A Brief History
Taken Fron My Guide Ireland

Waterford City was founded by the Vikings in the late 9th century and evolved to become their most important stronghold in Ireland after Dublin . Following the Norman Invasion of Ireland in 1169, Waterford was one of the first city's to be conquered. Henry II of England formalised the conquest with a visit in 1171. His son, King John granted the town a charter in the late 12th century and set the ball rolling for the town's development as a major seaport and commercial outpost. Progress was considerably checked during the Henrician Reformation of the 16th century when the town's leading merchants and church bosses were thrown in prison or otherwise removed from power. The citizen's resisted Oliver Cromwell's advances in 1641 but ultimately surrendered to King Billy's massive Protestant force in 1691, ushering in a new age of industrial and architectural boom-time, best captured by the work of John Roberts and the Waterford Crystal Factory.

It's generally accepted that Waterford was founded in 853AD as a wee safe-haven for the friends and family of a Danish fellow called Sitric the Viking. Vadrefjord (or "Ford of the Waters"), as Sitric skilfully called it, was a perfect location for enterprising Vikings to hang out. The River Suir on which it stands is a deep and navigable river with the nearby Barrow and Nore off-shoots powering north into the fertile agricultural lands of Wexford, Carlow, Tipperary and Kilkenny. It was thus very easy for the fearless blonde Viking giants to clamber on board their dragon-prowed long-ships and hightail it inland in pursuit of invaluable bounties and stray novice nuns from Medieval Ireland's famously wealthy monasteries and abbeys. Over the next 300 years, Vadrefjord developed to be the most important Viking stronghold in Ireland.

Now Sitric was one of those 9th century nutcase Vikings who believed in Thor and Valhalla and drinking neat brandy from axe-splintered skulls. His clan were also fans of the Airgead Sroine (Nose Money), a tribute which the subjugated Irish population of Vadrefjord were expected to pay; failure to pay said tribute meant having one's nose removed. However, somewhere along the way, Sitric's Viking descendants (known as "Ostmen") decided this sort of carry on simply wasn't acceptable.

One of these fellows was Reginald and, as Governor of Waterford, he built a wooden church (incidentally, on the site of the present Christ Church Cathedral) in about 1050 AD. He may or may not be the same Reginald who erected the rather magnificent 73 foot high circular tower at the east end of Waterford's Quay in 1003 (known ever since as "Reginald's Tower"). And he may or may not be the same Reginald who, otherwise known as Ragnall, was King of the Isle of Man and father-in-law to John de Courcy, the great Norman adventurer and first Earl of Ulster. (I won't get into it now but it's important to understand that all these Vikings, Normans, Manx and Gaelic chieftains were in cahoots with one another from the word go).