April.2014
WEISFJORD NEWS
SELSKAR, THE HEART OF WEXFORD A REPORT BY WIKTORIA OGAZA, MRS MCKIERNAN’S 5TH CLASS, MERCY SCHOOL, SAINT JOHN’S ROAD he 2nd of April in the Riverbank Hotel was the scene of great excitement. There were 7 children who had written an amazing essay on Selskar Abbey and each representing one of the primary schools in Wexford The competition was run by the Lions Club of Wexford. The Lions Club took over the care of Selskar Abbey in 2011. Prior to this Selskar was in a deplorable state due to neglect, vandalism and disuse. The Lions Club cleaned, weeded and restored Selskar back to the historical gem it is. Wexford Walking Tours started daily tours in 2012 in conjunction with the Lions Club. It was decided that the best way to promote Selskar Abbey and the tours was through the Young Ambassadors that is the primary school children. Last year we hosted the very first essay competition and the standard was amazing. This year we made the competition slightly harder. The children of 5th Class had to write for this newspaper. The standard, to the quote the Lions Club, “so high it caused nosebleeds”. 250 children approximately were taken on the tour. It was in February but the damp weather did not dampen their zest for the competition. Over 100 essays were written of these the top 25 went to the final judging table. Five judges worked hard to find the winning report. To quote Seamus Murphy the Chairperson of the Lions Club “There was a clear winner as it was not an essay it was a report written by a budding reporter.” It is with great pride I present Miss Wiktoria Ogaza’s report on Selskar; Selskar, The Heart of Wexford.
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WEXFORD IS A BEAUTIFUL VIKING TOWN TOWN WITH A LOT OF PRETTY PLACES. ONE OF THEM IS IN THE HEART OF WEXFORD, IT IS CALLED SELSKAR ABBEY. ABBEY. SELSKAR ABBEY IS A BEAUTIFUL AND CHARMING PLACE FROM THE NORMAN TIMES! ALL ABOUT THE GATE GATE This gate is called the Selskar Gate. It’s one out of seven gates and the only gate left. Above the gate there’s a house where the guards would live. Let’s say a man wanted to walk through the gate but the guards did not like the look of him, they’d boil up sand or water and pour it through the murdering hole or they’d throw arrows or spears through it. There’s also a different thing they could do. The guards could put him into one of the cells where people threw, for example, rotten eggs at him (Yuck!) THE ABBEY The abbey was built in the 12 hundreds; there is a claim that it was founded by Alexander De La Roche. The monks were called Augustinians as they were followers of the St Augustine. Inside the church there are three pillars they’re rectangular beside them there’s an awkward one an octagonal one. On the west wall there are two windows. One of the windows is nicely curved and it’s smooth, but the one beside it is the opposite it is rough and spiky. On the opposite wall are two grotesques, to me they look like animal heads. THE NEW CHURCH The new church was built in 1826. No one liked the new church and they said it was too modern (how ridiculous!) They did not want to pay tax for the church so the roof was taken off to make the new church a ruin. My opinion: some people argue over whether or not to put a roof on the church or not to. I think the roof shouldn’t be put up on the church because it is part of history. SPOOKY GRAVES GRAVES In the graveyard there are lots of interesting graves and one in particular, it’s a medieval sarcophagus. The bottom is on the ground and the top is stuck to one of the walls. Also the grave of Dorcas Catherine McGee is in the graveyard. I suppose you are wondering who she is?! She is the mother of Thomas Darcy McGee, he is one of the founding fathers of Canada in the 19th Century. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! Selskar Abbey has a love story attached to it. Alexander De La Roche was in love with Catherine but they got separated by Alexander’s parents. He went to fight in the Holy Land against the Turks. Catherine waited ten years for her love; instead she got a letter saying that Alexander was dead. She became a nun. One day he did come to marry Catherine but when he heard she was a nun, he then became a priest. This story reminds me of Romeo and Juliet SELSKAR ABBEY IS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE! I RECOMMEND YOU SHOULD GO AND VISIT! This concludes the report by Miss Ogaza. I have made very few changes to the report. Those I made were mainly typographical. The work above is completely her own. If you want to discover if the guards were really that prejudiced against people coming in to the town Wexford Walking Tours have tours of Selskar Abbey running Monday to Saturday at 3 pm from An Tobar/Westgate Centre. The judges really had a difficult task and therefore we had six reports tied for second place. We would like to acknowledge the hard work and effort put in. The top reports are for the Saint John of God School, The Faythe, Ella McMahon-O’Connor; from CBS Primary, Hugh Turner; from Kennedy Park Abaigh Martin; Amy Quirke was the representative for Scoil Mhuire Coolcotts; the Gaelscoil report was written by Caitlin Rossiter and from St Iberius School the report was by Andrew Simmons. Well done to all of those and of course special congratulations to our overall winner, Wiktoria Ogaza Mercy School, Saint John’s Road. Thank you also to the parents and teachers for their support and presence on the night.
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Photography By Michael Cullen (Irish Images.Org)