Limerick hotel’s blast from past with time capsule
Resource type: News
Limerick Leader | [ View Original Source (opens in new window) ]
By Nick Rabbitts
THE Limerick Leader’s County Edition of June 8, 1991, was just one of the artefacts recovered from a time capsule to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Carlton Castletroy Park Hotel.
Twenty years ago this week, the Castletroy Park Hotel threw open its doors to the public. The brainchild of top businessman Chuck Feeney, the Castletroy Park was one of the first four-star hotels in the country, and has welcomed a number of high profile guests, including former Taoisigh Albert Reynolds and Bertie Ahern.
To mark the opening, hotel staff put together a number of relics from the time, and buried them in an airtight container.
Now, 20 years on, the time capsule has been recovered – with its contents as good as new.
The Leader’s lead story from 20 years ago, headlined ‘Election Battle Lines Are Formed’ focused on the final list of candidates for the 1991 local elections.
We also featured a large colour picture of the Limerick County senior hurling panel ahead of their Munster Senior Cup semi-final appearance. General manager Denis Deery said he was “surprised and delighted” that the newspapers had been preserved.
One of the men featured in that picture, Ger Hegarty joined staff for a celebration event at the hotel, which took place on this Thursday night. Other guests at the dinner included UL’s founding president Dr. Edward Walsh – a guest at the hotel’s opening night – as well as local TDs Jan O’Sullivan and Kieran O’Donnell.
Staff at the hotel will now put the time capsule back in the ground, with some pieces from this week – including this week’s of the Limerick Leader – to be unearthed 20 years from now.