The Limerick Treaty Stone

The story goes that the Treaty of Limerick was signed on a big lump of limestone back in 1691, after the Jacobite Irish surrendered after the second siege of Limerick to the forces of William of Orange

The treaty was signed on October 3, 1691, in the Dutch General Ginckel’s tent, in Camp Field, Redgate, out the Old Cratloe Road past Caherdavin Heights. That’s about all historians can really agree on. Some are a bit dubious that, after a war between the armies of King James II and William of Orange, that a table couldn’t be found to sign the treaty on (tables having being invented some time previously).

A Cork newspaper reported in 1814 that the late Miss Dobbins of Brown Street, Cork actually owned the original table the Treaty of Limerick was signed on and it was to be auctioned off. The table was up for sale again in 1865, but has since disappeared from view.

Other accounts say that the treaty was signed halfway between Redgate and Thomond Bridge, on land near Hassett’s Cross owned by the old McNamara family. Oddly enough, the field is now Thomond Park, the rugby ground.

It was moved from there around 1757 “by some Claremen” (that era's version of cheap immigrant labour) and left outside a store next to Thomond Bridge, where the Treaty Bar is now.
In 1836, the stone was still outside a weaver’s shop and used as a step for people climbing on their horses. The weaver’s shop became a pub, the Black Bull. We all know how hard it is getting on a horse when drunk, so using the Treaty Stone as a step made perfect sense.

During this time, the local tradition was that this was the Treaty Stone although there didn’t seem much historical basis for this. It didn’t stop people taking little chips off it as souvenirs. In 1863, in part to protect the stone, it was decided to mount it on a platform.

After the extensive tendering process, numerous appeals to An Bord Pleanala and an exorbitant expenditure of £85, the stone was finally mounted on a pedestal in 1865. As our idiotic forefathers failed to foresee the chronic traffic problems of the late 20th century, the stone had to be move again in 1990, a few metres further down Clancy’s Strand.
It survives though, as a symbol of Limerick

The Treaty Stone doesn’t look much like it did back in 1691. Its about half its original size from people chipping pieces off & selling them to gullible Irish-Americans. A ring with a Treaty Stone inset sold for £1,000 many years ago while the Treaty Stone cufflinks are tasteless but expensive. It got so bad that in 1940 one city councillor proposed covering the stone in a glass shield before it disappeared completely. I vaguely remember in the 1980s too, someone throwing a can of black paint over the stone, though I could have dreamt that.