Annacotty 3.58

Annacotty is a suburban town on the outskirts of Limerick, Ireland, 7km from the centre of the city. It is situated where the old N7 main road between Limerick and Dublin crosses the Mulkear River, 1km upstream of where it flows into the River Shannon.HistoryThe village originally grew up around the grain mills which harnessed the water power of the Mulkear. One was beside the bridge itself and has now been restored as bar and restaurant and the second was 1km upstream at Ballyclough. Annacotty Co-Operative Society was founded in the 1890s and butter was made at the creamery up to the 1960s when it was taken over by Black Abbey Co-operative of Adare (which, after a succession of mergers, became part of the Dairygold Co-op). The creamery had been transformed into a hardware store but is currently closed.With the expansion of Limerick from 1990, Annacotty has been swallowed up into the rapidly growing suburb of Castletroy. The N7, which originally ran though the main street, bypassed the village as it was then, in 1980 when a new bridge was built over the Mulkear 100m downstream. That, in turn, was superseded by the building of the Limerick Southern Ring Road which crossed the river 1km upstream at Ballyclough. Annacotty officially became part of Limerick City following the May 2014 local government elections with local Councillors elected as part of the Limerick City Metropolitan District. Prior to this local Councillors were elected to Limerick County Council, a separate authority to the old City Council.