Irelands number one town

What is interesting about Waterford? After all it’s a town of only 53,000. So let me tell you.

It is Irelands oldest city. In the 900’s Viking pirates starting raiding it. (They came all that way?!) Eventually they started a settlement here at the point where two rivers, the Suir and John’s (yup good ol’ John got his own river) come together as they make their way to the ocean.  

So they set up a tower at that point where the rivers intersected. The town/ settlement was in back of that and was shaped like a triangle. Eventually more Vikings settled there and a wall was built around the triangle. 

So things were going great for the Vikings til the native Irish attacked and took the triangle. Well the Irish were feeling pretty good about themselves when a few years later those pesky Vikings returned and took it over again. 

They kept it for over 200 years until, you guessed it, the English came in and took over in the 1100’s.  As time went on and more and more towns were established, the English nobility owned the land and rented it to the Irish. Eventually the Irish got fed up and took back their country.

Waterford was a big shipping center  and still is somewhat. That shaped the city, brought more people. Waterford crystal set up in the late 1700’s and employed thousands. Cattle farms and crop farms surround Waterford. 

Ireland had a big boom in the late 1980’s to 2008 when the recession hit. Waterford crystal shut down (now reopened), a tech firm and bank headquarters left, leaving the town economically devastated. 

It’s still here, keeping on, surviving just like a million small towns. People here really care about the town. It has a bright future. It has been named best place to live in Ireland.