I’m delighted to introduce this guest blog, written by Avril Harris based on the diary entries of her father-in-law Ernie Harris of Waterford city. It gives a fascinating glimpse into the country of Ireland at the start of the 20th Century and a form of river traffic that I neither have experience of, nor have featured before. I know for certain my regulars will relish it.
King Edward VII visited Waterford on Monday 1st May 1904. Ernie Harris, then 19, was working and living there at the time. Like others in the city, he hung flags out for the occasion. Four gunboats came up the river on the previous Friday. His father, mother and brother Stanley came on Saturday to see the illuminations. On Sunday Stanley, Ernie and his friend Bertie Poole went for a walk along the river and were invited to see over one of the gunboats, the Skipjack– “mums the word”, he says in his diary. The king arrived on the Monday and Ernie joined in ringing the cathedral bells. He saw the royal personage on two occasions, going on the river in the Clodagh to get a better view.
Continue reading “Waterford to Dublin by the Ouida motorboat- 1911”
