As 2021 draws to a close, we look back at the past year and see what stories dominated the headlines in Waterford. The domination of the global pandemic on the news agenda persisted and while there were many disappointments for Waterford - most notably the collapse of the deal to develop the North Quays; at the time of writing, still no advancement on extended hours in UHW's cardiac unit; and no decision on an extension to the runway at Waterford Airport - there was plenty of progress in other areas: the move towards a Technological University in the region; some significant jobs announcements and the city being voted Best Place to Live in a competition run by the Irish Times.
WLR's News Review of the Year, featuring these and many of the year's great sporting stories and quirky features, airs on WLR from Tuesday to Friday December 28th to 31st between 10 at 12pm.
Covid - a year of downs, up and downs
2021 started in lockdown, brought in abruptly on Dec 30th due to rising case numbers. On January 1st, 2021 there were 530 cases of Covid- 19 in Irish hospitals; 19 in University Hospital Waterford where there were two in ICU. By January 24th there were 127 people in UHW after 20 admissions in 24 hours – this time 7 in ICU. Nationally there were 1,930 patients in hospitals on that day. 56 people died in Waterford due to covid in January, one of those was Nigel Pim, whose wife Jeni spoke movingly to Damien Tiernan.
Listen back here
Against this grim backdrop, however, the vaccination programme was rolling out. Hospital staff and healthcare workers were mostly inoculated throughout January. And there was great relief in the nursing home sector as residents began to receive their jabs.
But society was still in lockdown. A 5km travel limit was still in place, the number of mourners at funerals was restricted to 10, only six guests were allowed at weddings, non-essential retail was shut, visits to private homes were off the cards and schools were still closed. On the 24th February level 5 restrictions were extended until the 5th of April. However, schools began to reopen from March 1st with junior infants to second class pupils in national schools and Leaving Cert students returning to classrooms. On April 12th, all students were finally back in school.
In May there was a further easing of restrictions and businesses looked forward to a summer trading again. A cyber attack on the HSE's systems in May resulted in the unavailability of daily local case numbers, but it wasn't long before Covid was back in the headlines locally, as an outbreak in the Dungarvan area in June, saw a pop test centre set up to deal with the demand for testing. By July, Waterford has the second-highest incidence rate in the country, an honour unfortunately bestowed again with Waterford City South and Portlaw/Kilmacthomas both topping the covid hotspots for weeks at a time in the Autumn.
This despite Waterford persistently having the highest vaccination rate in the country with 98.4% of over 12s in Waterford now fully vaccinated, and 99.8% of over 18s in the county (figures correct as of Dec 21st).
By year end, the booster roll-out is ongoin and the vaccination roll-out for children aged 5-11 is pending. The numbers very sick with Covid are not as high. The deaths are – thankfully – not as high either. Hopes are high that all of this will make a difference in 2022.
The North Quays
2021 saw great hope, followed by great disappointment, when it came to the much anticipated North Quays project. Back in 2016, we found out that a Saudi retail management company was considering a multi-million euro project on the site that would transform not just the North Quay area itself, but the entire City and indeed South East region.
The Fawaz Alhokair Group entered negotiations with Waterford City and County Council with a view to building retail, office and green space on the North Quays as well as developing the Michael Street area of the City.
The company soon became represented locally by Rob Cass, the Dungarvan native who heads up Falcon Real Estate Developments - the leading private player involved. Fast forward to 2021 and after years of will-they-won't speculation, the project was fast beginning to look like a reality, especially after infrastructure funding of €110.6 million had been pledged the previous November by government. However, there was a significant setback in May, when Waterford Council confirmed it had parted ways with the company and the site was being put back on the open market.
In November 2021, Waterford Council confirmed the main construction contract for the Waterford North Quays infrastructure had progressed to final procurement stage. All short-listed/qualified applicants have been invited to proceed to stage 2 works tender, with tenders expected to be returned in the first three months 2022 with construction planned to commence around October of 2022. The story continues.
Tragedy in the Comeraghs
On Sunday April 18th 2021, Gardaí received a report that a woman who had set off to run the Coumshingaun Loop in the Comeragh Mountains had not returned as expected. The missing woman was an experienced runner named Gillian Ryan, a 37-year-old mother of two from Horse and Jockey, Thurles. A multi-agency search operation was immediately launched.
The search for Gillian continued the next day when her body was eventually discovered in a deep gully close to the top of Coumshinghun lake.
Due to the difficulty in accessing the gully, it wasn’t until April 20th that the multi-agency operation to recover her body was successful in recovering her from the mountains. However, Gillian was not left alone on the mountain overnight with a member of the rescue team staying nearby on site.
The effort of emergency services throughout the search for Gillian is to be noted, in particular South Eastern Mountain Rescue Association (SEMRA) who conducted a great deal of their operation on foot due to dense fog which clouded the mountains at the time.
The walking group was aided by numerous groups across the country, and equally were it not for the Irish Coast Guard’s Rescue 117 Helicopter’s efforts in searching for Gillian, it may not have been possible to recover Gillian from the gully.
Later in the year in June, SEMRA received significant donations from the Gillian Ryan Fundraiser which was launched by her husband Conor and family.
The fundraising campaign was set-up for Semra by Mr Ryan and Olympic medallist Sonia O’Sullivan.
Read more here
Jobs - wins and losses
Debenhams
In April, former Debenhams workers marked one year on the picket lines in Waterford.
The dispute began on April 9th 2020 when the workers, the vast majority of whom are women, received an email from their employer informing them they had lost their jobs and they would not be receiving their agreed redundancy package.
Since then, the workers have been picketing and demanding that government implement legislation to protect all workers in liquidation scenarios.
In May, one of the longest-running industrial disputes here in years ended when the former Debenhams workers agreed to a three million euro retraining scheme offered by the government.
Infosys
In December, Infosys BPM announced 250 new jobs are to be created in Waterford City. The business process management company is setting up a state-of-the-art delivery centre in Railway Square to provide voice support, customer service and technical support operations for several large global enterprises.
The new roles in Waterford will cover several functions across various job levels, from customer and technical support roles to senior level positions in finance, HR, planning, and capacity management.
Read more here
Tegus
In November, a US market intelligence firm Tegus announced it's to set up its European headquarters in Waterford city, employing 100 people over the next two years.
Tegus employs 260 people in Chicago and has plans to grow its customer base rapidly across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
The firm had considered basing its international HQ in Dublin but Waterford was selected after a strong business case was put forward based on range of issues including cost of living and quality of staff.
100 jobs are envisioned over the next two years with a real possibility of further jobs down the line. The company will be based out of Boxworks in the city - taking over the top floor with room to expand as the company grows.
Tegus have begun hiring for roles across the areas of business development, customer operations, sales, and people management. They hope to have the first employees at work in the second week in January.
Other jobs announcements include:
Waterford company Keltech aimed to create 50 new jobs before the end of 2021. The company supplies original equipment for six out of the ten top construction manufacturers in the world and has experienced strong growth in the past few years. They hope to expand further in 2022.
A further 130 jobs are set to be created in Waterford over the next two and a half years by Repligen Corporation - formerly known as Art-e-syn Biosolutions, which is due to significantly expand its manufacturing operations in Waterford. The company, also intends to fit out a 33 thousand square foot LEED Silver building at their premises at the Butlerstown Business Park. The company which specialises in single-use consumeable products used in bio-processing applications currently employs 74 people in Waterford.
In July Bausch and Lomb announced their intention to create 130 new jobs over the next few years. There will be a 90 million euro investment into the base, with recruitment for the new jobs to begin in 2022. The company currently employs 1,500 people at its facility in Waterford.
Biotech company Horizon Therapeutics announced they'll be establishing a drug manufacturing facility in the city's former EirGen Pharma site, and creating 50 jobs in the process.
And finally in the dying days of December, Waterford healthcare support firm RelateCare said it aims to create 350 jobs in Ireland and the US next year. The healthcare communications and managed services business has grown rapidly employing more than 500 people in 2021 and has also experienced significant revenue growth. RelateCare will establish a new hub in Tralee next year, where it will employ 40 to 50 people, the rest of the jobs will be in Waterford and the US.
TUSEI
So Waterford is going to become a Tech University city in the coming 12 months after a hectic year of behind the scenes debates, deals and dynamics.
In November, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Science and Innovation Simon Harris TD announced a Technological University will be established in the South East in the 2021/2022 academic year, following a joint application in April on behalf of WIT and IT Carlow (known as the TUSEI consortium) under the Technological Universities Act 2018.
At a meeting of the South East Oireachtas members, Chairs and Presidents, the Minister said that all parties were working toward the new technological university opening its doors by May 1st 2022.
The campaign for a university in the South East has been ongoing for decades with the issue raised locally and nationally consistently by lobby groups, politicians and other stakeholders in the region.
Read more here
Best Place to Live
There was great news for Waterford city in September when it won the title of Best Place to Live in Ireland, in a competition run by the Irish Times.
After 15 weeks of nominations, research and deliberation, in the end, it was the unanimous choice of the judging panel.
The judges said the reasons for Waterford's win were many and varied and included affordability, the ease of getting around, good transport connections, a beautiful hinterland, our culture, heritage and architecture. Also noted were the more indefinable qualities like our welcome to outsiders, the ease of integration, to find a place to live (relative to other cities) and there's decent jobs growth here too.
IMRO Success
And in October, WLR too was celebrating after becoming the first local radio station in Ireland to be awarded the title of IMRO ‘Local Radio Station of the Year’ for the third consecutive year!
The station won a further three golds - for local/regional news programme, for News at 1, Damien Tiernan and Jennifer Long won Silver for best Local / Regional Current Affairs Show with the award-winning Deise Today. Nigel Kelly won Bronze for best Sports Story for From Carrick the Champs Elysees. Karen Tomkins won Gold for the second consecutive year for best Short Feature with Big Breakfast Little Stories. There was further celebration for Deise Today's Damien Tiernan who was announced as Speech broadcaster of the year (Local / Regional).
Housing
At the beginning of October, WLR and Deise Today joined forces for a week-long housing special. Across multiple reports, WLR highlighted issues in the various sectors gripped in an almost unprecedented housing crisis.
We heard reports from people who had spent over ten years on Council housing lists, the difficulties for first-time buyers, and the struggle for one-off planning permissions in rural areas.
The student housing crisis also came to a head as we heard stories from students who were commuting from as far as Clare and availing of emergency accommodations in a local Travelodge.
It was conceded by a local auctioneer that the housing market in Waterford was the worst that it had been in her 25 years in business.
Listen back to this series of special reports here:
LGBTQ+ Pride
Waterford made national headlines for all the wrong reasons on account of two hate crimes which were committed in Waterford City in June.
The Mayor of Waterford, Cllr. Damien Geoghegan had raised the Gay Pride Flag outside the Civic Offices along the Mall in Waterford City and in Dungarvan to show solidarity with the local LGBTQ+ community in the county. However, not everybody was as inclusive and forthcoming – with the flag taken down from the poles along the Mall and discarded in a nearby bin in the first of numerous incidents.
Locals were outraged and it was arranged for the flags to be reinstated, with homes and businesses all over Waterford flying the LGBTQ+ flag in a bid to combat the display of hatred.
A man was arrested for the initial removal, but days later, the flags were removed and burnt in a second act of vandalism.
Straight Pride posters also made an appearance as Waterford made national news headlines.
What followed was an overwhelming show of support across the Deise as the rainbow flag was draped across each and every corner east and west, with the Minister for Equality, Roderic O’Gorman, coming to Waterford to reinstate the flag for a final time and driving home the message that Waterford is a place of inclusion despite the acts of a small minority which may have suggested otherwise.
Read more here
Henry De Bromhead’s Successes
2021 was a year unlike any other for Waterford horse trainer Henry De Bromhead. The Knockeen handler made history as he became the first-ever trainer to land the Holy Trinity of the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase & Gold Cup at the 2021 Cheltenham Festival in March.
Rachael Blackmore won the Champion Hurdle aboard unbeaten mare Honeysuckle, while Aidan Coleman steered Put The Kettle On to take the Champion Chase – with De Bromhead’s wonder week of six winners capped off with Minella Indo and Jack Kennedy’s thrilling success ahead of stablemate A Plus Tard in the Gold Cup.
Having made headlines all across the world, the De Bromhead and Blackmore partnership once again deep-dived into unprecedented territories in April when they combined to make history in the world’s most famous steeplechase, the Aintree Grand National in Liverpool.
Blackmore became the first female rider ever to win the race as she guided Minella Times home, with another De Bromhead horse, 100/1 shot Balkos Des Flos coming home in second place.
Awards, acknowledgements and international stardom followed for the pair as they adorned TV screens and newspaper front pages across the globe, the greatest recognition of all followed when De Bromhead was granted the freedom of Waterford City & County on account of his remarkable achievements.
Des Manahan
2021 saw the death take place of one of the best known and well-respected figures in the Waterford theatre world, Des Manahan.
A legend of the Waterford stage, he had been the picture of health for his 86 years until, sadly, he became one of the many who succumbed to Covid-19 in January 2021.
A non-drinker and non-smoker, he contracted Covid in December 2020 and went into hospital shortly after Christmas.
Though he remained in good spirits and in regular contact with his family, his condition sadly deteriorated as the new year rolled in and he died on January 22, 2021.
His death plunged his family, and a shocked Waterford theatre community, into mourning.
A deeply devoted husband to Mona, a proud father and a fun-loving grandfather, Des was born on Bellvue Terrace on John’s Hill in the city in 1934 and began performing in the city’s Theatre Royal (where his father had been manager) as far back as the 40s.
He had many, many high points and starring roles in his long stage career including 13 starring roles in The Merry Widow.
Up until his last months he was still performing and still attracting audiences, winning a lifetime achievement honour early last year in the Waterford News and Star Green Room awards, an accolade he was extremely proud of.
His last performance on stage was in 2019 when he played the role of Gus the theatre cat in the ever-popular Cats.
Rathgormack pub
A ‘good news’ Waterford story which made many national and local headlines in 2021 involved a Co Waterford pub – and 19 of its locals!
Maudie Kennedy had been running ‘Maudie’s pub’ in Rathgormack for about 50 years when she decided to retire and put the premises on the market.
The ‘only pub in the village’, however, attracted little interest from the market which spurred one local, Tom Lynch, into prompting a few others to pull off a purchase with him.
And so it was that a syndicate of 19 locals and friends took a leap of faith, buying the pub as a syndicate and ensuring its survival as a focal point for Rathgormack and a place for locals and visitors to mix, meet and socialise.
Read more here
WLR's news review, featuring these and many of the year's great sporting stories and quirky features, airs on WLR from Tuesday to Friday December 28th to 31st between 10 at 12pm.
