by Rose Rushe

AS ever, Carnegie Building on Pery Square magnetised lovers of art and architecture with its seasonal launch of new shows. The first three for 2015 opened on Thursday January 22 and current installations will run daily to March 13.

The evening was topped by the announcement, months in the making, of a new head for Limerick City Gallery of Art, Una McCarthy. Having had a distinguished career in arts management and creativity, McCarthy comes to Limerick from The Arts Council where she had been head of festivals. Her post as curator/ director at LCGA conicides with exhibitions launched by Abigail O’Brien, ‘Bread’ and Anthony Haughey, ‘Excavation’.

A fourth point of interest is the curated selection by Caitlin Quinn from Michael O’Connor’s poster collection, housed at the gallery. Patrick Murphy, director of RHA in Dublin, was invited down for launch honours collectively.

From left, Aoife Ruane, director Highlanes Gallery; Abigail O’ Brien, exhibiting artist; Siobhan O’ Reilly, in charge of exhibitions at Limerick City Gallery and Anthony Haughey, work on show also
Pic: Gareth Williams / Press 22

Supporing LCGA exhibitions Bread by Abigail O’Brien, Excavation by Anthony Haughey and Prints From A Life, curated by Caitlin Quinn were Caitlin; Clodagh Twomey and Adrian Byrne, L.S.A.D
Picture: Gareth Williams

Una McCarthy now has charge of direction at our municipal art gallery, Carnegie Building

Rapt in thought, Luca Seanog (8) from Caherconlish
Picture: Gareth Williams

Left, artist Pauline Goggin, Corbally and Geraldine O’Sullivan, City
Picture: Gareth Williams

Attending Limerick City Gallery of Art for the opening of exhibitions on January 22, John Kelly and Ellen Fowler, Killaloe
Picture: Gareth Williams

Viewing Bread, by Abigail O’Brien, Excavation, by Anthony Haughey, and Prints From A Life, curated by Caitlinn Quinn, were Clia Clancy, Mallow Street and Valerie O’Connor, O’Connell Avenue
Picture: Gareth Williams

Supportive: Clodagh Twomey, L.S.A.D and Mike FitzPatrick, leading Limerick’s bid to be European Capital of Culture 2020
Picture: Gareth Williams

O’Mahony Booksellers was appropriate host on Monday 9 to the launch of the 2nd Limerick Literary Festival, grown-up child to the Kate O’Brien Weekend of three decades. Playwright and O’Brien scholar Mary Coll rolled out news of the three days of seminar, readings, music with Sarah Dolan, interviews by Sean Rocks (Edna O’Brien) and Niall McMonagle (John Montague), signings and mingle-tingle from Friday 20 to Sunday 22.

Taking place on two venues administered through www.limetreetheatre.ie, No. 69 O’Connell Street and Lime Tree Theatre, you can view the programme on www.limerickliteraryfestival. com and pick up a brochure at libraries and bookstores.

Festival committee, left: Eileen O’Connor, Marie Hackett, Vivien McKechnie, Deirdre FLynn, Sheila Deegan and Ann Marie Gill
Sean Curtin Photo

Author Mary Coll at the launch of the festival at O’Mahony’s Booksellers
Sean Curtin Photo

Director of City of Culture Mike FitzPatrick with Valerie Dolan of Dolan’s and Terri Culligan of No. 1 Pery Square
Sean Curtin Photo

Ann Marie Gill, The Burren and John McKechnie, Crecora. Coming: novelist, short-story writer and essayist Mary O’Donnell, poet John Montague, novelist Audrey Magee and UL Frank McCourt Chair, Joseph O’Connor
Sean Curtin Photo

Amber Moloney, Killaloe and Ursula Furlong, Clancy Strand consider the online vote for the Kate O’Brien Award for best new novelist on www.limerickliteraryfestival.com

Deirdre Flynn, Eileen O’Connor and Marie Hackett share organisational honours with a strong committee

Mary Coll, Hugh Maguire, Director of the Hunt Museum and Vivienne McKechnie, Limerick Literary Festival at O’Mahonys Booksellers which will have a sale stand at No. 69 O’Connell Street, Friday 20 and Saturday 21
Sean Curtin Photo

Limerick based Colm O’Brien award built up his Carambola Kidz Healthy School Lunch Business to produce 100,000 lunches weekly. Annacotty based in industry, O’Brien is also a motivational speaker, was key to Limerick Local Heroes profile and activity, founded PayDay Productions to bring professional theatre here and .. is now publisher.

He  has written a book on how not to fall in to drains when starting out or developing as entrepreneur: ‘Feeding Johnny – how to build a business despite the roadblock’. Published by Liberties Press, there was a thronged public launch in O’Mahony’s Booksellers on Thursday March 5.

The turnout was testimony to Colm O’Brien’s integrity in business and effective work on boards such as CARI and Limerick Chamber of Commerce.  The event, co-hosted with wife Aideen, was supported by auctioneer Gordon Kearney,  playwright and charity professional Ella Daly, music promoters Mick and Valerie Dolan, Pius McGrath of Honest Arts Production Company, Ger Sheahan of Limerick Networkers, hoteliers and food industry professionals.

‘Feeding Johnny’ is the story of Colm O’Brien’s rise from teenaged kitchen porter to manager of Bewley’s on Grafton Street, to owner of Carambola Kidz

Fianna Fáil Social Protection spokesman Willie O’Dea is leading calls on the Government to firmly rule out the sale of the State’s shareholding in Aer Lingus now that the Minister for Transport appears to have finally recognised its strategic importance.

The Limerick TD’s intervention comes in the wake of a statement from Transport Minister Pascal Donohue’s statement that “the information and commitments provided to date do not at present provide a basis on which the Government could give an irrevocable commitment to accept an offer to dispose of its shares, should one be made by IAG.”

“When he briefed the Oireachtas Transport committee, IAG chief executive Willie Walsh failed to offer a guarantee on the Heathrow Boston and New York routes from Shannon. Therefore, the Minister’s attempt to kick any decision further down the road by seeking more meaningless ‘assurances’ is simply not good enough.” the Limerick deputy said.

Having briefed his Cabinet colleagues this week on the latest position in relation to the IAG proposal to make an offer for Aer Lingus, the Minister reiterated the Government’s underlying position in relation to its shareholding in Aer Lingus.

The minority holding which the State has in Aer Lingus would not be sold unless the market conditions were favourable, the terms of the sale were satisfactory to the Government and an acceptable price could be secured, he said.

by Alan Jaques and Bernie English news@limerickpost.ie

MORE than €12 million was spent on short-term locum medical staff in the University Hospital Limerick (UHL) hospitals group last year.

According to documents released this week by the HSE to members of the Regional Health Forum West, spending on agency workers in Limerick has risen “drastically”, with the cost of locum medical staff more than doubling each year for the last three years.

Limerick Sinn Féin councillor Malachy McCreesh has criticised the figure, stating that successive cuts to the healthcare budget have had “disastrous” effects on developing services at the University Hospital in Limerick.

“Although I welcome a recent announcement that 70 new nursing posts are being created across the group, clearly there is a very serious problem with an over reliance on short-term locum workers,” said Cllr McCreesh.

“It is simply scandalous that €12,700,116 was spent last year paying agency workers to plug gaps in the local hospital workforce. There is a clear solution here, with a chance to create meaningful, long-term, local employment within the sector.

“Some forward thinking is needed from HSE management to avoid taxpayers footing the bill for what is simply poor practice,” he added.

In reply to a query on the figures from the Limerick Post, a spokeswoman for the HSE said that the €12 million covered all of the Limerick hospitals, including Croom orthopaedic hospital and the University Maternity Hospital as well as keeping an extensive range of services in the community staffed.

She said that community services are classed as any HSE service, other than those provided in the hospitals. These  include public health nursing, dental and orthodontic services, child and family services, services for older people and people with disability, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, physiotherapy and chiropody

“It is clear that the recent HSE recruitment embargo and the number of medical graduates emigrating have added to problems across the UHL hospitals group” the spokeswoman added.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin leader on Limerick City and County Council, Cllr Maurice Quinlivan has hit out at the worsening effects of hospital overcrowding and points the finger squarely at the Government’s failure to invest in the provision of long-term nursing home care for the elderly.

“Hospital overcrowding has now reached dangerous levels, we have already seen the resignation of one HSE chief this year and the comments of another ignored, with regards to the hundreds of acute beds being blocked up for months on end by elderly patients waiting on community care packages.

“This government has ignored the advice of experts, and embarked on a path of austerity where the healthcare budget is concerned,” he said.

An exceptional painting exhibition by County Limerick artist John Collins, created in response to Mike Finn’s play ‘Pigtown’, staged by Island Theatre Company first in the summer of 1999, opened this week. Journey to Bourn Vincent gallery at the University’s Foundation Building to see the light.  22 oil on canvas/ board works are inspired by scenes and lines from the play:  “Blood flows rich and red, down the chute and into the veins of Pigtown”.

County Limerick artist John Collins created his visual response in painting to the play Pigtown by Mike Finn. Pictured at the opening in Bourne Vincent Gallery, Foundation Building, UL campus
Pic. Brian Arthur/ Press 22.

Collins against the triptych titled ‘Makin’ a musical commotion up an’ down the Yella Road’. Each work is inspired by a line from the play
Pic: Brian Arthur/ Press 22

Deirdre Gallagher and Kathleen Bartlett attended opening night on Thursday 11 at Bourn Vincent, located directly above the concert hall
Pic: Brian Arthur/ Press 22

Tom Shortt, Patrick Normyle, John Collins Artist and Valerie Shortt supported the show which is funded by Limerick City of Culture 2014, uniting the city’s signature play with a permanent visual art response by a local professional
Pic: Brian Arthur/ Press 22

Artists Gavin Hogg and Sheila Richardson turned out to support the show. Mike Finn addressed the gathering, linking scenes from the play with Collins’ original vision Pic: Brian Arthur/ Press 22

Alison Quaid and Marie Claire Boatman viewed the 22 works, oil on canvas, under the banner of ‘The Wild Watery Heart of the City’ – a fragment of Pigtown’s poetic prose
Pic: Brian Arthur/ Press 22

“Welcome, feast and revelry/ Tipsy dance and jollity/ 

Braid your locks with rosy twine/ Dress yourself with garments fine/

Tonight we dance, tonight we dine/ With mad music and strong wine” – Robert Burns, 1759-1796

Folks, it’s all ours to have until all hours at the annual Robert Burns celebration at Bobby Byrne’s Bar, Saturday January 24 from 8pm. Warm fires and tartan light the taper; Michael Potter and Noel Flannery are keepers of the flame.

Publican Robert Byrne brings out the oven-fresh haggis on ‘neaps, aromas led by piper Michael Egan

Left, organiser Michael Potter with his cousin, fiddler Mary Donoghue and fellow organiser, Noel Flannery at the 2013 gig. Poetry, song, recitation, music inform the night

Left, Limerick based Scot and loyal supporter of the kilt, Derek Patterson bears with Noel’s ode to the Scottish lyricist

AN intelligent cast pulled together by Quarry Players does justice to ‘Moment’, the Deirdre Kinahan play current at No. 69 O’Connell Street until Saturday 14. John Anthony Murphy directs. Book at box office or go online to venue manager ww.limetreetheatre.ie for this 8pm show.

Flannery’s Bar was occasion for the recent media launch:

Kevin Bradshaw (Fimn), Niamh O’Mara (Ciara), Bernie Hayes (Teresa Lynch), John Murphy director and Nigel Dugdale (Neil)
Photo: Randall Howlett

Liam O’Brien, left with Nigel Dugdale and Pius McGrath on lighting design (Senan Moore on sound)
Photo: Randall Howlett

Chairperson of Quarry Players, Michelle O’Flanagan welcomed guest of honour Willie O’Dea TD and Quarry Player Suzie O’Brien
Photo: Randall Howlett

Until Saturday 14, 8pm at No. 69 O’Connell Street

by Rose Rushe

AWARD winning Limerick Musical Society will open its 2015 production ‘The Witches of Eastwick’ at the concert hall on Thursday March 26 for three nights, 8pm.

Directed by Des Henn, this is the first Witches to be staged in the city.  A cast of at least 50 are supported by a professional band while Niamh Twomey choreographs and Maire Keary-Scanlon directs the music numbers – rock and roll, love ballads, dance sequences that drive the dynamic.

Heat waves at the media launch in Scotts Bar: Witches 1) Rebecca Ballinger admired Dept Mayor Kieran O’Hanlon and Dave Griffin (Darryl van Horne), 2)  Laura Henebry and 3) Sinead O’Sullivan
Pic: Brian Gavin Press 22

Left, Timmy Malone, Catherine Collins, Annalise Hurley and Colman Casey. Parental guidance for children is advised due to adult themes
Pic: Brian Gavin/ Press 22

In Limerick Musical Society’s The Witches of Eastwick:
Pam Cotter, Orla McEvoy, Patricia Woulfe and Olivia Parkinson make a play for preacher Jimmy Maloney
Pic: Brian Gavin/ Press 22

Fr Aidrian Eagan who plays news editor Clyde Gabriel with actress Sarah Cahill. Clyde is married to Feilcia (Judy O’Connor) and this couple has an interesting fate
Pic: Brian Gavin Press 22

Shaping up for the devil-like Dave Griffin’s attentions,
Suzan Hickey, Nora Reynolds and choreographer Niamh Twomey
Pic: Brian Gavin/ Press 22

Committee member and actor Adrian Egan, Jacinta Florish, treasurer; James Scanlon who is chairman and multi-factotum and society president, PRO Gerry Ryan
Picture: Brian Gavin/ Press 22

Book tickets in advance online at www.uch.ie for March 26 to 28, 8pm show in the concert hall.
Mick Daffy and Kathleen Daffy look ahead to a terrific show, o12s/ PG please
Pic: Brian Gavin Press 22

See full schedule on www.limerickfilmfestival.net.     All photos by Herbert Knowles, Shannon

by Rose Rushe

APRIL 23 to 25 are dates for this year’s Limerick Film Festival, its schedule and participants announced at George Boutique Hotel on Tuesday 31. Fusing the lead into this three days of shorts, awards and industry leader talks/ workshops, festival director Simon McGuire addressed the legacy of City of Culture investment and the “resulting short film production currently taking place in the city”.

A cohort of film makers and associate professionals based in the Mid-West showed up for the evening news.

As ever the April event will take place on LIT campus, where its founder McGuire teaches in Audio-Video Production.

Brendan McCarthy, co-author of the new MadMax: Fury Road film, due for release in May 2015, will speak on Thursday April 23. Director Kevin Liddy, a Limerick man, will screen his new short, The Suffering Kind (Winner of the Spirit of Cork Indie Film Festival), along with acclaimed film Horse on Friday 24.

Film maker Gerry Stembridge has oversight of the Trilogy film training project; with Simon McGuire

Film makers and crew at George Boutique Hotel to hear news of 2015’s event

Founder and director Simon McGuire takes the podium

Support act: Ruby McGuire, Ann Knowles, Georgina Knowles-Doran

Simon with actor/ producer Zeb Moore, riding high on the €10,000 win in a Canadian horror flick fest of his Limerick based short ‘Sinners’ (dir: Stephen Hall). Also the international distribution of his feature movie ‘The Quiet Hour’ with Dakota Fanning

OUR Shannon Rowing Club est. 1870 was site for a portrait sitting by reigning Rose of Tralee, Maria Walsh. Eight artists painted her likeness simultaneously over a four hour period, while the festival queen sat in sash at the bow window overlooking Currahgower Falls. According to Pat O’Neill of the Festival, there are plans to make this sitting an annual.

50 guests attended the paintings’ unveiling and now RedEyeMedia produces a documentary of the event for Youtube.

Mali Zafarnejad at work

Artist Agnieska Nakoneczna

Louise Barrett with her back to camera, Maria Walsh in tiara and sash

The gifted Mark Heng

Charlotte Lee drawing

Becky Belton leans in

Eoin Griffin works on expression

By Rose Rushe

Corbally artist Maurice Quillinan’s new show, Music on the Water, launched in Dooradoyle’s County Hall the night of May 18, with Mayor Kevin Sheahan doing the honours. In fact the exhibition is in two parts, with a parallel running simultaneously at City Hall in Merchant’s Quay.

According to the artist, ‘Music on the Water’ is the final part of a collaboration between Nicholas Ross, a pianist from Clare based in Columbus, Ohio; Kent Holiday, American composer, based in Virginia and  of course, Quillinan. He’s a man who has travelled, worked and exhibited abroad extensively, Asia in particular, but who is Limerick based*. Music on the Water  works are all oil on linen.

Ursula and Sam Walsh, Clonlara with Maurice Quillinan (centre)
Photo: Liam Burke/Press 22

Photographed at the opening of Quillinan’s exhibition Music on the Water in County Hall on Monday evening were the Mayor Cllr Kevin Sheahan with the artist
Photo: Liam Burke/Press 22

Mary Humphreys, Corbally, Claire Quillinan (4) with Benji and mum Josephine Quillinan
Photo: Liam Burke/Press 22

Nuala O’Sullivan, Crecora; Mayor of Limerick Kevin Sheahan and Grace O’Sullivan, Cratloe
Photo: Liam Burke/Press 22

Josephine Quillinan; photographer and visual artist Eamonn O’Mahony, Dooradoyle and Anne Fox, Dooradoyle
Photo: Liam Burke/Press 22

Relieved to have Music on the Water up and running in City Hall, County Hall, Maurice Quillinan and Eilish Leahy, Ballykeeffe Photo: Liam Burke/Press 22

Debussy’s Pond
Oil on linen

Artist’s note:

The project is an exploration of the ‘Golden Section’, which is a mathematical subdivision of a surface area or musical score, suggesting where the most important elements should be positioned. The music incorporates a sonata for piano by Holiday ‘Tzolk’in’ and the piano etudes of Claude Debussy, all performed by Nicholas Ross.

Paintings incorporate the structure of the music, placing the golden notes / moments as Lilly pads. The images endeavor to combine the physical and emotional response that is inherent in our experience of the music and a pond in a given moment in time. The canvases are constantly worked over many years, slightly altering the colour, tonal and textural values of each, to greater enhance the emotional experience of the music and the watery environment.

The works are designed as meditative, emotional responses to the music and the water. Like magnetic tape the works try to draw in the physicality, the smells, sounds, colours, tastes of an observed environment. In this case the Shannon river is the subject for this exhibition, reflecting the constant changes physical and emotional which water and music has on us human beings.

An ever changing sky constantly mirrored in the river is a reminder that the paintings and the music only briefly capture a brief moment in natures constantly evolving  drama.

Maurice Quillinan was born in Limerick, and graduated from Limerick College of Art and Design, the Royal College of Art, London, les Ecole Nationale Superieur des Beaux Arts, Paris and the University of Limerick. He has represented Ireland, exhibiting in, France, Germany, Britain, Ireland, Russia, America, Canada, Malta, Switzerland, Australia, China and Hong Kong. His work is held in public and private collections in thirty-four countries.

ANOTHER occasion on the Limerick College of Further Education events calendar will take place this Thursday May 27, 7.30pm in Absolute Hotel. Photography students launch their 13th annul exhibition, put together by 1st and 2nd Year photography learners from course work done this preceding academic year.

They exhibit a selection of prints, fully titled. Spain was destination for this year’s Photography Department tour. The images captured by learners on the trip will be displayed on the opening night and remain at Absolute Hotel, Sir Harry’s Mall by the Abbey River, for the year.

Commenting on this year’s showcase, Eoin McCarthy of LCFE Photography Department, had this to say: “Staging an exhibition like this requires a huge commitment on the part of the learners and the teaching staff at the College. We are really looking forward to giving members of the public an all year opportunity to view the calibre of work produced by the photographic learners, who only began to study photography full time in September 2013/ 14.”

by Rose Rushe

IT was a crowded house for Limerick City Gallery of Art on Thursday May 21 for Ramon Kassam’s ‘Gallery’ on the ground floor and Gavin Hogg’s ‘Shadow Light’ occupying upper chambers and atrium. Siobhan O’Reilly, who has care of collections here, chose Drawings 11 as the third chapter, this absorbing and varied show displaying the Permanent Collection’s room.

Dr Una McCarthy, a Charleville woman appointed curator and director of this Pery Square Gallery, was host for the evening, welcoming our European Capital of Culture 2020 leader in thebidding stakes, Dr Mike Fitzpatrick as guest of honour. Also artists Sheila Richardson and Martin Shannon, Dr Hugh Maguire and Naomi O’Nolan of The Hunt Museum, CUISLE’s Paul Sweeney with wife Charlotte Breen and children, artist Kieran Carey, peace commissioner John Leonard, Labour’s Tom Shortt, artist Maurice Quillinan and many more.

This suite of art works will stay put daily until July 28; free to all.

Artist’s note on ‘Shadow Light':

The work in this exhibition by Gavin Hogg, entitled ‘Shadow Light’ spans the years 2004 to 2014.

In this period of time the artist’s has focused on the richness of painting language and its ability to articulate imaginative and emotional energies which couldn’t be expressed any other way.  For Hogg, the beauty of painting is the physical and imaginative possibilities open to it and the work in this exhibition is deeply concerned with exploring this potential.

The earlier work is influenced by more traditional aspects of painting. The technical use of oil paint and its ability to represent effects of natural light. Impressionist techniques play a part here and there are passages of paint which are pure retinal delight.

There are decorative concerns throughout all the work and they serve various functions.  The play on wallpaper is present both as an evocation of the domestic and then as a surface which can be torn back to reveal energies hidden beneath.

The use of symbolism is central to the work.  Symbols which are personal to the artist and others which are more archetypal in nature and which reach back centuries and are part of everyone’s psychic inheritance.

Artist’s note on ‘Gallery':

Paintings form the basis of his practice and incorporate various motifs in their often ruthless and labored construction. The works in this exhibition re-connect with the concept of the artist as creative subject, combining the thematic of the artist’s workspace (canvas, studio, gallery and urban environment) with formal and conceptual references to the autonomous reality of modernist abstraction.

The paintings are the result of an intuitive reshuffling and re-contextualisation of studio materials, art histories, biographical elements and formal structures. They relate to one another through an invented narrative centred around an artist’s supposed activities, environment and viewpoints. The paintings are intended to act as both the documentation and result of this hypothetical narrative.

These compositions of invented spaces, viewpoints, paintings and actions, owe much of their painterly gesture to Kassam’s cut and paste approach to absorb and refract the abstract surface quality of the urban environment, particularly that of his hometown of Limerick City. He likens urban surroundings and experiences to physically living within a painting, citing the haphazard combinations of artificial colour, texture, form and narrative on any given streetscape as part of his concept.

SOUTHSIDE Stage School embraces city children  – 50 for these shows – in creating theatrical and musical platforms that are fun and educational. Look ahead to two shows coming up in Our Lady Queen of Peace school hall on Tuesday June 2 at 7pm,  ‘Pirates versus Mermaids’ and then ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Tickets at the door, a welcome for all.

Tuesday 2nd, 7pm

Happy feet together at Southside Stage School

ASSOCIATION of Irish Musical Societies (AIMS) had its annual awards ceremony on Saturday 13 at the Gleneagles/ INEC with 1300 members attending, each supportive of its own troupe’s ambition. Limerick Musical Society in the Sullivan section was principal winner, scooping four awards for ‘The Witches of Eastwick’.

The individual trophies were for Best Choreographer, Niamh Twomey; Best Chorus, with Des Henn directing, Maire Keary-Scanlon as musical director; Best Actor for Dave Griffin and the coveted Best Overall show gong for LMS, chaired by James Scanlon.

Niamh Twomey, Limerick Musical Society winner of the Best Choreography, Sullivan section
Photo: Don MacMonagle

Dave Griffin, winner of Best Actor for his gutsy performance as Darryl Van Horne, receiving trophy from Olive Melville, president and Majella Flanagan, vice-president AIMS at the 50th anniversary of the Association of irish Musical Societies awards in the INEC
Photo: Don MacMonagle 

Members of Limerick Musical Society piled high on emotion and trophies
Photo: Don MacMonagle

These three Witches meet again: Rebecca Ballinger as Sukie; Laura Henebry as Alexandra; Sinead Sullivan as Jane. The women soared in notes and on high wires in a technically impressive show
Photo: Ian Collins

The transformative love story. Jane (Sinead Sullivan) gets in the neck from Darryl (David Griffin), arriving at supernatural powers
Photo: Ian Collins

No blushes, basques or high kicks spared in brilliant choreography by Niamh Twomey. Jacinta Florish and Barbara Twomey chose quality costuming – however little there was
Photo: Ian Collins

Van Horne (David Griffin) knows no limit in his search for ecstatic conquest. Fr Adrian Egan as Clive Gabriel and Judy O’Connor as Felicia excelled in contrast roles
Photo: Ian Collins

Scenes at Mount Saint Alphonsus Redemptorist Church, Limerick as The Annual Novena started in honour of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

A PICNIC in People’s Park on July 3 with ice creams for those who screamed was occasion for the unveiling of the PALLS addition to Urban Horse Herd. PALLS is Probation in Limerick and Linkage Scheme which works with trainees who are clients of the Probation Service.

A dozen of them, based on the Dock Road, laboured joyfully on the project with Limerick Corridor Art Ltd’s Angela Connolly, their manager Margaret Griffin and LSAD Sculpture degree volunteers, Aisling Mc Grory and Tara Keegan to create this magnificent 6’4 X 4′ kneeling icon. Another four horses saw the green of grass again having been re-painted by their individual city groups or schools such as Ard Scoil Rís.