Throughout Wednesday 6th January 1937 and into the night, groups of men began arriving in the small village of Passage East in Waterford harbour. Some arrived in buses, others by car and as the day went on into evening their numbers swelled to an estimated 500. ...
The story of the loss of the American sailing ship Alfred D Snow is well known in Waterford harbour. Following a ferocious south easterly storm overnight the American sailing ship was seen at 9 am inside the Hook with much of her sail taken off and working upriver. ...
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...
The last guest blog of 2018 comes from the River Barrow and brings us back to simpler times in the company of the Connollys of Aylwardstown via the pen of Brian Forristal. The area of Aylwardstown is beside the river Barrow close to Glenmore on the Kilkenny side and...
It was Christmas eve morning 1985. Home, a small council house in the Mount Avenue, Cheekpoint, a mad house. Our father and mother, Bob and Mary looked on with mild amusement as we readied ourselves for a trip to town. Young adults with thoughts of friends, drinks...
At 11am on Saturday 15th December the SS Formby departed Liverpool for Waterford. Aboard were 37 crew and 2 passengers. She was due into Waterford the following morning, but never arrived. It was to be the start of a terrible tragedy that would be felt throughout the city and its harbour.
In 1819, newlyweds Nicholas Power and Margaret nee Mahon moved into their new home, Faithlegg House. It was bought from a financially insolvent Cornelius Bolton. They were the first Catholic landlords of the area since the Norman era Aylward family, who were...
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.
Before ever the Barrow Railway bridge was constructed to allow the trains run from Waterford to Rosslare, New Ross Harbour Board had concerns for its positioning. The Bridge would block access to the port and to get around this an opening span wasintroduced. ...
On the 9th of November* 1917 a small schooner slipped her moorings at Waterford Quays and sailed out of the harbour and towards the Irish Sea. Her destination was Cardiff Wales. But she never arrived. At the centenary of the end of the First World War, I thought it...
The Royal Navy Press gangs were licenced kidnappers who operated with official sanction up to the early 19th Century. Their role was to remove sailors from shore or ship and impress them into the service of the Royal Navy. It was a recruitment policy that was...
On Thursday last, Oct 5th, Michael Farrell of the Barony of Gaultier Historical Society and myself headed up to Dublin. The plan was to meet David Carroll and his old De La Salle school pal JJ Murphy at Dublin's Connolly Station and from there hit a selection of...
In a new departure for me, I'm going to be one of the contributors at this years Booze, Blaas & Banter. The venue is Jordan's American Bar on Waterford's Quay. It's part of the Imagine Arts Festival and organised by Johnny Clunno on behalf of the Waterford...
My guest blog this month is from a stalwart of the page, David Carroll. Like myself he has a passionate interest in the local maritime heritage story and his personal reflections and research into the stories make a significant contribution to our understanding. ...
There was once a village at Faithlegg. It stood on the left hand side of the road, past the church, heading for Waterford city. Locally it has always been said that the village was wiped out when the black death swept the country and such was the fear attached to the...
Mark Anthony was born in Waterford in 1786 and at fifteen joined the Royal Navy serving for close on twenty years until retiring to take up a post as harbour master at Dunmore East. Mark Anthony was born second in line to Joseph Anthony and his wife Juliet Lambert at...
Waterford’s Neptune Shipyard opened in February 1843 as a repair yard for the growing number of iron hulled steamers of the Malcomson fleet. The quaker family had started out in the milling business in Clonmel before branching out into textiles in Portlaw and...
This months guest blog is brought to us by Pat Nolan. Pat recently republished a piece in the monthly Marine Times magazine with the headline "A Lifetime Fishing, Billy Power Recalls. It was to coincide with Billy's recent retirement. Needless to say I've met Billy...
At 3am on a damp, misty February morning in 1959, Waterford harbour pilot, Pat Rogers was arriving into Dunmore for work when he spotted a ship close to the shore up the harbour. In a fresh SE wind a small ship had run onto the rocks at Ardnamult Head, or the Middle...
On Monday 2nd May 1904, Waterford hosted a royal visit to Ireland's oldest city. The event is very well recorded in history books, but one aspect receives a lot less attention, and that is the naval presence. On a wet Friday evening on the 29th April(1) four Royal...
There is a yarn I was told years ago about a quiet, unassuming man named Christy Doherty (RIP) that speaks to me of the fishermen of Cheekpoint. It concerned an incident at a fishing weir located just below the village close to the Mount Quay and Sheag Rock. The story...
In 1904 a local paper(1) announced that war had been declared from Waterford Harbour. The war was a game, but a serious game, that involved up to 200 ships and extended across the length of the Irish Sea. The Waterford Flotilla stationed in the harbour played a...
In a dramatic few weeks in August 1917 Dunmore became the centre of a naval espionage operation that saw the destruction of a U-boat, the rescue and interrogation of her captain and a salvage operation to lift the boat from the depths of Waterford harbour. But...
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...
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