Former and existing glass workers will be very interested in a new book Edited by historian John M Hearne. The book goes back to the origins of glass making in Ireland and with a special focus on Waterford.
Glass making began it is stated in the Middle East in the early days of civilization. Remnants of glass have been found as a result of Viking digs.
We learned at the event that the first evidence of Glass making in the south east part of Ireland was not here in Waterford but in woodlands in the south west of the county, not far from Ardmore in the 1600s.
Glass making had only begun in England around this period, prior to that it had been mainly imported from France and Europe.A shortage of wood an essential material meant that Glass was being made in the woodland of Ireland and English and imported craftsmen in the later 1600s, following the Cromwellian Conquest.
