County Waterford Guide (Port Láirge)
“The Déise” - in the province of Munster. County town: Waterford.
Ireland’s oldest city, famed for crystal and the blaa.
Ireland’s oldest city, founded by Vikings over a thousand years ago, Waterford gives its name to world-famous crystal and to the blaa, a soft white bread roll found nowhere else. The county runs from a historic quayside down a beautiful coastline - the Copper Coast - to the seaside charm of Dunmore East and Tramore.
No Irish city is older than Waterford. Viking raiders founded Vadrarfjordr in 914, and the city's Reginald's Tower, medieval walls and Viking Triangle museums still tell the story of a port that Norman, Tudor and Georgian rulers all prized. Strongbow married Aoife here in 1170, sealing the Norman entry into Ireland, and in 1848 Thomas Francis Meagher first flew the Irish tricolour from a window on the Mall. The county's name became a global byword for elegance through Waterford Crystal, founded by the Penrose brothers in 1783 and still cut in the city today.
Beyond the city, the Deise, as locals call the county, packs remarkable variety into a small space: the Copper Coast's cliffs and coves form a UNESCO Global Geopark, the Comeragh Mountains hold glacial corrie lakes like Coumshingaun, and the Blackwater valley around Lismore is lush castle country. An Rinn, near Dungarvan, keeps a living Gaeltacht alive in the sunny south-east, while the 46-kilometre Waterford Greenway along an old railway has become one of Ireland's favourite cycling routes. The local blaa, a soft white bread roll, is so distinctive it holds protected European status.
Cities, towns and villages in Waterford
- Waterford City - Ireland's oldest city, founded by Vikings in 914, home to Reginald's Tower, the Viking Triangle museums and the House of Waterford Crystal.
- Dungarvan - Harbour town beneath the Comeraghs that anchors the Waterford Greenway and has grown into a celebrated food destination.
- Tramore - Classic seaside resort with a five-kilometre strand, a promenade, surf schools and one of Ireland's best-loved racecourses.
- Lismore - Heritage town on the Blackwater dominated by Lismore Castle, Irish seat of the Dukes of Devonshire and birthplace of scientist Robert Boyle.
- An Rinn - Heart of Gaeltacht na nDeise, where Irish remains a community language and students flock to summer colleges.
- Ardmore - Cliff-walk village where St Declan founded a Christian settlement said to predate St Patrick, marked by a slender 12th-century round tower.
- Portlaw - Planned model village built by the Quaker Malcomson family around their 19th-century cotton mill.
- Kilmacthomas - Comeragh-foothills village whose great stone viaduct is now a highlight of the Waterford Greenway.
- Passage East - Fishing village where a car ferry crosses the estuary to Wexford, near the spot where the Normans landed in force.
Famous people from Waterford
- Robert Boyle - The father of modern chemistry and author of Boyle's Law, born at Lismore Castle in 1627.
- Ernest Walton - Physicist born in Abbeyside, Dungarvan, who split the atomic nucleus with Cockcroft and won the 1951 Nobel Prize, Ireland's only science Nobel.
- Thomas Francis Meagher - Waterford-born Young Irelander who first flew the tricolour in his native city in 1848 and later became a Union general and governor of Montana.
- Luke Wadding - Waterford-born Franciscan scholar credited with having St Patrick's Day placed on the church's universal calendar.
- John Roberts - 18th-century Waterford architect with the rare distinction of designing both the city's Protestant and Catholic cathedrals.
- Val Doonican - Waterford city crooner whose easy-going BBC television show made him a household name across Britain and Ireland for decades.
- Gilbert O'Sullivan - Singer-songwriter of Alone Again (Naturally) and Clair, born Raymond O'Sullivan in Waterford in 1946.
- Anna Manahan - Waterford actress who won a Tony Award for The Beauty Queen of Leenane after a long career on Irish stages.
- John Treacy - Villierstown athlete who won two World Cross Country titles and marathon silver at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
- Tyrone Power - The celebrated 19th-century Irish comic actor, founder of the Hollywood acting dynasty, born near Kilmacthomas in 1795.
Did you know?
- Waterford is Ireland's oldest city, founded by Vikings in 914, several decades before Dublin received its city charter.
- The Irish tricolour was first flown in public by Thomas Francis Meagher at 33 The Mall, Waterford, on 7 March 1848.
- Jacob's, the bakery firm that went on to invent the cream cracker, was founded in Waterford in 1851 before moving to Dublin.
- The Waterford blaa, a soft floury bread roll of Huguenot origin, was granted EU Protected Geographical Indication status in 2013.
- The marriage of Strongbow and Aoife, which bound Ireland to the Norman world, took place in Waterford in 1170.
- The Copper Coast between Tramore and Dungarvan is a UNESCO Global Geopark named for its 19th-century copper mines.
- Waterford Crystal was founded by brothers George and William Penrose in 1783.
- Ardmore claims to be Ireland's oldest Christian settlement, founded by St Declan before St Patrick's mission began.
Surnames from Waterford: Walsh · Power · Whelan · McGrath · Curran · Foley · Wall · Dunphy · Phelan · Aylward · Kiely · Morrissey