May marks our annual fundraiser for the local RNLI station that we depend on for so much- Dunmore East RNLI. This is our 4th year to participate and this time round we plan to do at least a mile a day for the month of May - 31 miles. My wife Deena and I will travel...
On Tuesday 30th April 2024 I was invited to speak at a gathering aboard the Cailin Deise river cruiser. My brief was to give a sense of the social aspect of the River Suir, and the people who resided upon it. Much of what others had to present was on the environmental...
May marks our annual fundraiser for the local RNLI station that we depend on for so much- Dunmore East RNLI. This is our 4th year to participate and this time round we plan to do at least a mile a day for the month of May. My wife Deena and I will travel about the...
In November 1842 the New Ross barque Ann, arrived at Passage East. An obligatory inspection by customs officials passed without difficulty and the ship anchored at Cheekpoint to await pilotage to her home port. However, once in New Ross another customs inspection...
Distance 2km Difficulty: This is an easy going looped walk on grass and public roadway (predominantly bitumen and level but broken ground) Start: Commencing from Faithlegg Church car park notice board Welcome to Faithlegg. Nicholas Mahon Power, then landlord of the...
I'm delighted to say that I will be appearing on RTE 1 TV's very popular walking series Tracks and Trails this coming Friday night, 5th April 2024 at 7.30pm. I will be guiding Crime journalist, Nicola Tallant who follows the cliff top trail starting out from Dunmore...
On St Patrick's Day 1880 the Waterford-owned sailing vessel Geraldine lay in New York. Under British registry, the ship was supposed to fly its national flag, a requirement of any ship in a foreign port. However as it was St Patrick's Day, the crew in an expression...
I'm regularly asked three questions - One: Is the origin of the phrase By Hook or by Crooke local. Two: How did the Portlairge end up in Wexford? And finally three: When is Waterford getting a maritime museum? The first has been mentioned in several blogs here, the...
Today, March 8th is International Women’s Day. To celebrate it, we have a guest blog from David Carroll to recall the life and times of Daphne French, a yachtswoman who lived in Dunmore East during David’s childhood in the 1950s and 60s. David was the son of the...
Last week Flanagans closed after a remarkable history of almost 116 years. In fact, a week shy of that, for Martin J Flanagan opened on Friday 28th February 1908. Ironically that was a leap year too. Waterford Standard - Wednesday 26 February 1908; page 2The original...
Introduction Over the centuries, people have harnessed the power of water via ponds, streams and rivers to drive wheels, which created the power to grind wheat, corn and other grains. The fertile valley and hinterland along the Three Sisters rivers had many...
Earlier this week Dave O'Hallorahan contacted me via Twitter - yes I know it's got a new name, but it's bad enough to use the platform knowing the new owner, without embracing the change- to say that an interesting ship was off Dunmore. A quick search on Vessel Finder...
On a wild windy winter night in December 1888, the Belfast Barque Etta, rounded Hook Head in search of shelter, the lifeboat was signaled, but the ship was driven onto the rocks of Creaden Bay before the lifeboat could reach the vessel. Miraculously all but one were...
Christmas is just another time of the year for seafarers. The oceans and seas of the world carry much of the goods that we consider essential but this desire never ceases. This was just as true in the days of sail and to give a sense of the struggles faced by...
The long-awaited and much-anticipated new book from Cian Manning has hit the shelves for Christmas and it's a cracker. Cian is renowned for his fresh look at Waterford history, his unique style of writing, and his ability to extract the nuggets from the mire of times...
I was delighted to recently present to the Éigse Sliabh Rua on the topic of 19th Century lives along the local South Kilkenny riverbank. One of the themes I touched on was women’s work. Women played a vital role in the local fishery and seafaring communities...
The following story comes from the newspapers of February 1892 and concerns the haunting of an ex-RIC man who had taken up residence in the home of an evicted family. In February 1892 a family by the man of Kingworth (Kingsworth by some accounts) had a fearful...
In last month's blog, which gave the sailing directions to Waterford City in 1790, I mentioned that I was surprised to see the Ford Channel given as an option. This area was previously a crossing point to Little Island from the Kilkenny shore and this month I want to...
A guest Blog by Pete Goulding. Last month I mentioned in the story about 1790 navigation into Waterford that my good blogging buddy Pete was working on a story of the lighthouses at Duncannon. It's one of those stories I always wanted to tell, but let's face it, when...
Recently I chanced upon the 1790 sailing directions into Waterford and although it's for a different era, it offers some fascinating insights into the practicalities, the difficulties, and the practices of navigation at a time when all sailors had was their wits and...
By Dorothy McMahan With excerpts from On Shipboard by Anne Starrett Craig Information gathered by Dorothy McMahan and Chuck McMahan Olivia Murray, a page regular with a family connection to the Waterford coast, brought this guest blog to my attention. The story is one...
For generations of Cheekpoint fishermen, the White Stone was a foul mark to be wary of, a river-based location that was notorious for dragging nets to the bottom and causing costly damage. Recently I stumbled upon the back story to the foul, the cause of so...
It's been a hectic Heritage Week 2023, in fact, my busiest yet with three seperate events. We kicked off on Sunday 13th August with a presentation in Byrnes of Ballyhack, Co Wexford which focused on the history of Salmon fishing here in the harbour area, the boats,...
The oldest map I have seen of the area (1764) indicates Cheekpoint at what we know locally as the Sheag Rock close to the Mount Avenue. The present village and a quay are indicated but called Faithlegg Slip! We know that a quay was here for the Mail Packet ships from...
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