The Barrow Bridge was officially opened in 1906 to connect Waterford's train station, and thus the SW of Ireland, to the newly developed port at Rosslare. I've written before about the initial planning and concern about crossing the River Barrow which separates...
We were based in Dunmore in the winter of 1983 for the Herring fishing but we returned home in the Reaper for Christmas, and along with all the other half-decker’s, manoeuvred inside Cheekpoint quay, where they could be moored without any concern for their safety....
Christmas time in my Grandmothers was marked by a hunt. It was her search for addresses for friends both at home and abroad, addresses she had scribbled on scraps of paper or cut from an envelope and squirrelled away. Some were in the glass case, others in her box of...
I've covered the Herring Drift Net Fishery in several parts these last few weeks, and today in the run up to Christmas, I wanted to recount an incident that made Christmas a little more poignant for me in the mid 1980's. We were selling directly at the time to Polish...
One of our most intriguing ruins in the area must be the Lookout in the Glazing Wood. The Lookout stands above the River Suir and is now surrounded by Larch trees, part of the Coillte forestry scheme. But in the past it would have had fine views of the river,...
Growing up in the Mount Avenue in the 1970's the most notable and invasive feature on our young lives was neither the magnificent Barrow Railway viaduct, or the colliding waters of the three rivers as they met below our home. That honour, if that phrase is...
Over the last few weeks I've looked back on the Herring Driftnet Fishery of Waterford Harbour and this week I wanted to bring the practical side of it to a close with a look at the selling of fish. That first year of fishing herring, we had a market in Dunmore...
Over the last few weeks I've occasionally covered my exploits fishing herring in Waterford harbor. The first week looked at getting prepared, and the second installment looked at the finding of the shoal and the catch. This week I look at the really hard...
I've mentioned before that I first came to live in the Russianside with my grandmother, Maura Moran, in my late teens. "Nanny" as she was called was in the family had her own way of expressing herself. But of course, she was just a different generation, and from an...
As the Reaper and the other Cheekpoint boats proceeded downriver, we were joined by the Passage and Ballyhack men, forming a convoy of decked and half decked motor boats of varying size and power and a multitude of colours. Depending on the tides, the Passage...
Halloween is upon us again. In the past it was a very different occasion and I've written about the Halloween of my childhood before. Now it wouldn't be Halloween without a Ghost story and here's one my Father told1. "There was a family called Walsh who lived above...
It was about this time of year in 1983 that I got my first taste of fishing in the deeper waters of the harbour around Dunmore East and the Hook. It was a strange and confusing place that was more dangerous and unpredictable than the fishing I had known...
As a child the village shop was owned by Molly Doherty, on the spot where Ben Power now trades. There's a photo hanging up there of Molly standing in front of it all those years back. It was a much more modest building, but one feature of it was as you...
Regular readers may be surprised to learn that I have something in common with Abraham Lincoln, Joe Stummer and Rod Stewart. Well As a fishermen in the 1980s Cheekpoint, and in the depressed economy of the time, you quickly learned to take a few pounds wherever...
I was raised on the story of Captain Udvardy's grave in Faithlegg, which is marked with a very distinctive palm tree My grandmother was a young girl at the time, and was a front-seat witness to the affair, and had played a cameo role in the tale. Despite all the...
I often had to correct visitors who believe that Thomas Francis Meagher's body is interred in Faithlegg. Yet the family tomb is there, as are three other family plots, that I know of, around the world. But Thomas alas is in none of them. He's the man with four...
One of the oldest grave stones in Faithlegg belongs to a family named Fortune. But the headstone creates a bit of a stir...it gives two dates of death for the lady...1745 & 1746 The headstone reads; Here lyeth ye body of ANSTAS FORTUNE alias QUINLAN...
Faithlegg Graveyard always raises mixed emotions in me. I still find it hard to read my brothers headstone for example, without being carried back in time to the afternoon he drowned. Then I look at "Big Patsy" Doherty's headstone, with its carving of the...
Today's blog is a summary of the recent walk conducted to celebrate Heritage Week 2015 and is a narrative of the afternoon and what we encountered. Welcome to Cheekpoint and to this years heritage week event, which is hosted by the Cheekpoint Fishing Heritage...
One of the industries that grew up in Cheekpoint in conjunction with the Mail Packet station was textiles. Nothing now remains, except some brief mentions of the trade and local lore. It appears that the Cheekpoint venture was part of an initiative in the...
The salmon driftnet season traditionally closed on August 15th, and it was always brought mixed feelings. Grateful to have a break after the rigor of 24hr a day fishing, but conscious that within a week you'd be longing to be back into the familiar rhythm of...
In an era of rapid and perhaps instant communication, it might come as a surprise to younger readers to realise that in the past, communication was a slow and very often weather dependent activity, involving stage coach, ships and very hardy individuals. The Mail...
We briefly met with the Owen's last week, when I introduced the forthcoming walk for Heritage Week; Cheekpoint's Industrial Age. This week I wanted to take a closer look at the family. The Owen's came to Cheekpoint in 1787 to run the Mail Packet Station....
In 1785 Cornelius Bolton along with other investors bought out the Mail Packet Station, then based at Passage East and moved it upriver to Cheekpoint, Co Waterford. Around this business, Bolton built a vibrant industrial village. The man who came to run...
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