New Limerick Tourist Atractions.

Karmafaerie

Remember the post about the discussion of a new attraction in Limerick to bring in up to a million extra tourists a year.
Well the meeting's done and dusted and a shortlist has been compiled.

Five potential iconic projects - By ANNE SHERIDAN

FIVE potential iconic structures have been short listed by Limerick's business elite to attract an additional million visitors to the city over the next ten years. A multicultural village, an Irish Diaspora centre and a multi-purpose events centre are three projects chosen from more the 50 suggestions during a series of brainstorming sessions

A project manager will now be assigned to each of the five proposals, which will be put through a rigorous evaluation test over the coming months. "They will all have to condense their projects and see how feasible
each one is," said University of Limerick Prof Eamonn Murphy chairman of the group. The statistics professor
said of the five shortlisted projects, more than one is likely to see it to completion. "There will be more than one but
there can't be five main projects either," he said.

The multicultural village, which has been likened in design to the Dubai Palm, would compose of separate villages
for each community, complete with language centres and restaurants. Each village would be connected by canals and bridges and would reflect the architecture, culture and cuisine of its particular country. A giant globe of the world, which would be lit up at night, would form the centrepiece of this development.

The events centre, which would be larger than the 1000-seater University Concert Hall, is intended to be used for
gigs, various events and conferences.

But three key challenges have now emerged. "We need to have the project within the city environs, we need leadership and a single voice, that's independent of politics. The biggest challenge is to develop a leadership
structure that's not up in lights and is driving this forward. The real question is how much money will private people be able to put up," he said Five bodies - Atlantic Way, Shannon Development, Limerick Chamber of Commerce, Co-Ordination Office and the University of Limerick- have been spearheading discussions regarding the development over the past two months.

Locations and costings for each of the five projects have yet to be defined. But, Dr Edward Walsh, former UL president, believes that money will not be an issue once the right project is earmarked. Dr Walsh is a key member of the group involved in picking the iconic structure.

The River Shannon has also been highlighted as an underutilised attraction in the city, which should be made the focal point of the city. However Prof Muprhy said "it's difficult to get money out of the river. We're looking
at how we can do that too."

23 February 2007 Limerick Leader

So five projects have been shortlisted, three of which are a new event center, an Irish Diaspora, and intriguingly some kinda multicultural village.
What the other two are hasn't been revealed, but it seems one of these projects will get the most funding while the others will get less funding, but will still go ahead.

Interesting.

I can only guess that the village would be a series of small artificial islands, each one dedicated to a different culture, complete with three or four buildings in the local style (restaurant, mini-museum, tourist centre, shop, etc), with another island in the middle connecting them, complete with illuminating globe!

sioda

Not again money being pumped in the wrong direction.

I think what we need to realise is that Limerick is not a large scale tourist destination. As tourist attractions go we have 5 main ones KJC Limk museum Hunt museum no 2 pery square and art gallery.

I think the event centre idea is a good one as this drags corporate business who will spend money in pubs and restaraunts.

But at the end of the day lets improve what we have in the city first then think about multi cultural village

Liam Byrne

If they want to throw money at something, do what Cairns are doing.....build an artficial beach!

That's the only thing that the most of the other cities have that we don't.

sioda

Artificial beach Liam thats genious in all the ideas i've ever heard bandied about for Limerick. But where would it go?

Lets rejuvinate the city first though

source

If the docks project goes ahead successfully then why not the opposite bank of the river, I know there was talk of a boardwalk and reclaiming some of the land, but it is at the end of the day swampland, I reckon it'd be an ideal location for a beach.

source

Here's a rough idea. They could put a boardwalk along the condell road, with buildings which could be called multicultural, using architectural designs from around the world

sioda

Please god no boardwalk for the clondell road do nature reserves mean nothing anymore.

Anyway you could never put a beach there its to tidal

Karmafaerie

foinse wrote:

If the docks project goes ahead successfully then why not the opposite bank of the river, I know there was talk of a boardwalk and reclaiming some of the land, but it is at the end of the day swampland, I reckon it'd be an ideal location for a beach.

Dude, it's a bloody nature reserve for God's sake!
why tear down the habitats of hundreds of animals, in order to make a beach that would see two days of sunlight a year!

Limerick Dude

An artifical beach would be so cool!

Poxyshamrock

If you had a beach where at this location it would be a complete waste for a number of reasons.

1. The Angle that the beach and the river are at would result in longshore drift.

2. The Speed and direction of the river would mean that it would be too dangerous to swim and bathe in.

3. The Angle at which the river meets the beach would mean a ¬ angle instead of the traditional slope. eg. The very end of Lahinch beach where it is too dangerous to swim.

4. Not to mind the amount of rubbish, lack of sunshine and proximity to a main road. ps. no way would the sand be that colour.

5. Basically a complete NO

ninty9er

Why not roll them all in together.

I think with Shannon Airport we could easily pull off a conference centre to dwarf Citywest and Waterfront...I really want to push something like this in Limerick....It's BIG MONEY. Put it on the docks and build polders in the river as the multi-cultural islands, linked by underwater tunnels in the newly cleaned riverbed's blue water!! Ranks should be restored too

It would cost a fortun to "shift" the current occupants of the land though.

Apologies for the crap drawing.

old boy

thinking of changing my baccy

source

twas but an idea,of an area which you could put an artificial beach and keep it in the city, I'm aware it is a nature reserve and a bit of a knacker reserve at night, but the way i'm thinking is, if there are already discussions of reclaiming some land there for a riverside boardwalk with buildings running along it, then why not suggest a beach.

Liam Byrne

Hey, I didn't suggest where to put it.....just that it'd be cool!

I don't agree with the "2 days of sunshine" comment......Limerick occasionally has worse weather than other cities, coz of the south-westerlies coming in over the Kerry mountains, but the last few years have had some pretty darn good weather. Ireland's weather isn't reliable enough to book a week or weekend somewhere, so having a beach on our doorstep would be perfect for those days when the weather surprises you by being great!

ellenmelon

my vote goes to the multi purpose events center.

best idea of the lot IMO.

they've just built a very similar thing up north here in NZ and already its booked out for a couple of major gigs and symposium things.(coldplay are going to come finally, after missing here on their last tour because of no indoor venue that suited them..).

limerick_man

Yeah, something similar to the Point - SLIGHTLY smaller... that would be the biz

ricey

I vote for the events center we could have some decent
concerts and wot not there. Iv been dreaming of that for
Limerick for a long long time.

Amazotheamazing

The beach idea is a good one, also, they should fix up the Corbally baths.

ellenmelon

Amazotheamazing wrote:

The beach idea is a good one, also, they should fix up the Corbally baths.

dude, i dont think baths are a major tourist attraction sure, t'would be handy.

Amazotheamazing

Yeah, I doubt a beach would be much of an attraction either but it'd cool to have.

Liam Byrne

I saw an article in The Post today where there were grants on offer for coming up with ideas for new tourist attractions.

What's ironic is that there are a lot of severely-neglected tourist attractions already - for example, the Clare Glens - which, if they were maintained and publicised properly would serve their purpose. A recent letter to one of the papers highlighted the awkward and dangerous walking conditions, the litter and the rats that were present in the Glens - someplace that was once a beautiful, relaxing walk with a lot of wildlife.

Why ask for "new" ideas and spend money on them when you're not providing the resources to maintain the existing ones ? :rolleyes:

I'm not saying that new ideas aren't welcome - they are - but when it comes to maintaining what we have, this country regularly behaves like a kid at Christmas time......all the old good stuff is forgotten in place of something new and shiny.