48 hours of Limerick

See Limerick as never seen before, through the lense of two visitors to the city. The video, which condenses 48 hours of Limerick, includes a number of unusual facts about the Treaty City.

• The Munster team is the first and only Irish rugby team to ever beat the mighty All Blacks, at Limerick’s renowned Thomond Park over 17 years ago.

• Movie legend Richard Harris, star of over 70 movies including blockbusters: Camelot, Julius Ceasar; Gladiator, The Field and Harry Potter’s Albus Dumbledore, was born and bred in Limerick.

• Voted the best chipper in the world, Limerick’s Donkey Ford’s was named at the best chipper to visit before you die in the world.

• The Guinness Book of Record’s biggest Pom Pom ever made was created from 170 balls of wool by Salesian Primary Schooly in Fernbank, reaching an incredible 1.21 metres in height and 3.25 metres in length.

• The oldest Cathedral, still in use today, is St Mary’s Cathedral, which dates back to the 12 Century.

• Ballyhoura is home to the European Mountain Biking Championships and has 98 k of quality biking trails.

• The Rubber Bandits helped bring the lovely Limerick lilt to the far reaches of the world with 14m views for their iconic Horse Outside video on YouTube, which brought them to far-reaching parts of the world like Moscow, Toronto and Australia.

• A former crossing for goats on the River Shannon in the heart of Limerick city, in Curragower, is now used by extreme sports enthusiasts to surf the falls.

• William Wordsworth remarked about the Limerick weather when he visited here in 1829, saying: “it is raining hard now, and has done so all day.”

• A Limerick woman, Lady Heath, was the first woman to parachute from a plane and also the first person to fly from Cape Town to London.

• Limerick’s traditional meal, dating back 100 years, included mixed offal, roast sheep breast and eye bones, tripe-blood and stomach lining, boiled in milk and onions.

• Charles Dickins, on visiting Limerick in 1858, said: “This is the oddest place – of which nobody in any other part of Ireland seems to know anything.”

Our city, which offers a wide range of culture, has launched its public campaign to become European Capital of Culture 2020.

Visit the European Capital of Culture website here

Check out the European Capital of Culture Facebook page here and Twitter here