well what about the developments popping up in the shannonside ?

I think the problem with the parkway roundabout is the fact that it is a very tricky site with little or no scope for major improvements,as it is bordered on all sides by developments such as the parkway sc,the parkway retail park and numerous houses,its obvious that any worthwhile improvements would mean major upheaval in the area,surely some of the smaller buildings on the rebogue road side would have to be demolished,even if the unthinkable happened and a flyover was to be built,it would mean the realignment of at least half a kilometre of the dublin road to allow it to pass over the present junction and i just wonder how costly that would be.I dont think we’ll see the real benefit of the southern ring until the last section and the tunnel are built,if we’re lucky work will start late in the year,although early 2006 is a more realistic date.

just on another note i came across some old pictures of limerick lately and a very interesting building caught my eye,i think it was called cannocks,i know that this is where penneys is now,.Why was this building demolished?,does anyone have any ideas,what a shame that this building was lost,it seems a really beautiful building,am i right in thinking the building beside it is the present day roches stores?,Im fairly young so im only familiar with penneys current monstrosity,what a terrible shame this building isnt around now,it would really add to the city centres character,i also have an old photo of o connell street before todds fire,this was another fine building and when you see what they replaced it with it just makes it all the sadder!

i think this picture was taken in the 1940s

This is the part of o connell street from the sarsfield street junction to the beginning of patrick street,it is hard to tell if the first building is roches stores,not sure how long roches have been in limerick but it certainly looks a similar building in that it is the same shape as the present building,anyone who has been inside will acknowledge that it is quite an old store,apparently a large part of it had to be renovated in the 60s to install lifts and escalators.One things is for sure :the railings on the rooftop have been removed and todays roches stores does not have as many windows,plus it is now painted cream,my guess is that it is the same building,as for the rest of them they have long since disappeared,the building sandwiched between roches and cannocks is gone and replaced with an exceptionally dull structure of roughly the same size that used to be an aer lingus travel shop and is now another part of roches stores,to thr right of cannocks is where burger king now stands and the building at the far end of the photo is where the entrance to arthurs quay sc now lies.

PS it has been said that cannocks was badly damaged in the civil war as it was the taken over by the local branch of irish volunteers!,does anyone know if this is true?

Ya i mean the more you look at those buildings,the more angry you get,how could these buildings(especially the cannocks one) be allowed to be pulled down,it was an absolute disgrace,i think that in cannocks case it was decided that it would be cheaper to demolish it and build a new one in its place than to restore the original,how tragic when you consider the heap of s**t that was built in its place.I have a few more photos aswell(found em on some site couple of years ago,cant remember which one!).Another fine building to be lost was the old todds store,it was destroyed by a huge fire in 1959,apparently a huge section of o connell street and william street were at risk before it was finally brought under control,now we know why this section of o connell and wiliam street is so shabby,horrible 60s architecture,roches stores was also destroyed by a fire in 1948.Its such a pity that so much of o connell street was lost,imagine if all those buildings were still intact now!,how good would this part of the city centre look today!,o connell street has really gone down the pan in recent years and the city council seem to be taking for ages to do anything about it,brown thomas should at least be made do something with the front of their building,its unbelievably ugly.Hopefully the new department store on the george site will have some character.

I’ve included another pic of o connell street,again not sure about the date,the quality isnt great but then again it is at least 50 years old,the second is an old postcard,it gives a good idea of what todds looked like!.

I dunno dave,isnt newtown house the one behind the riverpoint building?

Nothing too interesting there, dave123, except the varying degrees of uglyness.

All of those developments are particularly devoid of design quality which is a pity as Limerick more so than most places has the potential to be a fantastic urban space, virtually no other City I know has such a logical street pattern.

That’s a bit better. Any more details on the Barrington’s development? I know where the Tait’s building is, where are the other two?

I’m sure DTZ will have no trouble securing a tenant that edge of the Island is very central and its setting is of a very high standard between the river and the former Hospital that closed in 1987. It was a tough brief to design around but from the picture shown the designers got it spot on.