Dromcolliher, often written Dromcollogher, holds an important place in Irish dairy cooperation. Its community also carries the memory of the cinema fire of 1926.
⊕Recorded locationDromcolliher52.33904° N · 8.90681° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
Drom Collachair· Irish · main form · validated name
Dromcolliher· English · main form
Drumcollogher· English · main form · local name
Place & story
The creamery of 1889
The former creamery on Pike Street is dated 1889 and now houses the National Dairy Co-Operative Museum. Its rubble-stone walls, large arched openings and external water tank preserve the character of an industrial building designed to handle milk. A commemorative plaque unveiled by President Patrick Hillery in 1989 records the founding here of Ireland's first cooperative creamery on 6 June 1889. The museum preserves a tangible starting point for a movement that would become central to the country's dairy industry.[2]
The cinema fire of 1926
On 5 September 1926 a fire in a temporary upstairs cinema killed forty-eight people. Around 150 had gathered to watch films when a candle ignited highly flammable nitrate film. The blaze spread rapidly, and the restricted exit left many trapped. The dead included fifteen children. The victims were buried together in the church grounds, and a national relief fund supported those affected for many years. Remembered locally as the Burning, the disaster remains a major part of the town's collective memory.[3]
People & connections
Percy French's visit and the changing streets
In 1894 Percy French composed There's Only One Street in Drumcolliher after staying at a local guesthouse owned by Anthony McAuliffe. His comic treatment gave the town a name familiar beyond west Limerick. The nineteenth-century settlement had, however, developed a substantial streetscape of stone-built, slated houses and shops, alongside churches, a courthouse, a bank and a post office. French's visit belongs to this period of expanding services and commerce, when a small town could welcome travellers while supporting its surrounding farming district.[4]
Both counts use the 2016 settlement boundary, allowing like-for-like comparison. CSO supplies the 2022 count on this older boundary for comparison only. The official 2022 Built Up Area has different boundaries.
View population figures
Drumcollogher — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
Drumcollogher, Limerick — Census town, CSO 2006 report
2002–2006: census town
524people · 2006
These are the historical areas published in the 2006 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Drumcollogher, Limerick — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
Drumcollogher, Limerick — Census town, CSO 1996 report
1991–1996: census town
485people · 1996
These are the historical areas published in the 1996 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Drumcollogher, Limerick — Census town, CSO 1996 report — census population
Drumcollogher, Limerick — Census town, CSO 1986 report
1981–1986: census town
445people · 1986
Figures cover the historical town area printed in the 1986 report. Boundaries may have changed between censuses. Legal town, environs and suburb totals remain separate and differ from modern settlement boundaries.
View population figures
Drumcollogher, Limerick — Census town, CSO 1986 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Drumcollogher, Limerick
Published census settlement populations
518people · 2016
Settlement boundaries changed during this period. Differences may reflect boundary changes as well as population change. Where a 2011 legal-town-and-environs count is shown, it has not been recalculated onto the 2016 settlement boundary.
placenames