Enda puts hammer down in bid to forge new monetary policy
“We won’t tell Angela Merkel you’re making money,” the director of the Waterford Medieval Museum Eamon McEneaney assured the Taoiseach as Mr Kenny and actor Derek McGrath re-enacted scenes from the old mints which could be found around Waterford in medieval times.
Using an old-fashioned hammer and press, Mr Kenny successfully impressed an image of Edward I on the type of solid silver coins which once were currency throughout the country and created at, among other places, three different mint buildings in Waterford.
Earlier, while meeting choristers who sang while dressed in medieval costume in the museum itself, Mr Kenny told them “my man is Bruce Springsteen”.
He then carried out his minting duties in the undercroft of the museum, part of the labyrinth of passages running under the City Hall and Theatre Royal in Waterford’s Viking Triangle, and was then taken outside the front entrance for the ceremonies.
Around 20 protesters used car horns and sirens from nearby Bailey’s New St to try and drown out the speeches, and shouted “Kenny, Kenny, Kenny, out, out, out” during his address. However, he said at the end of his remarks: “I love the background music out here,” before wondering if the protesters might have a message if they listened to what he had to say.
The opening of the medieval museum comes a year ahead of next year’s events to mark 1,100 years since the foundation of Waterford city by Vikings. The museum is the third in a trilogy of museums in the Viking Quarter, along with Reginald’s Tower (Viking) and the Bishop’s Palace (Georgian), said to cover 1,000 years of history within 1,000 paces of each other.
On display for visitors are some of the greatest treasures of Ireland, including the Great Charter Roll from 1373 which was viewed by Queen Elizabeth II on her visit to Ireland.
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