Limerick City Gallery of Art

The Limerick City Gallery of Art, known locally as LCGA, occupies a handsome red-brick building on Pery Square, overlooking the leafy expanse of the People's Park in the heart of Georgian Limerick. Originally built as the Carnegie Free Library and Museum in the early 1900s, the building was reopened as a dedicated gallery in 1985 and has since established itself as one of Ireland's leading venues for contemporary visual art.

The gallery's permanent holdings, the Michael O'Connor Permanent Collection, span 18th-century works through to contemporary Irish art, with strong representation of drawing and print. Alongside this, LCGA is best known for its rolling programme of temporary exhibitions, which often spotlight emerging Irish and international artists working in painting, sculpture, photography, film and installation. The annual EVA International, Ireland's biennial of contemporary art, frequently uses the gallery as a key venue.

Entry is free and the spaces are intimate, making it easy to drop in for an hour or so. The setting alongside the People's Park, the Hunt Museum nearby and the Georgian streets of the Crescent and Pery Square mean a visit can comfortably be combined with a wider afternoon exploring Limerick's cultural quarter.