In December 2022 Walter Foley retired as pilot officer for New Ross. Walter had provided the service since my uncle Sonny retired at Cheekpoint in 1995. Walter actually mentioned to me that he took over the role on the first tide of January 1996, Sonny retiring on the...
In April 1898 some of the people of New Ross were disturbed to see what they understood to be a Royal Navy gunship, moored in the town with an intention to suppress the commemoration of the 1798 uprising. But was this the real purpose of this ship, and where had...
This is my ongoing diary into the fate of the Barrow Bridge. The details are below but in brief here's whats covered to date (24/5/2024) July 1906 - opened to connect the new port at Rosslare with Waterford and on to the west Sept 2010 - route closed Feb 2022 - Bridge...
In 1906 the River Suir was vibrant if weakening commercial thoroughfare transporting goods up and down from Clonmel to the sea on a daily basis, just like our motorways today. The boats used were flat-bottomed lighters (also called yawls above Carrick and barges) and...
I grew up with the placename Pill. And I suppose as is often the case, something so familiar goes without questioning. It was as much part of my vocabulary as Bight, Tailstone, Stroke, Taught, Backlash, Scooneen, Slob, and so on. Over time I came to...
One of our favourite boat trips is up the Campile Pill from where we can call to Dunbrody Abbey, visit the village itself or explore the neighbourhood and its interesting heritage. Although my favourite pastime is in exploring the fishing heritage of the area,...
For this years Imagine Arts festival I am doing two talks - both in Jordans on the Quay and both on the theme of Waterford Maritime History. The first is "In the Great Westerns Wake" - a reminisce of the ship that traded from the early 1930s to the mid-1960s from the...
For this year's Heritage Week Deena and I organised a weir building workshop based on my personal life experiences of working on the repair and the fishing of the traditional Waterford Harbour Head Weir. I decided to build a life-size model of the structure at...
After four long years of a hard slog, Cheekpoint finally got a new pontoon access to the water, bringing the village into the 21st Century. A small local committee with a very healthy membership of local boat owners was behind the project and from the outset, the...
Some might say that one event as a volunteer organiser for Heritage Week is noble, but two may be over the top. The truth is, I was thinking the same myself last week as the time clipped along and the workload seemed daunting. Having committed to do a...
On Saturday 23rd July the Camino Society of Ireland came to our community to appreciate the role of the harbour in medieval pilgrimage. On a walk led by Damien McLellan, we met at Passage East, took the ferry to Ballyhack, and wandered the roads in search of pilgrims'...
Today marks the opening of the Barrow Railway Bridge and the South West Wexford line. I wrote previously about the planning and construction of the Bridge which was started in 1902 by the firm of William Arrol & Co to a design by one of the foremost engineers of...
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...
Although Sunday 26th June dawned wet and breezy, as the morning wore on the cloud started to lift and by early afternoon it was a beautiful sunny summer day, but with a strong SW breeze. As Deena and I drove towards Dunmore East Geoff Harris broadcast from the...
As you pass under Barrow Bridge entering the River Barrow or (Ross River as we call it in Cheekpoint) there is an outcrop of rock that rises almost vertically from the river. Located on the left hand side, or port if we want to be suitably nautical, this Kilkenny...
On Saturday 18th June 2022 I went for an evening boating trip. As Deena was entertaining some friends at home I was on my own, but we had already had two good trips out together - to Jack Meades and Campile earlier that week. Our first trip out, made it to Jack...
An official mail packet service ran between Milford Haven and Waterford from 1787 to 1848. The service often referred to at the time as the Southern Route, operated in competition with an earlier route between Holyhead and Dublin*. Although the Southern...
The Halfway House site is one of the most densely populated sites of Lime Kilns that I know of. They were built to produce quicklime which had a variety of uses in agriculture and rural living in the 18th & 19th centuries. The site was chosen due to its location on the tidal Pill as I will explain. The operation of the kilns was a tough, physical task, but it could also be deadly as one young woman found to her cost at Halfway House.
One of the most intriguing and enduring mysteries we have anywhere in Waterford harbour is the Forty Steps at Creaden Head. Carved into the cliff of this inhospitable headland the purpose and the creators of the stone steps have intrigued and perplexed many. Creaden...
On Saturday night, 12th Nov 1955 a collision in the River Mersey involving three ships saw one ship sink, 9 crewmen struggle for an hour without lifejackets in freezing water and a dramatic rescue which included three young seamen from the village of Cheekpoint Co...
When the owners of the four-masted iron hulled sailing barque Earl of Beaconsfield (1883) saw their new ship enter the River Clyde, they must have hoped for a handsome return on their investment. But although fate has a large role to play in anything to do with...
On a recent boating trip in the Suir, I spotted the rotting timbers of what appeared to be an old boat jutting out from under the low hanging branches of a sycamore tree. Further investigation revealed, what for me at least was, an amazing discovery. A once common...
My wife Deena and I have participated and/or coordinated an event for every year of Heritage week since 2005. For this year's event we initiated an online project exploring the placenames along the Three Sister River network of the Barrow, Nore and Suir. The event ran...
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...
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