Limerick City Museum


Limerick Museum, previously known as the Jim Kemmy Municipal Museum, is a city museum in Limerick, Ireland.

Foundation

The Limerick Museum was founded in 1907 and in the Carnegie Free Library and Museum building. In May 2017, it moved to the present location in the old Franciscans Friary on Henry Street.
The museum is run by Limerick City and County Council.
Limerick Museum received national recognition as a museum under the Cultural Institution Act 1997, which allowed it to become a designated museums of the collection of archaeological material. Before 1977 the Limerick city librarian was also the curator. The full-time museum curators included: Larry Walsh – 1977 to 2012.; Brian Hodkinson – 2012 to 2017; Dr Matthew Potter – 2017 to Present.
It has a collection of sixty-two thousand objects gathered through donations, purchase and long term loan. In 2004, it became the first local authority in the state to have an online catalogue. In recent years, the number of visitors has increased from 13,000 in 2017 to 23,000 in 2018.

Exhibitions

The first exhibition was in 1940 to commemorate the centenary of the death of Limerick novelist Gerald Griffin. Since then there have been a series of exhibitions on various aspects of Limerick's history and culture. This gives an opportunity for the rotation of objects within the collection by topic. For example in the Retrospective Exhibition the Charter of the City signed by King Charles II of England, a sword given to the city by Queen Elizabeth I of England as well as many other interesting items relating to civic life in the city were on display.

Noted Items in the Collection