'Wexford' (derived from
Old Norse ''Veisafjǫrðr'' (in some sources spelled "Waes Fiord") – ''veisa'' meaning "mudflat, stagnant pool", also
Irish: ''Loch Garman'',
Latin: ''Menapia'') is the county town of
County Wexford in the
Republic of Ireland. It is situated near the south-eastern tip of
Ireland, close to
Rosslare Europort. The town is connected to the capital
Dublin via the
N11 National Primary Route (
European route E1), and the
national rail network. Recently Wexford enjoyed a building boom resulting in new developments across the county and town.
History
Wexford lies on the south side of
Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the
River Slaney. According to a local legend, the town got its Irish name, Loch Garman, from a young man named Garman Garbh who was drowned on the mudflats at the mouth of the River Slaney by flood waters released by an enchantress. The resulting lake was thus named, Lake of Garman. The town was settled by the
Vikings in about 800 AD. They named it ''Veisafjǫrðr'', inlet of the mud flats, and the name has changed only slightly into its present form.
Wexford was the site of an invasion by
Normans in 1169 at the behest of
Dermot MacMurrough Kavanagh, King of Leinster, which led to the subsequent colonisation of the country by the English. It is largely accepted that the Murphy Clan of Wexford descended from the King's brother.
Wexford in the Middle Ages was an
Old English settlement. An old dialect of English, known as
Yola, was spoken uniquely in Wexford up until the 19th century.
By a disputed theory,
Mary Seymour - daughter of
Thomas Seymour, Baron Seymour of Sudeley, and
Catherine Parr, widow of
Henry VIII of
England - was removed in infancy to Wexford and raised under the care of a Protestant family there, the
Harts, who had been engaged in piracy off the Irish coast under the protection of a "profit-sharing arrangement" with her father Thomas Seymour.
County Wexford produced strong support for
Confederate Ireland during the 1640s. A fleet of Confederate
privateers was based in Wexford town, consisting of sailors from Flanders and Spain as well as local men. Their vessels raided English Parliamentarian shipping, giving some of the proceeds to the Confederate government in
Kilkenny. As a result,
the town was sacked by the English Parliamentarians during the
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649 - many of its inhabitants were killed much of the town was burned.
County Wexford was the centre of the
1798 rebellion against English rule. Wexford town was held by the rebels throughout the fighting and was the scene of a notorious massacre of local
loyalists by the
United Irishmen, who executed them on the bridge in the centre of Wexford town.
Redmond Square, near the railway station, commemorates the elder John Redmond who was
Liberal M.P. for the city of Wexford between 1859-65. The inscription reads: "My heart is with the city of Wexford. Nothing can extinguish that love but the cold soil of the grave." His nephew William Archer Redmond sat as an M.P. in
Isaac Butt's
Home Rule Party between 1872 and 1880. The younger
John Redmond, son of William Archer Redmond was a devoted follower of
Parnell and leader of the Irish parliamentary party till his death in 1918. Redmond Park was formally opened in 1931 as a memorial to
Willie Redmond, the younger brother of
John Redmond. He was also an Irish parliamentary party M.P. and was killed in 1917 while serving with the
16th (Irish) Division on the Western Front. Willie Redmond had sat as a Parnellite M.P. for Wexford from 1883-1885.
Wexford's success as a sea port declined in the twentieth century, because of the constantly changing sands of Wexford Harbour. By 1968 it had become unprofitable to keep dredging a channel from the harbour mouth to the quays in order to accommodate the larger ships of the era so the port closed. The port had been extremely important to local economy, with coal being a major import and agricultural machinery and grain being exported. The port is now used exclusively by mussle dredgers and pleasure craft. The woodenworks which fronted the quays and which were synonymous with Wexford were removed in the 1990s as part of an ambitious plan to claim the quay as an amenity for the town as well as retaining it as a commercially viable waterfront. Against all the odds, as well as bankruptcy of the contracter, the project was a success.
In the early 20th Century, a new port was built, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south, at Rosslare Harbour, now known as
Rosslare Europort. This is a deepwater harbour unaffected by tides and currents. All major shipping now uses this port and Wexford port is used only by fishing boats and leisure vessels.
Modern Wexford
The town of Wexford closely follows the quays, which run in a northwest to southeast direction and are built upon re-claimed land. The main street runs more or less parallel to the river and is about a mile long from Redmond Square at the northwest end to Barrack Street at the southeast end. It starts as Selskar Street, then North Main Street from the junction with George's Street, runs into the square called the Bull Ring, then proceeds as South Main Street. Almost all the shops in Wexford lie along this one line, although new retail centres on the town's outskirts are now attracting the larger multiples. Wexford serves a large hinterland in South County Wexford, including townlands and villages such as
Ballycogley and Castlebridge. Other important Wexford towns include
Gorey,
Enniscorthy and
New Ross, the ancestoral home of the Kennedy family whose members include
JFK,
Bobby Kennedy and senator
Ted Kennedy.
A modern bridge connects Wexford town with the northern part of the county. It is one of the longest bridges in Ireland.
Wexford is known as one of the main shopping centres in the South east of Ireland. Many international brand names are represented here, such as
Superdrug,
Argos,
Aldi,
Lidl,
Benetton,
Adams,
Atlantic Homecare and
Boots, as well as Irish stores such as
Dunnes Stores,
Carraig Donn,
Hughes and Hughes,
Shaws,
New Look,
Sasha,
Penney's and
Heatons. Many local stores add variety to the retail sector in the town.
Over the last decade, Wexford has witnessed some major developments such as the Key West centre on the Quays, the redevelopment of the Quayfront itself, Whites Hotel and the huge new residential development of Clonard Village, roughly 4km from the town centre. Recently,
Tesco opened up a new store in the town, on the former site of the Pierce Foundry. The store is the supermarket chain's largest in Ireland outside Dublin.
Modern building developments in Wexford have not shirked from the architectural cutting edge, as attested to by buildings such as Whites Hotel, the new Theatre Royal (currently under construction) and the new headquarters of Wright's Insurance group. Developments currently in the pipeline include the development of a large new residential quarter at Carcur, a new river crossing at that point, the new town library, the refurbishment of Selskar Abbey and the controversial redevelopment of the former site of Wexford Electronix. Also, the relocation of a government department (most likely the Department of the Marine) has been mooted for the currently wasted reclaimed land at Ferrybank.
From an employment point of view, major employers in and around the town are Carl Zeiss Vision (formerly Sola Optical), Wexford Creamery, Wexford Viking Glass, ABS Pumps, Snap-Tite, Waters Technology, Kent Construction, Equifax and PFPC. In the public sector, employment is provided by the
Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland), the Department of Agriculture and the usual public services located in a county town, such as the Revenue Commissioners.
Culture
Wexford town hosts the internationally recognised
Opera Festival every autumn.
Eoin Colfer, the author of the
Artemis Fowl series of children's books, is from Wexford, and is sometimes seen in the Wexford Book Centre on Main Street, signing books or promoting children's literature. Singer and playwright
Larry Kirwan of the Celtic-Rock band
Black 47 is a native of Wexford. Similarly, award-winning novelists
Colm Toibin and
John Banville were born and educated there. The playwright
Billy Roche hails from the town and has set all of his stage plays there. Actor
Padraic Delaney also hails from the area. An early example of the
Mummers play is known from Wexford from about 1817.
Arts Centre)which hosts exhibitions, theatre music and dance events since 1976 is situated in 1760's building where John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church spoke and praised the speaking facilities as the best he had visited and Percy French also performed here. Today various concerts are held in St Iberius's Church (Church of Ireland). The church, on Main Street, is over three hundred years old.
Until about 150 years ago, the Middle English dialect of Yola could be heard in Wexford, and a few words still remain in use. The present dialect is said to be similar to Andaluz, where the final edge of a word ceases to exist.
[1]. The food of Wexford is also distinct from the rest of Ireland, due to the local cultivation of seafood, smoked cod being a token dish in the region.
Transport
Wexford railway station opened on
17 August 1874.
[1] The
railway line from Dublin to Rosslare Harbour runs along the quayside south of the town.
Sport
Golf
Wexford Golf Club has an extensive membership and boasts a top-class course and clubhouse, both of which were built in 2006, while the course was completed in 2007. It is regarded as one of the best parkland courses in the south-east.
Football
This year a new football team,
Wexford Youths, was admitted to the
FAI National League. This is the first time Wexford has had a town in the competition. Wexford Youths are the brainchild of construction magnate
Mick Wallace, who has funded the construction of a state-of-the-art complex for the new team's home at Newcastle, Ferrycarrig. Their first home game in the league was a 1-0 win against
Roy Keane's first club, Cobh Ramblers.
Gaelic games
Wexford is also home to several
Gaelic Athletic Association clubs. Though the town was traditionally a
Gaelic football hotbed, with six teams providing ample outlets for its youngsters, it wasn’t until 1960 that hurling took its foothold, with much due to local man Oliver “Hopper†McGrath’s contribution to the county’s All-Ireland Hurling Final triumph over the then-champions
Tipperary. Having scored an early second-half goal to effectively kill-off the opposition, McGrath went on to be the first man from the town of Wexford to receive an All-Ireland Hurling winner’s medal.
The town’s local hurling club
Faythe Harriers holds a record fifteen county minor championships, having dominated the minor hurling scene in the 1950’s, late 1960’s & early 70’s. However, the senior side has only enjoyed briefly successful periods, having won only five county senior championships.
Although the team hasn’t acheived county senior football success since 1956, Volunteers (“the Volsâ€) of Wexford town hold a record eleven county senior titles, as well as six minor titles. Other notable Gaelic football clubs in the town are Sarasfields, St. Mary’s of Maudlintown, Clonard and St. Joseph’s.
Boxing
Ireland’s
boxing head coach and former Irish Olympian Billy Walsh is native of Wexford town and has contributed greatly to the success of underage level boxers with local club St. Ibars/Joseph’s.
Trivia
★
Father Ted, one of the main characters of the Irish eponymously-named situation comedy, once served in Wexford.
★
Saving Private Ryan, The opening scenes of the film were filmed on Curracloe Beach, Co. Wexford. The beach lies a few miles to the north across the bridge at the village of
Curracloe.
★
Ferns, in North County Wexford was once the capital of
Leinster.
See also
★
List of Irish Towns with a Market House
★
List of towns in the Republic of Ireland
★
Yola Dialect
References
1. Wexford station
[2]
Flora and fauna
Parkes, H.M. and Scannell, M.J.P. 1969. A list of marine algae from the Wexford coast. ''Ir. Nat. J.'' '16': 158 - 162.
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