This artwork consisted of an archival collection of local stories told by the fourth and fifth classes of three Limerick schools: St Munchin’s Boys School, St Mary’s Girls School and St Mary’s Boys School.

Handball Alley, King’s Island

A sculptural installation which consisted of a ‘ruin’ assembled from domestic belongings and household appliances.

King John’s Castle

A a brief, one-off performative event in which the artist laid five lines of gunpowder fuses on the river’s surface and ignited them, creating five lines of fire moving upstream through the arches of Thomond Bridge.

River Shannon

This artwork features blankets wrapped around two trees then standing at the front of St Mary's Catherdral.

St. Mary’s Cathedral

An outdoor mixed-media installation in which the artist lived inside a small shed between recycling bins, and used the refuse that was thrown away to make small sculptures and artist’s books.

Potato Market

A sculptural work that was suspended across the river.

Abbey River

This outdoor installation created various contradictions by using a device associated with private settings in a public space. The Hunt Museum collection was originally a personal and private one, making this an appropriate venue for an exploration of the domestic in public.

The Hunt Museum

This site-specific light installation at Sarsfield House remarked on the importance of light in architecture, and the effects of darkness paired with illumination for those encountering the office building at night.

Sarsfield House

Deleu’s work is rooted in discipline and logic, engaging with architectural principles, theories and practices, in both a paradoxical and iconoclastic spirit. 

Arthur’s Quay Park

The project asked artists to take two geometric shapes as starting points, considering the ‘square’ as a central meeting point, the site of social exchange and civic or political gathering, as well as a site for the display and exchange of produce, artefacts and effects, and a ‘circle’ as a kind of uncertain or preparatory gathering for these occasions. The event included live performances, sculptural works and film.

Milk Market

Mámbáy bebhɛp 43r /mɛnyu nɛfaŋ/ bakay nɛkɔ

An immersive sculptural and polyrhythmic audio installation featuring contributions from singers and storytellers in Ireland and the Gulf of Guinea. The work drew from the artist’s interests in the relationship between oral culture and the natural environment.

Spacecraft Studios

John Paul Dowling, Clare Gilmore, Ernest Bishop, Simeon Babo Tresor, Annette Young, and Babatunde Longe, 

This mixed-media installation was a collaboration between a number of Irish artists and artists who are asylum seekers and refugees in Ireland. The intention of this work was to use the medium of travel or journey to bring attention to the plight of refugees who have come to Ireland seeking a brighter future. 

Colbert Railway Station

Through an open competition, members of the public were invited to create a citizens’ anthem that is representative of contemporary Ireland, and reflect on themes such as equal opportunities, liberalism, freedom, welfare, security, and democracy. Shortlisted entries were then released for public vote to determine the winning anthem. The anthem will be played by two ‘Shannon Ices’ ice-cream vans on 24 April 2016 (the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising).

People’s Park

This work combined performance and installation. In the artist’s words, his performative installations ‘allude to a dominating struggle to control, or, more precisely, one’s inability to challenge a self-engineered environment’.

The People's Museum of Limerick, Coach House

A Life in the Day of…Strategies of Survival

Belltable

This work consisted of a monologue, delivered by a person in a tiger costume, about the economic landscape of Ireland. The text was written by by Ciáran O’Driscoll and performed by Patrick Keaveney.

Sarsfield Credit Union

Much of Sierra’s work deals with issues of social inequality and the ethics of consent. Taking place adjacent to Limerick’s central police station, this performance was designed as a smoking barricade of burning tyres and three overturned cars that had been stolen and were acquired in a requisitioned goods depot.

Glentworth Street

This project explored the documentation and mapping of Wadi al-Shami [Al Shami Valley], Palestine – a historically important agricultural land that was annexed by Israel in 1967

The Sailor’s Home

A temporary ‘outhouse’ toilet made from wooden boards, facing out to the river Shannon.

Barrington’s Pier 

 contemplates the hopeful voyage of millions of people who travel across the land every day in search of a better life. As we witness Europe’s anxious reaction to the current influx of migrants to its shores, Jaar’s work offers a dark, ominous and yet poetic vision of this phenomenon – it represents a watchful cloud in the sky over Europe. The cloud itself embodies water but in solid form and shape that moves across the land. It is a reminder that everything is interconnected and that confinement is not a solution.'

Cleeve’s Condensed Milk Factory

On 7 May 2007, between the times of 11:15am and 11:45am, the artist organised 13 churches around Limerick city to ring their bells simultaneously.

St. Munchin’s Church

The self-guided trail presents an alternative cultural history of Limerick city through intersecting narratives of contemporary art, architecture and urban development.

The selection of 21 sites and spaces — commercial premises, museums, ex-industrial units, and public spaces — corresponds to notable projects of contemporary art that have taken place over the past 30+ years. A panel can be found at each location providing an artistic summary of the project and a QR code that links to further information. Free printed guides that map this trail are available from various cultural venues and hospitality organisations across Limerick city. A digital version can also be accessed 

This project is funded by the Arts Council’s Engaging with Architecture Scheme, and Creative Ireland and Limerick City and County Council through Creative Ireland Made in Limerick 2024. 

Never Look Back

Self-Guided Trail

Self-Guided Trail

Locations

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