By Dan Walsh at Fethard-on-Sea
The Hook peninsula region of south-west Wexford is a place of history, heritage, shipwrecks, the flashing light of Hook Lighthouse and the haunting stories of Loftus Hall and the lifeboat heroics of the crew of such brave ships as the Helen Blake and it is also a fascinating region for holiday breaks and tourism.
The magic of the Hook lights up the pages of the 37th edition of ‘On The Hook’ andthe latest edition has gone on sale locally. “We don’t have a launch, we just tell people that the magazine is in the shops and they flock in and buy it,” editor Liam Ryan told WexfordLocal.com.
All the local happenings are included in print and colour photography and there is “an emergence from the lockdown” appearance around the publication. It is important to keep school and community happenings in the archive and this is achieved with dignity and professional presentation.
On the bigger scale it is the history and heritage that extends further than the parish boundaries. Fethard Castle is undergoing a preservation and through pictures and words the restoration stages are given strong coverage.
The Saltee Islands get notice. Loftus Hall is being transformed into a top-class hotel. The Colclough family and the famed Wall Garden and Tintern Abbey in Wales is feeding the visitors, and down memory lane – the last public pistol duel between John Colclough of Tintern and William Congreve Alcock of Wilton Castle fought at Ardcandrisk, near Wexford, on May 30 1807 is revived to satisfy a new audience.
It is a wonderful publication. If you belong the Fethard-on-Sea area you will appreciate your local history, but if you reside further afield and hold an interest in general history, then, you may dive into a treasure trove of stories in this publication.
ON THE HOOK Parish Magazine, Vol. 4 No. 7, June 2022; 164 pages, illustrated, EDITOR Liam Ryan, EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Eileen Cloney Kehoe, Sinead Kidd-Neville, Tom Byrne and Bryan Hanton. Price €13. Available at Dillon’s Fethard-on-Sea.
WexfordLocal.com 