2016 Photo Blog

THE HEALTH AND SCIENCES BUILDING

February 9, 2024 by infomatique

LIMERICK UNIVERSITY CAMPUS JULY 2016

I like this building and have photographed it a number of times since my first visit in 2015.

The Health Sciences Building contains extensive administration and academic office accommodation spread over two floors.

Constructed in 2005, it also consists of a lecture theatre, tutorial rooms, laboratories, clinical stalls occupational therapy rooms and other ancillary areas.

It is described as a Third Level Health Sciences Building with laboratories, occupational therapy and nurses training facilities, library, large lecture halls, restaurant, etc. From a piled highly stepped ground floor, a slab and column reinforced concrete structure is taken to a 4 storey height. Double curved, almost sinusoidal roof structure with a curved laminated timber beams and steelwork supporting a built up roof of standing seam zinc sheeting, insulation and curved perforated liner sheet. All internal block is fairfaced to an architectural quality, all services concealed. Services within the building (a teaching building with laboratories, occupational therapy and nurses training facilities, etc.) are extensive and complex.

The university has four faculties:

Kemmy Business School (Scoil Ghnó Kemmy)
Faculty of Education and Health Sciences (including the Graduate Medical School)
Faculty of Science and Engineering
Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Two colleges are linked to the university: Mary Immaculate College and MIC, St. Patrick’s Campus, Thurles.

Kemmy Business School has Triple Crown accreditation (AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA). It has four academic departments, which are Accounting & Finance, Economics, Management & Marketing, and Personnel & Employment Relations. The school’s courses include accounting, finance, economics, marketing, and risk management among other courses. The Kemmy Business School is the first European university to have a custom-designed campus trading floor, which uses the trading software Bloomberg Professional. Through the Kemmy school, students have the option of completing the Bloomberg certification. Named after the former mayor of Limerick, Jim Kemmy, the business school has both undergraduate and postgraduate courses on offer.

2 TRITONVILLE ON O’CONNELL AVENUE IN LIMERICK

February 9, 2024 by infomatique

JULY 2016

I held off publishing this photograph as I could not determine why there was an Chinese sign on the pillar. At the time I was on the other side of the street and did notice that there was a garden.

A few days ago I found the following: ” For the first time, one of our Limerick Tidy Towns monthly awards has gone to a private residence rather than a business. The award for June has gone to the owner of No 2, Tritonville, O’Connell Avenue, for its beautiful little oriental garden which is a joy to behold.

Having already presented an award in February to Rebecca Leahy Opticians only two doors away, we normally wouldn’t present two awards to premises so close together, but we simply couldn’t overlook this beautiful little oriental garden which has been lovingly created by Kieran and his former tenants Sih Yu Chen-Found and her husband Paul Found. While small in size, it makes the most of every inch of space and greatly enhances the streetscape of O’Connell Avenue. The garden is admired by anyone who walks by and indeed people have stopped to photograph it, so we simply couldn’t have chosen a more worthy winner of our June award, especially while the sun was shining!

By way of background, Kieran says “The garden at Tritonville was put together early in 2016. My former tenant Sih-Yu is a great artist and designer and we were really lucky to have her as she was the creative mind behind everything. She also wrapped the tree on the street (which is kind of funky!) and painted the blue wave wall at the corner. She made the Chinese sign on the front wall which says “O’Donovan’s House” which is pretty cool! The garden was obviously just a yard to start and it was really just a bit of fun to see what we could do with it. Sih Yu is from Taiwan and we wanted to make it as oriental as possible with nods to Asian culture and philosophy. We used second hand materials where possible and once we got the stones, the bridge, the timber and the cavity blocks, it all came together quite quickly…I love the wavy grass on the way in and the tiny pagoda! We added the bench recently so it’s like a little oasis of calm!”

MY FIRST VISIT TO MOUNT ST LAWRENCE CEMETERY

February 9, 2024 by infomatique

LIMERICK JULY 2016

If my memory serves me well I tried to photograph this interesting cemetery in 2015 but could not get to it as the roads were blocked by a very large funeral so one of my first tasks in July 2016 was to visit and photograph Mount Saint Lawrence Cemetery. When I visited there was not a single person to be seen which gave me complete freedom to explore.

Mount Saint Lawrence Cemetery, Limerick City is one of the five largest cemeteries in the Republic of Ireland, with an area of sixteen acres.

70,000 people are buried there, with another 5,500 in the Extension.

Before 1800, most burials took place in ‘graveyards’ or ‘churchyards’ located in or near the local church. By the middle of the 1800s, graveyards all over Europe were becoming overcrowded which led to the establishment of cemeteries, large purpose-built burial grounds laid out like a park.

In Limerick, the old churchyards had become overcrowded, creating the need for a cemetery. In 1849, Mount St Lawrence Cemetery was opened in the Institutional Quarter – the Medieval Parish of St. Lawrence where Limerick Prison and Mental Hospital were already situated.

An Extension adjoining the Cemetery was opened in 1960.

Mount Saint Lawrence was administered by the Catholic Diocese of Limerick from 1855 to 1979, when it was transferred to the management of Limerick Corporation (now Limerick City and County Council). It is currently administered by Limerick City and County Council’s Environment Department.

KNOWN AS BROWN THOMAS BY STUDENTS AT LIMERICK UNIVERSITY

February 8, 2024 by infomatique

SCULPTURE BY ANTHONY GORMLEY

Installed at University of Limerick 21 February 2001

When I got the opportunity to explore the Limerick University Campus in July 2016 I was impressed by much of the public art that was on display and I especially liked this.

If you visit Limerick you may come across a department store operating under the name “Brown Thomas” but when students mention “Brown Thomas” they could well be referring to this sculpture by Anthony Gormley.

Sir Antony Mark David Gormley OBE RA (born 30 August 1950) is a British sculptor. His works include the Angel of the North, a public sculpture in Gateshead in the north of England, commissioned in 1994 and erected in February 1998; Another Place on Crosby Beach near Liverpool; and Event Horizon, a multipart site installation which premiered in London in 2007, around Madison Square in New York City, in 2010, in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2012, and in Hong Kong in 2015–16.

In 2008, The Daily Telegraph ranked Gormley number four in their list of the “100 most powerful people in British culture”

Established in 1849 by haberdashers and drapers, Hugh Brown and James Thomas, Brown Thomas was from the outset, a name that is synonymous with luxury, integrity and beauty.

By the mid 1850’s Brown Thomas had established itself as a landmark store on Dublin’s main through fair Grafton Street, with customers returning for a retail experience that was stylish, sophisticated and brimming with flair.

In 1919 Brown Thomas changed hands: Harry Gordon Selfridge, the legendary American bought the Store and brought Brown Thomas into the 20th Century. In 1933, the Store reverted to Irish hands when it was bought by John McGuire and his sons. Surviving two world wars and a civil unrest that tore through the country, the store remained steadfast, through good times and bad, a reliable icon of grace and good taste.

In 1971, over a century after Brown Thomas first opened its doors, Galen and Hilary Weston bought the iconic premises on Grafton Street and set about transforming it into a store to rival the best in the world.

MARY IMMACULATE COLLEGE IN LIMERICK CITY

February 7, 2024 by infomatique

ALSO KNOWN AS MIC OR MARY I

This was my first time to visit the college campus and I was unaware of its existence until I came across it by accident (I got lost) in July 2016.

Mary Immaculate College is also the location of the 510-seat theatre known as the Lime Tree Theatre. It was officially opened on 30 October 2012. The venue is host to a wide range of performances, including theatre, music, comedy, traditional arts, schools’ performances, and conferences.

Mary Immaculate College, also known as MIC and Mary I, is a College of Education and Liberal Arts. Founded in 1898, the university level College of Education and the Liberal Arts is academically linked with the University of Limerick. The college now has a student population of over 5,000 enrolled in undergraduate programmes and a range of postgraduate programmes at Diploma, MA and PhD level. The college has a student retention rate of 95% – one of the highest in Ireland.

MIC has undergone significant growth and development in recent decades with the overall student population witnessing a tenfold increase since 1992. This expansion has brought with it a significant expansion and broadening of MIC’s academic provision, as well as a re-development of the campus which now offers teaching, learning and research facilities as well as events and conferencing facilities. In 2016, MIC expanded its geographical footprint following the incorporation of St Patrick’s College in Thurles, another well-established college, offering four degree programmes preparing students to become second-level teachers.

As a result of the incorporation of St. Patrick’s College, Thurles, MIC is now a multi-campus institution offering 13 undergraduate degree programmes in Education and the Liberal Arts, as well as Continuing Professional Development offerings for teachers and numerous postgraduate opportunities to Masters and PhD level. Also in 2016, a consortium, led by MIC, was awarded the contract from the Higher Education Authority for the delivery of the National Higher Education Programme for Inclusion Coordinators in Early Years Settings.

MIC offers 13 undergraduate degree programmes across both campuses. In 2022 the college announced the launch of a new Bachelor of Science in psychology (MI003), a unique four-year, full-time, honours degree level 8 programme that will provide students with a comprehensive undergraduate education in psychology and includes learning in the workplace. The programme content will be wide and varied and will prepare graduates for a range of careers while giving them the necessary psychological knowledge to pursue postgraduate studies in psychology.

The Bachelor of Arts (MI002) is a four-year degree programme with three years on campus and one year on work placement and/or study abroad. The degree is flexible and offers a wide range of familiar subjects to choose from such as English, Geography and History, to newer subjects such as Drama & Theatre Studies, Media & Communication Studies or Psychology. For students interested in drama and theatre practice there is the four-year BA in Contemporary and Applied Theatre Studies (MI001).

On the MIC Thurles Campus there are a number of post-primary teacher education degrees in areas such as Business Studies, Accounting, Gaeilge, Religious Studies and Mathematics. The programmes offered include the BA in education, Business Studies & Accounting (MI009);BA in education, Business Studies & Religious Studies (MI010); BA in education, Gaeilge & Religious Studies (MI011); BA in education, Gaeilge & Business Studies (MI012); BA in education, Mathematics & Gaeilge (MI013) and the BA in education, Mathematics & Business Studies (MI014).

MIC also offers a host of postgraduate programmes to doctoral level in Education and the Liberal Arts, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses and numerous access and inclusion pathways. MIC also offers funding supports through a Departmental Assistantships Scheme and merit-based Research Masters and Doctoral Awards Schemes.

Close on 10% of students on campus are mature students, a relatively high figure when compared to other third level institutions. The college, in addition to catering for mature students, also offers special entry to disadvantaged students, students with disabilities, refugees, members of ethnic minorities, and Travellers. MIC also offers Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses and is committed to improving access to higher education for adults. A range of tailored programmes and supports make the journey for adult learners as easy as possible.

Through its Erasmus and student exchange programmes, the college also has an overseas complement in its student body. Students come from England, Wales, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Nigeria, Italy, Sudan, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, China, United States, Indonesia, Norway, Denmark, Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Iceland.

The college has recently expanded into Mount Convent, a former Sisters of Mercy convent on O’Connell Avenue, Limerick, where it houses postgraduate students.

The college is home to a radio station, Wired FM, Limerick’s only student radio station with a broadcast licence, run in partnership with another Limerick college, Limerick Institute of Technology.