The website – www.limerick.ie – was launched in Limerick Greyhound Stadium this week, with the leas-Cathaoirleach of Limerick County Council, Cllr Michael Sheahan, launching the site.

The site, which bills its

elf as The Official Guide to Limerick, seeks to showcase the city and county as a great place to live, work and visit.

Its colour-coded sections are: Visit, Business, Living, Learning and Kids, and it’s envisaged the site will be the first option available when searching the internet for information on Limerick, as well as having up-to-date web site content on all aspects of visiting, studying and living in Limerick.

The website has been put together with Limerick City Council as the lead agency. But the County Council, Shannon Development, the Limerick Co-ordination Office, Limerick Enterprise Development Partnership, as well as various other bodies, have also pooled their resources to create the site.

Limerick City Council’s head of IT Mihai Bilauca built the site from scratch over the past three months.

Cllr Sheahan said: “For the first time, people from all over Ireland and further afield can now find out everything they want to know about Limerick. I have no doubt the general impression among users of this website will be that Limerick is a great place to live, work and visit. The current economic climate makes it incumbent on all regions to take responsibility for the promotion of their respective areas.”

Orla O’Connor, who co-ordinates Limerick.ie, demonstrated the site, which uses Google Maps and Google Earth to provide point-perfect location information to tourists.

“People can get information about everything. We have listed events, where to stay, local community services and kids’ classes. It’s for everybody to use.

“When we started, we were a bit worried that we wouldn’t be able to populate the site with information. But as we started, we found there was so much going on in Limerick. Our events section is full of listings,” she said.

Ms O’Connor pointed out they had kept the cost at the lowest possible level by utilising the IT skills available at City Hall, not hiring external consultants, using existing content management technology, as well as hosting and maintenance.

Also launching the site were model agent Celia Holman-Lee and comedian Pat Shortt, who said: “Although this is a very simple idea, it is not an easy idea to put together. It’s a fantastic thing that Limerick City Council is putting together. If you’re going abroad, you would look online to see what is happening in the weekend you are arriving, and this is the same thing.”<!—
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