Connect with us
Limerick Street Art Limerick Street Art

art

Limerick Street Art is the best in Ireland 

Published

on

Limerick Street Art – Limerick city, which is home to many amazing examples of street art. Picture: https://twitter.com/Ciaraioch

Limerick Street Art is the best in Ireland 

By I Love Limerick Correspondents & Jade Crowe & Ann Mc Donald 

When thinking of street art, graffiti is usually the first thing to spring to mind. However, this is not the case in Limerick city, which is home to many amazing examples of street art. Street artists from all over come to the city to leave their mark, leaving the walls of the city covered in mesmerising artwork.


advertisement




advertisement




advertisement




advertisement




advertisement



When we think of street art, our minds oftentimes wander to certain connotations of graffiti or vandalism, this, however, is not the case in the masterpieces seen around Limerick. Although we may admire the hard work of these artists, who is behind these astonishing pieces and what do they represent? It turns out that Limerick makes a great canvas for the creative mind of street artists.  

Dodo Reddan

Facilitated by Draw Out, a mural of Nora Quirke, who was more commonly known as ‘Dodo Reddan’ (1922 – 1995) is the latest artwork to join the walls of Limerick.

This fantastic piece was created by Ominous_omin and is located on the top of William Street. It depicts Dodo and her well-known pram full of dogs. After her death, it was found that she had been running what was essentially a one-woman Animal Rescue Centre, with her own limited resources and no financial support.

Eye Scream

While it has since been replaced, Glasgow based artist Smug was commissioned by the Limerick City Council as part of the Make A Move festival. Facilitated by Draw Out, he created the ‘Eye Scream’ mural on Castle Street in 2014 and proved to be an extremely memorable piece.

Dolores O’Riordan

In 2019, ACHES, a Dublin based artist who specializes in what he calls ‘glitch graffiti’, replaced ‘Eye Scream’ with a beautiful tribute to Dolores O’Riordan. The mural was coincidentally unveiled the same day that The Cranberries were nominated for a Grammy award for their final album.

Limerick City and County council provided the funding of this mural to Draw Out as part of a series of murals of influential women.

Here, Dublin street artist ‘Aches’ wonderfully reimagines legendary singer Dolores O’ Riordan in a beautiful melody of colour in his tribute mural of the Cranberries frontwoman, a true treasure in the hearts of Limerick locals. The mural was also developed during ‘Draw Out’ and is located on Castle Street.   

Love Me So

This haunting, yet captivating piece, created by artist Dermot McConaghy, an Irish artist who much prefers taking his creativity to the streets rather than an art gallery. McConaghy, who signs his pieces as DMC is known for his various murals throughout Dublin and Belfast.   

The double-wall piece, ‘Love Me So,’  was completed in just four days. His piece represents how adults are formed by their relationships with family as children, and how future relationships are impacted by the way we understand relationships as children. 

Created in 2013 as part of the Make a Move festival, this artwork can be found at the junction of Anne Street and Thomas street in the Biodiversity Garden.

 We Are All In This Together

Jonathan Noonan created the mural below, located on Island Road, in collaboration with Limerick Mental Health Association (LMHA) to mark Limerick Mental Health Week 2020.

Jonathan created this piece to highlight the difficulties we have gone through during the COVID-19 pandemic. He is a painting graduate of Limerick School of Art and Design, who has been creating street art for almost 10 years.

Strength in Fragility

Belfast based artist Emic also collaborated with LMHA to create his piece, ‘Strength in Fragility,’ located on Nicholas Street. Emic has been contributing to the Street Art scene in Ireland for almost 10 years and hopes his piece provides a calming effect for those who need it.

 

St John’s Brass and Reed Band

Artists Decoy and Withoutmatter created a commemorative mural depicting St John’s Brass and Reed band members. It is located at 2 Garryowen Road, the home of St John’s Brass and Reed band.

The mural shows Kevin Greaney, who has sadly passed away, and Jim McCormack, who is recovering from a serious illness, who were both committed members of the band.

Limerick Street Art

The Fisherman

Australian artist Fintan Magee’s ‘The Fisherman’ is located on Roches Street. The piece was created in 2014 for the Limerick ‘Draw Out’ festival. The ‘Draw Out’ Festival was an attempt to liven up the streets and alleys of the city. Magee is known for his street artwork worldwide, including his pieces in the US, the UK, Germany, and Russia.  Fintan allows people to interpret his work in their own way by not using lettering and uses his work as a way to get a rough narrative across to people.

 

The Otter

This charming otter themed street art located under the Shannon bridge brings a touch of nature and innocence to the street art of Limerick. The piece which was created by Mary Conroy was unveiled in 2018. Speaking of her nature fueled theme, Mary commented, “The idea behind that was to get people aware of the wildlife in the city, and the nature in the city, and get people to become aware again about the space, and animals they share the city with, so we can see Limerick as a green city, and an urban-wildlife friendly city.” 

 

For more information on street art in Limerick go HERE 

For more stories on art in Limerick go HERE

Richard is a presenter, producer, songwriter and actor. He was named the Limerick Person of the Year (2011) and won an online award at the Metro Éireann Media and Multicultural Awards (2011) for promoting multi-culturalism online. Richard says that the ilovelimerick.com concept is very much a community driven project that aims to document life in Limerick. So, that in 20 years time people can look back and remember the events that were making the headlines.