Limerick City

Before you ask, there's no direct connection between Limerick City and the facetious five-line verse form known as a limerick, which was first popularized by the English writer Edward Lear in his 1846 Book of Nonsense. The city, at the head of the Shannon estuary and at the intersection of a number of major crossroads, is an industrial port and the republic's third-largest city (population 75,000). If you fly into or out of Shannon Airport, and have a few hours to spare, do take a look around. The area around the cathedral and the castle is dominated by mid-18th-century buildings with fine Georgian proportions. What's more, the city has undergone considerable revitalization since the days recounted in Frank McCourt's childhood memoir, Angela's Ashes. However, it still lacks a vibrant dining scene: many people prefer to head for the country to dine out, for instance in Adare or Newmarket on Fergus. Limerick is trying hard to counter a reputation for gang warfare, confined primarily to its less privileged outer suburbs. The city center feels like a ghost town once workers have gone home at the end of the day (until the early hours, when young revelers are released from the nightclubs), in spite of the large sums of money spent recently on revitalizing Limerick's quays. It doesn't help that the things for which Limerick is famous—rugby football, lace, and (Catholic) religious devotion—are all so uncool.