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...
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...
Breda Murphy. Due to Covid 19 I’ve had a couple of new experiences recently, firstly I haven’t used an alarm clock since the middle of March! I thought I would have to wait until I retired to enjoy that treat, but not so, due to working from home. Secondly, for...
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...
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...
For Irelands Heritage Week 2020, Deena and I will host a series of guest blog posts each day on the Placenames of the Three Sister Rivers, the Barrow Nore and Suir. Starting on Saturday 15thAugust, we will post each day culminating in publishing a new...
Irish placenames are intriguing and sometimes confusing. Many originate from our early history. They may have been shaped by historic events, or relate to geographical characteristics. Some have been confused by language from our history of conquest. But they can also...
I've a long association with Moran's Poles, it's provided me with some of my happiest times, and to date, the scene of the worst tragedy in my life. As a child, it was a working space, where the fishermen hauled out their punts and prongs to dry them out over winter...
The local regattas of Waterford, New Ross and the harbour have a long tradition, and the season of events in 1893 was as widely attended and as fiercely competed as any other years. To the victors went the spoils and the bragging rights, to the losers disapointment and a determination to do better at the next event. But tempers sometimes flared, plans went awry and drink added fuel to already tense situations. 1893 would prove to be a lively racing season.
In recent weeks planning permission was sought by SSE Airtricity to begin the process of removing the old heavy oil producing power plant located on Great Island Co Wexford. In older times before decommisioning and construction of the new gas fired station. Courtesy...
This months blog started with an intriguing photograph of an unidentified naval vessel anchored at Passage East, Co Waterford at the start of the last century, her likely identity and the purpose of her visit; recruitment of young men from the area into the navy.
I'm delighted to be featuring on the RTE Radio 1 Sunday Miscellany raido show. It will be bradcast Sunday morning, 17th November 2019 after the 9am news. This was my second attempt to submit a story to the very popular RTE Radio 1 show, now in its fiftieth year. My...
Introduction In June of 1832 a ship anchored off Passage East, apparently to await favourable sailing conditions. However within hours her passengers would be fleeing ashore and the army was called out to exert control. For the passengers were escaping a deadly...
Òn Saturday evening, 23rd November 1872 the SS Kinsale grounded on the Wexford side of Waterford harbour at a spot known locally as the Hell Hole. It was an appropriate name for the events that were to follow and it resulted in one of the largest losses of life in the harbour that I am aware of.
I started 2019 with a pledge to publish a new book. Well I'm a lot of the way there, but there's been a hiccup and I wanted to give a brief update. As I said in January my working title was Stories from the Aft Oar and my chapters were based on stories I had heard...
This mornings guest blog comes from Carrick On Suir but as with all things connected to the water, it travels fairly widely. Maurice Power, another of those supporters of my blog that I have come to rely on, introduces us to an institution on the River Suir in Carrick...
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