Last summer whilst out kayaking on the river I chanced a trip up the Ballycanvan stream, which leads up to the ever-popular Jack Meades at Halfway House. I made the trip in an effort to track the route of the Lighters that would have supplied the Kilns at Jack Meades...
In years gone by, rural communities depended much more on local resources to sustain themselves and in agricultural terms mills highlight how important grain was as a crop. At home my grandmother told me they had a hand turned mill, the base of which is still in...
With St Patricks weekend coming up, my thoughts turned to that “wearing of the Green” day of my childhood, and particularly the 9am mass at Faithlegg Church. On reflection I guess the mass stands out, as in those days before it became a "festival" it was much...
In last weeks blog we met the Bolton family of Cornelius Bolton the elder, through the visits and writings of Arthur Young. At this time the families activities were generally of a pastoral nature. In a few short years however they would...
In the late 1700's an English man visited the Faithlegg and Cheekpoint area and recorded all that he was shown in great detail. It was a chance visit however. He had travelled from Curraghmore to Passage East with the intention of sailing via the Mail...
Familiarity breeds contempt they say and so I guess that's why, in Cheekpoint at least, not much is made of the Bolton Milepost. But did you know there was a series of them, leading into Waterford? What were they for and where did they go? It's a story, like the...
On the 5th October 1939, Coolbunnia man Pat Hanlon (able seaman) was captured as part of the crew of the SS Newton Beech by the German pocket battleship Admiral Graff Spee. No one could have foretold what would lead from the event, but by February 16th 1940 it would...
The traditional start of the Salmon drift net season in Ireland was, for many generations February 1st , Imboloc or St Brigid's Day. Once opened it stretched to August 15th. It closed each week between 6 am on a Saturday morning to 6 am on the Monday. Once the week...
Over Christmas I came across an illustrated map that suggested the Deerpark in Faithlegg is dating from the time of the Norman manor, specifically from the 14-15th Century. I have to say I was surprised at this and in the last few weeks...
They say no one ever remembers the runner up. St Ita seems to be such a person, often described as the Bridgid of Munster, highlighting her position in the pantheon of Irish female saints, a close second to Bridgid of Kildare. So unlike Bridgid who's life and times...
There was many a story my father told me that I dismissed, in error, as fiction. I remember one concerning a ship called the Earl of Sandwich which sounded particularly far fetched. "Four of the crew" he said "turned to piracy and cut the throats of their fellow...
For the winter solstice this year we decided to do something we had never done before; walk to the Minaun and welcome the rising sun as I imagine our forbearers in the distant past had. I have to say I was nervous that anyone would be interested to come along,...
For me, if Christmas is about anything, it's about family and about family traditions. I think it's how a family keeps Christmas that effectively gives it meaning, creates memories and makes it a special time of year. Christmas was a much simpler affair around the...
Recently I was asked for the origins of the placename Minaun. The Minaun as we wrote about recently is not alone the highest piece of ground in the area, its the highest in the Barony of Gaultier. For many years it has been a walking attraction and from...
This weekend marks an renewal of an old tradition, the Senior Citizens party. I recall many years back the parties going on in the Reading Room and as youngsters we passed by and could hear the voices and the music and do our best to avoid the cars...
As a child there was a popular song by Glenn Campbell called Rhinestone Cowboy. Somehow, it wound its way into the local parlance, often sang about the exploits of a certain fisherman who worked Ryan's shore (or the shore) for a living. It could have been...
Adelaide Blake was the third daughter of Nicholas Mahon Power, landlord of Faithlegg from 1819 to 1873. His youngest child, she was forty before she married John A Blake MP. Part of her legacy was the establishment of the Reading Rooms, Cheekpoint and the stained...
It was a March evening in 1993 and my brother Robert had joined me with Pat Moran and Dermot Kavanagh as they sorted oysters on the back of a trailer in the Mount Avenue car park. It was promising to be one of those frosty evenings, dry and cold and very...
Cheekpoint is a traditional fishing village located 7 miles downstream from Waterford City. It has been an important navigation point for the ports of Waterford and New Ross as it is located at the meeting point of the three sister river network, the Barrow, Nore and...
Snowhill was, until recently, a mystery to me. As a child I assumed it had to do with snowdrops, the late winter/early spring blooms that lift your spirits and reassure you that warmer, longer days are on the way. Later I was told it's origins related to an old...
As a child, Halloween was a lot simpler and cheaper. There again in the mid 1970's with one TV channel and limited radio, the ability of advertisers or foreign TV shows to influence our daily lives was much less than today. Although they are very different...
As a young boy fishing in the river, the one thing I hated more than anything, was keeping up to the nets with an oar. Pity the boy that let his mind wander and the boat blow off the nets, or worse, onto the mud on the flood tide on the coolagh (cool ya) mud. I first...
Pat Murphy of the Green always told me that according to Aggie Power of Daisy Bank House (Susan Jacobs Grandmother) the Reading Room was built in 1895, the year a horse called The Wild Man of Borneo won the Grand National. Mrs Adelaide Blake, (originally...
We have never had a visitor to the house that we haven't brought to the Minaun. That said, if it was good enough for the local landlord Cornelius Bolton who brought Arthur Young to the summit during his tour of Ireland in the 18th Century, it should be good enough...
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