Overview
Limerick Museum was founded in 1907, opened to the public in 1916 and has moved as its collection and the city changed. It left Pery Square in 1975, reopened in John Square in 1979, moved to Castle Lane in 1999 and reached the old Franciscan Friary on Henry Street in 2017. Its roughly 62,000 objects range from Limerick lace and silver to archaeology, weapons, clothing and the Adare meteorite. The council museum became a named holder of archaeological material under the 1997 law.
What this place is
Limerick Museum is the city and county's public store of local objects, founded in 1907 and open since 1916. Its roughly 62,000 items range across archaeology, government, trade, dress, craft and natural history. The displays use objects made, used or found in Limerick to explain the people of the city and county.
People and events
The city founded the museum in 1907 and opened it in 1916. Curators Larry Walsh, Brian Hodkinson and Matthew Potter oversaw later stages of its growth and moves. Its first special exhibition, in 1940, marked the centenary of Limerick novelist Gerald Griffin's death; later displays treated civic government, local photography, Limerick lace and the city's social history.
How it was used
Initially accommodated in the Carnegie Free Library and Museum building, it has moved several times over the years, finally settling in the old Franciscans Friary on Henry Street in 2017.
What survives
A collection of sixty-two thousand objects including the largest meteorite ever to fall on Britain or Ireland, a rare intact Codd-neck bottle, Limerick lace, 18th and 19th Century Limerick Silver, and various historical artifacts.
Why it mattered
The museum keeps objects that allow Limerick's story to be told from local evidence rather than general national history. The city charters, civic sword, lace, silver, archaeological finds, clothing and trade objects connect political events with work and daily life. Its online catalogue, begun in 2004, also opened much of that local collection to people outside the building.
History checked 16 August 2026 against the named sources below.
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