![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0024c9d0-614.jpg\"\/)
\nOne of the centrepieces of Summer in the City is an urban beach on Steamboat Quay<\/p>\n
Limerick’s Summer in the City initiative is facing criticism from some retailers, who say temporary road closures during August will damage trade.<\/p>\n
Mayor of Limerick John Moran says the initiative is about reimagining public spaces and encouraging people to spend more time in the city centre.<\/p>\n
One of the centrepieces of Summer in the City is an urban beach on Steamboat Quay, where sand, deckchairs and kites now overlook the River Shannon.<\/p>\n
“It’s incredible,” said Eoin Devereux who visited the beach today. “It’s great to try new ideas to revitalise the city.”<\/p>\n
However, the temporary closure of The Crescent on O’Connell Avenue – a main thoroughfare leading into the city from Dooradoyle and Raheen – is a cause for concern among retailers.<\/p>\n
The Crescent hosted a preview of next week’s Obstacle Course Racing World Championships today, ahead of the international event coming to Limerick.<\/p>\n
The Limerick City Traders Association say the disruption comes at a difficult time for city centre businesses.<\/p>\n
“We have three pedestrianised streets that are suffering from low footfall – Bedford Row, Thomas Street and Cruises Street,” said shopkeeper, Shane Gleeson. “We’d love to see a lot more action down those streets so perhaps activities could be transferred down there where it would help the shops.”<\/p>\n
\nOne of the centrepieces of Summer in the City is an urban beach on Steamboat Quay<\/p>\n
The latest GeoDirectory figures show Limerick had the highest commercial vacancy rate in Munster at the end of last year.<\/p>\n
Retailers say they are already battling competition from out-of-town retail parks and online shopping, making every customer visit more important than ever.<\/p>\n
Limerick Chamber chief economist, Se\u00e1n Golden, said one of the city’s biggest challenges is its high level of visible commercial vacancy.<\/p>\n
“One of the biggest issues in Limerick is the visible vacancy,” he said. “It’s not hidden \u2013 it’s very observable when you walk around the city centre.”<\/p>\n
Mr Golden said increasing the number of people living in the city centre is a key priority for the Chamber, arguing that a larger residential population would boost footfall and reduce reliance on the suburbs.<\/p>\n
He said there was strong support from members of Limerick Chamber to the Mayor’s summer plans, including on The Crescent, “even though it was seen as disruptive”.<\/p>\n
Mayor Moran hopes Summer in the City will encourage more people into Limerick.<\/p>\n
For retailers, however, the success of the initiative will ultimately be measured not in footfall, but in what those visitors spend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Limerick’s Summer in the City initiative is facing criticism from some retailers, who say temporary road closures during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-579259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}