Annual General Meeting - Change of Date

Members please note that the AGM has been postponed to Thursday 7th April 2011. Notices are being sent to all members along with a booking form for the trip to the Boyne Valley for the month of June. Apologies to anyone who didn't get a booking form, this is being rectified straight away by the Hon. Sec.

March Lecture: Mr Eddie Synnott on 'The Campile Bombing'

On Friday 25th March 2011, Mr Eddie Synnott, committee member of WAHS and Chairman of the South Kilkenny Historical Society, will lecture on 'The Campile Bombing in 1940: An Accident or Deliberate Bombing in a Neutral Country?'

Saint Patrick's Day and Waterford Connections

In the mid-seventeenth century, the 17 March became a Holiday of Obligation in the Catholic Church. Already celebrated by the Franciscans, Saint Patrick's day was included among the official saints' days by Waterford-born Franciscan Luke Wadding, appointed to the Congregation of the Breviary in Rome.

Wearing of the shamrock and pota Phádraig (drowning the shamrock) were the traditions, and the heavy drinking on that day remained cause for concern through the eighteenth and nineteenth century. There was then a movement to make Saint Patrick's Day a National Holiday, with the implication that all businesses, including public houses, would close for the day. This was adopted in 1903. Here is a letter, in which Waterford Corporation declared that on Saint Patrick's Day, no business would be conducted in the city.

For full article, see Decies 65, pp107-109.

February Lecture: Excavations at the site of Egan's/Penney's

On Friday 25 February 2011, Mr. Dave Pollock will give a talk on the 2009 excavations which took place in Barronstrand Street in the city centre, where the new Penney's store now stands. For those who haven't been there, part of a medieval wall has been retained as a feature in the centre of the store. Check Waterford News & Star's article of April 2009.

If Maps Could Speak, by Richard Kirwan

There will be an evening talk by Waterford Author, Richard Kirwan, entitled: If Maps Could Speak

Venue: Waterford City Hall

Date: Wednesday 16th February at 7pm

Free Admission

If Maps Could Speak was published in late 2010 and is an engaging combination of memoir, history and stories about people and places. In this presentation, Richard Kirwan a former Director of Ordnance Survey Ireland will take the audience behind the scenes into the minds and work of the early map-makers with accounts of their inventions, adventures, endurance and heroism in pre-Famine Ireland...

This free event is for a public audience and is organised as part of Waterford Engineering Week by Calmast at Waterford Institute of Technology in association with Engineers Ireland Southeast Region.

For more details see www.calmast.ie

Just Published: Glassmaking in Ireland - From the Medieval to the Contemporary

Published by Irish Academic Press, Glassmaking in Ireland - From the Medieval to the Contemporary, edited by WAHS member and formerDecies editor, Dr John M Hearne, is described as 'A treasure-trove of fascinating information for the scholar, collector and enthusiast alike'.
This is a comprehensive book on the history of Irish glass-making, dedicated to the memory of Mary Boydell, who was an authority on Irish glass and a co-founder of the Glass Society of Ireland.

From archaeological evidence to results of new research, the importance of glass in art, history, and economy are dealt with in this publication, launched in Dublin by Dr Patrick F Wallace, Director of the National Museum of Ireland on Friday 28 January 2011.

The Waterford launch will take place this coming Friday 4 February 2011 in the Book Centre, Waterford.

January Lecture: Bridget Redmond, Keeper Of The Redmondite Flame in Waterford

Our first lecture of 2011 will be delivered by Ms Alice McDermott, Lecturer in History and Cultural Studies at Waterford Institute of Technology.

The subject of her lecture will be Bridget Redmond, TD for Waterford Constituency from 1932-1952, wife of William Redmond and daughter in law of John Redmond.