I recently confirmed something, that I had previously only suspected. That there were two Motte and Bailey castles in the area of Cheekpoint dating to the Norman conquest. One we know for certain was on the land of Phil Gough in Faithlegg. The other however is a...
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...
Sunday 7th September 2008 dawned bright and clear. A good day for a trip, and a good day for a match. Waterford were to meet Kilkenny in the All Ireland Hurling final and expectations were high. It had got off to a slow start, with some controversy but had improved...
The day after my fathers ninth birthday, 26th August 1940, he witnessed something that profoundly marked his life. Up on the hills around the village he caught sight of his first ever German airplane which was followed closely by the dropping of bombs on the small...
Growing up in a fishing village like Cheekpoint in the early 1970s, nets were part of the everyday scene in the community. They lay around in the same way tractors and machinery hang round a farmyard. Nets for fishing the weirs, trawl nets including beam and otter,...
Snowhill, Co Kilkenny is now little more than a place-name on the river, but it once graced a fine Georgian mansion with an extensive farm and demesne and boat house on the river. I previously wrote about the house, which prompted a memory in an older neighbour of...
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...
Our guest blog today like last months looks back to a childhood holiday spent on a beach. However this month rather than Crooke in Waterford we get to accompany the Lloyd family holidaying at Duncannon Co Wexford and there is a Waterford connection too. I'd like to...
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...
John Roberts 1714-1796 was born to a Waterford builder and architect from who it must be imagined he first learned his trade, before heading to London to further his studies. Apparently whilst there, he met and eloped with Susannah Maria Sautelle (1716-1800) and the...
I recently returned from my first adventure on walking the Camino de Compostela. It was a ten day trip that my son Joel and I started from James Rice's tomb in Waterford with a plan to walk from St Jean Pied de Port in France to Logrono in Spain. I have had so many...
Today is the last Friday of the month and so it's guest blog day. I always love to share others thoughts and as the summer holidays officially start in our local national school, this reflection on school holidays from the 1960's is a real counterpoint to the...
Today I’m following in the footsteps of one of Waterford's most famous mayor’s, James Rice. For like him I’m starting on a journey to do pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Of course my journey will be remarkable different from the travels of a 15thC wine merchant...
Because I was raised in a traditional fishing community and went to fish as a child, I often took for granted what others consider magical. But there was one such phenomenon is what we call locally "Fire in the water", that never lost its appeal. And although it was...
Faithlegg House was built in 1783 by Cornelius Bolton, then landlord of the Faithlegg/Cheekpoint area of east Waterford. Known as a progressive businessman and politician one can presume he intended Faithlegg as not just his home but a statement of his stature in the...
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...
I read recently that some children do not leave home until 27 years of age. Although this has less to do with protection and more to do with finances, spare a thought for the child sailors of the 18th & 19th C. It will comes as no surprise of course to anyone who...
I recently had some American and English visitors on a tour of the village. I found it interesting to hear their thoughts on the area and I always get as much from their perspectives and questions as I ever give. In the same way the perspective of others from years...
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...
Jack Meades pub and restaurant has got to be one of the more remarkable and intriguing 18th Century agricultural sites in the country. As a young man I hadn't much time for the older men who drank there, preferring to spend my time having the craic and the beer with...
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...
When Arthur Young, the noted agriculturalist and travel writer visited the Faithlegg area in 1776 and again in 1778 he was an enthusiastic supporter of the works of Cornelius Bolton, the elder and his younger son of the same name. One of his observations was that he...
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