The words "as terrible a day as this I have never marched in all my life", engraved on a simple plaque recently put in place on the bridge over the Mahon river in Kilmacthomas, are those attributed to Oliver Cromwell, when he and his army were almost in extremis due to the Irish weather.
Laying siege to Waterford city, they had been battered by incessant rain for weeks and decided to move camp to Dungarvan. But the Mahon was in flood and held up the mighty army for a day or more.
Demoralised and exhausted as the Cromwellian army was, it might well have been defeated if its enemies had attacked at that point, and the course of Irish and European history could have been changed.
Cllr Ger Barron and the Kilmacthomas Development Committee decided this year that the event should be marked, and on December 3rd, exactly 350 years after Cromwell passed that way, the plaque was erected.
Mr Barron admits some reservations were voiced locally as it was perceived as inappropriate, to say the least, that anything to do with the notorious Cromwell should be commemorated. But he pointed out the plaque is very much intended to commemorate the event and its significance, rather than the man.