Tides & Tales Maritime Community Project CLG launched our new website on Thursday 16th January 2025 at Central Library, Waterford City. The project’s vision is to facilitate the maritime communities of Waterford Harbour and the three sister rivers (Suir, Barrow, and Nore) to reclaim and preserve their rich historic heritage and become vibrant places of work and opportunity for all people.
Project Background

Promotional launch poster invite
Breda Murphy as Chair of the voluntary Board welcomed attendees and gave an outline of the project’s development. It started as a labour of love for Cheekpoint native Andrew Doherty in 2014. It was a means of recording the heritage and traditions of his native place and the practices of fishing and seafaring that were for generations the mainstay employment.
As Breda explained
“It quickly expanded to include the neighbouring fishing communities of Passage and Dunmore and across to the Wexford side. Now the catchment area includes Waterford, the Harbour and the Three Sisters River (Barrow, Nore & Suir). The project has evolved in other ways too; guided walks, history talks, radio and TV appearances, publications, demonstrations and dealing with an every growing flood of queries from across the world.”
New Committee Structure
Breda Murphy went on to explain the development of the project.
“In 2023 the Tides and Tales committee was formed and in 2024 we registered as a CLG. The committee recognises the need to put this project on a sustainable footing and ensure its continuation into the future. It is built on a solid foundation of 10 years of community engagement. It is a bottom-up development, one that evolved organically from the community. Tides and Tales works in partnership with other community and statutory groups”
Bernadette Guest, Heritage Officer, Waterford City and County Council then launched the new website which was generously funded by the Community Heritage Grants from the Heritage Council.

Cllr David Daniels, Cllr Pat Fitzgerald, Bernadette Guest Heritage Officer, Breda Murphy Chair of Tides and Tales, Andrew Doherty and Cllr Declan Barry attending the Tides and Tales new website launch. Image Lorraine Boyle.
Need for the website
Bernadette stated that
“In the Council we have recently finalised a new Waterford Heritage Strategy for the period 2025-2030 and interestingly in the consultation process with both elected members and the general public, by far the dominant issue raised was our coastal and maritime heritage and arising from that feedback we now have a strategic objective in the plan to record, promote and celebrate Waterford’s rich coastal and maritime heritage including coastal place names, skills, knowledge and stories. We recognise the value that our maritime heritage has as a resource in heritage tourism. And this is also reflected in the new Heritage Strategy seeking to collaborate with key partners to develop a sustainable visitor experience to Waterford’s heritage sites based on stories and sense of place and promote the development of local heritage guides”
She also explained the rationale for the enhanced website
“There was so much information contained in the blog and as we are all aware technology and presentation of information moves so rapidly and so I was delighted to learn that Andrew was successful in his application to the Heritage Council last year under their Community Heritage Grant Scheme for moving the existing Tides and Tails platform to a more secure and user-friendly word press site. This allows for the preservation and continued development of this very important archive for the communities around Waterford Estuary and beyond.”

Noel Collins Port of Waterford, Walter Foley SE boat charters, Breda Murphy Tides and Tales, Capt Darren Doyle Port of Waterford, Bernadette Guest Heritage Officer, Andrew Doherty, Deena Bible Tides and Tales, David Carroll guest author, Cian Manning guest author and Joanne Rothwell Waterford City and County Archivist. Image Lorraine Boyle.
Site navigation made easier
Andrew Doherty then showcased the new site and the many developments. These include a cleaner look to the site, enhanced Search Engine Optimisation, better search facilities, better categorisation of site content, retail facilities and donations. He explained the rigorous consultation that went on with current blog subscribers. This was to ensure it was providing the content that they were looking for. He was fulsome in his praise of Ronan Cleary of Eagle Dreams Digital Media who carried out the work on the new site.
Andrew explained
“The site has stories from the present to Celtic times. It includes accounts of fishermen, sailors, ships, trades, shipwrecks, rescues. Heroes and villains and the stories of ordinary people leading extraordinary lives. The changes to the site mean that these are now more searchable and readable. It’s reassuring to know that as we now approach 500 stories, the content is secure for the foreseeable future”
In concluding the event Breda Murphy thanked all those for attending. She stated that the project has just completed a robust work plan for 2025. We aim, subject to funding, to develop a 5-year strategic plan during 2025.
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