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Waterford Treasures Ends Year On a High

With so many highlights to choose from, 2021 ended on a high for Waterford Treasures.

With over €1.2 million donated by extremely generous private benefactors, the Viking Triangle was transformed into a leading visitor destination with the addition of two new museums; the Irish Museum of Time and the Irish Silver Museum.

The icing on the cake had a distinctive Waterford flavour as a painting by Thomas Roberts was gifted to the museum by an extraordinarily generous Waterfordian Dr Fiona Healy, benefactor of Waterford Treasures. The painting, ‘A Bay Horse and Two Donkeys in a Wooded Landscape’ dated to c1773, was gifted in memory of Fiona’s grandmother Agnes Healy, horsewoman and breeder of horses, and will adorn the Entrance Hall of the Bishop’s Palace.

Born in Cathedral Square to Susannah Mary Sautelle Roberts and architect John Roberts, Roberts was the greatest Irish landscape painter of the 1700s.  For over two decades it has been an ambition of the Museum to acquire a painting by Waterford man Thomas Roberts, and this recently became a reality.

Eamonn McEneaney, Director of Waterford Treasures was delighted to accept the painting from Dr Healy, “to be gifted such a wonderful painting by a renowned Waterford artist is extraordinary.  Thomas Roberts, despite a brief career produced works of outstanding quality and to have ‘A Bay Horse and Two Donkeys in a Wooded Landscape” adorning the entrance to the Bishop’s Palace really is a dream come true.”

“I’d like to thank Dr Healy for her generosity and support of Waterford Treasures and assure her that the painting will be cherished for generations to come.”

Source: Waterford County Council

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