The Imagine Arts Festival Kicks Off Today

Celebrating 21 years of infusing creative flair into Waterford City, The Imagine Arts Festival programme of events runs from today, Tuesday 25th up until Sunday, October 30th.

This evening, a special event Waterford – Newfoundland: A Connection ‘So Far’ will be streamed live from The Granville Hotel.

However, you can also stream it live from the comfort of your own home. Find the link below to watch it live.

The event will see special guests in Waterford and Newfoundland peel back the layers of generations past to discover how this population transplant changed the face of our maritime/mercantile history, scattering our arts, culture and our people revealing an extraordinary story and a connection like no other, anywhere else in the World.

Guests include:

Michael Fortune – Folklore.ie

Aileen Lambert – Traditional Singer, Artist, Project Facilitator, Educator,

Bridget O’Connells – PHD in Newfoundland Fiddle Music

John Ennis – PhD, Poet and retired Head of School of Humanities at WIT, where he was Chair of the Centre for Newfoundland and Labrador Studies.

A connection “So Far” both in distance and a story that will be continued forever. In the early 1600s ships started to sail from Europe to newly discovered Cod fishing grounds of Newfoundland. Cod fed the armies of the World making Newfoundland a very lucrative destination.

By the seventeenth century an Irish dimension was introduced to the cod fisheries in the form of servants for the fish trade. Between 1800 and 1830 what occurred was a population transplant, over thirty-five thousand people mostly from within a walking distance of the City and as far as a 50 mile radius settled in sparsely populated Newfoundland. The South-East Irish brought with them their own traditions and customs.