New Britain herald., 1922-09-09
OPPOSING FORCES
 SEEKING LIMERICK
Little Town Known as City Of
 FishhOOkS and Rhymes

Washington, Sept. 9.-The town that named rhyme presents an other case in evidence that history repeats itself" for dispatches state that opposing forces in Ireland are contending for possession of Linn erick.
 Limerick has always been con- sidered a point of great importance in most of the wars that have swept over the storm ridden Emerald Isle, says a bulletin of the National Geo graphic society from its Washington headouarters Tt is located where the River Shannon flows near the head of the unbroken stretches or the green Vale of Tipperary," con tinues the bulletin. 'The portion of the river immediately above the city is without navigation, for l5 miles of rushing torrents, of falls, and rapids, make the passage of any Kind of boat impossible. Above these on- structions, however, the river hoWs from it's origin, far to the no v through ten counties, widening into stretches of placid lake along which boats sail as far as the ford of his toric Athlone.
 Nonsense Verse Made City Famous.
 That five-line stanZa which most of us are guilty of attempting to com nose at various times in our careers made the town as we'll as Edward Lear famous. And many notables, such as Rudyard kipling, George du Maurier, Gelett Burgess and Carolyn Wells, have tried their hands at pen ming it. It is said that the compost ton of limericks originated as form of amusement when crowd of peo- ple gathered together for a pleasant evening in the Irish town Each person was supposed to compose stanza in turn, and the following chorus was sung after each new rhyme in order to give the next con- tributor time to get his limerick ready: oh, won't you come up, come up,
 come up,
 Oh, won't you come up to Liner
 ick? Oh, won't you come, come all the
 way up,
 Come all the way up to Limerick?' ?
 "The town which occupies both sides of the river as well as Kings Island Is about 13o miles from Dub lin. It's bacon-curing industry, it's creameries, its condensed milk fac | tories, and it's salmon fisheries keep | busy its Rory O'Mores and it's pretty little Irish colleens, the glances of | whose beautiful blue eyes are like to prove as fatal as those of Kate Kearney. Limerick fshhooks are celebrated, and though the Limerick lace worked upon a fine quality of net derived it's name from the city, 1t Is mostly made ir. other portions of the island at the present time.
 Old As Days of Ptolemy.
 'Limerick has had a past. It was the ancient Regia of Ptolemy; the Danes desired it for long while be. fore they finally occupied it in the ninth century: and in 1210 King John visited it and built forts upon it's coveted soil The dethroned | James II of England made it his last stronghold. On the island in the river the ancient Limerick had its beginnings, and today it's maze of crooked streets, and it's old cathedral dating from 117o are important points of interest.
 Limerick also has her romance | and poetry All 1rishmen may well be proud of Gerald Griffin, whose Eileen Aroon' is a lyric Of the ten derest and most musical quality. The bells of Limerick are famous for | their beautiful tone. The story runs that they were made many years ago in Italy by young bellmaker, who after years of toll perfected a set of bells the purity of whose tone satis- i fed his critical ear. They were hung in a nearby convent, but during a war the bells were carried away and no one knew of their whereabouts.
 Misfortune fell upon the bellmak