I published Celtic Punk Superfan earlier this year, and I compiled There Once Was a Limerick Anthology, which will be published by Dover Publications in August. Do my two books share an Irish commonality? Are limericks named after Limerick, the third-largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and/or the county of the same name? The link is tenuous, but it’s worth considering. In The Curious Story of the Limerick, Matthew Potter explains, “Limerick is the only place in Ireland to give its name to a form of poetry or indeed any other literary form.” He seeks to tout the connection “so that Limerick can establish itself internationally as one of the few places that gave its name to a literary form. Think Shakespeare and Stratford, Joyce and Dublin, Burns and Scotland, Limerick and the limerick.” Potter explores several theories: According to the Oxford English Dictionary‘s (1902) entry for “limerick,” “it was a custom at convivial parties, according to which each member sang an extemporized nonsense-verse, which was followed by a chorus containing the words ‘Will you come up to Limerick?’” “The Irish Brigade, which served in France for most of the eighteenth century, might have taken the form to France … Continue reading The Connection between Limericks and Limerick, Ireland