Pery Square ( ga, Cearnóg an Pheirigh) is a Georgian Terrace located in the Newtown Pery area of

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

city,

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The terrace was constructed as a speculative development by the Pery Square Tontine Company between 1835 and 1838. The square was named in honour of the politician Edmund Sexton Perry. The terrace is notable as one of the finest examples of late Georgian architecture in Limerick and Ireland.

History

The architect

James Pain James Pain (1779 – 13 December 1877) was an English architect. Born into a family of English architects, his grandfather was William Pain, his father James Pain and his brother George Richard Pain. James Pain served as an apprentice to the ...

supervised the construction of the terrace and may well have been responsible for the design. The contractor was Pierse Creagh from Ennis. By 1838, the houses forming this terrace were let to tenants. The tontine development was the only area of square that was finished. The remaining plots (around the planned square) which were earmarked for development in

Davis Ducart Davis Ducart (active from c. 1761, died 1780/81), was an architect and engineer in Ireland in the 1760s and 1770s. He designed several large buildings and engineering projects. He had associations with the canal builders of the time and the mining ...

's plan for Newtown Pery were never realised and were left undeveloped. Opposite Pery Square is the People's Park which adds to the surrounds of the area. The development was the last of the great Georgian Era developments in Limerick as the years that followed heralded an end to the Georgian prosperity and a beginning to a crippling economic decline in Ireland caused by the Great Famine. Limerick was not to see development of that scale again as was seen in Newtown Pery until the

Celtic Tiger The "Celtic Tiger" ( ga, An Tíogar Ceilteach) is a term referring to the economy of Ireland from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s, a period of rapid real economic growth fuelled by foreign direct investment. The boom was dampened by a subseque ...

years. Today, a Boutique Hotel is trading at No 1 Pery Square. No 2 Pery Square has been extensively redeveloped by Limerick Civic Trust and is now in use as a Georgian Museum. The rest of the houses are being used to various degrees. Limerick City Gallery of Art is also located at Pery Square opposite the tontine as is Limerick's War Memorial. St. Michael's

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the secon ...

, a gothic structure stands at the southern end of Pery Square terminating the vista of the street to the south. Saint Michael's Church adds immeasurably to the importance of Pery Square as the unrivalled Georgian streetscape outside of

Georgian Dublin ''Georgian Dublin'' is a phrase used in terms of the history of Dublin that has two interwoven meanings: # to describe a historic period in the development of the city of Dublin, Ireland, from 1714 (the beginning of the reign of King George I ...

References

{{Limerick Streets in Limerick (city) Buildings and structures in Limerick (city) Georgian architecture in Ireland