International conference: ‘Waterford and the Wider World 1500–1800’

Friday, November 8, 2024 - 14:00 to Saturday, November 9, 2024 - 16:45
Dr Mary Strangman Large Room, and Medieval Museum, Waterford X91 K10E

In partnership with Trinity College Dublin, the Granville Hotel, University College Dublin, Maynooth University, Creative Waterford, Waterford City & County Council & Department of Foreign Affairs

For half a millennium people from Waterford (and the South-East) have made their mark in their adoptive homelands from Salamanca to St John’s and from Malaga to Mazulipatam.  In turn Waterfordians today are a huge mix of Viking, Norman, Gaelic Irish and more recent immigrants.  To echo recent remarks by the former Taoiseach, many in our families have once been asylum seekers, immigrants or emigrants, and nationality and identity ‘are far more complex and fluid than people often care to admit’.

Join us to hear international experts from Newfoundland, New York, Spain, France, Italy, Scotland and Ireland share their research into Waterford’s international connections with England and Europe and the Americas, East Indies and Caribbean, including the question of involvement in the slave trade.

The conference includes a guided tour of the museum displays of objects connected to some of these remarkable people.

COST
Conference Fee (includes tea/coffee) €65.
Friends of Waterford Treasures €55.
Student / concession €20
 
BOOK ON www.waterfordtreasuresbookings.com/Event/ | Waterford Treasures
 
Please email [email protected] Granville Hotel to book special Conference Rate (including parking) and Dinner:

Fri 8th and Sat 9th :                              €159 single; €171 twin/double B&B per night.
 
Wed 6th, Thurs 7th & Sun 10th :           €134 single; €146 twin/double B&B per night.
 
Conference dinner Sat 9th, 19:00        €35.00 per head. Please let us know any dietary restrictions.
 

Friday 8th November
 
14:00   Registration
14:20   Welcome
 
14.30   Waterford, England and the Atlantic – sixteenth and seventeenth centuries [50 mins]
Susan Flavin (Trinity College Dublin) Commodities and Commerce: Waterford Merchants and the sixteenth-century Consumer Boom
David Brown (Trinity College Dublin) Waterford and Revolution: Waterford's old merchants and England's new merchants during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, 1638–1660
 
15:20   Origins and growth of Waterford’s French connections                           [75]
Marian Lyons (Maynooth University) Waterford migrants in Breton ports in the seventeenth century
Eamon Ó Ciosáin (Maynooth University) Waterford merchants and tradespeople in Western France in the seventeenth century
Sandrine Tromeur (Maynooth University) William Lee (c.1622–1677), a Waterford merchant in La Rochelle
 
16:45   Keynote                                                                                                          [45]
Julian Walton (Dunhill Multi-Education Centre) ‘Spiting the Penal Laws’: Researching Irish Merchants in eighteenth-century Andalucía: A Personal Odyssey                                                                                                                                       
 
 
Saturday 9th November Morning
 
9:00     Registration
 
9:15     Waterford, Iberia, and Rome: The religious connections                         [75]
Matteo Binasco (University for Foreigners of Siena) Ab Waterfordia ad Urbem: clerical networks between Waterford and Rome during the early-modern period
Javier Burguillo & Cristo José de León (University of Salamanca) Paul Sherlock's library in Salamanca and the intellectual profile of the Irish Mission
Thomas O’Connor (Maynooth University) Waterford and the Portuguese Inquisition in the sixteenth century
 
10:30 Tea/ Coffee
 
             
11:00    Waterford, Iberia and the Canaries: The world of trade             [75]
Giada Pizzoni (European University Institute, Florence) John Aylward: a Waterford ordinary merchant with an extraordinary career 
John Bergin (University College Dublin) George Fitzgerald (d. 1744) and his nephew and partner George Fitzgerald (d. 1762), Waterford-born merchants in Tenerife and London
Carmen Lario (University of Cadiz) The Irish in 18th century Cádiz: signs of an old friendship
 
12:15     Guided visit to Waterford Treasures displays                              [60]
 
 
13:15 Lunch at own expense
 
Saturday Afternoon
 
14:15   Transoceanic networks in the eighteenth century:  The Caribbean and the Thirteen Colonies                                                                                                             [50]   
Thomas Truxes (New York University) Bordeaux's Backdoor: Waterford, St. Sebastian, and the illicit eighteenth century wine trade
Kate Hodgson (University College Cork) Franco-Irish business: Munster, Nantes and the French Caribbean world
 
15:10   Transoceanic networks in the eighteenth century: Further afield           [50]
John Mannion (Memorial University) A Transatlantic Migratory Fishery: Waterford’s Newfoundland Connections, 1700–1800 
Andrew Mackillop (University of Glasgow) Waterford and British colonialism in Asia, c. 1690–1820
           
16:00   Was Waterford unique?                                                                               [45]
Ivar McGrath (University College Dublin) and David Dickson (Trinity College Dublin) Was Waterford unique?
 
16:45   Conference closes

Conference dinner 19:00