Data provided by Limerick City and County Council from 2022 to 2025 reveals an approximate 20 percent decline in footfall in the city centre.
Amid mounting concern from traders, and a growing number of shop closures, Limerick Voice reporters obtained footfall data from Limerick City and County Council for the key trading months of November and December.
The data shows an overall 19.3 percent drop in footfall in Limerick city centre during peak shopping months from 2022 to 2025. This translates into businesses losing 1 in 5 customers in only four years, during what should have been their most profitable time of the year.
On Christmas Eve 2025, a key shopping day, the decrease in shoppers was even more alarming. Business owners experienced a drop of 38.1 percent in footfall compared to the same day in 2022.
The data points to a general downward trend in city centre activity. It raises urgent questions about the long-term health of Limerick’s urban core and whether existing Limerick City and County Council initiatives, including the regeneration of O’Connell Street or Twilight Thursday are working.
The donut effect
The footfall data was collected by Huq on behalf of Limerick City and County Council by drawing on anonymous mobile phone signals in the area which are then analysed and the footfall is extrapolated. It has reported accuracy of 90%. The data collected points to what some fear is the consequences of the so-called ‘donut effect’.
This effect refers to a process in which people and businesses move to suburban areas, leaving urban cores hollowed out.
To better understand the impact this is having on the region, Limerick Voice spoke with urban geographer and emeritus professor for Mary Immaculate College Dr. Des McCafferty. The professor explained “the term comes originally from American cities,” and was being used “as long ago as the 1960s.”
Dr. McCafferty described how fragmented authorities can accentuate this trend, which was the case for Limerick city. Up until 2014, the main part of the urban area was governed by the City Council. Large parts of the suburbs were administered by Limerick County Council, with some northern suburbs administered by Clare County Council.
“That was a factor that contributed to the general effect. The local authorities were competing to attract both residential and business development,” concludes the professor.
This led to the emergence of a large number of retail parks and shopping centres in Limerick city centre and suburbs. The Crescent Shopping Centre was the third to open in the country, back in 1973. Today the Treaty City alone has six.
In an effort to attract shoppers back to the city centre, the Limerick Urban Centre Revitalisation Project of O’Connell Street (LUCROC) was announced in June 2017, costing approximately nine million euro.
According to the council, the works that began in April 2021 “aimed to deliver a high-quality public realm, improve ease of movement for all users, and reposition the city centre as the premier regional shopping destination.”
Retailers React
To assess how effective the regeneration of O’Connell Street has been, Limerick Voice spoke to a number of well-known local traders.
Junior Franklin who has been operating on O’Connell Street for 42 years, recalls how during the city centre construction works “people’s habits changed, they went elsewhere, and they haven’t come back.”
Mr. Franklin described how the public works that began shortly after the COVID-19 Pandemic “cut the trade completely in the city centre.” He relayed his frustration stating there is “no incentive for the public to come in here,” as he fears “the longer it goes on, the more businesses are going to close down.
“Every business is suffering here, every one of them,” he added.
For Mr. Franklin, even the new design of O’Connell Street is “a major fault”, as it lacks vital loading docks, meaning his deliveries can no longer be dropped outside his store.
The Council have said that the removal of on-street parking and the reorganisation of loading facilities were “necessary measures to achieve the project’s objectives of reducing traffic congestion and prioritising active travel.”
A few blocks away from Franklin’s at Flax in Bloom, a clothing retail store located on Denmark Street there are a slew of vacant units. The same can be seen along Cruises Street, where numerous ‘To Let’ signs flood the streetscape.
This includes Glitzy Bitz, a staple Limerick shop which operated in the city centre for 38 years, and has now ceased trading.
Limerick City and County Council would not comment directly on vacant units but highlighted that 21 new businesses opened in the city centre in 2025.
Colette Meaney, owner of Flax and Bloom, spoke about her loyal clientele, who have been the driving force behind her business.
Ms. Meaney, whose clothing store has been operating for 25 years, explained how fortunate she is to be located so close to Limerick’s iconic Milk Market – one of the few places in the city thriving despite the difficulties: “The busiest day is the market’s day, so that proves that people want to come into the city.” She also believes that attracting more people to live in the city may help businesses.
According to the Central Statistics Office the population of Limerick city has increased by 89.3 percent, from 54,023 to 102,287 since 2002 to 2022, yet this is not reflected in the football figures. Several factors have been suggested by business owners, including dereliction, safety and accessibility.
Retailers also cited parking difficulties, traffic congestion, open drug use and anti-social behaviour as factors discouraging shoppers from visiting the city centre.
Addressing these concerns, Conor Sheehan, Labour Party TD, told Limerick Voice: “We have huge social problems in Limerick city (…) People feel quite unsafe at times in our city centre, and we need to address that, so people have the confidence to go into town.”
Concerns raised by several longstanding retailers indicate that the council’s initiatives to enhance the image and security of Limerick city centre have not closed the gap between the shopping experience in retail parks and shopping centres on the outskirts of the city.
When Limerick Voice asked Dr. McCafferty for a possible resolution to this issue, he stated “there are no easy solutions,” but emphasised that further research regarding the shopping patterns of city centre residents could help tackle the issue of declining footfall.
When contacted, the local authority said it is “working closely with property owners and enterprise partners to attract new businesses,” to ensure “O’Connell Street becomes a thriving destination for shoppers and investors.”
But until that happens, the question remains. How long can city centre businesses survive?
