The following are a collection of events that are connected to the history of Limerick or people from Limerick during the month of February.
1 February – On this day, 1 Feb 1916, St Patrick’s School was officially opened. It was then a boys and girls school.
2 February – On this day, 2 Feb 1837, Nathaniel Burslem was born in Limerick. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions during the Second Opium War. He was one of 6 Limerick men to receive this highest medal for gallantry in the British military.
Three fishermen, Thomas Madden, Thomas Anslow and John O’Connell, lost their lives while fishing at Plassey on this day 2 February 1930. All three men are buried in the same grave in Mount Saint Lawrence Cemetery
3 February – On this day 3 Feb 1888, George Frederick Samuel (1827-1909), Marquis of Ripon received the Freedom of Limerick from Mayor Francis O’Keeffe
4 February – On this day 4 Feb 1292, Edward I granted Limerick it’s second charter. In it he stipulated that “the citizens should be free of toll, lastagem pontage, passage and all other customs, throught the King’s entire land and dominion”
5 February – On this day, 5 Feb 1811 the botanist William Henry Harvey was born in Limerick. He documented flora all over the world including, Australia, Africa, Asia and South America.
6 February – On this day 6 Feb 1882 a meeting of the Limerick Port & Harbour Commissioners revealed that the 2 new electric lights in the Docks cost 2 shillings an hour to run. The world’s first electric street light was erected only 4 years earlier in Paris.
7 February – On this day, 7 February 1873, the writer Sheridan Le Fanu passed away. He spent many years of his youth in County Limerick. His father Thomas was the rector of Abington Church for a period in the 1840s.
On this day 7 February 1929, the beautiful Constance Smith was born in Wolfetone Street, Limerick.
8 February – Joseph Ivess was born on this day, 8 Feb 1844 in Askeaton, Co Limerick. His family left for Australia when he was 8 years old. At 24, he moved to New Zealand as the manager of the New Zealand Celt. He was also a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives.
9 February – William Frederick Bailey was born in Limerick on this day 9 Feb 1857. He was a writer and lawyer. He was part of the Irish literary revival, a patron of the Abbey Theatre, and a governor of the National Gallery of Ireland.
10 February – Katherine Mulquin was born in Adare and educated in Laurel Hill Convent School. She became Sister Mary Paul in 1863. 10 years later, she was Mother Paul and led 6 Sisters to found the first Presentation school in Victoria, Australia. She died on this day 10 Feb 1930
11 February – On this day 11 Feb 1803, Edmund Henry Pery (nephew of Edmund Sexton Pery) became the 1st Earl of Limerick.
12 February – The Limerick playwright Andrew Cherry died on this day 12 Feb 1812. He wrote to a foe: “Sir, I am not so great a fool you take me for! I have been bitten once by you, and I will never give you an opportunity of making two bites of A. Cherry”
On this day 12 Feb 2014, a lighthouse that stood in Shannon Estuary for almost 150 years was destroyed during Storm Darwin. Limerick Post News Report.
13 February – Limerick-born scientist and researcher Michael Grimes died on this day 13 Feb 1977. He was a member of the IRB during the War of Independence. In 1919, he was allegedly smuggled to Dublin in a milk churn, then to Wales in a mailbag while escaping to the US.
14 February – Mick Neville was born on this day, 14 February 1891, in Kilfinny, Co. Limerick. He was a hurler who played for the Dublin and Limerick senior teams from 1913 to 1924. He won two All-Ireland winner’s medals. Mick Neville Park in Rathkeale is named after him
15 February – John Hayes was the born in Limerick on this day 15 Feb 1909. When he was 24 y/o joined the Jesuits. During WWII he was in the Royal Army Chaplains’ Dept. He was known as ‘Battling Hayes’. He contracted typhus while tending to soldiers in Burma & died there in 1945.
16 February – The house previously occupied by John Ferrar, the founder of the Limerick Chronicle was offered for lease in the Limerick Chronicle on this day 16 Feb 1786.
17 February – Rev John Thayer was born in Boston in 1755. He was a Congregationalist minister during the American Revolutionary War. After the war, he travelled to Europe & converted to Catholicism. He ministered in Limerick & died on this day 17 Feb 1815 in Patrick Street.
18 February – On this day, 18 Feb 1822, George Lawrence was born in County Limerick. He emigrated to Canada as a young child. There he became a Methodist minister and in 1891, he was recorded in “Men of Canada, success by example” for his work in the religious field.
19 February – There was a notice of sale of the Ballysimon flour mills in the Limerick Evening Post on this day 19 Feb 1828.
20 February – This day 100 years ago (20 Feb 1921) saw the shooting dead of two Thomondgate brothers Aiden (14) & Cecil (18) O’Domovan, as they were looking for birds nests in Blackwater Mill, Parteen. You can read more about it in this Old Limerick Journal article.
This advert for salted Limerick salmon was posted in the Limerick Chronicle on this day 20 Feb 1833.
21 February – On this day 21 Feb 1919, Richard Norris Russell of the famous Limerick milling family fell victim to the Spanish Flu.
22 February – The McNamara sisters announced the opening of their new clothing store on Roches Street on this day 22 February 1930 in the Munster News.
23 February – On this day, 23 Feb 1994, Annacotty born Jackie Power passed away. He was renowned for plating both hurling & Gaelic football with Ahane and with the Limerick senior inter-county teams from 1935 until 1949.
24 February – John Philip Holland was born in Clare on this day, 24 Feb 1841. He joined the Christian Brothers in Limerick and taught in CBS Sexton Street before moving to America. There he designed the USS Holland, the US Navy’s first modern commissioned submarine,
25 February – On this day, 25 Feb 1937 the first flying boat, the Short S.23 G-ADUV Cambria of Imperial Airways flown by Capt. G.J. Powell landed at Foynes from Southampton.
26 February – Daniel Nealon was born on this day 26 February 1886 at Dromkeen. He was a member of the Irish Guard 2nd Division. He died while in service in France in 1916.
27 February – On this day 27 Feb 1936, Foynes born artist and President Royal Hibernian Academy, Dermod O’Brien (1865-1945), received the Freedom of Limerick from Mayor M. Casey. Painting by Margaret Clarke
28 February – the President of Ireland, Mary Mcaleese, received a Mayoral Reception at City Hall on this day 28 February 2005.
- Woodford, Bourne, & Co. Ltd, in Limerick, posted a notice for Port Wine for Invalids in the Munster News on this day 28 February 1920
