County Waterford

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County Waterford (Template:Langx) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and is part of the Southern Region. It is named after the city of Waterford. Waterford City and County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county at large, including the city, was 127,363 according to the 2022 census.<ref name=cso2022_county/> The county is based on the historic Gaelic territory of the Déise. There is an Irish-speaking area, Gaeltacht na nDéise, in the southwest of the county.

Geography and subdivisions

County Waterford has two mountain ranges, the Knockmealdown Mountains and the Comeragh Mountains. The highest point in the county is Knockmealdown, at Template:Convert. It also has many rivers, including Ireland's third-longest river, the River Suir (Template:Convert); and Ireland's fourth-longest river, the Munster Blackwater (Template:Convert). There are over 30Template:Citation needed beaches along Waterford's volcanic coastline.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A large stretch of this coastline, known as the Copper Coast, has been designated as a UNESCO Geopark, a place of great geological importance. To the west of Dungarvan is the Déise Gaeltacht, an Irish-speaking region comprising the areas of Ring, County Waterford and Old Parish.

Waterford is the county seat; prior to the merger of the 2 Waterford authorities in June 2014 Dungarvan was the county seat<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> for Waterford County Council.

Baronies

There are eight historic baronies in the county: Coshmore and Coshbride, Decies-within-Drum, Decies-without-Drum, Gaultiere, Glenahiry, Middlethird, Upperthird and Waterford City.

Largest towns

Rank	Town	Population (2022 census)<ref name="cso2022">Template:Cite web</ref>
1	Waterford	60,079
2	Tramore	11,277
3	Dungarvan	10,081
4	Portlaw	1,881
5	Dunmore East	1,731
6	Ballinroad	1,389
7	Lismore	1,347
8	Tallow	1,022

History

File:County Waterford - Ballynageeragh Tomb - 20190917074738.jpg

Ballynageeragh Portal Tomb was built in the 4th millennium BC

County Waterford is colloquially known as "The Déise", pronounced "day-shah" or, in Irish, /dʲe:ʃʲɪ/ (Template:Langx). Some time between the 4th and 8th centuries, an Irish tribe called the Déisi were driven from southern county Meath/north Kildare and moved into the Waterford region, conquering and settling there. The ancient principality of the Déise is today roughly coterminous with the current Roman Catholic Diocese of Waterford and Lismore thus including part of south County Tipperary.

The westernmost of the baronies are Decies-within-Drum and Decies-without-Drum, separated by the Drum-Fineen hills.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

File:Mine workers at Knockmahon Co Waterford Ireland 1900s (6898346820).jpg

Mine workers at Bunmahon, County Waterford Template:Circa

There are many megalithic tombs and ogham stones in the county.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Viking influence can still be seen with Reginald's Tower, one of the first buildings to use a brick and mortar construction method in Ireland. Woodstown, a settlement dating to the 9th century, was discovered Template:Convert west of Waterford city. It was the largest settlement outside Scandinavia and the only large-scale 9th-century Viking settlement discovered to date in Western Europe. Other architectural features are products of the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland and its effects.

Local government and politics

As of 1 June 2014, Waterford City and County Council is the local government authority for the local government area of Waterford City and County. The authority was formed following the merger of the local government areas of the county of Waterford and the city of Waterford under the Local Government Reform Act 2014, and succeeded the functions of Waterford City Council and Waterford County Council.<ref>Template:Cite Irish legislation</ref> The local authority is responsible for certain local services such as sanitation, planning and real-estate development, libraries, the collection of automobile taxation, local roads and social housing.

For elections to Dáil Éireann, the county is represented by the 4-seat constituency of Waterford.<ref>Template:Cite Irish legislation</ref> For European elections, the city and county are part of the 5-seat South constituency.<ref>Template:Cite Irish legislation</ref>

Gaeltacht

Template:Lang is a Gaeltacht area in County Waterford, consisting of the parish of Template:Lang and Template:Lang. Template:Lang is located Template:Convert from the town of Dungarvan, has a population of 1,816 people (Census 2016) and encompasses a geographical area of 62 km². According to Census 2016 the percentage of daily Irish speakers in Template:Lang was 45.6%.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Culture

In the Willows, alternative folk band from Waterford

References

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External links

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