Ireland’s oldest civic building

Waterford is Ireland’s oldest city and for many years it was more important than Dublin. Reginald’s Tower is its most distinctive building and is the first building in Ireland to be constructed with mortar which was then made with a mixture of fur, blood, lime, and sea mud. This impregnable Norman tower was built in 1171 and replaced a Viking tower that was built 168 years earlier in 1003. It was also the location of one of the most famous episodes in Irish history. This was where Strongbow married Diarmatt McMurrough’s daughter Aoife, thus becoming heir to the ‘Kingdom of Leinster’ and establishing foreign rule for the next 700 years. It is also Ireland’s oldest civic building still in use today and has been used over the years as a fortress, an arsenal, a prison, a mint, and now houses Waterford’s Civic Museum.

Thanks to Sarah Woodbury for informative video