Battery

The National Monuments Service's description

A six-gun battery on the S wall of the medieval quay (LI005-017073-) of Limerick described by Leask (1941, 101) as following; 'Where the Potato Market now is there was one of the most interesting features of ancient Limerick — the ship dock or port — enclosed by pier-like arms of the walls terminating in towers. The southern pier or wall, nearly 400 feet [122m] long, started from a tower seemingly three-sided, at the foot of the "Rue du Quay" of the French map: the modern Bridge Street, and formed the south boundary of the port. In 1500, say Fitzgerald and McGregor, "a wall and vault were built on the south side of the Quay. This vault had its entrance by a flight of steps at the end of Quay Lane [Bridge Street], and formed a covered way to a six-gun battery at the Pierhead near the flood-gate. This is the south wall and tower shown (the former by a double line) on the French map [Lenihan 1866, 258], which also shows the entrance steps minutely. This south wall of the Quay was repaired in 1640-41, when Wm. Comyn was Mayor, and bore a long inscription to that effect which is given in Ferrar's History, 1st edition, 1767. The tower fell in 1693, the collision of the falling stones detonating the 250 barrels of gunpowder in store there, with most destructive effects: fatal casualties and much injury to persons and property houses were wrecked, many windows broken and roofs stripped. The battery at the pier-head seems to have been a successor to the tower'.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 19 November 2019

References

Lenihan, M. 1866 Limerick: its history and antiquities.

Leask, H.G. 1941 The ancient walls of Limerick. North Munster Antiquarian Journal 2, 95-108.

Ferrar, J. 1787 The history of Limerick. Limerick.