The site of The Burning (as the disaster is generally referred to locally) remained boarded up and derelict for more than twenty years. Then a local committee was formed which, after raising funds, purchased the site. In July 1950 the committee offered the site to Limerick County Council for the building of a library, which would be a memorial to those who died. The Council gratefully accepted the offer and so began the process of arranging the building of the Memorial Library.
An innovative design, involving a circular structure with a flat roof and tall, narrow windows, appropriate to the relatively small site, was drawn up by the Limerick architect Patrick J. Sheehan. After a few modifications, it was erected at a cost of about £2,000 and opened in May 1953. A cross was placed on the rear boundary wall, close to the spot where the bodies of most of the victims were found*.
Limerick Local Studies here presents materials from the ‘Dromcollogher Library’ file, which provide a series of snapshots of the process, from the committee’s offer of the site to the County Council in 1950, through to the library’s official opening in May 1953.
