Free print copies of our Decade publication for 2024, Limerick After the Civil War, are now available.
To get your copy:
localstudies@limerick.ie 
061-557727
You can also download the book here
Produced with funding from the Commemorations Unit of Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the book is authored by Dr Seán William Gannon (Limerick Local Studies) and Dr Brian Hughes (Department of History, Mary Immaculate College).
Limerick After the Civil War, 1923–1930: A Documentary History presents a series of previously unpublished documentary sources selected from a variety of national and local archives such as the National Archives of Ireland, the GAA Museum in Croke Park, Limerick Archives, Limerick Diocesan Archives, UL Special Collections and Archives, and Mary Immaculate College Library.
These documents, which include letters, annual reports, minute books, and press cuttings, are contextualised with short introductory essays to provide windows into aspects of political, religious, socioeconomic, sporting, cultural, and educational life in Limerick city and county in the early years of the Irish Free State.
This book is divided into five thematic sections, each of which uses documents and/or photographic images to consider three relevant subjects.
The first section, ‘Politics’, examines the 1927 general elections in the Limerick constituency, a financial crisis at Limerick County Council, and the anti-Treatyite milieu of Limerick republican Madge Daly.
‘Religion’ is the theme of the second section; it looks at the Arch-Confraternity of the Holy Family, the LPYMA, and the censorship campaign of the Limerick Jesuit, Fr Richard Devane.
The third section, ‘Work and Business’ covers the decline of the bacon and milling trade in Limerick city, political interference in the work of the Land Commission, and the situation of German workers on the Shannon Scheme.
The fourth, ‘Sport and Recreation’ presents images and documents dealing with rugby and rowing in Limerick city, the GAA, and the Dromcollogher Cinema Fire Disaster.
Finally, ‘Culture and Education’ examines the genesis of Kate O’Brien’s career as a writer, the Irish Free State’s promotion of the Irish language, and the Mary Immaculate College Modest Dress and Deportment Crusade.
The book does not provide a comprehensive history of Limerick in the 1920s. However, the snapshots of that history that the authors’ selection of documents and accompanying essays comprise do tell us much about contemporary life in the city and county. The picture that emerges, in their words, charts some of ‘the challenges, the successes, and the failures faced by individuals, businesses, and organisations, and much in between.’
