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...
Where would we have been without the Suirway bus? In the Cheekpoint of the 1960's to the 80's when cars were scarce and escape from the village was required the choices were few; shanks mare, boat or the Suirway bus! Suirway Bus has been serving the area since 1928...
I'm not sure when exactly Civil Defence started in the area but I joined in 1978 just as I began first year in De La Salle secondary school. At the time, Peter Power of Faithlegg was the unit leader and each Tuesday night if memory serves we would go up to the...
As a child growing up in Cheekpoint the two most obvious built landmarks, in terms of scale and impact were the Great Island Power Station and the Barrow Bridge. The power station was a noisy, dirty and rambling edifice that we knew we had to endure. The bridge...
It must have been at around the start of 4th class that we were first began learning our trade as it were on the altar in Faithlegg. It was a big affair. As youngsters we were up at the front of the Church for Sunday mass and any and all religious services and days...
On Saturday night, 12th Nov 1955 my Father, Bob Doherty and two others from Cheekpoint, my Uncle John and Jimmy (O'Dea) Doherty, were departing Liverpool as seamen aboard the MV Ocean Coast in dense fog. They were carrying general cargo and were bound for Falmouth....
When I was a child I used to come to the cottage on the Green on Sundays, long weekends and summer holidays. It was my Grandparents, Tommy and May White's house and it was always full of cousins, aunts and uncles and lots of gatherings and parties were held there. ...
SS Pembroke - AH Poole Collection NLI The SS Pembroke was built of steel by Laird Brothers of Birkenhead, in the year 1880 and was originally a paddle steamer. The Pembroke was registered at the Port of Milford. In 1896 the ship was altered by the shipyard into a...
The Cheekpoint Fishing Heritage Project will host a social evening in the Reading Room Cheekpoint on Saturday 23rd Aug 2014 at 7.30 - 10pm. The event has a charge of €5 but senior citizens and children are free. Funds raised will go towards the running costs of the...
Politicians in Ireland are currently at each others throats on the matter of water charges. Whatever your political views, which probably lie on or between two polar opposites – that water is a human right and should be provided free out of existing taxes, to water...
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