Local traditions and culture in Limerick

The main tourist areas O'Connel Street and King's Island start to close down.
After 6pm rien ne va plus.

In the pub you usally have the choice between Guiness and Beamish (No Murph, No Bulmers).

Don't wait at a red pedestrian crossing. The locals don't do it.

Jim Kemmy, a local historan and scholar, wrote about packet and tripe:" Packet and tripe, washed down with strong sweet tea has been found to be easily digestable and rests gently on the stomach, especially one ravaged by an excess of alcohol. For this reason the dish is very much in demand after a weekend "feed of porter" has rendered the stomach hostile to other forms of nourishment Packet and tripe is reputed to give a "lining" to the stomach so the dish has been traditionally been a weekend treat, a distintive Saturday night/Sunday morning ritual."

Packet is a blood sausage,or pudding and dark in colour. Sheeps' blood is poured into a skin taken from the intestine of the sheep, with spices and chopped onion added and boiled in a vat. Thereafter boiled again in milk with the packet and breadcrumbs.

Packet and tripe no longer comes from Limerick but is brought from Cork a few times a week and a small number of butchers sell it to an older and older customer base as each year passes. The younger generation would never eat the dish, prefering instead to eat "fast food" with ingredience that is made from god knows what.

But packet and tripe was an honest food, it was an "in your face" what you saw was what you got. And for a hundred years and long before, it helped to make life a bit more bearable in poverty stricken streets and lanes of the city in long gone days.

In Limerick as in many town in Ireland people love to sing especially after a few drinks.

There is well know Limerick song that I have grown up listening to: Limerick, you're a Lady

Limerick, Your'e a Lady

Chorus
Limerick, Your'e a Lady,
Your Shannon Water, tears of joy that flow,
The beauty, that surronds you,
I'll take it with me love where 'ere I go,
While waking in the arms of distant waters
A new day finds me far away from home,
Then Limerick, you're my lady,
The one true love that I have ever known.

As children you and I spent endless days of fun,
In winter's snow or summer's golden sun,
We fished in silver streams, the fabric of my dreams,
Was fashioned by your loveliness and so I have to say

Chorus

A gift that time has made to travellers on their way,
Seeking out the beauty of our land
A shrine where children pray and bells ring out to say
Thank God ,we're living just to feel the freedom of each day.

Chorus