Ireland 5/16/2013

Waterford is the oldest city in Ireland, dating to a Norman outpost in 853; today it is Ireland’s fifth largest city, famous for Waterford Crystal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waterford Crystal

• The early kilns required 20 tons of wood to make 9 tons of glass.  No wonder there are no trees here.
• Workers must apprentice for 5 years then practice for 3 before becoming a master blower or cutter.  To be an engraver requires and additional 2 years studying art.
• Workers – blowers, cutters, engravers – worldwide are all male!
• In 2009 outsourced most of the work, primarily to Eastern European countries. For employees who lost jobs, their pension funds mysteriously disappeared. But the managers’ funds didn’t.  And managers were each given a one million Euro bonus. Where have I heard this story before?

 

 

 

 

 

The River Suir runs through town on its way to the sea at Dunmore East.  The river separates County Waterford from County Tipperary.  My grandmother Ellen Ryan came from Tipperary.

Lunch was fish and chips and Guinness at T&H Doolans, Waterford’s oldest pub, first licensed over 300 years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

Both  Christ Church Cathedral and   Holy Trinity Cathedral were designed by the same architect, John Roberts. This is the only place in Europe where a Catholic and Protestant cathedral were designed by one person.

“There is no seaport in Ireland where drunkenness has played such havoc as Waterford.”   Waterford Chronicle, 12 November 1839.