The Freemen of Limerick
01-01-1877 Issac Butt MP
01-01-1877 Richard O’Shaughnessy MP (Home Rule Party)
14-07-1880 Charles Stewart Parnell MP for Cork City
14-04-1884 Michael Davitt
14-04-1884 Edward Dwyer Gray (MP for County Carlow)
14-04-1884 Charles Dawson (MP for Carlow Town)
04-10-1886 William Ewart Gladstone (MP for Midlothian)
13-06-1887 William O’Brien (MP for South East Cork)
03-02-1888 George Frederick Samuel Robinson, (1st Marquess of Ripon)
03-02-1888 John Morley (MP for Newcastle on Tyne)
23-12-1889 Rgt Revd James F Corbett (Catholic Bishop of Sale, Austrailia)
08-06-1894 Ishbel Hamilton-Gordon (Countess of Aberdeen)
14-06-1894 Cardinal Michael Logue (Primate of All Ireland)
02-03-1899 Thomas James Clarke
10-05-1900 James F. Egan (Refused to bear sword for Queen Victoria’s Dublin Visit Note PDF link)
16-06-1900 Thomas Myles MD (President of the Royal College of Sergeons)
13-12-1900 Maude Gonne
20-10-1903 Andrew Carnegie (Businessman and Philanthropist donated Carnegie Library to Limerick)
02-10-1908 Joseph O’Mara (Opera Singer)
08-12-1908 Windham Wyndham-Quin* (4th Earl of Dunraven)
05-06-1909 Douglas Hyde (President of Gaelic League)
13-09-1909 Captain Edward O’Meagher-Condon
03-08-1916 Rev Dr. E.T. O’Dwyer (Bishop of Limerick)
05-09-1918 Mrs. Kathleen Clarke (Wife of Thomas Clarke, Cumann Na mBan)**
05-09-1918 Eoin MacNeill (Gaelic League)**
05-09-1918 Eamon De Valera (Sinn Fein)**
07-05-1919 Members of Irish-American Delegation to Peace Conference, Michael P. Ryan, Edward S. Dunne, Frank P. Walsh
05-08-1925 Rev Donal Mannix (Archbishop of Melbourne, Austrailia)
21-07-1928 Cardinal Willem Van Rossum (Cardinal Prefect of the Propagation of the Faith, Rome)
21-07-1928 Dr Patrick Murray (Superior-General of Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, Rome)
21-07-1928 Rev Paschal Robinson (Papal Nuncio to the Irish Free State)
21-04-1932 Rev Dr. Richard Downey (Archbishop of Liverpool)
27-02-1936 Desmond O’Brien (Honerary President of the Royal Hibernian Academy)
14-06-1937 William Griffin (Editor and publisher of the New York Enquirer)
22-03-1948 Joseph Mary Flood BL
22-03-1948 John Keating RHA
24-03-1948 Sean T. O’Ceallaigh (President of Ireland)
25-09-1953 Rev Dr. John D’Alton (Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland)
25-06-1954 Rev Gerard Patrick O’Hara (Archbishop of Atlanta USA and Papal nuncio to Ireland)
15-08-1962 Rev Cardinal Michael Browne (Bishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland)
29-06-1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy (President of the United States of America)
25-11-1964 Dr Kenneth David Kaunda (President of Zambia)
12-04-1966 Rev Cardinal William Conway (Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland)
02-04-1970 Rev Joseph B Whelan (Bishop of Owerri)
18-08-1970 Rev Robert Wyse-Jackson (Bishop of Limerick)
01-10-1979 Pope John Paul II
01-10-1979 Rev Tomas O’Fiaich (Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland)
01-10-1979 Rev Gaetano Alibrandi (Bishop of Bindi and Papal Nuncio to Ireland)
01-10-1979 Rev Dr. Jeremiah Newman (Bishop of Limerick)
23-06-1995 G. E. Russel
23-06-1995 Dr. Brendan O’Regan
23-06-1995 Dr. Edward Walsh (Founding member, University of Limerick)
04-07-1997 John and Trudy Hunt (Donated their art collection to Limerick)
05-09-1998 William Jefferson Clinton (President of the United States of America)
04-05-2001 JP McManus
04-05-2001 Bill Whelan
21-06-2005 Fr. Aengus Finucane
21-06-2005 Fr. Jack Finucane
21-06-2005 Ciaran Mac Mathuna
15-06-2007 Sir Terry Wogan
15-06-2007 Thomas Ryan
*Was removed from the roll of Freemen in 1918, but was restored under the mayoralty of Ger Fahey in 2007
**Were given freedom of Limerick as a protest after the organisations they were members of were made illegal by the Government of the day.
December 31st, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Is that the full list?
A lot of Clergy on the list isn’t there?
December 31st, 2007 at 12:41 pm
You could imagine the list if this proposed Irish Honours award goes ahead, “Sir Ronan Keating for your amazing contribution to Irish music…”
December 31st, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Anyone begrudge JP McManus a well deserved place on this list ??
Personally, JP McManus deserves to be on the list for the quiet work he does behind the scenes without fanfare.
A candidate on a more Irish national scale must be Rachel Kehoe, the girl from Dublin, who triumphed over the evil Heroin and stands tall as an example of hope through the depair.
Anyone thinking of nominating one or other of the crime gangs leaders, don’t bother, they already have the freedom of Limerick !!
January 1st, 2008 at 12:49 am
There are 17 clergymen since the Treaty out of a total of 33. More than half. There’s also a dictator: Kenneth Kaunda.
Grovelling little shower of sycophants, our city council, wouldn’t you say?
January 1st, 2008 at 11:31 am
yes i agree very much with you philly sofical a very good point there about jp mc manus
January 2nd, 2008 at 12:02 am
hen you afreeman does thay mean you can walk into any pub club ect free of charge sorry if i sond like an ignoramos but what does the term actualy mean
January 2nd, 2008 at 12:07 am
sorry mispelt a few words again
talkin of billy whelan who was made afreeman my mother used to babysit him they used to own a newsagent on william street think its a lawnmower repair shop now right across from the trustee savins bank next door to the red brick ailed irish bank
January 2nd, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Maybe they can graze their sheep in the People’s Park
January 2nd, 2008 at 1:01 pm
It was not clear that Kaunda would become a dictator when he was made a freeman in 1964 - the year Zambia gained independence from the British. Indeed despite one-party rule for a period “He was almost the first mainland African head of state to allow free multiparty elections and to have relinquished power when he lost: the first, Mathieu Kérékou of Benin, had done so in March of that year.”
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Kaunda is a bit of an afterthought. What amazes me is the proportion of priests on the list — almost 52% of the total. While I’m not suggesting there should be no clergy, I’m taken aback by how dominant their numbers are, though I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.