Photonique

I USED A SONY VG10E CAMCORDER AND A NEX-7

• The City Of Limerick 2014 - 2026
• June 2015 Visit To Limerick
• June 2016 Visit To Limerick
• Bridges Of Limerick
• Public Art In Limerick
• Religion Limerick Style
• Exploring Thomas Hill And Carrigeen Park
• Actual Physical Walls Of Waterford
• The Highly Recommended Medieval Museum
• David Maker And The Museum Of Time
• Ireland's National Horological Museum
• Is This Public Art Or A Rusty Metal Yoke
• Huge Canvas For Some Amazing Murals
• Two Spacer Murals By Shane Sutton
• The Quays by Dan Kitchener
• Dan Kitchener Overpainted His 2015 Mural
• The Unsigned Mural
• The Keepers Mural Is Overpainted
• Finders Keepers Mural From 2017 To 2026

Rugby Is A Religion In Limerick

Behind the weathered sill of an unpainted window frame in June 2014, a carved Māori figure stared out at the street with tongue firmly protruded. In a city where Munster rugby and the mythos of the All Blacks at Thomond Park rival traditional scripture, it initially looked like a bespoke domestic shrine to the haka.

The accompanying note, however, revealed classic local deadpan humour: “They have gone back to New Zealand and left me all alone in this derelict building in Limerick.” An abandoned cultural icon turned accidental permanent resident, holding down the fort with a fierce whetero while the city carried on below.

This is a Māori tekoteko or carved figure (or a replica thereof) depicting a stylised human form performing the whetero (the deliberate protruding of the tongue).

Spotted in a Limerick window in June 2014: a carved Māori figure performing a defiant whetero. In most Irish towns, a bust in a front window might suggest an eclectic souvenir; in Limerick, where rugby is the undisputed civic religion and the ghost of the All Blacks at Thomond Park never quite fades, it reads like a domestic shrine to the haka.

In Limerick, where Munster rugby genuinely rivals any traditional faith, a Māori figure staring out of a front window carrying out a fierce whetero (the defiant tongue-out challenge of the haka) makes perfect local sense.

The city’s sporting folklore is inextricably bound to New Zealand rugby

The 1978 Legend: Munster’s historic 12–0 victory over the touring All Blacks at Thomond Park remains the defining benchmark of Irish rugby mythology.

The 2008 Rematch: When Munster faced the All Blacks to open the rebuilt Thomond Park in 2008, Munster’s squad of New Zealanders (Rua Tipoki, Doug Howlett, Lifeimi Mafi, and Jeremy Manning) famously performed their own haka in response, cementing the cultural cross-pollination into Limerick lore.

Domestic Shrines: Placing an iconic symbol of Māori warrior spirit in a front window functions as a cheeky household emblem—a domestic salute to Thomond Park's greatest rivalries and Munster's deepest rugby connections.

My First Solo Visit To Limerick

My first visit solo visit, with a photographic equipment, to Limerick was in June 2014

In October I plan to Visit Limerick and am taking a huge gamble with the weather as it is most likely that it will rain. However, when I first visited in 2014 an 2015 in June the rain was so persistent that my photography was very constrained especially as my Sony NEX-7 and NEX-5 as well as the VG10E camcorder were the opposite of being weather proof.

Finding a Bed in Limerick: 2014 to 2026

Working through a twelve-year backlog of Limerick street photographs is a reminder of how much the city’s built environment has evolved—and how drastically its hotel landscape has shifted.

• My early trips to the Treaty City were something of a baptism of fire. In June 2014 and June 2015, I stayed at the red-brick property at the foot of Sarsfield Bridge, operating as The Pier Hotel but prominently branded at street level and on booking platforms as The Quays. In the mid-2010s, with its lively ground-floor gastropub and late venue, it had established a reputation as a major weekend hotspot for group bookings, stag and hen parties, and match-day crowds. The combination of late-night venue noise and quayside revellers filtering out along the bridge made sleep virtually impossible, regardless of which floor you were on.

• That experience permanently reshaped my travel strategy. To avoid weekend crowds and inflated rates, I shifted to four-night weekday stays (Monday to Friday). While weekday visits guarantee quieter corridors, they present an ongoing dilemma across Irish regional cities like Waterford, Kilkenny, Belfast, and Limerick: independent restaurants, bistros, and cafés often shut their doors on Mondays and Tuesdays, leaving dinner options unexpectedly sparse.

The Mid-Market Squeeze: The Story of Pery’s

• By June 2016, I had moved over to The George on O'Connell Street for a quieter, more dependable base. However, by 2019 and 2022, securing a room there proved increasingly difficult due to shrinking city-centre availability.

• That pushed me towards Pery’s Hotel on Glentworth Street. Pery’s was a traditional, long-standing institution operating since the Victorian era, offering modest, no-frills value. During my stays, the operational atmosphere had visibly shifted; while desk staff denied any formal management upheaval, the property was clearly transitioning away from the standard guest trade.

• Like several independent mid-tier hotels across Ireland, Pery’s pivoted its business model to guaranteed institutional block bookings—including student accommodation agreements (such as international study abroad programmes) and broader state accommodation contracts.

The Wider Impact on Irish City-Centre Rates

• When dependable budget and mid-tier hotels like Pery's withdraw from general tourism stock, the entire local market tightens. Removing 60 to 100 affordable rooms pushes corporate travellers and tourists upstream into 4-star properties, driving standard mid-week room rates across city centres to unprecedented highs.

The Evolution: Absolute to No. 1 Pery Square

• Returning to Limerick in 2025, I based myself at the Absolute Hotel along the Abbey River. It was exceptional—well-appointed, quiet, and reliable—and I had fully intended to make it my permanent base.
• Yet city booking dynamics occasionally work in reverse. For my upcoming October trip, No. 1 Pery Square Hotel & Spa—the Georgian boutique hotel overlooking the People's Park—came up with an unmissable mid-week rate. Swapping the noisy memories of Sarsfield Street for the quiet grandeur of the Georgian Quarter at bargain rates feels like the proper culmination of a twelve-year circuit.

RUGBY IS A RELIGION IN LIMERICK

THE LEGACY CATALOG

* In The Year 2008 * In The Year 2011 * In The Year 2017 * Henrietta Back In 2010

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