LIMERICK MARKETS
The hay and straw markets are held in two enclosures on Wednesday and Saturday; the wheat market is large, and has sheds all round its enclosure; the butter market, a spacious and lofty building, is open daily throughout the year. There are two potato markets, one in the English, the other in the Irish town, where vast quantities are daily sold. There are also two meat markets, each plentifully supplied with butchers' meat and poultry; but the supply of fish and vegetables is often deficient.
The smaller of these markets, called the Northumberland buildings, has attached to it large apartments for public meetings, a bazaar, and commercial chambers; there are four annual fairs, on Easter-Tuesday, July 4th, Aug. 4th, and Dec. 12th. To the August fair is attached a privilege by virtue of which no person, for fifteen days after it, can be arrested in the city or liberties on process issuing out of the Tholsel court. The principal commercial edifices are the Custom-House and the Commercial-Buildings.
The former, situated at the entrance of the New town from the old, was completed in 1769, at an expense of £8000, and consists of a centre and two wings, built with hewn stone and handsomely ornamented: a surveyor's house and habitations for boatmen have been erected at the pool. The Commercial Buildings were erected in 1806, at a cost of £8000, by a proprietary of 100 shareholders. They consist of a large and well-supplied news-room on the ground floor, above which is a library and apartments for the Chamber of Commerce, which was incorporated in 1815, for the protection of the trade. Their fund arises from fees on the exports and imports of the members; the surplus is employed in promoting the commercial interest of the city, improving the navigation, and aiding the manufactures. The post-office is a small building, in a situation so inconvenient that none of the coaches can approach it. The mails start for Dublin, Cork, Tralee, Waterford, and Galway.
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