Investment in King John’s Castle

AN investment of €5.7 has been arranged for the redevelopment of King John’s Castle in Limerick.Following a submission by Shannon Development a grant of €4.7 million has been approved by Fáilte Ireland and the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport. The balance of the funding will be met by Shannon Development.

Dr Vincent Cunnane, chief executive of Shannon Development said, “The redevelopment of King John’s Castle in Limerick is a strong indication of Shannon Development’s commitment to the future of Limerick. This project puts a key priority on Limerick City as the centre of a strong Shannon region. Tourism is one of the drivers identified by Shannon Development to help us achieve this objective and this is why the redevelopment of King John’s Castle is vitally important. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2012 to coincide with the 800th birthday of the castle and will be strongly promoted in conjunction with that event.”
Outlining the proposed work “The essence of the new visitor experience at King John’s Castle is to make the Castle itself the core attraction, boosted by living interpretation and re-enactment. We will be introducing a wide range of new technologies and specialist multi media techniques which will be used to bring the Castle’s development and historical events to life within the context of improved exhibition, interpretation and visitor facilities.
“Now that we have the funding element in place, our next step will be to secure a design consultant through a public tendering process. We intend to look for imaginative submissions from design consultants in the coming weeks.”