This Presbyterian Church in Limerick was built in 1817 to accommodate the increasing Presbyterian congregation in the city.
Limerick Evening Post 15 January 1830:
“We insert an advertisement from the Rev. Mr. Pinkerton, the excellent and amiable Minister of the Presbyterian Church in this City, offering a reward for the discovery of some unknown ruffians who have been in the habit of breaking the windows of that Church. This is an offence that calls for the vigilant exertions of every well-regulated member of society to put down – and we accordingly anticipate the exertions of the Magistrates and Ministers of all religious to co-operate with Mr Pinkerton in discovering the offenders, that they may be dealt with, so as to prevent a repetition of such a shameful outrage.”
Rev. John Pinkerton died on December 21, 1840 at his house on Glentworth Street. He was 72 years old and had ministered at the Presbyterian Church off Glentworth Street since its foundation. As there was not a separate Presbyterian graveyard in the city, his remains were interred in St Munchin’s Church of Ireland graveyard.
This church was closed and a new Presbyterian Church was erected on the corner of Henry Street and Lower Mallow Street in 1901.
The original Presbyterian Church was sold to the printers George McKern and Sons Ltd. in 1904 who remained there for over a hundred years.
Their previous meeting house was in Englishtown, where John Ferrar refers to the group as Dissenters.
John Ferrar tells us of the Limerick Dissenters in his 1787 History of Limerick:
“The Dissenters Meeting House, in Peter Street, at the North end of English town, was begun in the year 1765, and finished the year following. The building is plain and handsome, with a house for the minister annexed to it. Both buildings cost above five hundred pounds, which was contributed by the Protestant Dissenters, residing in and near Limerick. After the revolution, until this house was built, they had one at Peter’s Cell, which was formerly a famous nunnery for the canonesses of St Augustine.