This visit to Limerick I limited myself to using primes and I am not sure if it was a good idea and I may not limit myself in this way when I visit Belfast at the end of the month. Also, much to me surprise, there was a lot of dust on the sensor which was more than annoying. Much to my surprise as I had my camera professionally cleaned a few days earlier.
The Living Bridge – An Droichead Beo is a unique design by Wilkinson Eyre Architects, London and consists of seven 50-metre spans linked together by piers which create four platforms of refuge for walkers.
The platforms are designed to accommodate social gatherings, informal teaching sessions, music and dance performances, as well as a wide array of educational, social and cultural activities – all contributing to this facility’s status as a “living” bridge”.
The bridge alternates between rhythms of bridge and island, with lightweight bridge structures joining to more solid pier locations. This is reflected by the change in construction materials from steel to concrete and the transition from open parapets to solid pillars and glazed side walls which serve to shelter the “inhabitants” of this animated facility.
The architects designed the bridge to move in a beautiful flowing line across the Shannon, mirroring the river. The design conveys the sense of a series of bridges leaping from pier to pier, each supported by one of the existing islands in the riverbed. This gives the traveller the sense that they are crossing the river on stepping stones.
From the south campus, access to the bridge is through what presents itself as a hidden gateway in the Millstream Courtyard and provides a vital link between the Glucksman Library, Concert Hall and Millstream developments to the Health Sciences and the new Irish World Academy of Music and Dance on the north bank. An impressive Plaza will welcome you to Clare once you have travelled over the bridge.
The Pedestrian Living Bridge project was resourced through a partnership of private and public funding and was assigned to Arup Consulting Engineers in Dublin. Kerin Contract Management in Limerick managed the project while building work was undertaken by Eiffel Construction, France’s largest bridge builder.
SCULPTURE AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE UL CAMPUS – THE WALL OF LIGHT BY SEAN SCULLY
The wall is known as ‘Crann Saoilse’ (2003) or the ‘Wall Of Light’.
The UL campus is truly one of the most beautiful university campuses anywhere in the world. Visitors never fail to be impressed by this peaceful green place with its trees, its fountains and the beautiful river Shannon flowing majestically through it all.
In November 2019 the University of Limerick announced details of its plan to develop a second campus in the heart of Limerick city on the old Dunnes Stores site. The Dunnes site has been derelict for a number of years and was purchased by the university in 2019.
Sean Scully RA (born 30 June 1945) is an Irish-born American-based artist working as a painter, printmaker, sculptor and photographer. His work is held in museum collections worldwide and he has twice been named a Turner Prize nominee. Moving from London to New York in 1975, Scully helped lead the transition from Minimalism to Emotional abstraction in painting, abandoning the reduced vocabulary of Minimalism in favour of a return to metaphor and spirituality in art.
Scully has also been a lecturer and professor at a number of universities and is highly regarded for his writing and teachings, collected in the 2016 book, Inner: The Collected Writings and Selected Interviews of Sean Scully.
POISED PORTAL BY EILEEN McDONAGH – SONY 90mm MACRO LENS
The Custom House Park is a small park located behind the former Custom House (now the Hunt Museum) on Rutland Street. It is more or less limited to pedestrians and access is not always guaranteed , as it is part of the riverside walk through Limerick, which passes through Arthur’s Quay Park, past the weir and the small marina, over Sylvester O’Halloran Bridge to Merchants Quay.
The trees in the park consist of Horse Chestnut, London Plane, Maple and Sycamore.
Poised Portal by Eileen McDonagh (1987). Constructed from limestone, it stands on Custom House Quay.
In the past I have had difficulty photographing this because of minor anti-social issues but today there were no problems.
Eileen MacDonagh was born in Co.Sligo and has worked as a sculptor since the early 1980s. Her work has featured in many exhibitions, both in Ireland and abroad, including shows in Portugal, Scotland, India and Japan.Eileen has both organised and participated in many symposia, in Ireland and abroad; her work is included in numerous collections, such as the OPW, Kilkenny and Cork County Councils, Marlay Park, Dublin and Tawara Newtown, Osaka, Japan.
THE PEOPLES PARK AT PERY SQUARE IN LIMERICK – PHOTOGRAPHED USING AN IPHONE XR
I miss my visits to Limerick but am hoping that I can begin to visit again in 2021.
The park was formally opened in 1877, in memory of Richard Russell, a prominent local businessman.
The Peoples’ Park located at Pery Square in Limerick, just west of the railway station and bus terminal.
The Park boasts a number of interesting items including a memorial upon a giant pillar to Thomas Spring Rice, MP for the city of Limerick from 1820 – 1832, a 19th-century Bandstand, an ornate drinking fountain (which I really like) and two gazebos.
The park was forced to close for two weeks in February 2014 after Storm Darwin destroyed or badly damaged nineteen trees.
Of the nineteen one was one was especially important as it was both old and rare. The ornamental tree known as a ‘Tetradium Danielli” was about 80 or 90 years old. It is also referred to as a Bee Bee tree because it’s late summer flowers attract very large numbers of bees. The park supervisor decided that it would be a good idea to invite Zambian woodcarver Paradazi Havatyitye to carve three bees in the remaining stump. The park now features a number of ‘chainsaw sculptures’.
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