Mayor Kiely favours Henry Street as best location for District Court
THE JIM KEMMY Museum, located behind King John’s Castle, is to be relocated in the Merchant Quay building, which has housed the Limerick District Court.
Mayor Kevin Kiely has confirmed that once the District Court is relocated, the museum will then transfer to the vacant building next door to City Hall.
Some months ago, Pat Dowling, a director of services with Limerick City Council called for a more prominent relocation of the museum, which he contended is obscured by the medieval castle.
He argued that visitors were frequently unaware of the museum’s presence in the area and that consequently, its potential to attract visitors was reduced.
Speaking to the Limerick Post. Mayor Kiely confirmed that he has been in negotiations with the city manager, Tom Mackey and Mr Dowling on the issue.
“I’ve been pushing very hard for moving the museum Into what will be the former District Court and have also had meetings with the Defence Minister, Willie O’Dea, who has been very helpful and made strong representations to the court services – it’s now just a matter of getting the Office of Public Works, the City Council and the Court Services together to agree a compensation package, sufficient to fit out the building when vacated by the court, to make it suitable for the museum.
Mayor Kiely said that the council is paying in the region of 60,000 euro annually in rent for the museum building, to Shannon Development. “The transfer will mean the museum will now be in a much more prominent location, a location that is frequented by visitors to the city – they visit St Mary’s Cathedral and automatically wander into Merchant’s Quay. The tour buses depart from here and the Angela’s Ashes walking tours also gather here.”
The mayor is enthusiastic about transferring the District Court to the proposed Henry Street location.
“It’s an ideal arrangement, there’s underground parking and forecourts in the old Post Office site and being so close to the Garda Station on the opposite side of the road, it will save on garda patrols and manpower”. Asked if it is envisaged that the Henry Street location will be a short, rather than a long-term arrangement, (there has been ongoing speculation that the court would transfer to a site on the St Joseph’s Mental Hospital campus), Mayor Kiely said he feels it will be a permanent location for the District Court.
“The HSE has decided against giving land on the hospital campus over for this purpose – the Office of Public Works has been told that the HSE has other plans for it. I’m very happy with the arrangement for the transfer of the museum into what will soon be the vacated court building – I’ll be leaving no stone unturned in seeing this up and running as soon as possible.
Earlier speculation that the City Library would take up occupancy in the court house building was dispelled by the city librarian, Dolores Doyle, who told the Limerick Post the building is too small for their purposes.
“The library in the Granary building on Michael Street is 14,500 square metres and is now much too small for our extended services, but the court building is only 8,000 square feet. What we are looking for in a new building we need for the library is 20,000 or more square feet,” she said.
