Rosslare Harbour, or Cuan Ros Láir in Irish, meaning ‘harbour of the middle peninsula’, sits on the south-east corner of Ireland: a fine location for marine connections with Wales and Europe. The history of Rosslare Port begins relatively recently,…

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At the beginning of 2020, Rosslare had 6 sailings a week to and from continental Europe. By the end of April 2021, this number had increased to 34. This unprecedented increase in direct sailings was a direct consequence of and response to the form…

A mosaic of St Andrew that survives in St Patrick’s Church in Rosslare remembers the ‘saints’ that sailed between Wales and Ireland for the first sixty years of the crossing. Four vessels were initially commissioned by the Great Western Railway: the…

In the school book for Wexford town, gathered by teacher Victoria M. Sherwood, we find this transcribed clipping from the Wexford Free Press paper, describing the origins of the magpie in Ireland: It is said that the first magpies that came to…

County Wexford is no stranger to the musical tradition of ballads and the county possesses a rich and varied repertoire of verse. Given the long stretch of coastline that runs along Wexford county and the tradition of fishing, especially for herring,…

The European stronghold of the Greenland white-fronted goose is Ireland, especially the Wexford Slobs. This is Europe’s rarest goose and the Slobs are its most important winter haunts. Today, Wexford Wildfowl Reserve hosts about two-thirds of…

Sailing ships needed large crews and a seafarer tradition became an important source of employment in Wexford in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The fishing industry thrived, and with it the prosperity of this coastal community. By 1788…

One day a sailor fell overboard. It happened that there was a whale nearby. The sailor fell into the whale's mouth. When the whale swallowed the sailor he found a case of oranges inside. He took out his knife and he cut a hole in the whale's side.…

Rosslare Harbour has undoubtedly been a mixed blessing since its construction, which began in 1867. However, for the community of people living in an area once known as Rosslare Fort, the downsides of the building of Rosslare Pier and viaducts…

The prolific Dutch photographer and journalist Willem van de Poll (1895-1970) visited Rosslare on at least two occasions in 1930 and 1932. During this period and leading up to the Second World War, he established his international reputation as…

Wexford and its slobs were walled off from the harbour and reclaimed from the sea in the 1840s, forming a polderland that has become a hotspot for biodiversity. The North Slob is now home to the Wexford Wildfowl Reserve, 200 hectares of flat farmland…

The Tuskar Rock Lighthouse stands on a rocky islet 11.3km or 7 miles off the south east corner of the island of Ireland. The lighthouse was constructed to warn ships of what has long been a graveyard of sailors, part of a band of treacherous waters…

The Irish Sea coastline of County Wexford is encrusted with the folklore, knowledges, practices and cultural connections of its people. When the children of the Schools' Collection interviewed elderly relatives and members of the community, they…

Catching the first glimpse of the green fields of Ireland on the skyline is one of the highlights of a sea crossing bound for the port at Rosslare Harbour. While many different vistas present themselves to the traveller depending on the angle of…

The coastal folklore of County Wexford is punctuated with shipwrecks, stories of assistance rendered and loss of life despite the best efforts of rescuers. The wreck of the Alfred D. Snow stands out across the lore of a wide variety of communities…

Along the river Barrow, nestled upon a Caledonian batholith, on the Kilkenny side of the bank, lies a little town named Graiguenamanagh. It is in this village that our story begins, with a man called Gorman who was busy cutting Granite on the Quay of…

With Waterford Harbour to the west, Slade Bay to the east, and the Irish Sea to the south, Hook Peninsula is the southern most point of County Wexford. Like a sentry guarding passage, Hook Lighthouse stands 100 feet high, with walls of remarkable…