumption that a bridge has to be built, where is the best location for this bridge? Once we can agree a location surely we can start working on what type of bridge should be built. Dr. Daly is to be commended for re-opening the debate right down to the its fundamental level.

It is my belief that the best location for the new footbridge is from Honan’s Quay to O’Callaghan strand for  several reasons. The council acquired the Cleeves site in 2014. It is not yet clear what function it will ultimately serve, with suggestions from everything to convention centre to a cultural centre being proposed. The prospect of the development of the former Golden Vale/Cleeves site is one of the most exciting developments in Limerick in over a decade. Indeed, the site is so large, it could easily be a multi purpose facility. It could be an ideal location for an innovative cultural centre. The footbridge would facilitate access to both the renovated boardwalks on the North side of the river. Provided it didn’t impact on St. Michael’s Rowing Club and the city slip it seems to be an a natural fit for the new bridge.

A bridge at this point could have the ability to rejuvenate the so called Spokane Walk, the area from Milanos down to the Shannon bridge. Ideally it would spur the redevelopment of the derelict ESB building by making the area more attractive to investors.

There is also the prospect that a new footbridge at that location would allow modifications to the Shannon bridge, ideally narrowing of the footpaths and the provision of cycle lanes to make the city more bike friendly. In this respect, this location would be a win-win for the city.

Alternatively, the funding could be used to completely remodel the existing Shannon bridge, which is best described as functional. The attraction of this plan would be it removes a reasonably insipid bridge design from the city and adds an innovative one. It also would prevent any interference with the rowing clubs which use the slips on O’Callaghan strand. Now the prospect of a new “New” bridge is on the table, it hardly seems fair to remove it…

It is hard, in my opinion, to make a similar argument for the current proposed location. The area is already served by two bridges, one of which is a footbridge and the site should be considered far more sensitive than that across the Shannon.

Before we even start discussing designs, we need to start discussing locations. It may that there are serious drawbacks to the proposed location above and I’m willing to hear them, but it does appear to have advantages that the current proposed location lacks.

My own preference is for the money for the bridge to be re-invested elsewhere in the city, but if it must be built, let’s at least take the opportunity Dr. Daly has asked us to participate in and start a proper conversation about the fundamentals of where Limerick could benefit from a footbridge.

 

As the news of the proposed new footbridge again stumbles into sight this week, it was genuinely despairing to the see the city officials describe it as a priority project. This project, good or bad, should not be a priority for Limerick. In fact, there is one project that crowns all other current priorities for Limerick, in my opinion, and that is building a motorway from Limerick to Cork and by extension, developing the Atlantic corridor from Cork to Galway. To quote from Benjamin Franklin, “we must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” For most of Ireland’s independence the cities of Limerick, Cork and Galway have denied this simple truth, instead of working together as counterbalance to the Dublin we have fought amongst ourselves.

Limerick is the capital city of the Midwest region. The obvious follow on from that that statement is where or what is the midwest region? Administratively it covers Counties Clare and Limerick, and North Tipperary but outside of political administration, does the Midwest exist as an entity? Is it the same as the Shannon region? Where does the old Kingdom of Thomond fit in? What unifies people within the midwest? Clearly even within a small area we allow ourselves to be too divided to work together. Too often, minor disagreements between the three counties disguise the great benefit each area could derive from a successful Midwest.

Ideally the Midwest would be the middle component in the Atlantic corridor, linking the three cities of Cork, Limerick and Galway as natural counterbalance to the development of Dublin in the east of the country. Initiatives like the Wild Atlantic Way show that disparate areas can be drawn together under a coherent banner for the benefit of everyone involved. For various reasons, the Atlantic corridor has never really gained traction. This is obviously partially cultural, due to the perceived antipathy between the three cities, and indeed, the famously tribal nature of identities even within specific counties but a far greater issue has been the lack of leadership shown by successive Governments, local and national, in developing the basic infrastructure between the three cities. Until a motorway is fully developed between Galway and Cork (a distance of less than 200km) the corridor will always be a sound idea without any traction.  Rather than demanding action on this issue, the city authorities are expending their time, energy and money of frivolities like the proposed new bridge. I appreciate the money involved wouldn’t even be a drop in the ocean of the funding needed for the motorway but this energy should be better spent lobbying for the development of the Atlantic corridor.

A key component of any successful industrial region is the underlying infrastructure. The fact that something as basic as a motorway has been built yet indicates the dis-interest successive Governments have had in the development of a counterbalance to the east of the country. To some degree this is understandable, the thinking has been that it was vital to promote Dublin above all others just to allow Ireland compete at any level. It has been a successful strategy but it is time to re-open a coherent debate into how Ireland develops.

The Midwest/Shannon/Thomond region could also be a designation for tourism within the above mentioned counties but there doesn’t appear to be much to actually designate what is and what isn’t the Shannon region. There doesn’t seem to be a unified approach to how the region should be developed. Instead of working together, each individual component appears to promote its own area exclusively. In a region of less than 400,000 people is there really a need for such internal division?

If we could instead position Limerick as an important node on the Atlantic corridor we should be able to attract investment by being a suitable alternative to the Dublin region. In the aftermath of the Brexit campaign, it’s telling that the regions who voted most ardently to leave are those who have been forgotten by successive British governments. People are disenfranchised and are looking for a position that “feels” right to them. The past 50 years of European Unity has also seen a massive concentration of population in a few distinct nodes of population, capital or large cities, while the regions are left to wither. The North of the UK is desperately in need of the so-called Northern Powerhouse to rival London but successive governments have neglected the idea. Likewise, Ireland is crying out for a counterbalance to Dublin but no one can agree on how that should come about. Rather than fighting amongst ourselves, Limerick, Cork and Galway should throw all our energies into developing the Atlantic corridor. This development doesn’t have to strip development of bad planning and unending urban centres but rather we can examine the three cities and agree a plan on how all three can benefit from being part of a more cohesive whole.

Time and time again it has been shown that we benefit most from working together. All of Ireland’s regions need to be focused into more than just political entities and greater cohesion needs to be developed for the benefit of everyone in their respective regions. Successive governments have left us to fight amongst ourselves, and like the disenfranchised regions of the UK, we have suffered for our lack of investment. We badly need leadership at a local level to demand better for the our regions but instead they pour their energies and ambition into low value projects like the new bridge. The bridge might be a valuable project in its own right, but it’s not a priority and it’s disconcerting that those in power think it is. Give these three cities the coherent investment to be a counterbalance to the east coast and all of Ireland will benefit, that should be where our interest lies.

 

When you drive down the Condell road going towards town, with the river on your right and the various fields and parks on your left you presumably either speed or resent the seemingly low speed limit on one of the best stretches of road approaching Limerick city. Why is the speed limit so low on that stretch? It is possible the best way to see the road is that the road doesn’t actually run between the river and the parks, the road actually bisects a larger parkland. It is a large road that traverses a larger park. When you see the road as a park drive you can appreciate why the speed limit is so low.

There has been several improvements to Westfields over the last few years with new paths and cycle-lanes installed. It still doesn’t fully feel like a driver is driving through a park though. I am unclear as to how this could be rectified, or what way the park could be orientated to make it a park first and foremost and a roadway secondly, but it’s worth considering. Limerick city isn’t short of parks, but it is short of high quality ones. Westfields, the Ted Russell Park and Barrington’s Pier are not three separate areas but should be seen as constituent parts of the larger parkland.

The idea of roads cutting through parks also merits thinking about when we consider the People’s Park and the green space between Parnell Street and the Hyde road. It would be interesting to see a project where that green space was somehow integrated into the People’s Park. This would not necessarily mean removing the road but perhaps street level improvements to facilitate people moving between the two spaces, and cultivation of the green space into park space. At the very least, the green space could be made more user friendly by the installation of seating and pathways through it. It would be a better use of the space as well as improving significantly the impression that visitors to Limerick get when they leave Colbert station.

Westfields is only a short walk from O’Connell street but you’d never know about it regardless. We don’t encourage people in the city to experience the park a good number of the them drive through daily. Like so much infrastructure in Limerick, there rarely seems to be a coherent plan to integrate the various pieces together.

As pointed out, Limerick city isn’t particularly short of parks and green space, but the quality of these spaces should be continually upgraded for the benefit of the entire communities. For a long time, too long a time, parks in Limerick were verging on unpopular due to issues with keeping the spaces safe and the facilities maintained. The solution to those issues can never be less parks but suitable measures taken to ensure the parks can be enjoyed by everyone.

 

There has been much talk over the last two decades of Limerick turning to face the river and to incorporate the river into the life of the city. This has been promoted by the developments of Arthur’s Quay park, the Boardwalks, the slipways by the Hunt Museum, the Main Drainage project and by the annual Riverfest weekend at the start of May. Firstly it’s important to say each of these developments were well intentioned and that each has had varying degrees of success but before considering any of those it’s important to talk about Limerick’s actual relationship with the river Shannon.

The name Shannon comes from the Irish Sionna. It is possible the name is a corruption of the name Senuna, meaning “old honoured one”. According to Irish mythology, the river was named after a woman named Sionann, the granddaughter of Manannán mac Lír. She went to Connla’s Well in search of wisdom, despite being warned not to approach it. While there, the well rose up and flooded, drowning Sionann and carrying her out to sea.  It is interesting the earliest myths could be interpreted as a warning against the dangers of the Shannon flooding. It is believed that Sionann then became the goddess of the river.

A striking point about most discussions on how Limerick should “embrace” the Shannon is that the commentators generally act as though the river is just something pleasant to look at. It is possible that merely looking at a river misses the point slightly. Limerick should be trying to get as many activities as possible happening on the river. Limerick people should be encouraged to boat on the river, where it is safe they should be encouraged to swim in the river, to fish in the river. A river like the Shannon should be re-woven into the fabric of city life.

With that said, there are several, slightly hidden activities occurring on the river. Limerick has a very active rowing scene. It has an active fishing scene (some families such as the Clancys have been fishermen for about 1,000 years). It has the annual swim arranged by the Limerick Masters Swimming Club. It has an active amateur and tourist kayaking scene, with companies like Nevsail Sports taking tours out on the river. If you go out further, the reed beds of the Shannon estuary from Coonagh out are considered some of the finest in the British Isles, and are still harvested by the families of men who were harvesting reed when castles like King John’s and Bunratty were being built.

(Incidentally, the 2016 swim in the river takes place on the 2nd of July. See limerickmasters.com, the time will be confirmed closer to the date. It is an 1800 metre swim from St. Michaels Rowing club to Thomond bridge and back. See https://www.flickr.com/photos/23890215@N06/9345195729/in/photostream/ for excellent photos of the 2013 event)

What is interesting is that when improvements to the riverscape are discussed, the consultation on how to get people utilising the river better rarely seems to take much interest in the current users of the river. Indeed, actually getting people to engage with the river, as opposed to looking at it, seems to be a remote preference. Limerick people are not fully aware of the history of their river, or how best to enjoy it.

Limerick Civic Trust has done huge work in improving the river walk between the University of Limerick and the city centre. They have also been responsible for the clear-up around the Corbally baths, along with several volunteer groups such as Limerick Riverpath Volunteers. Each of these initiatives helps integrate the river into the life of the city. The interaction between the city and river is not about reaching an end-goal but rather about establishing an on-going process where the river and city intertwine.

Canal Bank photo copyright of Limerick Civic Trust highlighting their recent work on the UL to City Centre pathway. 

With that mind, and only incidentally referring to the proposed new bridge, it’s important to recognise the significant developments made in the last two decades. The main drainage, despite cost over-runs, has hugely improved the quality of water flowing through the city. This is perhaps best evidenced by the sight of wildlife returning to parts of river in the city, the fact that some swimmers are venturing back into the river, and the return of the annual swim. With the on-going success of the Great Limerick Run it would be great to see a Great Limerick Triathlon added to the city calendar. The flow of water through the city, and the difference between high and low tides would present significant challenges to any organisers but ones that could be overcome with proper scheduling.

After two decades of working to rehabilitate the water quality of the river, and after the developments of the boardwalks, it is time to expand on this good work. The new Mungret Park is going to be a huge addition to the city, perhaps the next big parkland project could be integrated riverside parks from Long Pavement, Corbally, the University of Limerick out towards to Westfields and onwards towards Coonagh. This would obviously be a multi-year, multi-phase plan but one that would be significant legacy for our generation to leave the following ones. These areas all exist as individual areas at present with varying degrees of access but is it unrealistic to imagine integrated pathways for runners and cyclists, safe areas for boating, swimming, fishing and other recreations? Obviously such works could only be undertaken if they could be achieved without damaging the wildlife of these areas. Cities like Hamilton in New Zealand show that river side parklands can be developed and integrated into a city over the course of several years.

One of the best ways to see the city is from water level to fully get a sense of how the city meets the river. For example, Athlunkard derives from “Áth Longphuirt”, meaning “ford of the longphort,” which itself refers to a 9th-century Viking longphort  or defended ship encampment which was  once located there as it was ford over the Shannon. The rowing club there is continuing a tradition set down a over millennium ago. We are walking ancient pathways across the city, and the river is the oldest of the paths we can take. We should be thinking about how we want the relationship between the city and the river to continue. If 20 million euro had to be spent on an amenity by the river, I’d suggest the beginnings of a proper river side park network that could protect and preserve the river and its surrounds for the future.

Kayaking by the Castle, image copyright of Nevsail Sports. 

 

The velocity of money is the rate at which it changes hands. Depending on where your job is located you (or your money) are likely to encounter different velocities. When we consider new jobs for Limerick city centre, it’s not just that the new jobs raise the economic living standards of the employees and their families. Each employee is now using the velocity of his or her money to alter the city they work in. For example, where I live I can walk to work in roughly 35 minutes, or walk 10 minutes to a bus stop and taking a 5 minute bus journey to a stop 3 minutes from my office, or I can usually grab a taxi which costs on average 7 euro and takes 10 minutes or less to get to my office. Every morning I have the option therefore of choosing where I will spend both my time and my money. If I didn’t have to go to work, I’d also stop employing taxi drivers or I might free up some space on a bus. Before I even make it to the office, therefore, I am making economic decisions that can benefit others.

If I choose to buy a coffee at 11 o clock, or a lunch at 1 or a tea at 3 I am directing my resources into my local community. My job does not exist in isolation. In a city of million people my economic decisions are relatively trivial, but in a city the size of Limerick, my economic decisions have much greater impact, simply as if I don’t spend my euro, there is a smaller pool of people who could choose to spend a euro. Therefore every euro spent in Limerick has a greater individual weight than it would if it was spent in a larger city.

It’s important to remember this when buying a coffee, do you want to support the local cafe or the chain? Or buying a book, do you support O’Mahony’s or Amazon. Your euro is more important in a city the size of Limerick than it is elsewhere. Likewise, every job in Limerick is more important than one in a larger city because of the myriad of economic activities it can support.

Limerick had a harsh lesson in this reality when the Dell plant reduced its number of employees in 2009 by 1,900 people. Every one of those employees also kept other businesses going simply by choosing where to spend their money. Some estimates suggested that fully 6% of people employed in the Limerick region were dependent on Dell for their employment, directly or indirectly. I would think that this study couldn’t possibly have taken into account the economic impact of the money that was no longer there to spend on dinners out, taxis, pints, match tickets or cups of coffee.

When we spend a euro we should think not just of what benefit we receive from the purchase we make, but also the indirect benefit the velocity of the money will have throughout the community. The recent jobs boost for the very centre of Limerick city should create several separate ripples. It should probably drive up accommodation rents in the immediate vicinity of the offices, if the rental stock is on sufficient quality. If the rental stock is deemed to be low you should probably expect to see traffic increase. It should give more trade to existing hospitality outlets and therefore make it more attractive for more outlets to open. It should also impact on available office space as there will be less suitable space available, either forcing businesses into spaces they don’t find ideal or creating a demand for the development of new offices. The negative costs (higher rents, more traffic, more congestion in your favourite lunch time spot) should be offset by the positive ones (more active city centre, more options, more jobs).

There will be unpredictable benefits and intangible benefits to follow too. It’s an exciting time for Limerick.