Upcoming Lecture on 30/01/26 :Planes, Ships and Mines – World War 2 incidents in Waterford and Wexford 1940-1945 by Dr Pat McCarthy

A lecture by Dr Pat McCarthy to the Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society

The Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society 2025 – 2026 lecture series continues at 8 pm on Friday, January 30th, when Dr Pat McCarthy, will deliver a talk titled Planes, Ships and Mines – World War 2 incidents in Waterford and Wexford 1940-1945, in St Patrick’s Gateway Centre, Waterford (Eircode X91 YX61).

The SS Lady Belle, a Dungarvan-owned vessel, putting into Waterford, after it was damaged in an attack by German aircraft     Gardaí examining the wreckage of a German aircraft that crashed in County Waterford in 1941

(Images provided by Dr. Pat McCarthy)

The opening months of World War 2, September 1939 – May 1940, seemed to confirm that Ireland’s geographical location and its declared policy of neutrality would protect the country from the war. All that had changed by June 1940. The belligerents had shown no respect for neutrality and had invaded such countries when and if it suited them and the German conquest of France had brought their forces within range of Ireland. The counties of Waterford and Wexford were now the Irish frontline, and it was inevitable that the war would impact on this country, especially those two counties. This lecture will look at some of these impacts and put them in the context of the war. Both Allied and German planes overflew with impunity and sometimes engaged in combat in Irish skies, ships both Irish and British, trading with the ports of Waterford and Rosslare, were attacked by German aircraft. Another hazard was the prevalence of mines in the offshore Irish waters. German infringements of Irish neutrality also included the dropping of bombs and the delivery of German agents to this country. All such aspects will be covered in this talk.

Pat McCarthy, a native of Waterford city and a past pupil of Mount Sion, holds a PhD and an MBA from UCD and worked for many years in the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector. He is the author of The Irish Revolution 1912-23, Waterford (Four Courts Press, 2015), Waterford and the 1916 Rising (Waterford city and county council, 2016), The Redmonds and Waterford, a political dynasty 1891-1952 (Four Courts Press, 2018), A History of the Irish Pharmaceutical Industry (Four Courts Press, 2021), a study of the East Waterford Brigade and its contribution to the War of Independence. – Waterford City, The East Waterford Brigade and the Struggle for Independence 1912-1921 (Waterford City and County Council, 2021) and most recently, Waterford’s Two Civil Wars, Armed Conflict and Social Strife in Waterford 1922-24. He is currently assisting Military Archives in the preparation of the files on aircraft crashes and landings in Ireland during World War 2 for digitization. He has lectured widely and published extensively in the Irish Sword, in Decies, and other journals.

Upcoming Lecture on 17/10/25: Waterford Gravestones, Waterford Families by John Tierney

The Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society 2025 – 2026 lecture series continues at 8 pm on Friday, October 17th, when John Tierney, will deliver a talk titled ‘Waterford Gravestones, Waterford Families’, in St Patrick’s Gateway Centre, Waterford (Eircode X91 YX61).

   

Gravestones in Waterford are historic documents carved in stone and situated in the cultural landscapes of burial grounds used by communities for centuries. There are 100 registered historic graveyards in the county, and many more cemeteries, each parish contains at least one historic burial ground.

Since 2010 the Historic Graves team, based in west Waterford, have been working with communities around Ireland to survey historic graveyards and publish the results online. In recent years our work in Waterford has focused on Ardmore, Kilgobnet and Mothel graveyards. Ardmore, the team's ‘home’ graveyard, is the laboratory for testing different methods of recording and analysis. This lecture addresses the use of modern technology to explore how recording historic headstones has allowed us develop an archaeology of families.

The talk will demonstrate how different low tech and high tech tools have been developed and used to record and analyse these carved stone ‘documents’. The Historic Graves team have been using AI tools to read field record sheets since Covid days, more recently they have had success using AI to ‘read’ inscriptions on 20th century headstones directly. In this lecture John will explore the potential of headstones recorded by the Historic Graves project to document and trace family fortunes since the early modern period, and perhaps even further back in time.

John Tierney is a field archaeologist who qualified from UCC in 1988. John has been director of the Historic Graves Project since 2010. The project has surveyed over 900 Irish historic graveyards and cemeteries, urban and rural, and published them online, in collaboration with local communities. Since 2016 John and the Historic Graves Project team have been involved in the investigation of a number of institutional burial grounds and associated burial practices such as Bessborough in Cork, Tuam, and St. Loman’s in Mullingar.

Find out more on Historic Graves Project 

Upcoming Lecture : on 26/09/25 Loyal Waterford - The Orangemen, Unionists and Loyalists of the Crystal County by Quincey Dougan

 The first talk of the Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society's 2025 - 2026 season will be given by historian Quincey Dougan who will deliver a lecture titled

 'Loyal Waterford - The Orangemen, Unionists and Loyalists of the Crystal County' at 8 pm, Friday 26th of September, in St Patrick's Gateway Centre, Waterford.

This presentation will look at the inception and activities of Orange Lodges and related organisations of 'Loyal Ireland' in County Waterford, the personalities that drove them, pivotal events, and the reception given by Nationalist and Catholic Waterford.

Quincey Dougan hails from a rural area not far from the town of Markethill on the fringes of South Armagh. An Orangeman, Unionist and self-proclaimed Ulster Loyalist, his keen interest in history and a maternal family lineage from the Republic of Ireland, has seen him take a deep interest in the Orange, Unionist and Irish Loyalist heritage of Ireland outside Ulster. He produced the first published work on the Great War in County Leitrim, and has authored over 80 booklets and pamphlets on subject matter pertaining to Loyal Ireland. His work has featured in several issues of History Ireland, numerous regional newspapers, and he is a former columnist in the Belfast Newsletter. Quincey's motivation is to take the interest in and the complexities of Irish history beyond the academic stage, and focuses on speaking directly to groups. 

Upcoming : Summer Outing, Ormond Castle 10/08/25

 

Ormond Castle has been described as a gem of Tudor architecture in Ireland. Built on a prominent site on the banks of the River Suir at the east side of Carrick-on-Suir, it is considered the finest example of an Elizabethan manor house in Ireland. Thomas 'Black Tom' Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, built it in 1565 to honour his distant cousin Queen Elizabeth. The magnificent great hall, which stretches almost the whole length of the building is decorated with some of the finest 16th century stucco plasterwork in the country. The plasterwork features portraits of Queen Elizabeth and her brother Edward VI and many motifs and emblems associated with the Tudor monarchy.

Ormond Castle has recently re-opened following an extensive conservation programme which was featured in RTE's 'Great Irish Interiors' TV programme. We will be shown around the Castle by an OPW guide.

Please note that there is an entry fee of €4, which should be paid individually.

The final WAHS outing of Summer 2025 is a visit on Sunday August 31st to the restored nineteenth century Phelan's Mill in Mullinavat.

Upcoming : Summer Outing to Lismore 27 /07/25

The second outing of the season will take place in Lismore on Sunday, July 27 2025.

Meeting at 2:00 pm at St Carthage's Church of Ireland Cathedral, Lismore (Eircode P51 VX65). Please note there is also a Catholic Church with the same dedication in the town!

The outing will include a tour of the Cathedral, its memorials, and the historic Cotton Library with Margaret Quinlan and Bláithín Hurley.

All welcome, non-members €5.00

 

First Summer Outing of 2025 : MOTHEL with guide John Tierney on June 22nd

 The first WAHS summer outing of 2025 is to historic Mothel, near Clonea Power. Mothel is noted for the remains of its medieval Augustian abbey which is located in a historic graveyard containing many fine memorials. Our guide will be John Tierney from Historic Graves. John has worked with the local community in Mothel in recent years to record the graveslabs in the cemetery. As part of the outing John will give a demonstration of techniques that can be used to record historic grave memorials without damaging them.

Summer outing to East Cork on July 6th.

Members are reminded to reserve their places on this outing. In order to secure a place we'd be grateful if tickets were reserved by Thurs. June 26th.

Viking Woodstown: what lies beneath, what lies ahead by Neil Jackman 13/06/25

The Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society in partnership with Waterford City & County Council’s Heritage Office is delighted to host a special lecture as part of the European Archaeology Days at 8 pm on Friday, June 13th in the Garden Room of the Medieval Museum, Waterford (Eircode X91 K10E) when Neil Jackman, will deliver a talk titled ‘Viking Woodstown: what lies beneath, what lies ahead’.  

In 2003, archaeologists carrying out archaeological assessment in advance of construction of the planned N25 Waterford City Bypass were investigating fields in Woodstown, on the banks of the River Suir, upstream from the city. They uncovered one of the most significant discoveries in the annals of Irish archaeology. A site deemed so significant, that the planned road was moved in order to preserve it.

The initial excavations, followed by a small research dig, identified the site as a Viking longphort, an overwinter camp, with a focus of activity dating to c.AD 850–950, the earliest phase of Viking activity in Ireland. Only 5% of the site was excavated, though it produced nearly 6,000 artefacts, including the grave of a person of high status, who was buried with their weapons. The excavations also revealed evidence for trade, craft and industry. These results were detailed in Woodstown – A Viking Age Settlement in County Waterford published in 2014.

In recent years, Woodstown has undergone a series of detailed geophysical and non-intrusive surveys. The surveys have been developed as a collaboration between leading geophysicists in Ireland and Norway, who have combined a variety of approaches to develop a deeper sense of what lies beneath the surface of these quiet fields beside the Suir.  

The combined evidence from these surveys, with the previous excavations, suggest that Woodstown wasn’t just a base for raiding and plundering the surrounding countryside. It was a substantial settlement, and a centre for trade, commerce and industry.

Unlike other Viking settlements in Ireland, such as Dublin, Cork or Waterford itself, Woodstown never developed into a modern city. That lack of development has left the monument largely intact at foundation level, allowing a unique opportunity to examine a Viking settlement that was ‘fossilised’ in time.

To fulfil the potential of the site, and to better ensure its protection, in 2020, a Conservation Management Plan was published that helps to set out the future plans for Viking Woodstown, in terms of how to best understand, protect and promote the site.  

Neil’s talk will provide an overview of the results of the surveys, and discuss what the findings might tell us about the nature of the settlement at Woodstown. It will explore some of the key questions that Woodstown asks, such as why it may have started, and why it may have ended, and it will discuss the future plans for this internationally significant Viking monument.

Neil Jackman is a professional archaeologist with more than 25 years experience in Ireland, and has directed the excavations of a wide variety of monuments, ranging from Neolithic passage tombs, to early medieval mills, and more.  

Neil specialises in public and community archaeology, and is the director of Abarta Heritage and Tuatha Ireland. Neil is passionate about connecting people to the rich heritage that surrounds us here in Ireland, and he is involved in a number of public engagement projects, such as the Adopt a Monument Scheme with the Heritage Council, as well as hosting the popular Amplify Archaeology Podcast.

Neil authored the Conservation Management Plan for the Woodstown Viking Site, an ambitious and long term vision for how best to protect, promote and present Woodstown, and how to connect it with the people of Waterford to ensure its long term engagement and sustainability.