|
Dining in Europe > Limerick Drinking During the course of your visit to the city, at least one barman will tell you that the best Guinness in Ireland is served in Limerick; you may wish to put this claim to the test! Limerick has its fair share of brash, themed pubs offering headsplitting music and overpriced beer, but the city does - thankfully - have more than a few notable taverns. The Curragower Bar, a hundred metres from the Treaty Stone on Clancys Quay, serves an excellent seafood chowder and good Guinness. Lager-lovers might want to try Warsteiner, a German brew on tap in the Curragower. Continental lagers, still something of a rarity in Ireland, have more bite and taste than the weakish Irish versions. In clement weather you can eat and drink in the beer garden, taking in the view across the Shannon to the swans dawdling on the water below King Johns Castle. Another pub to visit in good weather is the Castle Lane Tavern. You can sup on the lawn outside and savour the view downriver. Then, when it starts raining, retreat to the open fire within. The Castle Lane serves delicious soups and claims to offer the best carvery lunch in Limerick. With its low ceilings, sawdust-strewn floor, and roaring turf Nelly Blakes in Denmark Street is a well-preserved traditional pub; its a good spot for a quiet afternoon pint, but fills up pretty quickly in the evenings. James Gleesons, at the corner of O'Connell and Glentworth Streets, is a marvellously unreconstructed Victorian pub with a limited bar menu but great atmosphere. Meanwhile, you're guaranteed a traditional music session any night of the week at Dolans on the Dock Road. Souths, the pub Frank McCourts father Malachy graced with his custom in Angelas Ashes, is on O'Connell Avenue. Were he to return, of course, the old soak wouldn't recognise his former local - its now 'one of them yuppie places', as a Limerick burgher put it. Dining Two Limerick restaurants receive special praise from no less an authority than Irelands Finest Places to Eat, Drink and Stay. Brulees, at 21 Henry Street, specialises in fresh fish, and offers an international menu with an Irish twist. Upon your arrival you'll be offered spicy olives and black bread to nibble on while you wait. A popular dish is fillet of John Dory, served on a bed of tomato and goats cheese, with mashed potatoes, caramelised onions and a creamy fennel sauce. DuCartes, at the back of the Hunt Museum, is a popular lunch-time haunt, and serves 'healthy home-cooked food in the modern idiom'. The cooks source all ingredients for their dishes locally. In good weather you can eat outside on the terraces overlooking the Shannon. Pauls, at 59 O'Connell Street, is a bright, spacious place inside a beautiful old building. The starters are huge and cheap; the entrees are mostly pasta-based mediterranean dishes. The Mogul Emperor, at the corner of Sarsfield and Liddy Streets, serves Indian regional specialities in goodly portions, toothsome naan breads, and an excellent house red. Don't be put off by the dowdy facade of the building. The Limerick Food Centre (061 302033) will clue you in on the annual Limerick Good Food Festival, held annually in June. Mortells, a cheery fresh food shop at 49 Roches Street, is a good place to load up on picnic fare. Entertainment in LimerickThe Saturday Limerick Post contains a comprehensive guide to forthcoming gigs, concerts, films and exhibitions and sporting events. The Dublin-based music magazine Hot Press has a national listings section. Its also worth checking through the mounds of leaflets and flyers at the Tourist Office, and consulting the noticeboard in the subterranean cafe at the Belltable Arts Centre at 69 O'Connell Street. The Belltable houses a theatre and gallery, and hosts performances by touring theatre companies, traditional music sessions and dance shows. The Hunt Museum The newly-refurbished Custom House on Rutland Street houses the Hunt Collection, a museum with an international reputation, and undoubtedly Limericks leading attraction. During the 1930s and 1940s, connoisseurs John Hunt, the son of Irish immigrants to England, and his German wife Gertrude assembled a vast collection of decorative objects and works of art, the earliest of which dates back to the Neolithic period. The Hunts' purpose - realised in the exhibition in the Custom House - was to display the objects together in order to illustrate the progression of craftsmanship through the ages. John and Gertrude were leading experts in the art of the middle ages, and the medieval objects - which include an exquisite bronze model of a charging horse attributed to Leonardo da Vinci - form the strongest area of the collection. The Bronze Age jewellery, and the eighth-century Antrim Cross reflect John Hunts concern to show that Irish decorative art was comparable in its standards and tradition to that of other European nations. The Limerick Mace and Crozier, two rare and intricate examples of medieval silverwork, are on temporary display in the Hunt Museum. They were commissioned by Cornelius O'Dea, the bishop of Limerick, sometime in the early 1400s. An inscription dates their completion to 1418 and bears the name of their maker, one Thomas O'Carryd. John Hunt described the pieces as a 'the most important objects to Irish metalwork which have come down to us from the middle ages'. O'Carryd lavished great attention on the detail of Bishop O'Deas crozier, decorating it with two superimposed rows of gold figurines. Those in the lower row, which include Saint Patrick and Saint Munchin (the patron of the diocese of Limerick) nestle inside niches with pinnacled canopies. The crozier is surmounted by a charming representation of the Annunciation. The collection includes two early works by Picasso: Plat del Dia (1898) is a comical wax and crayon sketch of a tipsy-looking waiter from the artists favourite hang-out, Els Quatre Gats (The Four Cats), in Barcelona. Picasso - so the story goes - sold the sketch to settle his tab at the cafe. After acquiring it John Hunt hung it beside the range in his kitchen in Lough Gur. As you inspect the drawing, bear in mind that Picasso was only seventeen when he drew it. Buste de Femme (1905), an early example of Picassos lifelong fascination with the female form, sits inside a drawer in an adjoining room. Visitors would need a day to do justice to the collection. Docents (guides) can take you on a general tour of the Hunt Collection, or concentrate on objects from the particular period of history which interest you. Otherwise you can amble around at your own pace, inspecting the contents of the drawers as you go. Jack Yeats and Sean Keating, two of the most influential Irish painters of the twentieth century, are well-represented in the Limerick City Gallery of Art on Pery Square. You'll find plenty of avant-garde stuff here, and the new spaces in the gallery are striking in their design. Classical Music in Ireland During your wanderings you may want to tune your personal stereo to Lyric FM (96-99 FM), the new national classical music and arts station which broadcasts from the new red-brick building on Cornmarket Square. Lyrics popularity reflects a growing interest in classical music in Ireland, itself an indication of increasing national sophistication. The University Concert Hall hosts classical music concerts (and just about everything else, from Abba tributes to magic shows). You'll get a list of coming performances at the Tourist Office. Limerick University is also home to the Irish World Music Centre. The IWMC hosts summer schools which give young musicians access to the expertise of Irelands leading traditional musicians. The Theatre Royal on Upper Cecil Street hosts regular raves, jazz performances, and comedy shows. Sport Rugger buffs will be interested to know that their sport is extremely popular in Limerick. It seems that a British garrison introduced the sport to the region. It certainly caught on: today Limerick, a smallish city, supports no less than nine clubs. Check the press for details of fixtures at Thomond Park, the ground to which 'the soul of rugby union has been quietly transferred', to quote the Mail on Sunday. Dining in Europe > Limerick
|