Ireland’s sea fisheries 1400 1600 (2023) looks at the rise and fall of sea fishing around Ireland, starting in the late 1300s and ending in the early 1600s. In the introduction, the author, Hayes, explains that past research focused too much on local stories and...
‘Unlike me, the Atlantic wild salmon does not have a voice, so it cannot tell the story of why and how it has been driven to the point of extinction.’ Written by a fisherman, this memoir focuses on the River Shannon and the experience of growing up there in a driftnet...
The Tramore Coast Guard Station 1874 - 2024 by Ivan Fitzgerald Although small in scale (94 pages in all) this book packs a punch. Broken into twelve chapters, it covers the origins of the Coast Guard, the building of the Tramore station, and some of the life-saving...
Cian Manning is one of Waterford’s most prolific writers and he has certainly scored again with his latest offering. This terrific book blends the immortal line of one of our favourite sporting heroes John Mullane. “I Love Me County – Waterford Sporting Stories”...
The long-awaited and much-anticipated new book from Cian Manning has hit the shelves for Christmas and it's a cracker. Cian is renowned for his fresh look at Waterford history, his unique style of writing, and his ability to extract the nuggets from the mire of times...
Recently my good friend David Carroll made a gift to me of Cormac Lowth's newly published comprehensive and beautifully illustrated book - Ringsend Sailing Trawlers. With Some History of Boatbuilding in Ringsend. The book captures the maritime, fishing, and seafaring...
I finally received my long-anticipated copy of Pete Goulding’s book on Irish lighthouse fatalities, and I can heartily recommend it to anyone with an interest in lighthouses, maritime heritage, or Irish history in general. When the Light Goes Out, a clever title by...
I wanted to acknowledge this wonderful achievement by a blog regular, David Carroll. David wrote his first guest blog for us in January 2017 and has been a firm favourite since. In that story, Memories of a Harbour Boy, David recalled growing up in Dunmore East...
I was thrilled to be asked onto Tom MacSweeneys Maritime Ireland Radio Show to talk about my new book and to specifically talk about the Spider Light at the Spit bank, Passage East. Tom's show is published online, but it also goes out on 18 community radio stations...
Decies is the Journal of the Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society and is published in November each year. This years edition, #76, is packed with the usual high quality content but for those with a maritime history interest, it’s a particularly rich...
The arrival of Dauntless Courage, Celebrating the History of the RNLI Lifeboats, their crews and the Maritime Heritage of the Dunmore East Community was greeted with a wave of conflicting emotions this week. Joy at seeing the book finally in print, tears of relief...
As any blog regular will know, the lifeboats and their actions are a feature of so many of the stories on Tides and Tales. So it is with great anticipation that we look forward to the forthcoming Dauntless Courage, a history of the Dunmore East Lifeboat Station in the...
I recently spotted a new book online called Words The Sea Gave Us, by Grace Tierney. Now as a maritime blogger I had an instant, professional, interest in the topic. But I have to admit, apart from being a book hoarder and with a weakness of not being able to pass...
Since I went to the monthly format I have stopped the very popular guest blog segment. However, as Cian Manning publishes his new book on Waterford I asked if he would consider sharing some memories of why the river and our maritime past means so much to him....
2019 is upon us, and whatever about new year resolutions, one promise I've made myself is to publish a second book. I had planned to write a new book during this year but having had the good fortune of working on a rebrand of Faithlegg House combined with a wonderful...
Catherine Foley, the author, has kindly submitted a second guest blog feature to the page. It follows a hugely successful initial guest blog some months back, entitled Beyond the Breakwater which brought us back to the Passage East of her youth and Waterford city. For this blog, Catherine remembers with a loving fondness her uncle, Joe Walsh.
Catherine Foley is a proud Waterford woman who grew up initially in the city before moving to An Rinn in the Waterford Gaeltacht. Deena and I had known of her before, through her contributions to RTE Radio 1's Sunday Miscellany. However it was her cousin, and a...
On the night of my book launch Nationwide, the show that showcases positivity, human interest and regional stories, came along to capture the scene and the atmosphere of the night. This was followed up with an interview in Cheekpoint one dry crisp November sunrise. ...
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