Limerick city falls off the Google map

LIMERICK RESIDENTS were surprised yesterday to find their city was not on the map, according to Google’s map search facility.

A search for Ireland on the maps.google.com website shows a map of the island with Dublin, Derry, Belfast and Bangor named. When the zoom tool is used, other cities and large towns including Cork, Galway, Waterford and Sligo come into view.

However, when the user zooms in further, towns such as Annacotty, Newport, Kilrush and Thurles are highlighted before Limerick is named.

The exclusion of Limerick on the map was highlighted by a local businessman on Limerick’s Live 95FM radio station yesterday.

Limerick’s Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins said he was shocked the city was not featured.

“I have contacted the head of Google Ireland, John Herlihy, this morning to ask him that this oversight be rectified immediately,” he said.

Mr Herlihy grew up in Limerick before moving to Dublin.

Confusing Google Maps with Google Earth, Mr Collins said, “Google Earth is becoming increasingly popular and to think that one of Ireland’s largest population centres is not featured on the main maps is simply not good enough.”

A spokeswoman for Google said Limerick did not appear on some of the zoom levels on Google Maps but said it was definitely still on the map.

A search for Limerick on the website would quickly bring up the city, she said.

“Limerick is very much on the map, available on Google Maps, Google Earth and also in Street View,” she said.

Google was looking into this specific issue regarding Limerick appearing on the zoom levels, she said. “We are always open to feedback and looking to improve the data in all zoom levels of Google Maps.”

Asked if Limerick would be named on all zoom levels of the the map from now on, she said the team at Google was looking into the matter but she could not be more specific.