Waterford memories - Were you there?

Joey leBlanc

I remember the Kyle Curran tragedy. Was on hol's with parents in Killarney. It was the top story on RTE for days. All the papers too. Lived in Marian Park @ the time so were close to the area. It was a shock at the time because Waterford in those days (late 80's) was a nice, quiet place to live. To think something like this could happen here opened peoples eyes to a cold new evil reality. When we came back to town after a few days the place was like a ghost town; not a child to be seen save for the odd one accompanied by adults. I believe the killer had not been caught yet. Given it was mid Summer the place would usually be buzzing with kids just innocently playing. I was in my teens at the time & was only allowed to play soccer on the road directly outside my house for weeks. As with all things in life things began to get back to some kid of normality but the knowledge that such things could happen so close to home would have opened peoples minds to the fact that it is also a cruel world at times.

Was surprised to find out that the murderer was only 19yrs old upon reading previous posts. And that he is out of jail. Life should mean life especially in cases like this.

seanybiker

I remember that alright. I was fair young then. Remember seeing it in the paper alright. Think me sister was good friends with him.

STIG83

WMT wrote: »

They were guys hired by the city council, during the water rates disputes i the late 80's early 90's, to turn off water from the mains outside people's houses.

I remember this cos my mam was one of the women sitting on the bonnet of the car trying to stop them driving off. and my father cemented over the mains shore outside our house so they couldn't turn our water off.[/QUOTE

I had an image in my head of a car actually full of rats!! thought it was a bad infestation.

Yes Boss

STIG83 wrote: »

WMT wrote: »

They were guys hired by the city council, during the water rates disputes i the late 80's early 90's, to turn off water from the mains outside people's houses.

I remember this cos my mam was one of the women sitting on the bonnet of the car trying to stop them driving off. and my father cemented over the mains shore outside our house so they couldn't turn our water off.[/QUOTE

I had an image in my head of a car actually full of rats!! thought it was a bad infestation.

My friend's mother was the first to stand in front of car. She was rolling a buggy at the time and made sure the car could not move. Myself and my mate were quickly on the scene and the Glass Factory workers were notified - Who also arrived very quickly to surround the cars. Funny times...

molby

FAI cup semi final 1986 Blues against Pats in Inchicore.No trouble in the first leg in Kilcohen so very few cops on show for second leg.Big mistake,there was mayhem behind the goal where Blues supporters took over the ST Pats stand.Fighting broke out and Waterford supporters threw anything they could get their hands on at the Pats supporters.There was about 8 people banned from attending the final after their faces were recognised from the papers or tv,they had to sign in at the cop shop at 3-00pm the day of the match.Cops turned up at the final in riot gear but there was little trouble bar the Rovers fans throwing a few coins over the fence at the final whistle.They were great old days,full of cider and plenty of crack following the Blues.

eiresandra

Some great memories here lads.

People were talking about the Garrett fire... does anyone remember the massive fire at Power Seeds on the Dunmore Rd in the 80s?

south

eiresandra wrote: »

Some great memories here lads.

People were talking about the Garrett fire... does anyone remember the massive fire at Power Seeds on the Dunmore Rd in the 80s?

Is that where statoil is now?

jimbojazz

Anyone remember the scaffolding collapsing at the Bloody Sunday peace march in 1972. The march finished on Ballybricken and there were a few speeches. Some lads climbed on the scaffold on Bescos but it collapsed due to the weight. Dont think anyone was seriously hurt but I was about 7 or 8 at the time and I remeber the commotion. I remember that night there was also a bad storm and the slates lifing on the roof and me oul fella saying to us that God was angry with Ireland!! He had and still has a way with words.

Another memory I have is when a "UFO" was seen - I was around 5 or 6. I was living in Kingsmeadow and I remember all the parents out looking at this thing. This was in the days before mobile phones and WLR. It was in the sky for ages and not moving. We were all convinced we were being invaded. Turned out it was a weather balloon!

dayshah

Anyone remember when Paul McGrath visited Waterford following Italia '90. I think he was at Theatre Royal or city council offices. We were waiting ages for him to stick his head out. I think he had stage-fright.

jimbojazz

dayshah wrote: »

Anyone remember when Paul McGrath visited Waterford following Italia '90. I think he was at Theatre Royal or city council offices. We were waiting ages for him to stick his head out. I think he had stage-fright.

Yeah, I remember that - I think it had more to do with the "hospitality" if you know what I mean!!

SillyMcCarthy

tonc76 wrote: »

Was present for 1, 2 & 3.

Anyone in Kilcohan for the game against Bordeaux in 1986? Jean Tigana played centre half that day

*****

Aimé Étienne Jacquet was the manager at that time?

jimbojazz

SillyMcCarthy wrote: »

tonc76 wrote: »

Was present for 1, 2 & 3.

Anyone in Kilcohan for the game against Bordeaux in 1986? Jean Tigana played centre half that day

*****

Aimé Étienne Jacquet was the manager at that time?

lost home leg 2-1 as far as I remember - late goal for the Blues and beaten 4-0 in the return leg I think

MitchKoobski

Majority of those are before my time! Remember being on the Tramore Road for the Tour de France though. Biggest waste of a day ever. Here's what I do remember

• Blowing up the mine in Dunmore
• Big opening of Woodies DIY
• Bus crash on the quay, went up onto the footpath where the queue was
• Nickelodeon being in Tramore (I was asked to stay off camera. I was pretty hungover. Wasnt long ago)
• Meeting Ray, Dustin and Socky out in Tramore

dayshah

The day McDonalds was built. They managed it in an afternoon, like it was made of lego.

Nolanger

The Smiths gig and Morrissey informing the audience 'they told us not to play here!'.

jimbojazz

Nolanger wrote: »

The Smiths gig and Morrissey informing the audience 'they told us not to play here!'.

Yip, James were the support act (Sit Down).....great night

Dan133269

Nolanger wrote: »

The Smiths gig and Morrissey informing the audience 'they told us not to play here!'.

jimbojazz wrote: »

Yip, James were the support act (Sit Down).....great night

And a 2nd support act, local band called "The Village" I believe. Long before my time but I would have loved to have been there for that. My aunt was at it. 2 Smiths songs were debuted live that night, "What She Said" and "I want the one I can't have". Turns out the IRA threatened The Smiths when they played that tour in 1984.

jimbojazz

Dan133269 wrote: »

And a 2nd support act, local band called "The Village" I believe. Long before my time but I would have loved to have been there for that. My aunt was at it. 2 Smiths songs were debuted live that night, "What She Said" and "I want the one I can't have". Turns out the IRA threatened The Smiths when they played that tour in 1984.

They obviously didnt do any research on the band then as they were all 2nd generation Irish!!

Nolanger

Dan133269 wrote: »

And a 2nd support act, local band called "The Village" I believe.

Who released a single about some Waterford guy fooling everyone that he was disabled!

bullpost

Going back a wee bit now but was at the Waterford vs Manchester Utd. friendly game on Thursday 8th. May 1969 as a kid with my father.

United team included a lot of the European cup-winning team of 1968, including Brian Kidd.

I've also got a program from 1967 when the famous Leeds utd team, including Charlton and Giles played. The programme has most of the Leeds teams autographs, players like Terry Cooper and Paul Madelley. I found it at parents home in a drawer, presumably belonged to my father.

jimbojazz

bullpost wrote: »

Going back a wee bit now but was at the Waterford vs Manchester Utd. friendly game on Thursday 8th. May 1969 as a kid with my father.

United team included a lot of the European cup-winning team of 1968, including Brian Kidd.

I've also got a program from 1967 when the famous Leeds utd team, including Charlton and Giles played. The programme has most of the Leeds teams autographs, players like Terry Cooper and Paul Madelley. I found it at parents home in a drawer, presumably belonged to my father.

I reckon that programme would be worth a few bob now especially if you could authenticate the autographs.

deise blue

Dan133269 wrote: »

And a 2nd support act, local band called "The Village" I believe. Long before my time but I would have loved to have been there for that. My aunt was at it. 2 Smiths songs were debuted live that night, "What She Said" and "I want the one I can't have". Turns out the IRA threatened The Smiths when they played that tour in 1984.

It was Protestant paramilitaries who threatened the Smiths.

Sinn Fein & Morrisey were quite chummy !

jimbojazz

deise blue wrote: »

It was Protestant paramilitaries who threatened the Smiths.

Sinn Fein & Morrisey were quite chummy !

Yeah, that's what I'd have thought especially after what he said about Thatcher after Brighton.

Nolanger

bullpost wrote: »

Going back a wee bit now but was at the Waterford vs Manchester Utd. friendly game on Thursday 8th. May 1969 as a kid with my father.

Heard there were hooligans fighting at that game?

bullpost

Dont remember that but then I was only a kid so probably wouldnt have noticed.

Nolanger wrote: »

Heard there were hooligans fighting at that game?

Rainbow_brite

Not sure if anyone else remembers this but that programme that used to be on RTE called Scratch Saturday (I think Mary Fitzgerald used to present it) filmed live from Red Square in the early nineties, kids were running mad trying to get on TV.

Dan133269

Nolanger wrote: »

Who released a single about some Waterford guy fooling everyone that he was disabled!

I never heard this. Tell me more details if you would please. Were the band popular on any big scale back then?

deise blue wrote: »

It was Protestant paramilitaries who threatened the Smiths.

Sinn Fein & Morrisey were quite chummy !

I think you may be right about the threats coming from loyalists rather than republicans, I just read this article and assumed it was the IRA. http://www.rte.ie/ten/2011/0326/smiths.html

Where did you read that Moz and SF were chummy?

Not wanting to hijack the thread, the biggest local event that sticks out for me was probably when Waterford Utd had that run in the cup in about 1997. The atmosphere in the RSC and the feeling that it was your home team was brilliant. I tried to keep going to home games in my teenage years, then I remember going to 3 scoreless draws in a row, and I said never again

Nolanger

Dan133269 wrote: »

I never heard this. Tell me more details if you would please. Were the band popular on any big scale back then?

Don't know much about them except they were one of many talented Irish rock bands destined for great things but for some reason it didn't happen. Here's a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgoRM2uMdCM

jimbojazz

Nolanger wrote: »

Don't know much about them except they were one of many talented Irish rock bands destined for great things but for some reason it didn't happen. Here's a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgoRM2uMdCM

Think the drummer is Paul Winters!! The bass player is one of the Condons ( Ithink) see him around the place a bit. I cant think of the other lads names......is the lead singer from Cathal Brugha St..... Jacob??

Heathen

tonc76 wrote: »

The Garrett blaze was spectacular

some pics
...

kfallon

dayshah wrote: »

Anyone remember when Paul McGrath visited Waterford following Italia '90. I think he was at Theatre Royal or city council offices. We were waiting ages for him to stick his head out. I think he had stage-fright.

Anyone remember Jack Charlton coming to the Cleaboy pub around that time, everyone crowding around the place to see him!

Also on the Waterford Utd theme, anyone there the night the new stand in the RSC was unofficially opened? Snow bucketing down, people just threw back the fencing to get into the stand, Milo Corcoran asking us all to get out of it on the PA and nobody budging. Coldest night ever but Pascal Keane still took off his shirt celebrating when we scored the winner....wouldn't mind he didn't even score it

Didn't a young Lee Sharpe score the 4th goal in the friendly game, it was the season where he made a name for himself!

kensutz

kfallon wrote: »

Also on the Waterford Utd theme, anyone there the night the new stand in the RSC was unofficially opened? Snow bucketing down, people just threw back the fencing to get into the stand, Milo Corcoran asking us all to get out of it on the PA and nobody budging. Coldest night ever but Pascal Keane still took off his shirt celebrating when we scored the winner....wouldn't mind he didn't even score it

I remember that night well. It was bloody bitter down there and some of us kept ourselves amused by throwing snowballs at people.

kfallon

kensutz wrote: »

I remember that night well. It was bloody bitter down there and some of us kept ourselves amused by throwing snowballs at people.

It's annoying me all morning about who got the winner, blonde haired centre forward who was ok, think he had a bit of a curly mop, Alan something????

kfallon

kfallon wrote: »

It's annoying me all morning about who got the winner, blonde haired centre forward who was ok, think he had a bit of a curly mop, Alan something????

James Carthy, i got it

Alan something, jaysus I was miles off :pac:

calvin_zola

nkay1985 wrote: »

Did that happen in Lismore Park too? I remember it happened outside my house in Hillview alright.

ha ha water rats what was this??

Adrift

Why is there so little coverage of the Kyle Curran case? I’d never heard of the case myself but between this thread and another article it’s the second time in the space of a week I’ve come across it, but literally nothing else on line. Absolutely heartbreaking stuff, and in an era where I find it hard to believe something like that could happen here.

I’m guessing his killer is free at this stage, can find very little online in that respect either.

balalika

The fire was in the factory across the road from Garrett a place called HP Chemie as far as I recall

Aquos76

There was a fire in Garreth before the HP Chemie one.

balalika

Fair enough but the one in HP chemie is the one i remember. It was huge

fricatus

Adrift wrote: »

Why is there so little coverage of the Kyle Curran case? I’d never heard of the case myself but between this thread and another article it’s the second time in the space of a week I’ve come across it, but literally nothing else on line. Absolutely heartbreaking stuff, and in an era where I find it hard to believe something like that could happen here.

I’m guessing his killer is free at this stage, can find very little online in that respect either.

That was horrendous. I remember my mother coming in and telling us that a boy had been murdered in Hillview. We were in Gracedieu, so just the other side of Carrickphierish, which was all fields then. The age we were (maybe 11 or 12, was it 1985 or 86?), we hadn’t any appreciation of the terror it caused our poor parents, or the devastation suffered by the family. Now that I’m in my late forties, I shudder at the thought.

friendlyfun

I found a clip from that murder in 1987 on the RTE archives.

https://www.rte.ie/archives/collections/news/21254450-boy-murdered-in-waterford/

greenspurs

balalika wrote: »

The fire was in the factory across the road from Garrett a place called HP Chemie as far as I recall

Heathen wrote: »

some pics
...

Thats definitely HP Chemie.

Aquos76

greenspurs wrote: »

Thats definitely HP Chemie.

Those pics are 100% Garrett.

greenspurs

Aquos76 wrote: »

Those pics are 100% Garrett.

Cant find any other pics or much info about either fire.

I worked in Hp Chemie in the 90/00s , and that looks very similar to the office block that was attached to the factory part of Chemie ...

But if you say its garrett ..

Aquos76

Yeah, I worked in Garreth for over 20 years from mid 90’s also, and there were photos of the fire on the walls up in the office block and those two were definitely framed in there, that’s why I’m so certain.

Bhoy1967

abouttobebanned wrote: »

He was a young lad (can't remember the age of the top of my head) from hillview who was murdered in the fields up there by the GAA pitches. It was a shocking crime for the area at the time (still would be now) and anybody from waterford who was around at the time will have vivid memories of it. The ptich up there is now called The Kyle Curran Pitch. The man who killed him was released recently I believe.

Poor lad - he was lured away to look for rabbits as far as I can remember - his name, I will never forget. Its something that will always stick in my head. I remember I used to play a bit up near st. Otteran's and what was known as the haunted as carefree kids. My mother said to me one day to stay closer to the house in case anything happened to me. I started laughing at her saying I never heard of anyone getting murdered in Waterford - the next day that poor kid went missing.

I believe your man who killed was up helping the Garda search for him. Poor kid had an awful death by all accounts.

Motivator

Bhoy1967 wrote: »

Poor lad - he was lured away to look for rabbits as far as I can remember - his name, I will never forget. Its something that will always stick in my head. I remember I used to play a bit up near st. Otteran's and what was known as the haunted as carefree kids. My mother said to me one day to stay closer to the house in case anything happened to me. I started laughing at her saying I never heard of anyone getting murdered in Waterford - the next day that poor kid went missing.

I believe your man who killed was up helping the Garda search for him. Poor kid had an awful death by all accounts.

I won’t be mentioning any names obviously but the guy who murdered that child is pure evil. He lured him up to the field and after he murdering a child he went to a staff night out in the Park Inn (open time correction on the venue) and mixed with colleagues. I think it was ABB that he worked. Like you said, he went back to the scene and was quizzing the guards and offering to help. I think he more or less just admitted it when he was arrested.

Aquos76

Why not name him, he was charged so, he doesn’t deserve anonymity, his name was Patrick Alan Hannigan

Wanderer78

Aquos76 wrote: »

Why not name him, he was charged so, he doesn’t deserve anonymity, his name was Patrick Alan Hannigan

ive always found naming and shaming an odd thing, it rarely solves anything

Deisegodeo

the Kyle Curran murder is unfortunately a strong childhood memory that will never leave me. I didn't know him or his family but I clearly remember the whole awful situation.

a child lured away by a man to be murdered ... still seems unbelievable. I remember my mother wouldnt allow us go too far from the house after it. And your man that did it up asking the guards every day how the investigation was going.