Last week we looked at the river services operated by the Waterford Steamship Company. This week I wanted to look at the work of one particular ship the Paddle Steamer Ida. The PS Ida was launched from the Neptune Iron Works on Friday 27th September 1867 and was...
In our first guest blog 2018, Brendan Grogan brings us this wonderful summary of the life and maritime career of Captain Richard Farrell. Captain Farrell, as I always heard him referred to, was highly respected in his role as Harbour Master, but then again having seen...
Last year I wrote about the astonishing flotilla that departed from Passage East for St James Fair in Bristol in 1635. I'd long been aware of this connection, particularly Faithlegg's connection with the English city dating back to the Norman conquest. That said I'm...
The last Friday of each month I try to source a contribution from a guest writer. This month, David Carroll gives another slice of his early life growing up in Dunmore East concerning the shipwrecked Saint Austell. It's a wonderfully researched account of a...
Next weekend in Waterford we will remember our greatest maritime tragedy when, within two days in December 1917, Clyde Shipping's SS Formby and SS Coningbeg were sunk by a U Boat. Of the 83 souls who perished 67 were from the city, the harbour and hinterland. It...
Following the Seahorse tragedy in Tramore bay in January 1816 an initiative was started to create a warning system about the dangers of confusing Tramore Bay with the entrance to Waterford Harbour(1). The system commenced with the placing of three towers on the...
Following the launch of my first book I received an invitation today to speak to the Waterford Archaeological & Historical Society annual lunch. I decided to give a short presentation about one aspect of the local heritage which is featured in my book, that of...
This months guest blog is courtesy of Fintan Walsh and I think it prepares us for the upcoming month of December, which for us here in Waterford is going to be about commemoration. For it was December of 100 years ago that Waterford's worst maritime tragedy...
When Waterford city was looking to create a river crossing to cater for the increasing trade associated with its dynamic port of the 18th Century the city fathers had a problem. A bridge was needed, but ferrymen operating between its quays on the Waterford and...
For many years I was intrigued by the copper mining at Bunmahon on Waterford's coast, but it was only recently I realised that the industry had a connection with one of this pages passions, ships. Bunmahon, on Waterfords coast is home now to the Copper coast Geo park...
I offer a platform for anyone who wants to write about Waterford harbour on the last Friday of each month. This month David Carroll joins us with a tale of ships and people from the port in 1960 and his experience of the impounded vessel the SS Macuto and how it...
Last Sunday there was an understated but very fitting memorial ceremony for the crew of the sailing ship, Alfred D Snow. The ship grounded in Waterford Harbour on January 3rd 1888 and all 29 crew aboard were drowned. The memory of the tragedy lives on however, on both...
The Passage East fish house stands today as part of the local community centre. It was once the actual centre of the community however, processing at one point over 38,000 herring per day and providing a vital outlet for fishermen and onshore employment too. As a...
A new method of warfare in WWI was the use submarines in deploying mines. Initially the presence of these explosives would only be known when an unfortunate ship stumbled upon them. The mine laying subs commenced with the UC I type in 1914 carrying a payload of 12...
111 years ago today a special event train carrying up to 500 invited guests travelled across the the Barrow Bridge to signify the opening of the South West Wexford Line. It would mark a new departure in Irish Sea travel for citizens of the south of Ireland and be a...
Sir William Brereton was an English politician and writer who did a tour of Ireland in 1635 and wrote an account of it that is available online. Interesting in itself, what I found fascinating was his departure from Ireland. Brereton sailed on St James Day, July 25th...
This months guest blog looks forward to a significant anniversary this year when in June of 1867 a band of Fenian freedom fighters were landed in Waterford having journeyed across the Atlantic to join in a planned insurrection. The ship was commanded by a Waterford...
May 7th will mark the anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania. But did you know there was a link to the sinking and Passage East in Co Waterford? Well, if you didn't that makes two of us. I got a call last year from the cousin, who had heard that there was a life...
Some boats are just not sexy. Sailing ships, paddle steamers, even smokey steam boats returning from foreign shores all have their appeal. But work boats tend to get a poor press, except perhaps amongst the men that plied their trade among them. One that surely fits...
I like anniversaries. It's an opportunity to remember, and a chance to cast our minds back to how life was at a specific time in the past. This week marks the 100 anniversary of the Americans joining the First World War. It was only in recent years I realised that...
Today's guest blog, is from one of my earliest supporters and sources of encouragement, Brendan Grogan. Brendan has worked in the background and supplying photos, information and advice on my online mission to celebrate Waterford Harbours maritime tradition. This week...
I could heartily recommend to anyone in Waterford city in the next two weeks, to call to Central Library in Lady Lane and take a few minutes to view an art project, from which I take this blog title. The Roses from the Heart project is a means of highlighting the...
I've written several stories about Meagher down the years and today I wanted to look at his transportation to Van Diemens Land following the Young Irelander rebellion of 1848. Indeed Meagher was lucky to have had a death sentence commuted at the time, thanks to the...
On the 16th February 1940 naval history was made and a major diplomatic incident was triggered when the Royal Navy boarded a ship in Norwegian waters. It led to the freedom of 300 merchant sailors, one of whom was a Waterford sailor from Cheekpoint named Pat Hanlon....
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