Heritage Week 15th-23rd August 2020

National Heritage Week celebrates all things heritage. It brings together communities, families organisations, cultural institutions, academics and enthusiasts, to build awareness about the value of heritage and supports its conservation.

Waterford Libraries Local History Talks Series

This year Waterford Libraries will be running a series of online talks covering topics of Local History for Heritage Week 2020.

The series will include talks on a variety of subjects of local interest.

• Dr. Maxine Keoghan will do a series of 5 short videos for Heritage Week 2020 covering the Waterford Newfoundland connection. Videos will include information on Thomas Meagher, Thomas Francis Meagher, Patrick Morris and John Kent and the cod fisheries of Newfoundland’s Grand Banks which engaged thousands of Irish men in the fishing industry during the eighteenth century. These seamen came primarily from the south-east region of Ireland.

• Dr. Pat McCarthy will present a talk entitled: ‘The East Waterford Brigade IRA, and the War of Independence 1919 – 1921’. In this talk Dr. McCarthy discusses the exploits of the East Waterford Brigade and it’s failure to make a significant military impact. The brigade is mainly associated with the failed Pickardstown ambush in January 1921. After which, the brigade was riven by disputes which ultimately led to its amalgamation with the West Waterford Brigades.This lecture will tell the history of the brigade, its various attempts to engage with British forces and the reasons for its amalgamation. It will also deal with the political situation in the city at the time, a situation which contributed to its comparative lack of success.

• Dr. Bláithín Hurley will be providing a series of online talks about printing, literacy and libraries in Waterford.This project investigates the development of public libraries in Waterford. In the first talk, Dr. Bláithín Hurley will look at the development of reading and libraries in Waterford through the establishment of printers’ shops, reading rooms, news rooms, circulating libraries and finally public libraries.

• Dave Pollock, the author of ‘Medieval Dungarvan: above and below ground’ and ‘Medieval Waterford: above and below ground’, will present a video in association with Dungarvan Library on the History of Dungarvan Castle.

Dr. Keoghan will end the week with a zoom Q&A session talking all things Newfoundland on Friday 21st August at 2.30pm. Contact laughney@warfordcouncil.ie or 0761 10 2665 to submit questions and for zoom link details.

Heritage Week in Waterford Libraries takes place on Waterford Libraries Facebook and here on waterfordlibraries.ie/heritage-week-2020.

If you are visiting different counties during Heritage Week see www.heritageweek.ie as this national website will provide you with several interesting events happening all over Ireland to keep you entertained and informed between Saturday 15th August and Sunday 23rd August.