Tides & Tales set to launch five-year strategic plan to try unlock new funding

The Tides & Tales Maritime Community Project is set to launch a new five-year plan on Thursday, December 4, to outline a path in courting new funding for the Waterford Harbour heritage project.

Tides & Tales has published almost 500 stories on its blog website, seeking to honour and remember maritime traditions. Their new strategic plan was supported by the Local Authorities Water Programme.

“As the stories have gone out, and as the interest in them has grown, so too has the request for the project to do stuff,” said Tides & Tales co-ordinator Andrew Doherty.

“So people ask us to lead walks or to deliver talks. Sometimes it's to be involved in different TV programmes, like ‘Tracks and Trails’.

“We set up a committee in 2024, we've now become a company limited by guarantee. And as part of that, then, the committee saw the need to put together a strategic plan to try and chart a way forward…because it's all being done on a voluntary basis.” 

Tides and Tales currently encompasses the communities of the Three Sisters - The River Suir, the River Nore and the River Barrow.

Mr Doherty said that the group’s growth lies in strategically targeting and unlocking different revenue streams.

“It's very limited in terms of what we can apply for. So really, the strategy in terms of moving forward is to try and concentrate on maybe three different specific elements to it, what we can raise ourselves, what we can get through grants, and maybe what we can find through sponsorship.”