Southill Soap Box Derby, 1978 Limerick Leader Limerick Leader

A NEW WEBSITE featuring 25,000 photographs of life in Limerick during the 1970s has been launched as part of the Limerick City of Culture.

‘From Limerick with Love‘ contains images from the archives of The Limerick Leader newspaper, which celebrates its 125th anniversary this year.

It is the result of months of digitisation work by newspaper staff and Limerick Museum and Archives.

The launch of the new site coincides with an exhibition of 125 selected photographs from the archive in Limerick City and County Council offices in Merchant’s Quay and the Limerick School of Art and Design (LSAD).

The exhibition, which also contains dozens of images created by students of the LSAD in response to the collection, was launched by former Justice Minister and Limerick native Des O’Malley.

“The exhibition and website title perfectly encapsulate the archive images which are an affectionate portrait of 1970s Limerick,” O’Malley commented, adding: “From holy communions, to prize winning essays, politics and sport to crowds at the St Patrick’s day parade the archive captures it all. Almost everyone in Limerick will see someone they know in it.”

Jacqui Hayes, an archivist at Limerick City and County Council, said that Limerick Museum and Archives employees have been scanning and cataloguing thousands of images since late 2013.