“I was there!”

Throughout our individual journey on this wee Island of green there will be many, many events that you will look back on in your own life’s history and remember fondly and then there are those seminal events that you might just have been lucky enough to be part of to be able to say to your family, children, grandchildren and friends that “I was there!”

Max Boyce, the Welsh comedian, entertainer and singer, would reminisce about being in the old Cardiff Arms Park watching his beloved Welsh rugby team sweeping all before them and creating many a rugby legend in the process. Max would recall these days in his shows, on television, and retell the associated stories around him being at such great matches that are now part of rugby folklore.

Luckily, in my short life I have been extremely fortunate to have been at a number of events that I too can proudly say “I was there!”

1990 Grand Slam

On the 17^th March 1990 a brilliantly dogged Scottish rugby team walked very slowly onto “God’s Golden Acre”, in Murrayfield, lead by the brilliant Captain that was David Sole. This was also the very first occasion that we sang “Flower of Scotland” as our own rugby anthem. Despite not being given one iota of a chance, by any of the national media and rugby pundits, a certain boyish Tony Stanger scampered down the right wing to score the games only try and by the end of the 80 minutes Scotland were Grand Slam Champions and “I was there!”

To mark this, our only third ever Grand Slam, I commemorated the occasion with a tattoo so that I could, every weekend and at every training session thereafter, annoy all my English rugby playing teammates, at the various clubs I played for in and around London.

I was also very lucky to have been invited to take part in the historic occasion that was the visit of Elizabeth II Regina to Ireland. Better still I was invited to meet and greet her in the Dublin Convention Centre along with other members of Irish business and various sporting stars. I duly travelled to Dublin, suitably dressed in my beloved kilt, and was part of this momentous occasion that befitted this modern day Ireland that we now live in. Who would have thought that this was at all possible when I first came to Ireland in the year 2001.

This was perhaps one of those one off events that truly deserved the phrase “I was there!”

Only a few years on from this event I was once again counting my blessings to be invited to travel to Dublin to take part in the 1916 Centenary Commemorations, this time as a member of the hard working voluntary group that is the 1848 Tricolour Celebration Committee.

In many ways being asked to be outside the GPO on such a significant occasion was very humbling. To be part of my adopted Nation’s remembrance of the 1916 Rising and the events that ultimately created the Ireland we now live in was to say the very least a great honour and something I will never ever forget.

GPO Dublin 27 March 2016

There are very few opportunities to be a part of an historic event and there are even fewer opportunities to attend such an event as a guest of the State. I am sure that every member of the Tricolour Committee felt the same way as I did as we sat outside the GPO. We would also attend all the events in Dublin Castle later that evening.

A substantial Waterford contingent was representing the City on Sunday the 27^th March. As we travelled back down the motorway I have no doubt that everyone who attended the historic event last Sunday will in future years be saying loudly and proudly “I was there!”

As a footnote, I always wanted to add to and refresh my Grand Slam tattoo but after 26 years I have failed miserably to do so. Maybe next year?

Nobody does it better!

Richard Kiel from The Spy Who Loved Me.

Last weekend Waterford City hosted the sixth annual 1848 Tricolour Celebration event and I am very proud that as one of the hard working voluntary Committee members I have taken the opportunity to write, this week, about the huge effort, commitment and sacrifice given to this event by a relatively small Committee of nine and a half good men and women of Waterford (well Scotland for me if the truth be told!).

Over the last twelve months this group have been working tirelessly away in the meeting rooms of The Granville Hotel, to deliver not only the annual gala dinner, historic talks, schools programme and Flag Raising ceremony but the programme was expanded this year to acknowledge the very important 1916 Commemoration in a way that will NOT be replicated anywhere else in Ireland during this year.

This committed band of brothers and sisters produced a weekend's worth of events that could have graced any national event calendar and in recognition of the magnitude of the professionalism of the events delivered our Waterford City held centre stage with our national broadcaster on Saturday evening on both of the main news bulletins. It is these small wins and PR opportunities that are firing a warning shot across the bows of others cities that Waterford is not prepared to lie down and accept the occasional crumbs from the top table that are so often fed to us every now and again.

Great picture from Noel Browne.

Quite simply we want a bigger slice of the cake!

A summary of last weekend shows just what a significant programme this committee delivered. On Friday 4^th March 100 people, from 50 different nationalities, were naturalised as Irish Citizens, in City Hall, opposite the very spot where TF Meagher raised the first ever Irish Tricolour flag on 7^th March 1848.

On an unusually sunny afternoon, on Saturday 5^th March, 2,500 people watched as over 90 re-enactors staged the Easter Rising battle for the GPO, on The Mall, outside the Bishop’s Palace. This 40 minute historic re-enactment included forces from both side of the conflict and a period British armoured car with a Vickers and a Lewis machine gun. Whilst this event captured the public’s imagination the ticketed gala dinner that followed was really the corporate flag waving event that delivered the goods for Waterford City.

Over one hundred and fifty people attended the sell out gala dinner in The Granville Hotel. This event was attended by Mayor John Cummins, Ambassadors from the United States and Canadian Embassies, representatives from Government, members of the 69^th Infantry Division in New York, American film production companies, and 45 guests from the Twin Cities of Minnesota to name but a few. Keynote speakers were Vice Admiral Mark Mellett and Lt Col Sean M Flynn Commander of the 69^th Infantry Division New York, with musical accompaniment by the Island of Ireland Peace Choir and the Hounds of Fin.

The gala dinner was one of the best attended and certainly one of, if not the most positive, corporate events I have experienced in my time here in Waterford City. The City was sold to our guests in a glowing light and I am sure that no other City or committee could have put on such a noteworthy event.

Another action shot from Noel Browne.

On Sunday 6^th March the weekend’s events were wrapped up with the Flag Raising Ceremony on The Mall. Again this event was attended by a significant number of dignitaries and representative counties and despite some cold and damp weather, around 1200 people watched the proceedings and listened intently to the speeches. This event was supported in great numbers by local bands, the Civil Defence and of course the Waterford Naval Reserve providing all the pomp and ceremony which befitted such a symbolic event.

So Waterford City take a bow.

To the voluntary committee of Ann, Eddie, Paul, Janet, Mags, Jonathan, James, Cian and John you ALL played a blinder – roll on 2017!

A flag worth waving.

As Christmas Day and even New Year’s Day now become a dim distant memory our thoughts should turn to two major events that will take place in the first quarter of 2016 – namely Election Day and of course the Commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising.

Both of these very important events will soon be upon us and whilst there is no set date for the election, we are lead to believe that a date will be set shortly after the delivery of the Banking Enquiry that is due, at present, to report by the end of January.

We can already witness the political jockeying that has started and despite the devastation of the recent storms, Clodagh, Des et al, we are seeing more and more of our TD’s out and about “doing their bit” to help flood sufferers. Rest assured they are also out with a keen eye on the PR opportunities that these situations bring, and as we know there is no bad PR and even the sinking of a canoe in County Kilkenny brought laughter and PR opportunities for those concerned.

We will therefore literally have a few of weeks to make up our minds on how the country will be run over the next number of years and we should ALL engage in that process.

Edinburgh born James Connolly.

The 1916 Easter Rising Commemoration will follow hotfoot on the back of E-Day and we should be looking forward to seeing how these events materialise, as after all the Government and TD Committees have, reportedly, been working on these celebrations for months and years. So we should be wowed by what is in store and above all we should at the very least be proud of the Commemoration that in many people’s eyes celebrates the birth of a nation.

Both of the above events should stir emotions and stir a sense of pride, no matter what side of the political fence you may sit on.

The election and the Commemoration will spark debate and ignite the fire in our bellies that define who we are. No doubt there will be much fevered patriotism and perhaps even some jingoism, but above all there will be much flag waving and a lot of symbolism around both events.

Every time an Irish tricolour is waved, we in Waterford should be proud of the fact that Thomas Francis Meagher, born in what is now the Granville Hotel, is credited with “inventing” the flag so widely identified with Ireland around the world. As the first modern nation that voted for same sex marriage we must be mature enough to know what this tricolour flag represents in today’s Ireland.

But how many in Waterford, Ireland and the rest of the world know, that the flag so proudly flown by Ireland and the Irish Diaspora around the globe, was first flown in Waterford City, at 33 The Mall, in March 1848?

I would hazard a guess that very few know of the origin of the Irish Tricolour and the connection with Waterford City. In fact I would say more people associate Waterford with crystal than this nation’s national flag.

Waterford born Thomas Francis Meagher.

It is very sad to think that we have such a great opportunity to promote Waterford City, around the world, through our connection with Thomas Francis Meagher and the tricolour, and we clearly do not utilise the vast potential for tourism and economic development that this might bring.

Other towns and cities in Ireland have identified connections and the strong economic possibilities, particularly in the USA, that being associated with the foundation of the state and the foundation of the national flag might bring. If we are not careful our claim to the tricolour and it first being raised in Waterford City could become another faded memory of Waterford’s historic past, like so many of our current economic pillars.

As we rapidly run towards E-Day and the 1916 Commemorations we should proudly remind everyone of Waterford’s connection to the birth of this modern nation.