Meaning unclear. There are numerous places of the same name across the country (anglicized as Limnagh, Luimnagh, Lumnagh and Limerick). According to P.W. Joyce, "Luimneach ... signifies a bare or barren spot of land" (The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places II); this suggestion has been followed by some later writers (but see A Dictionary of the Irish Language [www.dil.ie] s.n. luimnech: 'cloaked, mantled', 'shielded' (lumman)). The onomastic literature (The Metrical Dindsenchas III 274) attempted to explain the name in a number of ways, connecting it in particular to luimnigthe (‘cloaked') and luimnechda (‘shielded'). It is said elsewhere (e.g. Onomasticon Goedelicum 508 and Mac Spealáin, Aos Trí Muighe 20) that the name originally referred to the mouth of the Shannon