Category: Limerick - Reading the Signs

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Baby, Catríona Kiely, d. 2008.03.08

3/7/2022

Sometimes entering or walking through a cemetery, I will notice a headstone from a distance and be immediately drawn to it.

In Abington Cemetery, near Murroe in County Limerick, at six o’clocklast Wednesday morning, the beautifully carved memorial to Catríona Kiely was the magnet that immediately drew me.

If a headstone is erected to ensure that the name of the deceased is spoken and remembered, this unique piece of craftsmanship worked.

“When there was a death in a small village, everyone knew about it. But with mass migration to the city, the old assumptions didn’t hold true. In a city, there were deaths every day. Here, a person could live unknown and die unnoticed, even by neighbours in the same district. In response to this bewildering new reality the memorial became more important and, for those who could afford it, more elaborate. It announced and recorded the loss; it was a way of keeping the memory alive, of fixing it in a place which would otherwise all too quickly forget. It was a statement of belonging, and an affirmation of individual significance. The city was always restless, shifting, reinventing itself, and a stone represented stillness and permanence. To publish a person’s name and dates there was a bid for posterity. The life might be extinguished, but the firmness of stone, and the work of the mason’s chisel, would testify forever that they had lived.”

These Silent Mansions: A Life In Graveyards
Jean Sprackland, 2020

Here Lies All That Could Die

29/6/2022

I cannot recall ever seeing a message like this carved on a headstone. It definitely resonated with this reader.

‘There are three deaths. The first is when the body ceases to function. The second is when the body is consigned to the grave. The third is that moment, some time in the future, when your name is spoken for the last time’
Metamorphosis

David Eagleman from Sum: Forty tales from the afterlife

‘As if my mother
stepped from the shuffling throng
On South Main Street
and stood before me:
“Dead? Who told you I was dead?’

Nothing Is Lost
Gerry Murphy
My Life as a Stalinist

A tweet from Louvain Rees first introduced me to David Eagleman and his story, Metamorphosis. The book was quickly published and regularly takes residence in my inside jacket pocket.

A few months back, I used that quote in the Memoriam message for my mother in the Irish Examiner. Proof, if needed, that the concept has well taken root in these quarters. Gerry Murphy’s poem conveys a similar message, only different. The two were calling out to be put together.

The recent Three Castles Burning podcast on the Stolpersteine installed at Danore Avenue in Dublin notes the message in The Talmud that a person is only forgotten when their name is forgotten

This morning, at early o’clock, in Abington Cemetery, near Murroe, I read that Winifred Frances Barrington experienced the first of the three deaths in May 1921.

Written in Stone

13/11/2021

A while back, I mentioned the carved correction on the headstone in Crosshaven.

I have spotted some more corrections – so have put them together.

100 Not Out

12/11/2021

Thomas Franklin - d. 16 June 1766 - Aged 104 Yrs

Kilmurry, Limerick

Even with people living longer in current times, it is not very common to read of people reaching 100 years of age.

In the last year or so, I have encountered the graves of a few centurions. Reaching 100 years is remarkable in itself but to do so in 1868, 1853 or even 1762 would, I expect, have been not very common at all.

Dun Bolg, Carrignavar, Co. Cork

Sacred

To The Memory Of

ELIZABETH DONOVAN

Who Died 1 May 1854

Aged 101 Years

Kate Mulcahy - d. 1878 - Aged 110 yrs

Kilgobbin, Camp, Co. Kerry

Statue Protection – Irish-Style

13/6/2020

During the past day, I have seen images of the statue of Winston Churchill in London’s Parliament Square boarded up to protect it ahead of a planned protest.

It reminded me of a different statue in Co. Limerick.

A few weeks back, I spotted similar protection was offered to the statue of the Sacred Heart at Croom Hospital to avoid damage….

….. from building activities.

Numbers - Queens is the Clear Winner

2/4/2020

For some time, I have been photographing specially made house numbers. They are generally of tiles or moulded plaster. Some tile-types have been used at a number of developments but many of these developments have a numbering system that is bespoke and unique to them – a record of a time when it was nice to be different.

A while back, I spotted some buildings on College, generally owned by U.C.C. where the numbers were stuck to the glass fanlight which I had not previously spotted on my search.

But U.C.C.’s numbers paled into into total insignificance when I spotted the fanlights at University Square in Belfast – the gold standard in unique door numbers has been set.

Killed – Not Guilty

16/1/2020

Following on yesterday blog about Breda O’Connell who died when struck by a car and whose headstone includes the words ‘Killed In Athlunkard St.’, I spent some time searching.

The internet revealed that Patrick Manifold of Anne Street, Limerick was in a motor accident on the way to Shannon Airport on 2nd June, just eight weeks earlier, but this was not mentioned in reports on the inquest. The Cork Examiner of 6 August reported on the case at Ennis District Court where Patrick Manifold of the same address was on trial for dangerous driving, where he was fined £3.

Killed By Motor Car

15/1/2020

‘Kill’ is not a word that I have often seen on a headstone. A word like that does prompt the inquisitiveness in me.

This headstone at Kilmurry, Limerick did intrigue. The internet, and Limerick City Library, provided some information that Breda O’Connell died after being struck by a motor car driven by Patrick William Manifold on Athlunkard Street, Limerick. The inquest believed that Mr Manifold was unfit to drive. Mr Manifold was returned for trial but my web searching will need to improve to try and find the outcome of that hearing.

What Is It About Limerick Lawns?

25/3/2019

Ghostsign: Limerick - Was: ??? Many Lawn?? Now: O & F Café
Limerick Lane (off Little Catherine Street)
Photos Taken: 23/3/19
Google Streetview HERE

Saturday was spent in Limerick where I spotted a few ghostsigns that will help my self-challenge of one ghostsign per day on twitter.

I spotted this on a gable on Limerick Lane, off Little Catherine Street and have been unable to read what it was. I have included all my photos below so would be delighted to hear of suggestions.

My guesses include:
Last Line: ???AGOOS?
Second Last Line: ??ANY LAWN

The rest remain a mystery

Listing of Ghostsigns uploaded to site to date HERE

Map of Ghostsigns viewable HERE

Details of other collections of items in the public space HERE

A Ghost Pig

5/11/2018

I cannot remember seeing a ghost pig previously.

There is a first time for everything.

Here’s Looking at You Kid

3/2/2017

Two weeks ago I spotted this in Limerick, near King John’s Castle.

The art installation did bring a smile to this observer.

On Twitter yesterday, I learned that I had only had a preview.

The final version combined art with some guerrilla gardening. It now appears complete.

Cue, bigger smile hereabouts.

Photograph from LimerickWalkingTours on Twitter

Is that not beautiful?

31/1/2017

From Wabash to Limerick

23/1/2017

For a while, I have been keeping an eye out for manhole covers. Well, not just manhole covers but covers to any chambers in the ground.

I have spotted a few gems included the mouse and the Marian Year.

Yesterday morning’s stroll around Limerick brought this one to my attention.

J Fryer, Cork

The older ones that I have seen generally have the names of local ironmongers, forges or plumbers. I consider it a success when I spot the name of an old foundry.

After walking away from the quayside by Barrington’s Hospital, I wondered why it was deemed necessary or economically beneficial to source a cover for a roadway in Limerick from Wabash, Indiana.

The internet advises that the Ford Meter Box Company was founded in 1898 and is still trading, so maybe the cover is new and not many years old as I thought yesterday morning. Modern transportation might go some way to explaining the economic viability.

Irishtown and Englishtown

22/1/2017

Some time ago, I learned of the origins of the placename and expression “Irishtown” from author/playwright, Cónal Creedon.

Cónal published his Second City Trilogy under the name Irishtown Press which demanded of me to ask the question. When I did ask, I learned.

Cork was originally a walled city based around North and South Main Streets. There were gates at either end with bridges over the river – North Gate Bridge (Griffith Bridge) and South Gate Bridge.

The native Irish were not permitted or able to reside within the walled city and so created a community outside – not too far away, but outside.

In Cork, the native Irish created an enclave close to Shandon. This place became known as Irishtown, the town of the Irish.

I knew of an Irishtown in Dublin, close to Ringsend. Logainm advises that there are 20 such places in the country.

This morning, I had a very pleasant couple of hours around Limerick. As well as seeing the location of the old wall of Irishtown, I discovered that there was also an Englishtown. Upto then, I had assumed that the walled town or city was called Dublin, Cork, Limerick or wherever and the outside area called Irishtown.

“Later, however, as the Anglo-Saxon influence began to make itself felt, the Normans themselves came under pressure and laws were enacted to inhibit their assimilation into the Gaelic way of life. The city was closed to the Irish and they were compelled to live outside the walls, on the site of the present Shandon and Blarney Streets in the north and French’s Quay and Barrack Street in the south. Even to this day some of the older residents refer to Blarney Street as ‘Irishtown’ “

The Story of Cork – Sean Beecher (1971)

Logainm lists 7 Englishtowns in the island of Ireland – but its location for the Limerick one differs from the location of this sign.

Limerick’s Life does provide some interesting history on the bridge between Irishtown and Englishtown.

I repeat, it is a bad day when one does not learn something new.

A Limerick Head

21/1/2017

I think it is great when I spot something unusual on a building – something that the many who pass by regularly do not appear to notice.