O'Connell Street, Limerick

O'Connell Street is the main thoroughfare of the city of Limerick. It was previously known as George's Street until it was renamed after Daniel O'Connell. The street runs in parallel to the River Shannon and forms part of an overall thoroughfare; along with Rutland Street and Patrick Street that bisects Limerick City Centre in a north east to south west direction. The street is about a mile in length, starting at the Arthurs Quay / Denmark Street junction and ends at The Crescent. A monument to Daniel O'Connell stands at the centre of The Crescent overlooking O'Connell Street. The street is noted for its Georgian architectural heritage.Retail & ServicesRetail outlets on O'Connell Street include Brown Thomas, Debenhams and Penneys. O'Mahoney's have a large bookstore on the street. The George Hotel is also located on O'Connell Street. The street also acts as a regional financial services centre with a number of large retail banking services located along the street including Bank of Ireland, AIB, Ulster Bank & KBC Bank.A study carried out by the CBRE Ireland Research Team in 2012 found that 16% of retail units on O'Connell Street were vacant. The results mean that O'Connell Street is the worst performing main city thoroughfare in Ireland in retail terms. The results also reflected poorly on the quality of retail offered on O'Connell Street with Limerick having the greatest proportion of fast food restaurants on its main street, at 21%, followed by footwear at 13%, and jewellery stores at 5%; this was in stark contrast to other Irish cities and towns where women's fashionwear occupies the core retail slots on the main streets and also offer a more mixed fashion offering.

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