Student Life in Limerick

What do the general public of Limerick think about students from their dealings with them? What do students themselves feel Limerick has to offer? Have a listen here.

Limerick has quite a high ratio of full-time students to the city’s total population. There are at least 15,000 full-time students here. However, perhaps due to the biggest third-level institution, the University of Limerick, being located on the outskirts of the city – in actual fact, it is in fact outside the city boundaries, in Limerick County Council’s administration area – sometimes people don’t associate Limerick with being a ‘university town’, in the same manner that, say, Galway is often considered.

In recent years, many articles have been published in the media about Limerick’s development taking the shape of a ‘doughnut’ - in other words, while there is much investment in the outskirts of the city, the city centre itself is losing out. The Irish Times reported this week that ‘retail values in Limerick city centre were lower than in the periphery’. I find this whole area of the city’s development a very interesting one, and so was happy to find out what people thought about students’ contribution to the city.

For this podcast, I went out onto the streets of Limerick to get some people's views on students' contribution. I also caught up with St. John Ó Donnabháin, President of the University of Limerick Students' Union, to find out what he thinks Limerick has to offer for students.

Backing track used: The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Photo: Tony Bracjun