March of the Blackfriars Re-enactment, Waterford

What to Expect

The Diocese of Waterford and Lismore is staging a full re-enactment of the 1926 March of the Black Friars, marking the centenary of that march. The original 1926 ceremony was itself held to mark 700 years since the Dominican Order arrived in Waterford in 1226, which puts the order’s presence in the city at 800 years this year. The day opens with Holy Mass at 12pm in the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity. A welcome address follows at 1.30pm on Barronstrand Street, and at 1.45pm the procession moves off towards St Saviour’s Church by way of Great George’s Street and O’Connell Street.

Participants take the parts of the people who walked in the original 1926 march - church organisations, confraternities and ordinary parishioners of the day. The Statue of Our Lady of Waterford, carried through the streets in 1926, is brought out again for the procession. At 3pm there is a historical lecture titled “Footsteps of Faith: 100 Years On - Celebrating the Centenary of Waterford’s March of the Black Friars”, and refreshments are served from 3.45pm. The whole programme runs from 12pm to 4.30pm, centred on the Blackfriars Abbey ruin at John Roberts Square, one of the oldest surviving Dominican sites in the country.

Good to Know

• Sunday 16 August 2026, 12pm to 4.30pm.
• Blackfriars Abbey Ruin and John Roberts Square, Waterford city centre.
• Admission is free, but the diocese asks people to reserve a place in advance through Eventbrite.
• Running order: Mass at 12pm, welcome address 1.30pm, procession 1.45pm, lecture 3pm, refreshments 3.45pm.
• Enquiries to the diocese on 087 418 1283.
• A one-off commemoration rather than a recurring event, so there is no second date in 2026.

Getting There

John Roberts Square sits at the middle of Waterford’s pedestrianised shopping core, a two minute walk from Barronstrand Street and the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity. Drivers coming on the N25 or N24 should aim for the multi-storey car parks at City Square or the Quay, both within a few minutes’ walk. Plunkett Station is across the bridge on the north side of the river, roughly fifteen minutes on foot, and city bus routes stop on the Quay and at the Clock Tower.