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theatre · Thursday 24 September 2026 · 8:00pm 
Refuge, by Deirdre Kinahan
At Lime Tree Theatre · Mary Immaculate College, Courtbrack Avenue, Limerick, Co. Limerick
At Lime Tree Theatre · Mary Immaculate College, Courtbrack Avenue, Limerick, Co. Limerick
Refuge, a new play by Deirdre Kinahan, runs at Lime Tree Theatre from Thursday 24 to Tuesday 29 September 2026. The production tells the story of the Palatine refugees who fled religious persecution in Germany and, in 1709, found sanctuary in Rathkeale, County Limerick, mixing live music and dance into a piece of theatre that sets that 18th-century displacement against the experience of asylum seekers arriving in Ireland today.
Kinahan is one of Ireland’s most produced living playwrights, known for work that grounds big historical or social questions in specific, closely researched local stories, and Refuge follows that pattern by anchoring an 18th-century migration story firmly in County Limerick. The play draws a direct line between the German Palatines who settled around Rathkeale, a community whose descendants and place names remain part of the county today, and people seeking safety in Ireland now, framing the question of who gets welcomed and who does not as a recurring one rather than a purely historical footnote. Live music and dance run through the production rather than sitting apart from it, giving the piece a different rhythm to a conventional dialogue-driven history play. Lime Tree Theatre, on the Mary Immaculate College campus, is Limerick’s main mid-scale theatre and regularly hosts new Irish writing of this kind alongside touring shows and music.
Lime Tree Theatre is on the Mary Immaculate College campus off Courtbrack Avenue, a short drive or bus ride from Limerick city centre. On-site parking is available, and Bus Eireann services run close to the campus.
The story’s Rathkeale setting is a short drive from Limerick city and worth combining with a visit if the play sparks an interest in the Palatine history of the area. There is more to see in Limerick and across Co. Limerick.
Heading to Lime Tree Theatre in Limerick? Limerick has plenty more to see. Read the Limerick area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.