Live Music in Limerick

The Limerick live music scene

Dock Road is the address to learn first. The Dolan's complex there holds three separate venues, and between them they cover almost every kind of night the city offers. Dolan's Pub runs a free traditional session at 9pm from Wednesday to Sunday. Dolans Warehouse is the ticketed concert room, where the touring names play, from Frances Black, The Undertones and Alabama 3 to Duke Special and the better tribute shows, mostly at 8pm. Upstairs at Dolans is the small room for songwriters and folk acts of the Margaret Glaspy, Daoirí Farrell and Jerry Fish kind, with the occasional Saturday-afternoon show. A few doors along, the Kasbah Social Club takes the alternative and heavier end, from The Altered Hours to visiting noise-rock bands, usually at 8pm.

Across the city, the Locke Bar on George's Quay is the other anchor. It runs a free traditional music and dance session at 9pm every night of the week, with nothing ticketed at all, which makes it the single busiest venue in the county. Nancy Blake's on Denmark Street Upper has free trad on Wednesdays and Sundays at 9pm, the Commercial on Catherine Street runs a Tuesday-night record-room residency, and the Old Quarter Pub on Little Ellen Street puts on free live music at 10.30pm on Fridays and Saturdays, one of the few genuinely late options. Those pubs between them mean that well over half of Limerick's live music costs nothing to walk into.

The seated and big-tent end is seasonal and concentrated. The Lime Tree Theatre and Belltable carries the theatre programme: touring singer-songwriters like Foy Vance, Phil Coulter-style heritage concerts, tribute productions and the occasional musical, with tickets usually in the €28 to €45 band. Then from late November into December, Live at the Spiegeltent Pavilion on the North Circular Road runs a block of consecutive ticketed nights at 7pm, the kind of run that brings The Proclaimers, Paul Brady, Ash, Sharon Shannon and Hermitage Green through the city in a fortnight. Live at the Big Top on Cornmarket Row overlaps with its own run of headliners, Glen Hansard, The Darkness and Picture This have all played it. Between the two tents, Limerick has a bigger-name December than most cities.

Rock is the leading flavour among the ticketed acts, with folk next and metal, pop, country, indie and electronic in smaller shares, which reflects the Dolan's and Kasbah bookings; the pub sessions are their own thing. Where a show is ticketed, most prices land between €15 and €35, with the theatre and tent shows at the top of that range. Late starts are rare, essentially the Old Quarter's weekend slots and the odd late DJ set at the Warehouse.

The county outside the city is thin. Friars Gate Theatre in Kilmallock has a small programme, Newcastle West gets the occasional show, and the villages around Castleconnell and Foynes have a pub gig now and then. If you are staying in the county, the city is where the music is, and most of it is within a 15-minute walk of the river between George's Quay, Denmark Street and Dock Road.

Fridays and Saturdays carry a little under half the city's gigs, but because the Locke Bar is nightly and Dolan's Pub runs from Wednesday, a midweek visit is not a quiet one. Plan around the Spiegeltent and Big Top dates if you want a headline act; otherwise a Thursday with the 9pm session at the Locke and a Warehouse gig after is a very Limerick way to do it.

The calendar also runs further into the new year than most counties'. The Warehouse and the Lime Tree book well into January and February, so January is not the dead month it is elsewhere. The one gap is festivals: the two tents function as mini-festivals in winter, and the city's summer programming is lighter than Galway's or Cork's.

Limerick venues worth knowing

A short, opinionated list of where to go in Limerick and why. Open any venue for its full upcoming calendar.

Traditional sessions in Limerick

The Locke Bar on George's Quay runs a free traditional music and dance session every night at 9pm, with no exceptions. Dolan's Pub on Dock Road has its free trad session at 9pm from Wednesday to Sunday, and Nancy Blake's on Denmark Street Upper runs free sessions on Wednesdays and Sundays at 9pm. For something less formal, the Old Quarter Pub on Little Ellen Street has free live music from 10.30pm on Fridays and Saturdays. All four are walk-in, and together they make up most of Limerick's free music.

Live music in Limerick: common questions