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IT’S UNDERSTOOD THAT around 50 people have lost their jobs two days before Christmas with the closure of the International Rugby Experience in Limerick today, a year and half after its red ribbon opening.
The JP McManus-backed not for profit charitable €30million venture was constructed and delivered without State support, funding or grant aid.
“It is profoundly disappointing that we close the doors of the International Rugby Experience (IRE) today. From the outset, our goal was to help support Limerick city by gifting the building to the people of Limerick. Unfortunately, this has not been realised,” read a statement from the IRE.
The IRE was asked how many people were employed at the venture and what if any financial packages might have been offered to the employees, and a response awaited.
The entirely debt-free six-storey building offer to Limerick City and County Council, along with a €1.2m donation, was made in October 2023, with the building to be used for any civic purpose by the Council after 2028, however negotiations between the IRE and the Council could not be progressed.
“We extend our heartfelt gratitude to every team member who worked tirelessly on growing all aspects of the business, and to the tens of thousands of visitors who walked through its doors,” the IRE stated.
It also thanked former Irish rugby players Paul O’Connell, now a coach with the Irish international rugby team, and Keith Wood “for their dedication to the project along with the many local traders and organisations for their invaluable support since the beginning”.
The IRE stated it had attracted “over 60,000 people to Limerick city since opening in May 2023, including overseas visitors from 31 countries”. It had hoped to bring 100,000 people through its doors annually.
It stated that more than 7,000 people visited a Santa’s Secret Workshop at the venue in recent days, and that it “hosted over 70 community and corporate events across our unique spaces”.
“Over the past 18 months, the IRE has contributed €9 million to the local economy,” it added.
Last year, the IRE was voted the nation’s favourite building in the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland (RIAI) Public Choice Award.
In a statement last October, Limerick City and County Council said it was “disappointed” at the decision then to close the IRE operation.
We want to assure the public that every effort was made to secure the proposed transfer of the International Rugby Experience into Discover Limerick DAC, the Council-owned tourism company that manages other Limerick attractions including King John’s Castle,” the council stated.
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Another Roche’s Stores/Debenhams saga, this former flagship shop that brought me to Limerick every year for the sales and now they’re both gone . All Limerick City and County Council could put in there was a temporary art gallery.
What’s killing Limerick city is the parking price as E2.70 to E3 an hour and then go out the road to the Crescent, it’s free parking there and it has all the shops and they’ve a waiting list to get into the Crescent as for the city, The ship has sailed at it ain’t coming back . Limerick City and County Council destroyed the main thoroughfare in O’Connell Street with a Bus lane and narrowed down the street from a 3 lane road to a 1 lane road for cars and made the footpaths twice as wide for the benefit of who exactly?
@Tommy: you have just described every town in Ireland. Town centres all the over the country decimated by local authority policies
@Thomas Meaney: Eamon Ryan behind the effort to frustrate motorists but all he has succeeded in doing is sending shoppers out to the shopping centres.
@Gerry Ryan: What a load of waffle. In your haste to bleat like an anti-Green Party sheep you spewed pure nonsense.
@Sun Rise: gerry is right, cycle lanes that aren’t used. One way streets around the city centre that make it very difficult to get around. The pedrastration of the city centre which makes it a disaster for cars to get in and out of the city centre all came from eamon Ryan and his like. Add to all this the extortionate parking rates, make it a no go zone for passing trade.
@Paddy Ryan: Yeah, those pedestrians in the shopping streets. So hard for cars to make purchases when there are people around. Stop talking tosh.
@Tommy: ara Limerick city is a joke. The lads running have no idea what they’re doing sure there’s an ancient graveyard with links to the crusades off Michael St that’s surrounded by shite housing blocks, offices and a multi-storey carpark!? Like wtf
@Tommy: Walk, bike, or get the bus. No need for your Merc then.
@Tommy: You forgot the cycle lanes and the shared space!
@Sun Rise; He is actually correct. The plan is called Tactical Urbanism and it is what they believe in.
Bad for people with mobility issues and disabled people but the idea is based about being fit and able.
Limerick is a particularly bad version of it!
@A Well Known Comical Stereotype: A lot of customers travel by car and you just ignore them.
Sad to see it closing its doors
I feel bad for the staff who are losing their jobs but I think the whole project was a bit of a white elephant to be honest. The council (and mayor) have seriously dropped the ball here too. The city was being gifted a city centre building along with €1.2 million in cash and they couldn’t agree a plan to accept the gift! It’s no wonder Limerick City is in the state it’s in with the quality of people “representing” us.
@Social Guy: dropped the ball? It needs 100,000 people a year through its doors to break even and it’s physically not able to accommodate that number. Not to mention the tax implications on being “gifted” the building and the VAT implications as it was officially constructed by a registered charity. Limerick City and County Council have made plenty of blunders over the years but this isn’t one
@Social Guy: guaranteed you’d be on moaning in 5 years when the council had sank loads into running the place after the 1.2 million ran out. Was never going to work and was a PR exercise for the tax dodger. People like him don’t do things out of the goodness of their hearts, there’s always grift.
@Niall Boyle: of course it can accommodate that number! 100000/year is approx 2000 /week or less than 300 per day. It would only have been required to continue in its current form for a short period of time after which the council would be free to use it for any civic purpose. The VAT implications are not small but I’m sure can be managed by some intelligent financial management and would still leave the council in a positive position. Ball definitely dropped.
@Tony: he’s not a tax dodger – he’s not tax resident in Ireland. A very different thing. “People like him” sometimes do things out of the goodness of their hearts – he finances a large number of university scholarships, the Limerick hurling team, and has donated money to EVERY GAA county. These are the donations I can think of off the top of my head. Given time I could recall many more and I’ve no doubt that there are many more I don’t know about. Your begrudgery is showing.
It was all to be handed over for free but the ongoing running costs were going to prove too much and it was going to make a recurring loss. I think a little more homework was needed on it before it was all set up.
@John Moore: Where were you when they were planning this??
Huge shopping centre on entrance to Waterford city,Ferrybank. Great location,huge potential. Lying idle since it was built. Public library I think is only occupied unit. See it occasionally when I drive by for work purposes. Government should demand these places get up and running,provide jobs and generate vitality rather than leave this huge construction a blight on the landscape.
@Larry Betts: there are many others I see around the country on my work journeys,so much money spent to get to a certain stage and then abandonment,also there’s so much abandoned from the Celtic tiger still. And I wasn’t back here then
Where is the publicly elected Mayor ? Lots of talk prior to his election, haven’t seen him since. Surely with all the Rental properties he has at home & abroad, he has some experience in trying to get someone to take over the building.
A white elephant under another name
They claim to have brought over 60,000 people to Limerick but surely most of the visitors lived in Limerick in the first place
If they needed 100,000 to break even and couldn’t even get that when it opened it was always going to fail and it was just a matter of time
Was nothing but a tax write off was never about the people of Limerick or the game of Rugby
@Trump24: how could it be a tax write-off? JP McManus is not tax resident in Ireland.
@Social Guy: Don’t mind that clown Trump24
@Social Guy: Follow the money
@Trump24: Where …. Geneva?
@Lulu: Was the business registered in Switzerland?
@Lulu: I know but I can’t leave a blatant lie unanswered. It makes it look like a valid comment.
Seems like a colossal waste of money. What will even open now in a building of that size? Limerick City is in desperate need of rejuvenation, not another empty building
@Jacob: whatever Saint JP of Martinstown decides to use it for
@Niall Boyle: Sad lad, Boyle. What McManus has done for Limerick and the surrounding countryside is immeasurable. His unseen and unpublished charitable work is a testament to the man !
@Jacob: either a vape shop, a used mobile phone shop or a coffee shop, God knows the city doesn’t have enough of them at the moment…..
@Lulu: ahhhh bullshht. He doesn’t pay tax here and has a pr wing to leak to the media about all his hush hush donations.
Built on egos.
50 Jobs!
1 Maintenance person, 1 PR / Manager, 2 Ticket Office people, 2 Cleaners, 3 Canteen people, 1/2 Window Cleaner.
1 Manager. I have the place making a profit with 10 Jobs!!?
Should have been in the aviva
@James Kelly: the football stadium?
@Dara Gannon: home of irish rugby, No?
@James Kelly: Yes. Not quite like leinster, full of blow in pumped up ponces. Limerick n Munster need to grab the nettle and go back to what they’re good at. Winning.
Maybe a GAA museum, seeing as Limerick is the centre of hurling
It’s like giving the gift of the horse without the oats to feed it.
did the rathkeale incident involve a traveller?
@John Boylan: of course!
Well intentioned but not clearly planned thru. 100k visitors @ 10e pa, isn’t gonna sustain 30 jobs
Madness
Didn’t know it existed. Being in Limerick it’s unlikely I would have visited.
Not quite true, no matter the location I wouldn’t have anyway.
@socheallaigh: thanks for that , really worthwhile insight. Bravo
Sad. Am a rugby fan but until recently didn’t even know it existed.
50 staff !!!! Lol what a joke. No wonder it’s closed. It was a nice idea, but had too many floors, and was boring by the end. I remember thinking when I visited that there is no way the would get recurring customers and it would fail. One of those floors should have been a cafe. Give all the Munster players free coffee and food. And strike deals with the clubs to have discounts for all the players. God knows what 50 staff were you to. I will say the Santa experience was excellent
WHAT. I don’t believe it !
Never knew it existed
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