PUBLISHED 26 FEBRUARY 2023
For various reasons I had to cancel my 2022 visit to Waterford and unfortunately I cannot afford to visit Waterford this year and even if I had the money and was willing to pay the asking prices there are no rooms available at dates that suit me.
The city is situated at the head of Waterford Harbour. The city motto Urbs Intacta Manet Waterfordia (“Waterford remains the untaken city”) was granted by King Henry VII of England in 1497 after Waterford refused to recognise the claims of the pretenders Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck to the English throne. Waterford was subjected to two sieges in 1649 and 1650, during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. It withstood the first siege but surrendered during the second siege to Henry Ireton on 6 August 1650.
Reginald’s Tower is the oldest urban civic building in Ireland, and the oldest monument to retain its Viking name. To this day, it remains Waterford’s most recognisable landmark. It is believed to be the first building in Ireland to use mortar. The River Suir, which flows through Waterford City, has provided a basis for the city’s long maritime history. The place downriver from Waterford where the Nore and the Barrow join the River Suir is known in Irish as Cumar na dTrí Uisce (“The confluence of the three waters”). Waterford Port has been one of Ireland’s major ports for over a millennium. In the 19th century, shipbuilding was a major industry. The owners of the Neptune Shipyard, the Malcomson family, built and operated the largest fleet of iron steamers in the world between the mid-1850s and the late 1860s, including five trans-Atlantic passenger liners.
