Waterford Treasures reaches major milestone - 25 years after city’s first museum opened

Waterford Treasures - a collection of five museums - has reached a major milestone, a quarter of a century after the city’s very first museum opened.

While the award-winning Medieval Museum was the first to open in 1999, there are now five museums plus a Viking Virtual Reality Experience at the Viking House and the EPIC Guided walking tour, all located in Waterford’s historic core, the Viking Triangle.

Waterford Treasures celebrates a quarter of a century welcoming visitors from all over the world and to date the museums have catered for 1.5 million paying visitors - each of whom has enjoyed a visit to at least one of the museums in Ireland’s oldest city. 

Speaking of the milestone, Sara Dolan CEO at Waterford Treasures, said: “Waterford Treasures has grown from being one museum celebrating our city’s impressive heritage to a global attraction welcoming visitors from Ireland and the world over and picking up a host of awards along the way. Waterford Treasures has been and continues to be a real driver for the tourism economy in Waterford and indeed the Southeast region."

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To celebrate its quarter-of-a-century status, Waterford Treasures is set to host the international conference: ‘Waterford and the Wider World 1500–1800’ on November 8 and 9.

The event will offer an opportunity for delegates to hear the unique and untold story of the Waterford diaspora worldwide. 

Nineteen scholars from USA, Spain, Italy, France, the UK and Ireland will give illustrated talks on the Waterford connection to Britain, France and Southern Europe in the 1500s and 1600s.  Merchants, army men (the ‘Wild Geese’), trainee priests and economic migrants in times of hardship will all feature, even a connection to the Portuguese Inquisition.  The involvement of Waterfordians with the Americas, the Caribbean and Asia will also be presented, including the slave trade.

John Mannion, well-known to Waterford people for his lifework researching the Newfoundland connection, will give a pre-recorded talk and own Julian Walton of Waterford Treasures will give a lighthearted talk on research in Spain before computerisation and digitisation.

"Connections with Spain are huge: 10% of Waterford’s trade was with Cadiz in the 1740s – 1760s which was the centre of Catholic Spain’s vast transatlantic trade.  Half the immigrant population there was from Waterford and environs and they all inter-married, keeping business in the family. This will be a unique event looking back at the last 25 years of Waterford Treasures, but also far beyond," explained Rosemary Ryan at Waterford Treasures

Click here to discover more about Waterford’s contribution worldwide from Seville to St John’s, Newfoundland, and from Malaga to Mazulipatam at the upcoming conference.