The Emigrants Trail-Stories of Emigration to Newfoundland

Saturday 18th September
As part of the launch of the trail in Dungarvan in September a booklet including a range of articles from well known historians including John Mannion St John’s, Julian Walton Waterford, Tom Nealon and Michael Coady Carrick-on- Suir, Willie Fraher and Nioclas Graves Dungarvan along with Eamonn McEneaney,
Eamonn Murphy, Ray McGrath and Senan Cooke is being produced. The booklet will also include a
map of the looped trail in county Waterford and the lists of family names and locations of the emigrants who departed from county Waterford. The lists were produced by eminent historians John and Maura Mannion.

The importance of the booklet is that it will act as a motivation for local historians in county Waterford
to research the names (of their forefathers) that departed from their own communities and so build
up a history on the Newfoundland connection from the ground up. This new information will inform
the future development of the trail over the next three years.

The booklet will also be included in an information pack for the initial trail. The pack will include promotional material on the towns and villages situated along the trail and what they have to offer the visitor.  
The trail has real potential for tourism, educational and eco- tourism. It will be up to every town and village prompted by County Council to develop an attractive aspect relating to Newfoundland along with refreshments and toilet facilities. That can be in Dunhill – the education centre – in Tramore the Coastguard station in Waterford City the museum, in Dungarvan the county museum and so on re An Rinn, Rathgormack, Carrick, Passage etc.

In 2011 it is expected that Kilkenny and Wexford will replicate the Waterford pilot and finally a south- eastern
trail will be developed within a three year period. Waterford County Council is fully supportive of the initiative
and we expect that Kilkenny and Wexford County Councils will also support the overall project.

The booklet is the key initiative in launching the trail concept in 2010. It explains ‘the grand plan’ and it provides a number of examples of the rich history associated Newfoundland/ South east and how the trail can be an important of the tourist fabric of the county and region in the years to come. Waterford County Council has already indicated that they will consider providing a part time co-ordinator to collate future contributions by local historians who will be directed and motivated by the information in the booklet.

Donnchadh Ruadh Mac Conmara

Donnchadh Ruadh Mac Conmara was a native of Cratloe on the road from Limerick to Bunratty.
He was born about the year 1715 and died in 1811. His long life was a complete disaster in human terms.
Sent to Rome to study for the priesthood, he was thrown out for misconduct. Returning to Ireland,
he set up as a schoolmaster in the Sliabh gCua area of county Waterford, where the old traditions
of hospitality to Gaelic poets still flourished. Tooraneena, meaning bleach- green of the wine didn’t get its
name for nothing. But soon he was on the move again. This time he followed thousands of migrant labourers from the land of the three rivers across the Atlantic to Talamh an Eisc- the fishing ground of Newfoundland. 
On his return he composed the mock –epic poem Eachtra Ghiolla an Amarain-(the adventures of a luckless fellow). Back in Sliabh gCua once again he was reduced to such a state of poverty and demoralisation that he did the unthinkable. He took the soup and turned Protestant. Not that the soup was especially succulent,
but as a Protestant he was now able to earn a meagre wage as parish clerk of Rossmire (now Kilmacthomas).
Here too he was a failure. After being thrown out of his job for drunkenness he drifted back into the Catholic Church. He eventually died in 1810, the Freeman’s Journal recording his death thus ‘ At Newtown near Kilmacthomas in the 95th year of his age, Denis Macnamara, commonly known by the name of Ruadh or Redhaired, the most celebrated of the modern bards’

History Conference Schedule

9.30 am 
Meet and Greet
10.00 am 
Morning Session
Chair:  Owen Doyle Chairperson Graiguenamanagh Historical Society
 Speakers
1 Dr Kevin Whelan
2 Robert Gillard  BIS StJohns
3 Dr James Lyttleton
12.30-13.00 pm Lunch
14.00 pm Afternoon Session
Chair: Michael Murphy
Open Forum on survival of customs in both Ireland and Newfoundland with a panel of four from both
countries. 
Newfoundland 
Maureen Sullivan
Robert Gillard
Joshua Lawlor
Florence Careen Power
Ireland
Walter Walsh
Gloria Binions
16.00 pm
Guided Tour of Borris House