Limerick (redirected from Limmerick)

Limerick, city, Republic of Ireland

Limerick, city (1991 pop. 56,083), seat of Co. Limerick, SW Republic of Ireland, at the head of the Shannon estuary. The city has a port with two docks. The primary imports are grain, timber, and coal; exports include produce and fish. Limerick's industries include salmon fishing, food processing, flour milling, computer manufacture, and lace making. It was occupied by the Norsemen in the 9th cent., became the capital of Munster under Brian Boru (c.1000), was taken by the English toward the end of the 12th cent., and was James II's last stronghold in Ireland after the Glorious Revolution. The city has three sections—English Town, the oldest, on King's Island; Irish Town to the south; and Newtown Pery, S of Irish Town, founded in 1769. Preserved in Limerick is the Treaty Stone on which was signed (1691) the treaty granting the Irish Catholics certain rights, chiefly the guarantee of political and religious liberty. The repeated violations of this treaty during the reigns of William III and Queen Anne caused Limerick to be called City of the Violated Treaty. Of notable interest are a Protestant cathedral (12th cent.; originally Roman Catholic), a Roman Catholic cathedral, and the castle (begun 1210) of King John. Limerick is the site of a teacher's college and the National Institute for Higher Education, a branch of the National Univ. of Ireland.

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Limerick, county, Republic of Ireland

Limerick (lĭm`ərĭk), county (1991 pop. 161,956), 1,037 sq mi (2,686 sq km), SW Republic of Ireland. Limerick is the county seat. The region is an agricultural plain lying S of the Shannon estuary. The Golden Vale in the eastern part of the county and the Shannon bank are especially fertile. Dairy farming and salmon fishing are the chief occupations. On the Shannon River above Limerick is an important hydroelectric plant. Main manufactures include aluminum castings, automotive parts, concrete pipes, and office equpiment. After the Anglo-Norman invasion and the organization of Limerick as a shire (c.1200), the district was controlled for many centuries by the earls of Desmond.

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limerick, in poetry

limerick, type of humorous verse. It is always short, often nonsensical, and sometimes ribald. Of unknown origin, the limerick is popular rather than literary and has even been used in advertising. The rhyme scheme of most limericks is usually aabba, as in the following example:

There was an old man from Peru,
Who dreamed he was eating his shoe.
  He woke in a fright
  In the middle of the night
And found it was perfectly true.

The most famous collection of limericks is Edward Lear's Book of Nonsense (1846).

Bibliography

See L. Reed, The Complete Limerick Book (1925); C. P. Aiken, A Seizure of Limericks (1964); V. B. Holland, An Explosion of Limericks (1967); W. S. Baring-Gould, The Lure of the Limerick (1967).

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limerick

Popular form of short, humorous verse, often nonsensical and frequently ribald. It consists of five lines, rhyming aabba, and the dominant metre is anapestic, with two feet in the third and fourth lines and three feet in the others. The origin of the term is obscure, but a group of poets in County Limerick, Ire., wrote limericks in Irish in the 18th century. The first collections in English date from c. 1820. Among the most famous are those in Edward Lear's Book of Nonsense (1846).

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limerick

a form of comic verse consisting of five anapaestic lines of which the first, second, and fifth have three metrical feet and rhyme together and the third and fourth have two metrical feet and rhyme together

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Limerick

1. a county of SW Republic of Ireland, in N Munster province: consists chiefly of an undulating plain with rich pasture and mountains in the south. County town: Limerick. Pop.: 175 304 (2002). Area: 2686 sq. km (1037 sq. miles)

2. a port in SW Republic of Ireland, county town of Limerick, at the head of the Shannon estuary. Pop.: 86 998 (2002)

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Limerick 

(Irish Luimneach), a city and port in Ireland, in the lower reaches of the Shannon River. County borough of County Limerick (province of Munster). Population, 57,000 (1971). Limerick is a transportation junction. It produces and exports bacon, butter, canned milk, and other foodstuffs, as well as leather goods, clothing, and agricultural implements. Shannon Airport is located near Limerick.