LOCAL Limerick businesses want to see the delivery of a quality Christmas experience that attracts people to the city centre this December.
This was the call from Limerick Chamber and others after Fine Gael councillors in the city condemned Mayor John Moran’s decision to hand over all powers and responsibilities relating to Limerick’s Christmas programme to the Limerick City and County Council director general Dr Pat Daly.
While Galway, which received over 450,000 visitors to its Continental Christmas Market last year, is now busy promoting its 2025 offering, Limerick is still at the planning stage of the city’s Christmas plans.
Waterford, home to the country’s largest Christmas festival — Winterval, is also doing the hard sell on its 21-day festival, which welcomes tens of thousands of festival-goers every year.
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With the Treaty City lagging behind, Limerick Chamber’s chief economist and director of policy, Seán Golden, stressed the importance of Christmas for local businesses.
Commercial rate payers, Mr Golden pointed out, have a certain level of expectation when it comes to events and return on their investment locally.
“What we need is clarity on the roadmap for Christmas in Limerick. We understand that a meeting took place earlier on in the year to agree this. However, very little information is available online as to what Christmas in Limerick 2025 will look like,” he told the Limerick Post.
“Waterford have a dedicated webpage for their Winterval 2025 Festival – allowing families and businesses an opportunity to plan around attractions. It is important not to lose the momentum gained by the likes of Twilight Thursdays, and expand on this offering to increase footfall coming into the winter.”
City business owner Padraic Cleary of Rain Outdoors on O’Connell Street took the view that Dublin, Cork, Waterford, and Galway all get a big spend from Limerick shoppers travelling to Christmas events each year. Limerick, he believes, does not get a reciprocal spend because “we can’t do anything”.
“Limerick city and county councillors are failing Limerick City. Limerick city and county councillors have failed Limerick City for the last decade,” Mr Cleary claimed.
“The councillors have dragged their feet and dragged their feet. They played petty party politics instead of doing actual work. Councillors have no desire to improve Limerick City Centre. We do p*ss poor uselessness and nothing to bring people into the city.
“There’s a template you copy to do exactly what they do in Europe. Have some nice wooden stalls, excellent vendors, which we have plenty of in the Mid West.”
Dave Whelan of Whelan Cameras, O’Connell Street, took the view that the Council is not doing enough to bring life into the city centre at any time of year, never mind Christmas.
“There’s nobody out in the streets now, whatever about Christmas. I don’t even know when they lit the tree last year. I think they messed up badly on that,” Mr Whelan told this reporter.
The city trader, whose business celebrates 76 years in the heart of the city centre this year, hit out that he had not yet received information from the Council on its Christmas offering for 2025.
“People, once again, don’t know what’s happening. Christmas is really for the kids and we need to see events brought into the city. In fairness, we did see some great events last year in King John’s Castle where they created a nice festive spirit. We need more of that, anything to bring footfall back into the city,” Mr Whelan said.
Junior Franklin, of Franklin Shoe Repairs on O’Connell Street, wants to see more done by the local authority to promote the use of the Limerick Gift Card this Christmas.
The card, created to bolster local businesses, encourages residents and visitors to spend locally, while ensuring that money circulates within the community, providing a much-needed boost to local businesses.
Mr Franklin believes that more advertising is needed to let shoppers know it is a viable way of supporting local businesses.
“Something’s got to be done to bring people back into the city. Parking is part of the problem. I’ve customers telling me that it’s taken them two weeks to come into me with a pair of shoes because they can’t find parking,” Mr Franklin hit out.
“We have flowerbeds outside that are actually a toilet, with anti-social behaviour and stuff like that going on. There could be three parking spots at each of those flower beds.”
The city trader said he blamed the O’Connell Street Revitalisation Project for the re-development of Limerick’s premier street as the death-knell for business in the city centre.
“It decapitated business. There was five in here working before the roadworks. Now there’s me and my daughter, part-time with me. That’s what it has done to my business.”
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
