Details about Limerick?

Question

I will be coming from Chicago and living in Limrick for about a month in June for school. I want to experience a real irish pub, irish dancing and music. What is the nightlife like there and how often are there fairs or festivities going on? Also, do the women there dress conservatively?

Answer 1

Limerick is not the best place to visit in Ireland.  When I was travelling in Ireland I drove all over the country, stopping in different places, and Limerick was the only time when a 'poshy' woman in a black suit practically dragged me on the pavement to try and steal my camera.  Be careful when walking in the streets!

Re mode of dress, what I particularly remember is that teenage girls have these really conservative uniforms - skirts that reach nearly to their ankles!

Answer 2

It depends on whereabouts you are staying in Limerick. The nightlife is quite feisty in the city however it lacks the "traditional old Irish pub" appeal with the exception of the music of Dolans Warehouse. But you will have to pick your night at Dolans because nowadays it is more of an alternative music scene and traditional music comes along only once every few weeks. It has plenty of clubs if that is your scene but may I suggest if it is a real Irish pub you are looking for then set your sights outside the city in the beautiful villages located only a few miles. You will find many traditional pubs with ceol and craic in places such as Boher, Annacotty, Oola (my village) and many more.

The city is now extremely multicultural and modernised so you may be dissapointed but take a short journey out to a few country villages and see the real irish tradition come alive!

In terms of clothes- yes we did have to skirts to our ankles in secondary school but we do live in the wettest county in Ireland! Casual, smart, whatever style you wish to choose it does not matter. There are so many different types of style over here that no one will give you a second glance no matter what you wear.

Answer 3

Night life in the the cities are great.Irish traditional music doesn't really appeal to the young people of Ireland if you want to see Irish dance and music to to bunratty castle.Fairs and festivals are usually during bank Holiday weekends in Ireland.if your coming in June the fairs will probably be the first weekend in June. women wear what they like.

Answer 4

There are lots of pubs in limerick, right now I can't think of any that play irish music, I'll update later of I remember but I'm sure someone will post afew.

There is a market on every Saturday which is nice, alot of people go out to that it's in a place called the milk market. There is another one on Sunday in town which has just started up. Riverfest is on during the summer, can't remember the dates for that one. Good places to go are King Johns castle, the art gallery(beside peoples park) and if their is a rugby match on Thomond Park

As for the women, conservative as not a word I would use people mostly just wear whatever they want. Those skirts that go to the ankle are school uniforms.

Nothing much has happened to me here, been here 3 years now and just a bit ago I was robbed but I didn't really have anything to rob and they just took something out of my bag so it was more of an annoynce than anything else. Look after your stuff and you'll be fine

Answer 5

Limerick is small but it has a very lively nightlife because it has a very high proportionate student population. You will have no problem finding night clubs or trad venues - they're all over the place. There's well-known old reliables like the White House, Souths, Dolan's Warehouse etc. but it would be a waste of time trying to list them in advance - some of the best places for the craic change from month to month. The best thing is not to plan it in advance - that's not the way it works. Get there and ask then what's on that night in any genre.

You may hear about violent crime in Limerick but it's nearly exclusively involving members of certain criminal gangs, as a result of which you'll hear the nickname "stab city" for Limerick. In fact it's much safer than other cities such as Dublin or Cork, because there are much less random acts of violence against innocent people than you get in those places, and of course by international standards it's very crime-free.

It would be silly to judge code of dress by girls' school uniforms, as Elle. For going out at night, normal casual clothes are usual for trad venues but there's no code. For nightclubs, it's the same as any other countries.

Answer 6

If you're going out at night, dressing isn't very conservative.  They have a saying here about "greyhound" skirts...

Why are they called greyhound?  cuz they're only an inch from the hair...

so if out and about in the pubs/nightclubs, short skirts, high heels, showing cleavage is pretty much the norm...

In Limerick, Dolan's has trad music every night, and I think Nancy Blake's has trad a few times a week.

Tons of pubs in town... for a nice quiet pint go to Tom Collins... for dancing there's always The Sin Bin...  for noisy drinking/socializing I like Nancy Blake's out in the back..

In June, all the universities will have just let out for the summer, so the nightlife will be quiet (at least compared to how it was in May), but still should be fairly lively.

If you want really good trad music, hop Bus Eireann and go to Doolin for an overnight stay... only 3 pubs in town, and all have good trad music 364 days a year (the one i go to only closes for Christmas)... that's the best place I've seen trad music in Ireland...  lots of places to stay in town also, and you can go do a daytrip to the Aran Islands...

Fairs/festivities in June I don't know, best to check out an Irish paper online like The Irish times... they put out a great paper supplment every Friday on what is going on entertainment wise in the country each week, you might be able to access it online.  Otherwise just check good 'ol Google or http://www.discoverireland.ie

For irish dancing, they probably have some kind of classes or such... check out The Limerick Post when you arrive (comes out every Thursday)