Limerick

Sister cities

• Cloppenburg
• Hohenlohe
• Quimper
• Kansas City
• Spokane
• Santa Clara
• New Brunswick

History

originally referred to the general area along the banks of the Shannon Estuary known as . The earliest settlement, , was the original name for King's Island during the pre-Viking and Viking eras. This island was also called , 'The Dark Foreigner's Island'. The name is recorded in Viking sources as . The settlement dates from 812; however, history suggests the presence of earlier settlements in the area surrounding King's Island, the island at the historical city centre. Antiquity's map-maker, Ptolemy, produced in 150 AD the earliest map of Ireland, showing a place called at the same site as King's Island. History also records an important battle involving Cormac mac Airt in 221 and a visit by Saint Patrick in 434 to baptise a Dál gCais king, Carthann Finn. Saint Munchin, the first bishop of Limerick died in 652, indicating the settlement was a place of some note then. In 812 the Vikings sailed up the Shannon and pillaged the settlement, burned Mungret Abbey but were forced to flee when the Irish attacked and killed many of their number. The Normans redesigned the city in the 12th century and added much of the most notable architecture, such as King John's Castle and St Mary's Cathedral. In early medieval times Limerick was at the centre of the Kingdom of Thomond which corresponds to the present day County Clare, the Kingdom also included North Kerry and parts of South Offaly. One of the kingdom's most notable kings was Brian Boru, ancestor of the O'Brien Clan of Dalcassians. The word Thomond is synonymous with the region and is retained in place names such as Thomondgate, Thomond Bridge and Thomond Park. The English-born judge Luke Gernon, a resident of Limerick, wrote in 1620 that at his first sight of the city, he had been taken by its "lofty buildings of marble,…

Most-observed species

• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  550
• Rook

  Corvus frugilegus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  516
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  485
• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  484
• Western Jackdaw

  Coloeus monedula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  472
• Mute Swan

  Cygnus olor (J.F.Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  465
• Common Carder Bee

  Bombus pascuorum (Scopoli, 1763) · Insecta
  440
• Hooded Crow

  Corvus cornix Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  437