TWO Crimean cannons, which “belong to the people of Limerick”, according to Fine Gael councillor Sarah Kiely, should be on public display in a prominent Treaty City location.
The two cannons in question were captured during the Crimean War (1853-1856) and are now on display outside the old Harbour Commissioners Office at the Ted Russell docks on Limerick’s Dock Road.
“I’m not sure people are aware that you cannot get into the docks unless you have business there and have been given permission,” Cllr Kiely told the May monthly meeting of the Metropolitan District.
“These canons belong to the people of Limerick,” she insisted.
According to information from local historian Sharon Slater, the two Crimean cannons once stood on Sarsfield Bridge either side of the Fitzgibbon memorial (erected in 1857 to memorialise John Charles Henry Fitzgibbon, Viscount of Mountshannon House in Castleconnell).
The statue and cannons stood there until the memorial was blown-up by the IRA in June 1930 and replaced with the 1916 memorial in 1954.
Cllr Kiely believes the cannons belong in a prominent, and publicly accessible, place, to be admired and used as a tourist attraction.
“We have a long military history in Limerick. We are a garrison city and we still have a barracks here. There is no reason to keep these cannons at the docks where nobody can see them” she told the Council executive.
“Can we plan for their return and examine the possible places they could be situated? We have a military museum in Sarsfield Barracks and, again, very few people know it is there.
“We need to start taking our history and our military heritage seriously, to honour the men and women who served and should be remembered for the sacrifice they made in making our country what it is.”
Cathaoirleach of the Metropolitan District, Cllr Kieran O’Hanlon, asked Cllr Kiely to clarify part of her statement.
“Did you say they were owned by the people of Limerick? And were they taken off the Russians?” he inquired.
Cllr Daniel Butler (FG) seconded the motion and suggested there are a lot of items of historical significance locked away, even in City Hall, that people should have access to.
