The following is a timeline of important historical events in Limerick City’s History.rutland street

  • 922 The Vikings settle in Limerick
  • 967 Dál Cais sack Limerick (Irish)
  • 1168 St. Mary’s Cathedral is built
  • 1194 The Normans capture Limerick (English)
  • 1197 Limerick is given a Charter
  • 1200 Old Thomond Bridge constructed
  • 1200 Limerick Castle is completed (King John’s)
  • 1642 An Irish army enters Limerick
  • 1651 The English besiege Limerick (Limerick City population 4,000)
  • 1690-91 Limerick is besieged again, broken Treaty (Flight of the Wild Geese)
  • 1765 Work on Newtown Pery begins
  • 1769 Limerick Customs House is built (Hunt Museum)
  • 1798 Drunken Thady Set (Bard of Thomond)
  • 1803 The Old Town Hall is built
  • 1816 St Saviours Dominican Church is built
  • 1816 Large Bacon Factories started in Limerick (Matterson’s)
  • 1819 Murder of Ellen Hanley (Colleen Bawn)
  • 1829 Catholic Emancipation act The emancipation act of 1829 – which permitted Catholics to sit in parliament – abolished the forty-shilling franchise by raising the threshold to ten pounds and at a stroke reduced the county electorate from over 200,000 to 37,000
  • 1824 Limerick gains gas light
  • 1827 Wellesley Bridge is built (Sarsfield Bridge)
  • 1830 Barrington’s Hospital is built
  • 1832 First Limerick Catholic M.P.
  • 1840 New Thomond Bridge Built
  • 1843 Limericks Potato Market is built
  • 1848 The railway reaches Limerick
  • 1857 A statue of O’Connell is erected
  • 1859 St John’s Cathedral is built
  • 1868 Hannah Parr wreck comes into Limerick
  • 1901 The population of Limerick is 38,000
  • 1904 The fist motor car registered in Limerick