Decies Journal Launch 2018
Date: Saturday, 27th October.
Time: 6:00pm
Venue: Parnell Room, Granville Hotel.
Admission: Free Event
As part of the Imagine Arts Festival the local Waterford Archaeological & Historical Society will launch their latest journal Decies No. 74 with talks from contributors and music provided by Rachel Grace.
This year's speakers include Karen Hannon on St. Carthage's Cathedral, Lismore, Co. Waterford and the Currey Family Memorials, the research of which was conducted as part of Diploma of Genealogy in University College Cork completed in 2017.
Brigid McIntyre will talk on her creative nonfiction article titled A Bride in Tallow, 1941-42 about the early married life of her mother, a very poignant story about love, loss and rural Ireland.
Music is from Rachel Grace, an up and coming Wexford-born singer-songwriter that is firmly paving her way towards becoming one of Ireland's leading female artists.
Rachel recently won the busking festival,judged by renowned Jackie Hayden, at The Gorey Market Festival and took to the stage at this years Electric Picnic on Natashas Food Emporium stage on Sunday 2nd September.
Having already released an album in 2015, her new EP 'Routes' was just released on the 27th of May this year. It is available on all major platforms and is already receiving a lot of attention from radio stations. Without any doubt, this EP holds a very promising future for this young artist.
Journal for sale at €15.
All are welcome.
Friday, October 19, 2018
Friday, October 12, 2018
Lecture: Here Comes the Sun – Solar Imagery in Early Bronze Age Ireland
Here Comes the Sun – Solar Imagery in Early Bronze Age Ireland
A lecture by Mary Cahill to the Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society
The Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society lecture season for 2018 and 2019 continues on Friday 19th October with a lecture at 8 pm in the Parnell Room of the Granville Hotel, Waterford by Mary Cahill titled ‘Here Comes the Sun – Solar Imagery in Early Bronze Age Ireland’.
Ireland is renowned for the quantity and quality of the gold objects created in the Bronze Age. In this lecture Mary Cahill will present some ideas about the nature and function of the stunning gold objects created by some of the earliest metalworkers in Ireland four thousand years ago. These include gold sun-discs and crescentic gold collars called lunulae.
Mary will explore how our ancestors may have responded to natural phenomena especially how they sought to reproduce visually extraordinary solar events. This was not an innovation in terms of how the sun was perceived, all the evidence from the preceding Neolithic period suggests that the sun was the pre-eminent and dominating force that ruled the lives of people all over the ancient world. However, with the coming of metallurgy and the influx of new people and influences from the other parts of Atlantic Europe it seems that a new materialisation of solar imagery and presumably new forms of cult practice developed in Ireland.
There is a close concordance between gold discs and the ornamentation found on some forms of pottery placed with the dead in the Early Bronze Age. As these vessels, known as Bowls or Food Vessel Bowls, were in use between 2200-1800 BC it is likely that the popularity of this particular manifestation of the sun cult was strongest at this time, although its introduction was earlier with the earliest discs dated to c. 2400 BC. It also continued into the later stages of the Early Bronze Age as the solar images are also found on the bases of other types of pottery. The origin of these solar images is seen in the Bell Beaker pottery of the Iberian peninsula. Marys’ ground –breaking research has shown that lunulae can be re-interpreted as a form of wearable vessel or solar boat guiding and protecting the sun.
Although very little early goldwork is known from Co. Waterford itself, one very important and indeed unique object – a stone die for making gold foil discs – was found at Hacketstown, near Portlaw and it will be the focus of special attention in the lecture.
Mary Cahill is former Keeper of Irish Antiquities at the National Musuem of Ireland and is currently Adjunct Professor in the School of Geography and Archaeology at NUI Galway. Her special areas of interest are prehistoric goldwork, history of collections and antiquarianism. Much of her work has related to developing an understanding of how Bronze Age goldwork can be interpreted especially in terms of its function and symbolism. She tweets as @au_ireland.
This lecture will appeal to anyone interested in the archaeology, ritual and religion of pre-Christian Ireland and the history of art. Admission to the lecture is €5 (students €2.50), but is free for members of the Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society.
A lecture by Mary Cahill to the Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society
The Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society lecture season for 2018 and 2019 continues on Friday 19th October with a lecture at 8 pm in the Parnell Room of the Granville Hotel, Waterford by Mary Cahill titled ‘Here Comes the Sun – Solar Imagery in Early Bronze Age Ireland’.
Ireland is renowned for the quantity and quality of the gold objects created in the Bronze Age. In this lecture Mary Cahill will present some ideas about the nature and function of the stunning gold objects created by some of the earliest metalworkers in Ireland four thousand years ago. These include gold sun-discs and crescentic gold collars called lunulae.
Mary will explore how our ancestors may have responded to natural phenomena especially how they sought to reproduce visually extraordinary solar events. This was not an innovation in terms of how the sun was perceived, all the evidence from the preceding Neolithic period suggests that the sun was the pre-eminent and dominating force that ruled the lives of people all over the ancient world. However, with the coming of metallurgy and the influx of new people and influences from the other parts of Atlantic Europe it seems that a new materialisation of solar imagery and presumably new forms of cult practice developed in Ireland.
There is a close concordance between gold discs and the ornamentation found on some forms of pottery placed with the dead in the Early Bronze Age. As these vessels, known as Bowls or Food Vessel Bowls, were in use between 2200-1800 BC it is likely that the popularity of this particular manifestation of the sun cult was strongest at this time, although its introduction was earlier with the earliest discs dated to c. 2400 BC. It also continued into the later stages of the Early Bronze Age as the solar images are also found on the bases of other types of pottery. The origin of these solar images is seen in the Bell Beaker pottery of the Iberian peninsula. Marys’ ground –breaking research has shown that lunulae can be re-interpreted as a form of wearable vessel or solar boat guiding and protecting the sun.
Although very little early goldwork is known from Co. Waterford itself, one very important and indeed unique object – a stone die for making gold foil discs – was found at Hacketstown, near Portlaw and it will be the focus of special attention in the lecture.
Mary Cahill is former Keeper of Irish Antiquities at the National Musuem of Ireland and is currently Adjunct Professor in the School of Geography and Archaeology at NUI Galway. Her special areas of interest are prehistoric goldwork, history of collections and antiquarianism. Much of her work has related to developing an understanding of how Bronze Age goldwork can be interpreted especially in terms of its function and symbolism. She tweets as @au_ireland.
This lecture will appeal to anyone interested in the archaeology, ritual and religion of pre-Christian Ireland and the history of art. Admission to the lecture is €5 (students €2.50), but is free for members of the Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society.
Monday, October 8, 2018
Book Launch: Waterford Merchants and their Families on Distant Shores
Waterford Merchants and their Families on Distant Shores
This book has just been written by Liam Murphy, who is a native of Waterford. The book will be launched in the Book Centre in Waterford at around 6.30 on Friday 2nd November.
The book deals with those Waterford merchants who were forced to leave Waterford by the new Cromwellian authorities in the 1650s because they had lost their rights to trade and to hold civic positions in the city. The book is based on sources in English, French and Spanish and deals with the subsequent careers of these emigrant merchants and their families and descendants in the port cities of France, Spain and the Spanish Netherlands.
Some of them became very successful such as John Aylward, who lived in Málaga, St Malo and London. Other successful merchants were Juan Murphy and Tomás Quilty who both also lived in Málaga, and Bernardo Valais (Walsh) who settled in Tenerife. Eustaquio Barron made so much money in Mexico that he was able to go on a two-year holiday in Europe with his family. Two of the descendants of these Waterford merchants became Cardinals, namely Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman and Cardinal Merry del Val, who were both born in Seville. Another descendant, José Blanco White, was a well-known writer and changed his religion twice, while María Gertrudis Hore, who was described as the most beautiful woman in the Cádiz of her day was a leading woman writer in Spain in the eighteenth century. Antoine Walsh and Pierre-Joseph Lincoln were slave-traders in Nantes, and Antoine Walsh also brought Bonnie Prince Charlie to Scotland for the 1745 Jacobite uprising there. Nicolas Geraldino (Fitzgerald) from Cádiz commanded the Spanish flagship in the Spanish-Franco victory over the British fleet at Toulon during the War of the Austrian Succession. Luis Power of Bilbao was an officer in the Spanish army and he died alongside his cannon defending the city against the invading French troops.
There are many other interesting characters also discussed in this book, which should prove of particular interest to those interested in these old Waterford families.
This book has just been written by Liam Murphy, who is a native of Waterford. The book will be launched in the Book Centre in Waterford at around 6.30 on Friday 2nd November.
The book deals with those Waterford merchants who were forced to leave Waterford by the new Cromwellian authorities in the 1650s because they had lost their rights to trade and to hold civic positions in the city. The book is based on sources in English, French and Spanish and deals with the subsequent careers of these emigrant merchants and their families and descendants in the port cities of France, Spain and the Spanish Netherlands.
Some of them became very successful such as John Aylward, who lived in Málaga, St Malo and London. Other successful merchants were Juan Murphy and Tomás Quilty who both also lived in Málaga, and Bernardo Valais (Walsh) who settled in Tenerife. Eustaquio Barron made so much money in Mexico that he was able to go on a two-year holiday in Europe with his family. Two of the descendants of these Waterford merchants became Cardinals, namely Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman and Cardinal Merry del Val, who were both born in Seville. Another descendant, José Blanco White, was a well-known writer and changed his religion twice, while María Gertrudis Hore, who was described as the most beautiful woman in the Cádiz of her day was a leading woman writer in Spain in the eighteenth century. Antoine Walsh and Pierre-Joseph Lincoln were slave-traders in Nantes, and Antoine Walsh also brought Bonnie Prince Charlie to Scotland for the 1745 Jacobite uprising there. Nicolas Geraldino (Fitzgerald) from Cádiz commanded the Spanish flagship in the Spanish-Franco victory over the British fleet at Toulon during the War of the Austrian Succession. Luis Power of Bilbao was an officer in the Spanish army and he died alongside his cannon defending the city against the invading French troops.
There are many other interesting characters also discussed in this book, which should prove of particular interest to those interested in these old Waterford families.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)