Today, March 8th is International Women’s Day. To celebrate it, we have a guest blog from David Carroll to recall the life and times of Daphne French, a yachtswoman who lived in Dunmore East during David’s childhood in the 1950s and 60s. David was the son of the...
This coming weekend my brother Robert and I will participate again in the RNLI fundraiser the Mayday Mile. This year, we are rowing the River Suir from Carrick to Cheekpoint. And to whet the appetite David Carroll has contributed a guest blog. David explores the life...
On this day in 1870 the great and the good of the harbour area and beyond gathered to enjoy the sport of sailing and racing at the Hook Regatta. In this guest blog post David Carroll shares the spectacle and many of the characters who took part. The Standard and...
I am delighted to have this guest blog entry from Cian Manning of a vivid account of just one of the many historic races that took place in the regattas of the past in Waterford City. In this case, it reveals the visit of the Oxford rowers in 1890 who came to compete...
On 13 February 1884 the fully rigged sailing ship Stowell Brown came to grief on the sand bar above Creaden Head, one of several ships caught out in a terrific February storm that year. A regular and popular guest contributor to our page, David Carroll has the story....
In a follow up to an earlier article on the life and times of Irish Master Mariner Albert Bestic, author David Carroll affords a second installment of Bestic's career -the tragic sinking of the Irish Lights Vessel Isolda on 19th December 1940. Take it away David:...
A Guest post by Conor Donegan. Two weeks ago, Dr Pat McCarthy, the foremost expert on the Irish revolutionary period (1912 – 1923) in Waterford, gave a very well attended lecture on the landing of a significant shipment of arms at Cheekpoint by the IRA, the...
I'm indebted to David Carroll for this On This Day contribution to the blog today August 19th 2021. In it, David, who has written several guest features, explores the near-tragedy that occurred this day in 1988. Thankfully the keen eyes of a child playing at Dunmore...
On the week that Dauntless Courage arrives from the publishers to local shops, (December 2020) I asked author David Carroll to whet the appetite with a short guest blog about a rescue that is legendary in Dunmore East due to the skill and bravery shown by the lifeboat...
A guest post by Conor Donegan One of the most intriguing aspects of the Irish Revolutionary period (1912-1923), is the degree to which counties, and often areas within counties, varied from each other in terms of levels of IRA activity. Waterford is perhaps one of the...
Jerry McCarthy (RIP) I got my first glimpse of Carrick Beg in Nov 1974 when my then girlfriend invited me up for the weekend. It didn't take me long to get to know the neighbours as I began to spend more and more time up here after that. Straight away it became very...
John Flynn When I was in my early teens my friends and I would cycle miles to pick strawberries. In the evenings if we were passing an old graveyard on our way home we would go in and look for the oldest dated headstone or an unusual inscription. One evening one of...
Cian Manning Edmund Spenser, the 16th century English poet penned the words ‘the gentle Shure that making way. By sweet Clonmel, adorns rich Waterford’. As we follow the river Suir we reach Ireland’s oldest city founded by the Vikings and are presented with a majestic...
Astrid Hurley There was always a conflicting tale growing up as to where the source of the River Suir actually starts. The Devil's Bit mountain is the most favoured but Borrisnoe is also mentioned. Thanks to Tipperary Tourism for the image I grew up in the shadow and...
Paul Grant The Poet Patrick Kavanagh once said “The man that knows his own half acre knows the world”. The older we become the more nostalgic we become. The summers were warmer, the grass was greener, life was simpler. We need to be careful not to look back with rose...
David Carroll Shanoon, Sean Uaimh – “Old Cave” Canon Patrick Power, Place names of the Decies Pedantic people might tell you that Shanoon, the rugged stretch of high cliff that overlooks the harbour at Dunmore East is strictly not within the ‘Three Sisters Family’ of...
Joe Dunphy I was born within two throws of a stone from the “sweet valley of the Nore” in Grennan, Thomastown that I believe sums up the Nore in all its best aspects. I refer to its beauty, its value and its centuries of history in the lovely region we are blest to...
Maria White Doyle contributes this article as a contribution to Heritage Week November 2015, the weather had been typically miserable. Heavy rains had eroded the cliffs along the coast, washing the clay and grass from above down to the rocks below but this particular...
Heritage Week continues with Myles Courtney, and the Salmon Ponds of New Ross The ebb and flow of a river, its rising and falling tides can instill a sense of ease and relaxation in an observer. Since my retirement, I have had time to be more observant and...
Deena Bible The Green in the village of Cheekpoint, Co Waterford is, as its name suggests, a grassy area close to the quays and situated beside the rivers edge. If you stand in the middle of the Green you can see the boats tied up around the quays, people coming and...
Author: Fintan Walsh Passage East in the era described On the banks of the Suir that flows out to the seaLies a quaint little village that’s like heaven to meSteeped in our history and also Ireland’s folkloreIt is called Passage East and it’s a place I adore In these...
Patsy Travers Mullins. The year is 1566 and a man named Tom Butler is standing in the courtyard of Ormonde Castle in Carrick-on-Suir. He is waiting for a ship coming upriver from Waterford. His focus is on a large semi-circular docking area for ships and barges built...
Deena and myself have found many ways to endure the Covid 19 lockdown, good food, plenty of exercise and some other daily habits such as watching the 9pm news to be informed and remembering to keep in touch with family and friends to break the isolation. One daily...
This month, I'm indebted to my good friend Mark Fenton for a story to bring a smile to people's faces. Mark like myself was reared in a home where the sea was in our blood and we wanted nothing more than to sail away into the wild blue wonder. Maybe thats why we got...
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