Calendar of Lectures Spring 2014

EVENTS PROGRAMME 2014

SPRING LECTURES

Friday 24th January              Speaker:  Mr Frank O'Donoghue

                                                Topic: The 5-Minute Bell. History of the Tramore Train 1853 -                                            1960.

Friday 28th February              Speaker:  Mr. Kieran Cronin

                                                Topic: The Christ Church Cathedral Collection - A library by the                                                      people, for the people of Waterford.  

Friday 28th March                 Speaker:  Professor Pádraig Ó Macháin.

                                                Topic:  The Book of Lismore.

Thursday 10th April              AGM. (details beforehand)

Friday 25th April                    Speaker:  Dr. Eugene Broderick

                                                 Topic: Bishop Robert Daly of Waterford and Lismore 1843 - 1872                                                 (The 'Protestant Pope')

Friday 23rd May                    Speaker:  Mr. James Eogan

                                                Topic:  100 years a diggin'. A century or archaeological                                                      excavations in Waterford city and county.

All lectures are held at 8 pm in Edmund Rice Heritage Centre, Barrack Street, Waterford, unless otherwise stated. 

Upcoming Event: Annual Lunch 2013

Details of our Annual Lunch as follows: 

Date:               Sunday 1^st  December 2013

Venue:            Dooley’s Hotel, The Quay, Waterford

Time:              12.30 pm Mulled wine / soft drinks reception followed by lunch, 1.30 pm

Parking:         Ample parking available on the Quays

After-lunch entertainment: Mr Julian Walton will share his memories of

                                                The Adventures of ‘On This Day’, 1994 to 2013.

Price   €25.00 per person                    Choice of main course                        Private Bar

Friends welcome

 For bookings contact: 

Mr Tony Gunning Hon. Treas. WAHS 7 Ballinakill Vale Waterford Tel.: 051 87 34 20

or

Mr Michael Maher PRO WAHS 26 Kenure Park Waterford Tel.: 051 87 84 69

                                               

Your family crest... a Lecture by Mr Julian Walton

Despite the fact that it is a very specialized topic, the audience was kept entertained. Mr Julian Walton's unique approach, made it possible for everyone to grasp a little knowledge of heraldry. We learned about shields, helmets, mantles, supporters and motto, about the code of geometric patterns and colours. We discovered some lesser known creatures used as charges, and the vocabulary associated with their positions. And we were enlightened on canting coats and mottoes. 

The Cavendish coat-of-arms

Head of a man, body of a lion, wings, forked tail,
3 rows of teeth: meet the manticore

Coat of arms of Ireland

Modern heraldry: petroleum sailing on water 

The End!!!

Upcoming Lecture on Heraldry by Mr Julian Walton

The last lecture of 2013 will take place on Friday 22nd November 

Speaker: Mr. Julian Walton.

Topic: Your "family crest" what you may (and may not) like to know.

Venue/Time: Edmund Rice Heritage & Conference Centre, Barrack Street, Waterford at 8pm.

Admittance: €5.00 non-members

'Hanged on Ballybricken Hill' - by Pat McCarthy

On Friday 25th October a large audience gathered to hear Dr Pat McCarthy deliver his lecture on capital punishment in Waterford in the 19th century.

We learned that originally it was the custom to hang the convict at -or near- the scene of the crime, then later near the jail, and eventually within the walls of the jail. One had little chance of appeal, with the execution taking place within 24 or 48 hours after the judgement. It was a very hit-and-miss affair, since the executioner was usually a fellow convict.

No details-as gruesome as they might have been- were spared, and reactions from the public as Pat talked, proved that everybody was very much 'hanging onto his every word'...

Upcoming lecture on Capital Punishment in Waterford

Our next lecture will be on Friday 25th October

Speaker: Dr Pat Mc Carthy

Topic: 'Hanged on Ballybricken Hill' - A look at capital crime in Waterford in the 19th century

Venue: Edmund Rice Heritage Centre, Barrack Street, Waterford

Time: 8 pm

Entry: € 5.00 non members (members free)

John Aylward, A Waterford-born Merchant of the 17th Century - the Lecture

Lecturer Jimmy McCrohan meets present-day John Aylward (right)

On Thursday 5th September, on the second day of the Aylward Gathering, Mr Jimmy McCrohan gave a talk on a 17th century merchant, John Aylward, born c 1650 in Waterford. He emigrated very young, arriving in Málaga in the 1660s where he became an apprentice to the Wyse family. Málaga was then a military, not a commercial port, and Spain dominated the American trade. John Aylward proved to have shrewd business sense, good judgement, and the ability to built strong relationships with business partners in many cities. He moved to Saint-Malo, in France, where he married the widowed daughter of Matthew Porter, another Irish expatriate. His wife was as astute in business as he was, and he left matters to her while he was away. He became an aristocrat in France, yet later relocated to London in 1698. He had three daughters, one of them, Mary Alsen Aylward, married Charles Howard, of he Dukes of Norfolk family. John Aylward died in 1705.

A view of the attendance - many of them Aylwards! 

Kieran Walsh, editor, Munster Express, and Jimmy McCrohan
 have a chat after the lecture

(l. to r.)Eddie Sinnott, Donnchadh Ó Ceallacháin,
Jimmy McCrohan, John Aylward

Mrs Gemma McCrohan & Mr Jimmy McCrohan (lecturer)
at the Aylward gathering