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Richard Lynch Honoured with Mayoral Reception at City Hall

Richard Lynch Honoured with Mayoral Reception at City Hall – Richard Lynch pictured with friends and family in City Hall. Picture: Cian Reinhardt/ilovelimerick

Richard Lynch Honoured with Mayoral Reception at City Hall

By I Love Limerick Correspondent Jordan Mac Cormaic

I Love Limerick founder Richard Lynch was honoured with a Mayoral Reception on Thursday, June 8th as recognition for all of the great work he has done for Limerick and her people.


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Mayor of the City and County of Limerick Kieran O’Hanlon honoured Richard with a Mayoral Reception at City Hall with friends and family present. In attendance, Limerick Person of the Year Luke Culhane, style queen Celia Holman Lee, fitness guru Leanne Moore, Senator Maria Byrne, singer Emma Langford, actor Myles Breen, blogger Sharon Tucker, community activist Helen O’Donnell and representatives from various charities and communities.

Richard Lynch Honoured

Richard pictured here with Limerick Person of the Year Luke Culhane who made the Cyberbullying video ‘Create No Hate’ which went viral worldwide. Picture: Dermot Culhane.

In 2008 Richard started I Love Limerick as a community website dedicated to reporting and promoting positive news about Limerick people, businesses, charities and events.

In was set up in an effort counteract the negative press Limerick was getting in the national media at the time. 

In 2011, Richard won the prestigious Limerick Person of the Year award for his voluntary work in the community and charity sectors of Limerick. In that same year, Richard also won an online award at the Metro Eireann Media and Multicultural Awards for promoting multi-culturalism online.

Speaking at the event Richard Lynch said: “For me, Limerick is really about the people who make up this great city and county. I am Limerick, you are Limerick, we are Limerick. I Love Limerick was set up to help people, to give people a platform that normally wouldn’t have one.”

Richard is also a leading member of Limerick’s LGBT community and has been involved every year in the Limerick Pride Festival since 2008. In 2008, he produced Limerick Pride and made the event a week long festival. 

“I organised Limerick Pride in 2008, and I wanted it to be integrative and inclusive so I called it I Love Limerick. The theme of that years Pride as all of Limerick loving one another and loving our city. When you logged onto ilovelimerick.com it actually took you to LimerickPride.ie, ” he said. “That was the birth of I Love Limerick.”

Richard Lynch Honoured

Mayor of the City and County of Limerick Kieran OHanlon pictured with Richard Lynch wearing the Mayoral chains. Picture: Cian Reinhardt/ilovelimerick

Mayor of the City and County of Limerick Kieran O’Hanlon said: “When I first spoke to Richard, I knew what he was doing for Limerick and what me happy so is that Richard does a lot of work for a lot of communities in Limerick and he only puts out positive news because he love’s Limerick and we all love Limerick.”

Richard added, “I intend to keep working hard. The emotional payback from the work is immeasurable. I don’t care about money. I know I need it to survive so I am doing my best to make a living and also continue volunteering with I Love Limerick. Fortunately, loyal fantastic talent surrounds me since the beginning such as Dolf Patijn, Orla Clancy and Jonathan Baynes. My right arm for the last 4 years has been my videographer, Aisling O’Connor. I am so grateful to everyone who works with us, as you are only as good as the people you work with.

I do love Limerick. It’s been so good to me and the people inspire me every day. All the hard work has been worth it and I would do it all over again. Limerick is really about the people who make up this great city and county. I am Limerick, You are Limerick, We are Limerick. Thank you Limerick, I Love you.”

From all of us here at I Love Limerick, Congratulations Richard, you absolutely deserve this award and we couldn’t be happier for you.

To view Richard Lynch’s official website click here

To read more stories about Richard Lynch click here

To view the full video of Richard Lynch’s Mayoral Reception click 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.