History & Heritage

from Slaney News, Issue 150, November 2022.

Baginbun Norman Festival

In 1170, Raymond le Gros, or Raymond the Fat (political correctness and sensitivity were in short supply back in the day) landed with his band of Normans on the coast of Wexford.

They arrived in two ships – Le Bague and Le Bonne – sound familiar to you? Anyway, over 850 years later the good people of South Wexford – many of them with Norman names I’ll wager – like Roche, Devereux, Codd, Rossiter, Browne, Redmond, Colfer, and more, in an effort to embrace their Norman heritage, have established the Baginbun Norman Festival at Fethard on Sea.

Enniscorthy Historical Re-enactment Society were only too happy to represent the Normans at the Festival held over the Bank Holiday weekend on the actual headland where the landing took place all those years ago and dish out a couple of floggings to those who deserved them and tell a few grizzly tales about a Norman called Alice who dished out her own retribution when her lover was killed in the Battle of Baginbun by the Viking Irish. Not the kinda gal you’d want to bring home to your mother or waken up beside the next morning. Enniscorthy man, now living in New Ross, Myles Courtney, gave an informative overview of the event that shaped Irish history. Whether we like it or not, this was the exact time that Ireland was conquered and gave the foreigner a foothold on our shore.

Enniscorthy Historical Re-enactment Society members at the Baginbun Norman Festival. Below L-R: Myles Courtney, Maria Nolan and Cllr Michael Whelan. This was when and where it all happened, and it is about time Wexford took ownership of it warts and all. It’s payback time. Time to put our Norman heritage to good tourism and economic use and well done to the Baginbun Festival Committee under the stewardship of Michael Whelan for doing just that. Waterford have taken ownership of the Vikings, let the Normans belong to Wexford, after all this is where they arrived and by and large remained with the names still with us today. And in their defence it is said they became ‘more Irish than the Irish themselves’.

‘At Baginbun Ireland was lost and won.’ – Words and pics by Maria Nolan

Developments at Vinegar Hill

At the October meeting of Enniscorthy Municipal District it was reported by Council officials that The Heritage Officer of Wexford County Council is working on appropriate designs for the interpretive panels to be located on Vinegar Hill. It is expected that there will be a presentation to the November meeting of the Municipal District in relation to this matter. At the October meeting it was also revealed that there had been some interference with the door lock on the public toilet located on Vinegar Hill but that this matter is being dealt with. Finally, it was confirmed that the hedges on the pathways on the Hill were to be trimmed. n

Pic: Sean Fogarty

Liam Mellows Centenary Lecture

Enniscorthy Historical Re-enactment Society members with Dr Ruan O’Donnell, Prionsias O’Rathaille, Johnny Mythen TD, Barry Lacey and Cllr Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin.

Enniscorthy Historical Re-enactment Society once again added pageant and realism to the Liam Mellows Centenary Lecture delivered by renowned historian Dr. Ruan O`Donnell at Gorey Library recently as part of the Gorey Decade of Commemorations. Councillor Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin welcomed the large gathering, including Johnny Mythen TD and Prionsias O`Rathaille, the grandson of the O`Rahilly, to the special event commemorating the life of Mellows and the very significant role he played in Ireland`s struggle for freedom, before calling on Dr. O`Donnell, who had flown in from New York for the occasion. Dr. O`Donnell, lecturer in the University of Limerick, an expert on Republicanism, gave a very detailed and informative account of the life and principles of Liam Mellows, his involvement in the Easter Rising, his extensive work in America with Fenian John Devoy and Harry Boland, his anti-Treaty stance, his arrest at the surrender of the Four Courts and his eventual execution on the 8th December 1922 by the newly appointed Provisional Government and his final wish to be buried with his grandparents at Castletown cemetery where commemorations will take place on the 100th anniversary of his death on Sunday 11th Dec, 2022. – Words & pics by Maria Nolan

Day of commemorations in Enniscorthy, October 9th 2022

10am Mass in St Aidan's Cathedral, Enniscorthy, 11am Wreath Laying Ceremony outside 21 Main Street, Enniscorthy, in memory of Commandant Peter Doyle and Captain Thomas Doyle. Later on the same day, Wreath Laying Ceremony at the graves in Marshalstown and Ballindaggin.

On the evening of October the 10th, 1922, four Vincentian Fathers from Phibsborough, Dublin, were holding a mission mass in Enniscorthy cathedral. The event attracted a huge crowd of worshippers, including two Free State soldiers, captains Peter Doyle and Thomas Doyle (no relation). As mass ended, the two men, who were in uniform but unarmed, left the cathedral and walked down Main Street. As they did so a pair of assassins stepped out of the shadows and approached them. Without warning they opened fire on the soldiers, who fell to the ground, mortally wounded. On hearing the gunfire, consternation broke out amongst the crowd leaving mass and people began to flee in all directions. Meanwhile, a Crossley Tender lorry, full of Free State troops, raced into Market Square. In the confusion, the newly arrived soldiers believed that they too were under attack and they opened fire into the crowd milling around them. Unsurprisingly, this had terrible consequences and at least four women were seriously injured in the spray of bullets.

These included Ms Leacy, Ms Kavanagh, Ms Reilly and Ms Keane. Of these, Ms Leacy was the most severely wounded and her leg was subsequently amputated (she owned a stationery shop on Castle street). When the shooting finally subsided, the two wounded soldiers were still lying on the ground where they had fallen (just outside No. 21 Main Street). Peter Doyle, who was 29 and from Ballinakill, Marshalstown, died that night, while his comrade, Thomas Doyle, who was 27 and from Curragraigue, Ballindaggin, succumbed to his wounds eight days later. The perpetrators of the assassination were never identified. n

Marchers and attendees at the wreath-laying ceremony on Main Street, Enniscorthy, Sunday 9th October 2022, for Commandant Peter Doyle and Captain Thomas Doyle at the spot where they were shot on Main Street, 10th October, 1922.

Fr. Jim Fitzpatrick Memorial Tractor Run

Fr. Jim Fitzpatrick Memorial Tractor Run leaving Ferns GAA Club on 30th October 2022 in aid of the Jack and Jill Children’s Fund.

Top left: Tom Murphy and his homemade Leyland which he built from scratch. Top right: Mother and daughter doing the paperwork, Leah and Catherine Denby. Above left: Pat Kinsella and Davy Leacy enjoying a cup of soup. Above: A hot cup of soup is your only man before going on the Tractor Run, Eddie Sinnott and Jack O’Connor tuck in. Below left: Two Askamore fellows drumming up business for their forthcoming event, Wesley Earle and Ronan Finn.

Paul Doyle and Pauline Maguire.