Trawlers moored on the quays at Wexford. The only remaining commercial activity on the quays of Wexford harbour are these Mussel boats, who harvest from the Mussel beds in the harbour, and unload their blue mussel cargo on the ferry bank breakwater side of the river Slaney, opposite to the side these photos are taken. Earlier in the 1800’s there was a vibrant shipping industry with wharves and shipbuilding, there are old photos of the quay full of sailing ships. In the earlier part of the 20th century there were shallow draft coasters arriving on the quays from the UK and continent, delivering directly to the warehouses on the quays, but due to the silting and hazardous navigation in the harbour further development of the port was not possible, and Rosslare took over as the main port of Wexford now all of the warehouses are gone, some of the granary buildings have been preserved but most of it is commercial property and apartments. Some of the pubs on the quay have a few relics from the old days. The nearby Rosslare Harbour is a deep water port and has regular traffic with the UK and the continent, then there is Waterford further along the coast to the South east and of course Dublin to the North. The construction of the dykes in the late 1800’s on the North and South sides of the harbour to reclaim land in polder fashion to form the sloblands was the reason that the harbour silted up, and also the construction of Rosslare harbour contributed to this silting up, this and the change of currents led to some coastal erosion and deposition in the harbour and the sea slowly swallowed up the Forth Village where some of my ancestors came from, many of them seafarers, there is no trace of the village now.
The Vikings were probably the first to discover the mud and silt in the harbour around 300AD, no doubt a few of them ran aground on the sandbanks and the named the place Veisafjorðr which means harbour of the mudflats and the name became Wexford eventually. A few notable Wexford mariners are John Barry “father of the US Navy” ( debatable if you meet any John Paul Jones fans) and Robert McClure of Northwest Passage fame. No wonder I chose a career at sea, with all the salty blood in my veins.
Development. Building. Population expansion. New demography. Dog shit. One way. Traffic jam. Car society. Out of town retail. Main Street changes. Polish language and groceries. Youth. Sports clothes shops. Giant Tesco store. Cracked uneven pavement. Road works. Sunshine. Quay extension. SUV. Diesel fumes. Luminous yellow singlets. Buskers. Beggars. Smiles. Frowns. Familiar faces. Funerals. Gardaí. Protective vests. No smoking. Pints. Pub. Double parking. Double Standards. Over too fast…….next time will be longer…….
The balance of justice is obviously weighted in favour of one side according to this sign advertising the services of a solicitor in Wexford. I won’t say the name of the establishment for fear of legal repercussions, but I did note that it seemed to be closed or moving shop, but it was on the Crescent Quay, close to yer man John Barry. Who said the legal profession wasn’t honest? You know that their scales are fixed anyway.
I like this cartoon of Blind Justice…..
Lightship Guillemot on the quay in Wexford, photograhed by Padraig Grant in 1987, if you click on the picture you get to his website.
The image of the Guillemot shrouded in mist on the quay in Wexford, it’s ingrained in my memory. The big red lightship was a constant in my childhood, I used to have dreams as a kid and teenager that I was sailing her up and down the quay. Strange because she never moved all the time I was in Wexford and I never saw her being towed away. I still find it hard to believe that it got towed off to Kilmore. I suppose someone with more enthusiasm wanted it down there and it didn’t fit in to the plans for the revival of the woodenworks area of the quays. Harder to believe that 20 years has gone by since the above photograph was taken, a whole generation of Wexford youngsters have grown up never knowing of its existence, something so solid and real, gone, moved away.
In my youth (which was hardly delinquent but we used to think we were hard men), myself and the lads used to climb onboard when the tide was right, to go for a crafty smoke on the starboard side out of sight, none of your Moroccan Woodbines or any of that crap, at worst had hand rolled cigarettes made with Old Holborn tobacco or Drum and at best someone was able to scrape together enough money for a “family pack” of 20 Kingsize Rothmans, you were extremely popular for the duration of the pack of smokes. If our parents had found out we believed that we would have been skinned alive, in fact now I don’t know that they couldn’t have known, the smell of tobacco is nearly impossible to hide maybe they turned a blind eye. Back on the Guillemot we would lean over the gunwale and stare out over Wexford Harbour, at the “Black Man” and the Ballast bank and further out to the darkness of the Raven, and see the flash of Tuskar Rock lighthouse looming over the horizon. You would hear the water lapping up against the side and feel the slight movement as her mooring ropes were fairly slack. Little did I know then about ships or lighthouses or how they would affect me. I can’t remember so much about what we talked about, probably girls, and music or music and girls!
A few years after she moved to Kilmore I went down to take some photos and do a project for my College on her, she looked fairly sad beached up with brackets welded to keep her upright. I managed to lose the whole project somewhere along the way.All that is left is a few negatives, with pictures of the Guillemot on the beach most of them with an ex-girlfriend in the frame, I don’t know if I was so interested in the Lightship that day! She is still there (the Lightship) in Kilmore boxed in concrete, I guess it won’t be so easy to move her anymore and she has become a constant there now.
Guillemot at Kilmore circa 1991, before it was set in concrete and not too long after if arrived from Wexford.
Tipperary will be wondering what happened yesterday in Croke Park but Wexford showed that they have some powder left in their arsenal. Damian Fitz with that huge boss on his hurl buried the ball in the Tipp net from a free and the Munster boys couldn’t make it back again. After being beaten badly by Kilkenny it isn’t any surprise that Wexford came out gunning for glory against Tipp.
The celebrations in Wexford were loud and even though it was lashing rain you couldn’t stop the fans from screaming and shouting, I heard every song from “Rhinestone Cowboy” to “Swing Low Sweet Chariots” and the inevitable “Boolavogue” and “The Boys of Wexford” all murdered by the same gang of Purple and Gold clad fans, it all descended into a pseudo rebel song session with a few Elvis and Abba numbers thrown in and “The Fields of Athenry” and “The Green Fields of France” chorus sung over and over and whatever other songs they could remember, I don’t recall hearing the “Sash” however!
I’m still unsure about the Pikeman logo on the jersey, all very well and good evoking the fighting spirit of the past, and all that, it may be better than the old one, I don’t know if I like it yet. Maybe if we win a few more matches I’ll like it better, it could grow on me!
However not to put a dampener on it like the rain tried last night Kilkenny made no mistakes in the last 10 minutes of their game against Galway . Kilkenny crippled Galway with a give away goal from Eddie Brennan, jaysus lads you can’t be doing that sort of thing, leaving Eddie Brennan un-marked, you know he will ruin your day. From then on then it was all Kilkenny. Hopefully there will be no repeat of our last outing against Kilkenny when we meet them in the All-Ireland semi.
Up Wexford.
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