History of Limerick

<!--NB: THE DATES IN THE MAIN TEXT ARE NON-AUTOFORMATTED-->The history of Limerick , stretches back to its establishment by the Vikings as a walled city on King's Island (an island in the River Shannon) in 812, and its charter in 1197.

A great castle was built on the orders of King John in 1200. It was besieged three times in the 17th century, resulting in the famous Treaty of Limerick and the flight of the defeated Catholic leaders abroad. Much of the city was built during the following Georgian prosperity, which ended abruptly with the Act of Union in 1800. The depression was to last nearly two centuries, through the Great Irish Famine , Irish War of Independence, and neutrality emergency of the second world war, until the economic boom from the 1990s until 2008. Today the city has a growing multicultural population.

Name

Luimneach originally referred to the general area along the banks of the Shannon Estuary, which was known as Loch Luimnigh. The original pre-Viking and Viking era settlement on Kings Island was known in the annals as Inis Sibhtonn and Inis an Ghaill Duibh.

The name dates from at least 561, but its original meaning is unclear. Early anglicised spellings of the name are Limnigh, Limnagh, Lumnigh and Lumnagh, which are closer to the Irish spelling. There are numerous places of the same name throughout Ireland (anglicised as Luimnagh, Lumnagh, Limnagh etc.). According to P W Joyce in The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places II, the name...
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