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.

Lecture: 'Conflict & Consensus: Soldiers & Citizens in Waterford City 1820-1920

The Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society lecture season for 2018 and 2019 commences on Friday 28th September with a lecture at 8 pm in the St Patrick’s Gateway Centre, Patrick St. Waterford by Dr Aoife Bhreathnach titled ‘Conflict and Consensus: Soldiers and Citizens in Waterford City 1820-1920’.

Waterford City has been a garrison town since the first barracks were built in the eighteenth century. A 'garrison town' is not just a town with a barracks, but like 'mill town' or 'mining town', the term garrison town is verbal shorthand for an identifiably distinct town whose economic, social and cultural characteristics are defined by its barracks. Used in a derogatory way, it suggested that a town and its citizens were somehow beholden to, or contaminated by, the military forces stationed among them.

In her lecture Dr Aoife Bhreathnach will explore how military forces stationed in Waterford affected culture and society in the city and how its citizens reacted to this influence. The streets around the barracks were most directly affected by the presence of hundreds of young, single men with time and money to spare. However, married soldiers were also an important feature of garrison towns and Dr Bhreathnach will compare and contrast the different versions of military life lived in Waterford City. Although expressions of Irish nationalism were a commonplace part of civic life, people and politicians saw no contradiction between this and lobbying for more soldiers in the city. When a military barracks was empty, local politicians worked hard to ensure that soldiers were stationed there. A sophisticated electorate understood that the economic benefits of military barracks to the City were inarguable. The British Army was not the object of nationalist critique until republican propaganda began to single out soldiers for particular opprobrium in the twentieth century. Even as republicans attacked the red coats, relationships between civilians and the military continued much as before. Barracks were still supplied by local traders while soldiers drank in pubs surrounding the barracks. Nothing like the boycotting of the Royal Irish Constabulary was experienced by the military, suggesting that Irish nationalists could criticise the British state without protesting against the war machine that sustained local economies.

Dr Aoife Bhreatnach is an independent scholar researching the cultural history of Irish garrison towns. A graduate of University College Cork and DeMontfort University in the UK, her book Becoming Conspicuous: Irish Travellers, Society and the State was published in 2006. She held the Irish Government Senior Scholarship at Hertford College, Oxford. As an Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences Post-Doctoral Fellow, she worked in NUI Maynooth developing a theory of class in nineteenth-century Ireland. From this research emerged her interest in the role played by the British military in Irish social history. She blogs on irishgarrisontowns.com and tweets as @GarrisonTowns.

This lecture will appeal to anyone interested in the social, military and political history of 19th and early 20th century Waterford City. Admission to the lecture is €5 (students €2.50), but is free for members of the Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society.

Lectures & Events 2018-19

List of LECTURES and events 2018 – 2019

Please note all lectures are held at 8pm in St. Patricks Gateway Centre,

Patrick Street, Waterford, unless otherwise stated.

Lectures are free for members, non-members €5.00

Date	Title	Speaker(s)
28/09/2018	Conflict and Consensus: soldiers and citizens in Waterford city 1820-1920	Dr. Aoife Bhreatnach
19/10/2018	Here Comes the Sun – Solar Symbolism in Early Bronze Age Ireland This lecture is being held in the Parnell Room, Granville Hotel	Mary Cahill
30/11/2018	1918 – Why Did Sinn Fein Win the Elections?	Dr Pat McCarthy
02/12/2018	Annual Lunch Mulled wine reception and lunch, Tapestry Room, Granville Hotel.
	Followed by an illustrated talk The History and Heritage of the Comeraghs	Mark Roper and Paddy Dwane
25/01/2019	Waterford's Archaeology From the Air	Simon Dowling
22/02/2019	Medieval Pilgrimage in Waterford	Dr Louise Nugent
29/03/2019	Waterford and New Ross: Piracy, Court Cases and the Theft of Silver – Medieval Economic Politics in Action	Dr Linda Doran
05/04/2019	Annual General meeting
26/04/2019	Dart: An Irish Family in the Azores and in the World	Dr Jorge Forjaz
24/05/2019	Survival and Revival: the Roman Catholic Clergy of Waterford and Lismore in the Aftermath of the Reformation	Dr Áine Hensey

Aylward Family Gathering 2018

Aylward Family Gathering 2018

Programme of Events

Tuesday 4^th September                     History of the Aylward Family, lecture by Julian Walton

                                                            8.00 pm, Dooley’s Hotel, €10 per person.

                                                            Tea / coffee and biscuits served after the lecture

Wednesday 5^th September                Coach trip – places associated with the Aylward family. €20 per person.           

Wednesday evening                          A series of 2 lectures:

The Aylward Family and the Great Parchment Book of Waterford, lecture by Donnchadh O Ceallachain, Waterford Treasures Museums

                                                            Margaret Aylward, founder of the Holy Faith Order, lecture by the archivist of the order.

8.00 pm, Dooley’s Hotel, €10 per person.

                                                            Tea / coffee and biscuits served after the lecture

Thursday 6^th September                   Coach trip to New Ross with a visit to the Dunbrody. €20 per person

Thursday evening                             Gala Dinner with music by the Alymen from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

For further details, including information on Coach Trips and the Gala Dinner  

Contact John Aylward - (087) 2636760

aylwardsofireland@gmail.com

Summer Outing: St Mary's Church, New Ross

On our first summer outing of 2018 members of Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society visited St Mary’s Church in New Ross on a balmy Thursday evening. The existing St Mary’s Church of Ireland parish church dates from the early 19th century. It was built within the shell of what was one of Ireland’s largest 13th century medieval parish churches. Our guide on the evening was Wexford-based archaeologist Emmet Stafford  who showed members many of the original features of the medieval church, including some very well preserved gothic-style mouldings carved in Dundry stone, quarried near Bristol. St Mary’s also has a fine collection of medieval and later burial monuments. These include a number of medieval effigies, one of which is the ‘New Ross bambino’ an effigy of a baby in swaddling clothes. Unusually for a medieval parish church in Ireland there is a vaulted crypt which members had the opportunity to visit. This is very atmospheric and is not normally accessible to the public. At the end of the tour we were treated to refreshments , including scones with strawberries and cream thanks to the generosity of the Select Vestry who look after the church so well.

Thanks to Emmet Stafford for showing us around on the evening and Olive Thorpe representing St Mary’s Select Vestry for her generous welcome.

SUMMER OUTING: St. Mary's Church & Graveyard, New Ross

SUMMER OUTINGS AND EVENTS 2018

Thursday 7th June (evening) ~ St. Mary’s Church and Graveyard, New Ross

St. Mary’s is one of the finest medieval parish churches in Ireland. Its graveyard is the last resting place of many notable Ross families. Our guide will be archaeologist Emmet Stafford whose company has been supervising a recent survey and conservation project at St Mary’s. Meet at St. Mary’s Church and graveyard at 18:45. St Mary’s Church is located on Church St., New Ross. Once you cross the bridge in New Ross continue straight on along Quay St and go up the hill (Mary’s St.), Church St. is the second left. There is ample on-street parking. There is no entry for cars from Mary’s St into Church St.

Thursday evening fieldtrips are free to members. Non-members €5.00.

Lecture:

Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society May Lecture – Waterford connections with the American Civil War

The WAHS lecture season for 2017 and 2018 concludes on Friday 25th May with a lecture titled ‘Waterford connections with the American Civil War’ by military historian Damian Shiels at 8:00 pm in the St Patrick’s Gateway Centre, Waterford.

Over the past number of years, Waterford, like much of the country, has done much to remember the large numbers of Irishmen who fought and died during the First World War. What remains virtually forgotten are the comparable numbers of men who less than fifty years earlier fought and died in similar numbers on the other side of the Atlantic. Indeed, for the area that now makes up the Republic of Ireland, there is little doubt that the American Civil War represents the largest conflict—in terms of the numbers of men serving in uniform—in the modern Irish experience.

In the region of 200,000 Irish-born men fought in the American Civil War, the vast majority (c. 180,000) with the Union. Though thousands of Waterford natives were impacted by the fighting, memory of that involvement in the county has largely been distilled into the experiences of one individual—Thomas Francis Meagher. However, Meagher’s story is just the tip of the iceberg. New research is uncovering the previously hidden histories of local families—in both Waterford and the United States— for whom the American Civil War was a life-changing event. In the process, it is also revealing a wealth of important detail regarding aspects of 19th century Irish emigration such as chain migration, transatlantic networks and American remittances.

As well as exploring some of the better-known Civil War individuals from the county, Damian’s talk will seek to tell the stories of ordinary Waterford men and women affected by the American Civil War. For the first time, it will reveal their experiences in their own words, and will include letters that have never previously been read in public. Theirs is a story that ranges from the doors of the county’s Workhouses to the battlefields of Virginia—it is one that deserves to be better remembered in the land of their birth.

Damian Shiels 

Damian Shiels is an archaeologist and historian currently researching at Northumbria University. Formerly a curator with the National Museum of Ireland, he was one of the team who created the award-winning Soldiers & Chiefs military history exhibition at Collins Barracks, Dublin. He has lectured and published widely in Ireland, Europe and the United States on topics relating to Irish history and archaeology. Among his authored books are The Irish in the American Civil War (2013) and The Forgotten Irish: Irish Emigrant Experiences in America (2016). He runs the largest online resource relating to Irish people in the conflict www.irishamericancivilwar.com.

Admission to the lecture is €5 (students €2.50), but is free for members of the Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society.