Huguenot Conference 2023
Dates:Saturday 11th November 2023
Times: 9:30am – 16:30pm
Location: The Large Room, City Hall, Waterford (accessed through the Medieval Museum)
Join us for the 2023 Huguenot Conference ‘A beautiful refuge: Huguenots and their Crafts’
This conference explores Huguenot history and craftsmanship – principally gold and silversmiths, watch and clockmakers and Waterford’s ‘New Geneva’. The contribution of these French Protestant refugees to the culture of their adopted homelands including Ireland is enormous in the 17th and 18th centuries, and will be explored by a number of distinguished speakers.
Conference Speakers:
Dr. Tessa Murdoch, Acting Chair, Huguenot Museum, Rochester, Kent and formerly of the V&A – ‘London-based Huguenot Goldsmiths and Irish Commissions’
Ms. Lucy Trench, formerly of the V&A – ‘Richard Chenevix, Bishop of Waterford. A Story of Patronage and Advancement’
Dr. Thomas Sinsteden, independent Irish silver scholar – ‘Waterford’s Irish Silver Museum: Huguenot Influences’
Dr. Killian Robinson, author and researcher – ‘The Huguenot Influence on Clock and Watch Making in Ireland’
Mr. Julian Walton, distinguished local historian and broadcaster – ‘Some Huguenot Families of Waterford’
Mr. John R Bowen, independent scholar and connoisseur – ‘Irish Provincial Huguenot Goldsmiths and their Work’
Professor Geraldine Sheridan, Emeritus Professor in French, University of Limerick – ‘The New Geneva: Ireland’s Utopian Community of Watchmakers’
Dr. Jessica Cunningham, design historian and archivist – ‘Journeymen and Freemen: Huguenots in Irish Craft Guilds in the 17th and 18th centuries’
Tickets:
General Admission €40
Friends of Waterford Treasures €30
Students/unwaged €20
Tickets include morning coffee or tea
Accommodation
Special rate including parking available until 30th September: €149 B&B single; €161 B&B 2 people sharing. Both Friday 10th and Saturday 11th November. Granville Hotel, Meagher Quay, Waterford X91 XH5R. Tel: +353 (51) 305 555, www.granvillehotel.ie. Call Reservations Monday-Friday, 9am-5.30pm, mentioning ‘Huguenot Conference’.
Other hotels:
Tower Hotel, The Mall, Waterford X91 VXEO. Tel: +353 (51) 862 300. www.towerhotelwaterford.com
Dooley’s Hotel, 30 Merchants Quay, Waterford, X91 P86C. Tel: +353 (51) 873 531. www.dooleys-hotel.ie