Limerick City

Limerick is a city and the county seat of County Limerick in the province of Munster, in the midwest of Ireland. The city lies on the River Shannon, with three main crossing points near the city centre and has a 2006 population of 91,000 inhabitants within the Limerick urban area and is one of the constituent cities of the Cork-Limerick-Galway corridor with a population of 1 million people.

Luimneach originally referred to the general area along the banks of the Shannon Estuary, which was known as Loch Luimnigh. The earliest settlement in the city Inis Sibhtonn was the original name in the annals for King's Island during the pre-Viking and Viking eras. This island was also called Inis an Ghaill Duibh The Dark(haired) Foreigner's Island.

The city itself dates from at least the Viking settlement in 812. The Normans redesigned the city in the 12th century and added much of the most notable architecture, such as King John's Castle and St Mary's Cathedral. During the civil wars of the 17th century, the city played a pivotal role, besieged by Oliver Cromwell in 1651 and twice by the Williamites in the 1690s. Limerick grew rich through trade in the late 18th century, but the Act of Union in 1800, and the famine caused a crippling economic decline broken only by the so-called Celtic Tiger in the 1990s.

The Waterford and Limerick Railway linked the city to the Dublin-Cork main line in 1848 and to Waterford in 1853. The opening of a number of secondary railways in the 1850s and 1860s developed Limerick as a regional centre of communications.

Limerick is at the heart of the region dubbed "the Midwest". Also known as the "Shannon Region", this is primarily an economic and social concept. The region encompasses County Limerick, County Clare, North County Tipperary and Northwest County Kerry, with its focal point centred on Limerick and its environs within an eight kilometre (5 mile) radius.

The area is possibly the main economic region outside of Dublin and Cork. Its economic success has been driven in part by the University of Limerick, Shannon Airport in Co. Clare and Shannon Development (an economic development agency), whose precursor was SFADCO (Shannon Free Airport Development Company), an economic agency that provided tax incentives to companies locating in the area surrounding Shannon Airport. As of 2006[update] Shannon Development are mostly concerned with disposing of valuable industrial park properties.

Historically Limerick was an agricultural commodity-driven economy, due to its position as the first major port along the River Shannon. The city was one of the main meat processing areas in Ireland, and industry included confectionery and flour production. In line with the changing economic landscape in Ireland, many multinational companies are now based in Limerick. Dell have their main European Manufacturing Facility in Raheen Business Park, and are one of the largest employers in the midwest region. The facility is the largest Dell manufacturing plant outside the United States and currently produces 30,000-60,000 units per day for export to the EMEA - contributing 5.8% of Irish GDP (2002). Analog Devices have their European manufacturing base also in Raheen, 3 km south-west of the city centre. The site employs more than 1,000 people. Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Vistakon (the world's largest manufacturer of contact lenses) also have a large facility in Castletroy in the National Technology Park. It is Vistakon's only production facility outside the United States and one of the largest contact lens manufacturing plants in the world.