Museum Website Praised By Author Of New Book On G.A.A

Erin's Hope Football Team, Dungarvan C. 1898

On Tuesday 20th October members of The Museum Society attended the launch of "The G.A.A. - A Peoples History", at the Nemo Rangers clubhouse in Cork. The book, by Mike Cronin, Mark Duncan and Paul Rouse has been produced to mark the 125th anniversary of the foundation of the G.A.A.

A number of photographs from our archive are beautifully reproduced in the book including a double page spread of the Fraher Field by R. E. Brenan. Another photograph is of Grattan Square, Dungarvan, filled with people and cars on the day of the 1924 Munster Championship. An action shot by Brenan of a game being played at Fraher Field is an extremely rare image according to the book authors. Mike Cronin spoke on behalf of the authors and thanked a number of archives,  including Waterford County Museum, for the use of their images. It is a great example of how our image archive at www.waterfordcountyimages.org is bringing rare historical photos into the public domain. More early hurling and football photos can be found on the web site.

The book is available from amazon.co.uk and amazon.com and from all Irish bookstores. It is a fantastic book, with very high production values. It is worth the purchase price for the photographs alone. An ideal gift for any GAA enthusiast.

If you have any old G.A.A. or sports photographs that you would like to see in our image archive please contact us at history@waterfordmuseum.ie All images are returned once we have scanned them for posterity.

Seminar On the Heritage Of County Waterford

On the 5th of November from 9am to 5pm, in the Park Hotel, Dungarvan, a seminar on the Heritage of County Waterford is taking place.  This seminar will present projects carried out under the County Waterford Heritage Plan and covers archaeological, built, industrial and natural heritage.

At 10.50am Waterford County Museum's Curator, William Fraher will give a talk on the work of the Waterford County Museum.

All are welcome at this seminar which is free of charge.  For any further information contact bguest@waterfordcoco.ie.

Online Catalogue Of Museum Artifacts Almost Complete

We are well on our way in creating our database of the many documents and artifacts here in the museum.We are hoping to have this completed  during the early part of 2010. This will allow you to browse and search through the many objects and documentation from different sources that we have in our possession. The complete text of letters and documents will not be made available online but their content will be summarised. This online catalogue should be a valuable tool for researchers and genealogists. Objects in our collection include:

• Personal Letters
• Billheads
• Invoices
• Advertising Materials
• Posters
• Medals
• Coins
• Weapons
• Maps
• Books
• Tools
• Domestic Objects

In total our holdings comprise 5000+ objects of which we have catalogued 3500. Over time photographs of many of the items will be added to the catalogue. The work of cataloging our artifacts has been ongoing with 2 years.

Donation Of Images Of Tramore & Waterford/Tramore Railway Line

Thomas Jones Donating An Album To Willie Whelan, Museum Committee Member

Waterford County Museum recently had a visit from Thomas Jones who kindly presented us with part of his collection of postcards and photographs. The main theme of these 600 or so images are Tramore and the Waterford/Tramore Railway Line. The images are being published on our image archive waterfordcountyimages.org. The postcards and photos date from the late 1800's to the 1960's. Our thanks to Thomas for this most generous donation. If anyone has any images of County Waterford  that they would like to donate please contact us at history@waterfordmuseum.ie. Images can be returned to donors once they have been scanned.

Youghal Celebrates History - A Great Success!

The Youghal Conference "Youghal Celebrates History" took place last month from the 25th to the 27th of September.  On Saturday, 26th September, Waterford County Museum's Curator, William Fraher took to the floor with his talk  "County Waterford Houses on the River Blackwater". Included in  this talk was a letter written by Mary Louise Foley from BallyGally House.  This letter makes reference to famous author, Conan Doyle who often stayed at the house and wrote many of his first detective stories there, "they would sit before the fire in the evening while he would read to them what he had written that day".  Doyles mother was actually a Waterford lady named Mary Foley.  On Sunday, 27th September, our trustee Julian Walton spoke of "Dromana: The Lords of the Decies and the Villiers-Stuarts".

The Conference was voted the biggest success so far and Waterford County Museum look forward to contributing towards The Youghal Conference again next year. 

A Visit From Deise Day Care Centre

On Monday we had a group from the local Day Care Centre visiting. They enjoyed their time browsing the different exhibitions and were very impressed with the Museum. They were treated to a cup of tea by the staff, while they watched the film of the Moresby.

Abbeyside NS & The Ard Scoil Visit The Museum

We had a visit from 4th class students from Abbeyside National School today, 27 children came in to hear about the Moresby disaster. Their teacher, Ms Mary Harney and teaching assistant Ms Mary Gorman, had them well prepared!

Ard Scoil na Deise's 5th year students and their teacher Ms. Margaret Denehey also visited today, researching ideas for their history projects for the Leaving Certificate.

We would like to encourage schools to visit the museum. Far from being a dull, boring place, this museum is bright, full of interesting artefacts and handling objects. We also have a wide screen television that plays a variety of films and images. The museum is always prepared to help out with school projects. Children of all ages are welcome to the museum to learn about their County's past.

Donation of Easter 1916 Medal:

We recently received a donation of a rare 1916 medal from Tom Graves and Rita Currran, along with a War of Independece medal which are on display during our current exhibition. We are delighted to have received some very interesting images lately, these will be up on the website in the coming months. All items donated receive the utmost care as they are added to our growing collection. We try to vary our regular exhibits throughout the year so that as much of the collection as possible can be seen.