The 2025 Docklands Festival will celebrate 30 years of Dolan’s throughout August

The 2025 Docklands festival will celebrate 30 years of Dolan’s throughout August. Picture: Olena Oleksienko/ilovelimerick

The beating heart of live music in Limerick, Dolan’s is celebrating more than 30 years of unforgettable music, capped off with eight acts playing across nine dates this August for the 2025 Docklands Festival

Music lovers and creators will rejoice as Dolan’s Pub celebrates more than 30 years of unforgettable music, which saw some of the biggest acts in the country cross its stage since opening its doors on Limerick’s Dock Road in 1994.

This year, The Dolan’s family and team have brought the Docklands Festival to new heights as they prepare to get a series of gigs in the big top at Limerick’s Docklands underway, beginning with Moncrieff this Saturday, August 9, followed by a series of top acts playing each weekend this month.

Since its humble beginnings, Dolan’s has grown from a small local pub into the award-winning live music venue we know today, hosting some of the biggest names in music and giving local talent a platform to propel their careers, making it a venue all Limerick people can be proud of.

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Founders Mick and Valerie Dolan marked the 30-year milestone earlier this year with a birthday bash in January, where they thanked the people of Limerick for their incredible support over the past three decades. Speaking with I Love Limerick, Mick Dolan said, “We wouldn’t be here except to support the people of Limerick.

“We started off with a small pub on the Dock Road in 94, and we’ve come a long way since then. Valerie and the two kids are great, Neil and Sarah, it’s a whole team effort for all the people. We’re still in contact with people who worked here from when we first opened, and it’s great.”

Looking back at the highlights of a 30-year-and-counting venture, Mick said a memory which stood out was the opening of the iconic Dolan’s Warehouse, he shared, “The achievement I think I’ll never forget today; we opened the warehouse which was in 1998 and it was like you could walk on the atmosphere right across from all the people that were in the room. It was just a special, special moment.

“I will never forget, and it was Seamus Begley who has left us now, to the launch with Sharon Shannon and with Sharon Shannon still playing here. So it’s great, still good friends.”

Valerie noted how Dolans is a true family-run business, she said, “Carmel, Noel, my mother and father were here with us, my sister, Karen, my brother-in-law. The whole lot of them. Jenny is still with us, it’s very much part of our lives, and we’ve had great craic here, we’ve had a great time here. It has never been boring, I can tell you that, it has never been boring”

The musical memories created over the past three decades will stick with the family forever with Valerie and Mick noting some of the standout acts including Bob Geldof and Macy Gray, with Valerie saying, “I cried when I saw her”. Although many major acts have graced the stage, Dolan’s has also acted as a launchpad for emerging artists, with the likes of local performers such as Emma Langford and Hermitage Green all reaching the milestone of a gig on the hallowed stage.

This summer, the venue’s Docklands Festival returns and is bigger than ever with acts running throughout August with headline performances from Moncrieff, Saturday, August 9, Picture This returning to Limerick for the first time in almost a decade to perform two shows on August 13 & 14, The Saw Doctors on August 15, a sold out gig with Dec Pierce Block Rockin Beats on August 16, and The Waterboys on August 17.

That’s not all as the following weekend the much-loved Kingfishr return to Limerick on Friday, August 22, followed by Qween on August 23, and a performance by Kaiser Chiefs wrapping up the celebrations on Sunday, August 24.