MICHAEL FORTUNE doesn’t miss a day in his latest publication, The Irish Dresser and Folklore Calendar 2024.
By Dan Walsh
Some years ago while working on The Dresser Project, folklorist Michael Fortune decided to publish his “folk furniture and relics of the past” into a calendar – it proved so popular that it has become an annual publication – and latest news is that The Irish Dresser and Folklore Calendar 2024 has gone on sale.
It is a day longer this time due to 2024 being a Leap Year; February 29th brings the total to 366 days and there is space for notes and countless colour pictures of dressers and their admirers.
“This year I have also included a series of QR codes on each page which will take you to interviews, tutorials, texts and posts relating to that month and also the dresser in question,” Michael Fortune told WexfordLocal.com
Pictured at today’s sod turning ceremony on Wexford’s Newtown Road were (left to right); Tom Byrne, Wexford County Council Active Travel Team; Aoife Fleming, Department of Transport; Eamonn Hore, Director of Service Wexford County Council; Vincent Gallagher, Wexford County Council Active Travel Team; Tom Enright, Chief Executive Wexford County Council; Alan O Shea, Wexford County Council Active Travel Team; Cllr. John Hegarty, Mayor of Wexford; Hugh Mc Carthy, National Transport Authority; Cllr. Maura Bell; Cllr. Garry Laffan; Claire Goodwin, Wexford County Council Walking and Cycling Officer. (Image credit: Rocket Science Media).
By Dan Walsh
Mayor of Wexford Borough District Cllr John Hegarty led the sod turning ceremony to mark the commencement of construction of Phase One of the Newtown Road Cycle Scheme today (Tuesday) and the first stage of the Wexford Pathfinder project. Construction on the Newtown Road scheme will commence immediately and is expected to take nine months to complete.
The works will involve 1.3 kilometres of new protected cycle track either side of the road and new or upgraded footpaths along certain sections with some road resurfacing. Phase One of the project will cost €3 million.
Funding has been allocated by the National Transport Authority. Alan O’ Shea, Senior Executive Engineer with Wexford County Council’s Active Travel Team outlined how Phase One of the Newtown Road scheme will be followed immediately by phases two and three which will see the works extend as far as Wygram closer to the town centre.
Mr O’Shea outlined how the scheme will also ensure connectivity to the future Beechlawns/Clonard cycle scheme, also part of the Wexford ‘Pathfinder’, with works proposed to improve cycling and walking infrastructure to enhance connectivity to residential areas, schools and places of work across town. In addition, plans are being currently finalised for the third section of the Pathfinder project at Roxborough with proposals for an upgrade of cycling and walking infrastructure from Drinagh to The Faythe being developed.
This phase of the cycle scheme will see works to Newtown Road to improve safety for cyclists and walkers by developing protected cycle tracks and upgrading footpaths. The measures will also aim to reduce traffic speeds at this location to further enhance the environment designed to encourage people, where possible, to leave the car behind for short local journeys and actively travel.
Speaking at the ceremony today, Mayor Cllr Hegarty said; “It is only the start of a number of projects for Wexford town designed to improve our infrastructure to encourage more active travel and contribute towards reducing our carbon emissions”.
Speaking of the Project, Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan said; “I am delighted that construction has now commenced on Newtown Road Cycle Scheme, the first step of the Wexford Pathfinder project. I was in Wexford a few months ago, and I spoke to the councillors and local groups about the difference this project can make to people who want to come in and out of Wexford town without the headache of congestion.”
Looking beautiful in this morning’s sunshine St. Joseph’s Terrace, Ballymurn, is officially “Best Estate in the County”.
By Dan Walsh
Wexford County Council Annual Residents Awards were distributed in County Hall last Thursday where St Joseph’s Terrace, Ballymurn was awarded the top prize as the ‘Best Estate in the County’.
The Wexford County Council Estates Competition which has not been held since 2019 was re-launched earlier this year. 39 Resident’s Associations and 27 individual entries were received all of an exceptionally high standard making for a difficult decision for the judges.
St Joseph’s Terrace, Ballymurn was awarded the Best Estate in the County. In presenting the award, Cathaoirleach of Wexford County Council, Cllr. John Fleming said; “Resident’s associations throughout the county as well as individual local authority tenants have been working hard to maintain and improve their communal spaces. The pride that is taken both individually and collectively was evident as the judges worked their way through the County. They saw beautiful planting schemes, well maintained green areas, communal orchards and composting and upcycling projects, some of which are on display here today.”
Awards for the best estate and best garden in each district were presented by the respective District Cathaoirleach.
This year a new award introduced for Best Biodiversity Initiative, and a Special Award for ingenuity in Upcycling. So impressive was the standard of entries that the judges awarded Special Achievement awards to acknowledge all the hard work being done in so many estates throughout the County.
The full list of awards include:
Best Estate in Co. Wexford; St Joseph’s Terrace, Ballymurn
Best Estate in each district; Gorey/Kilmuckridge; Ounavarra Park, Ballycanew; New Ross; Beechview, Newbawn; Enniscorthy; Cloney Park, Davidstown; Wexford; Mill Haven, Castlebridge and Rosslare; St Brendan’s Estate, Rosslare.
Best Garden in each district: Gorey/Kilmuckridge District; John Doyle, Orchard Way, Camolin, New Ross; Rosemary Rossiter, St Martins, Enniscorthy; Kathleen Fortune, Rosemary Heights, Ferns, Rosslare; Mary Tubritt, St James Drive, Tomhaggard.
Best Window Box Display; Siobhan O’Leary, Greenwood Avenue.
Best Biodiversity Initiative; Paul Lenniston, Garan Beithe, Coolcotts.
Special Award for Upcycling Initiative; Cois Abhainn Estate, Blackwater for re-purposing hub caps into Sunflowers
Special Achievement Award; Denis Redmond, for his garden at Abbeyview, Campile.
Special Achievement Award for improvement; Cum an Tobair Estate, Oylegate.
Special Achievement Award; Croghan View Estate, Coolgreany.
Wexford Women’s Coalition memberspictured ; (left to right); Cllr Mary Farrell, Cllr Maura Bell, Cllr Bridin Murphy, Mairead O’Shea of See Her Elected, Cllr Barbara-Anne Murphy and Cllr Kathleen Codd Nolan
By Dan Walsh
Wexford Women’s Coalition which brings together the female Wexford County Council members is committed to ensuring that female members are supported in the Local Government System and has joined forces with See Her Elected, the award-winning Government funded project which aims to encourage women from rural areas to engage in local politics.
Together they visit secondary schools in County Wexford in a bid to encourage more young women to see politics as a possible career path. The Schools’ Roadshow is part of a political education series which hopes to encourage diversity in county council chambers in rural areas.
The Wexford Women’s Coalition and See Her Elected will visit Coláiste Átha in Kilmuckridge, Loreto College, Wexford and Selskar College, Wexford this month (November 8th and 9th). Schools will benefit from a See Her Elected presentation while members of the Wexford Women’s Coalition will share their lived experiences of the day-to-day life of being a county councillor.
This brings the number of schools visited in 2023 to six with plans to continue the initiative in 2024.
Chairperson of the Wexford Women’s Coalition Cllr. Maura Bell said; “It is so important that our political and civic structures are representative of the communities that they support and work for.”
The Coalition Members are very aware that only 26% of councillors in Ireland are women and there is a major difficulty with an under representation of women in local politics in rural Ireland. For example, there are only six women out of 34 councillors on Wexford County Council. In almost one hundred years there have only been 15 women elected to Wexford County Council (since 1925).
Communications Manager with See Her Elected, Mairead O’ Shea said; “We want to see more diversity in our rural county council chambers. As it stands, there are very few women councillors and virtually no representation of minority communities. Our aim is to increase the numbers of women in local politics in rural counties where anything from 78% to 95% of the elected local authority councillors are men.”
“As part of our political education series, we do a presentation for students from senior classes to encourage them to critically engage with See Her Elected’s work and the outcomes from having Council Chambers that do not reflect what the communities they represent look like,” said Ms. O’Shea, who added; “See Her Elected’s aim is to engage with students to increase their awareness and understanding of gender inequality in politics as well as encouraging them to get their names on the Register of Electors. Many 5th and 6th year students will be able to vote in the next Local Elections in 2024 so they are the ideal age group to address and the feedback and positive engagement from students has been fantastic.”
See Her Elected is a joint initiative between Longford Women’s Link and 50/50 North West. The project is funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The Women’s Coalition hope to reach as many secondary schools as possible around the county amongst other initiatives to encourage women to enter politics and in doing so help bring about change.
Jonathan Fogarty from Gaynestown Stud, Cleariestown, had a successful weekend with four of his runners finishing either first or second; A first and two ‘seconds’ at Lisronagh, on Saturday, and another victory today (Sunday) at Damma House, Kilkenny.
Today’s Fogarty handled newcomer was QuantumBoy, ridden by Derek O’Connor, and a four lengths winner of the maiden race for four-year-olds.
SEAN DOYLE kicked off his 2023-24 season with a winner at Kilkenny today.
Sean Doyle, handler from Monbeg, Ballindaggin, who enjoyed best his ever season with 19 winners in the 2022-23 season, saddled his first success of the 2023-24 season in Kilkenny today when Roe And Coe, ridden by Jamie Scallan, Tomhaggard, came home two and a half lengths to the good in the maiden race for five year old geldings.
Next Sunday, November 12th, the local point-to-point action switches to Knockmullen House, New Ross for the Wexford Hunt fixture. First race at 12.30pm and entries close on Tuesday.
In other point-to-point news The Island Hunt will race over a new track at Peppard’s Castle, between Balygarrett and Kilmuckridge, on Saturday, April 13th. The venue is described as “a stiff left-handed track with a one mile circuit over two fields.”
BARRY STONE winner and two ‘seconds’ in Tipperary today.
Jonathan Fogarty and the Gaynestown Stud Partnerip and Cleariestown rider Barry Stone finished second with Visual Impact (four-year-old mares maiden) and Diagon Alley (division one of the maiden race for four year old geldings) in the first two races at today’s (Saturday) point-to-point at Lisronagh, Co. Tipperary before landing division two of the maiden race for four year olds with McLaurey.
A €55,000 Tattersalls Derby Day purchase, McLaurey who passed the post eight lengths to the good and will now be offered for sale.
As anticipated, there is a large Wexford entry for the Damma House point-to-point in Co. Kilkenny tomorrow (Sunday). The first race is off at 12.30pm. Ground conditions are reported to be “soft, soft and heavy in places.”
And in other point-to-point news The Island Hunt will race over a new track at Peppardscastle, between Ballygarrett and Kilmuckridge, on Saturday, April 13th. The venue is described as “a stiff left-handed track with a one mile circuit over two fields.”
CLLR DONAL KENNY, CLLR JOHN FLEMING, Cathaoirleach Wexford County Council, CLLR PIP BREEN, Cathaoirleach Gorey-Kilmuckridge Municipal District Council and BARRY BRENNAN at the book launch in Gorey Library on Thursday night
By Dan Walsh
On Thursday night Gorey Library facilitated the official launch of Wicklow Gaol Comrades –A Civil War Autograph Book – authored and researched by Aaron O Maonaigh in a collaboration between Wicklow and Wexford County Councils.
This innovative collaboration between the archive services of Wexford and Wicklow County Councils centres on a small autograph book (part of Wexford County Archive’s Civil War collection).
It was owned by Patrick Fitzpatrick from Kiltealy, a member of North Wexford IRA’s flying column who was imprisoned in Wicklow Gaol in late 1922, and following his escape and subsequent recapture, was interned again, including at Tintown Camp B, Co. Kildare until his release on 24 December 1923. The autograph book includes signatories of fellow internees from Fitzpatrick’s time in both places of detention.
This project was supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries programme 2012-23, and by the Archive Services of Wexford and Wicklow County Councils “Congratulations to all concerned who made this possible and brought a humble 100-year-old autograph book back to life,” said Cllr John Fleming, Cathaoirleach Wexford County Council.
It is a most impressive book and available at Gorey Library where the exhibition will be on display for a week and will be available over the next few months in other libraries across counties Wicklow and Wexford.
Uisce Éireann is calling communities across Wexford town to continue with their efforts to conserve water over the weekend, to protect supply, and to enable Newtown and Coolcots reservoirs to fully replenish, following a prolonged outage due to a burst trunk main.
Speaking to WexfordLocal.com today (Friday) about conserving water over the weekend, Jim Fitzgerald, Regional Operations Manager at Uisce Éireann, said; “We are appealing to customers in Wexford town to conserve water to give the reservoirs time to replenish. Any reduction that customers can make in their usage can collectively result in significant supply improvements for all customers.”
High usage can lead to pressure reductions which can impact the supply to customers. Uisce Éireann and Wexford County Council are thankful to communities and residents across Wexford town for their conservation efforts to protect this precious resource.
Uisce Éireann will continue to monitor the levels at Newtown and Coolcots reservoirs over the coming weeks and take any actions that may be necessary to maintain supplies, including communicating about localised issues as they arise.
For more simple ways to conserve water check out the Uisce Éireann conservation calculator (www.water.ie/calculator) which can help people work out how much water they are currently using and how they can conserve even more.
Uisce Éireann has successfully completed emergency repairs on a trunk water main supplying Newtown Water Treatment Plant at Wexford.
While repairs are now complete, the prolonged outage has resulted in reservoir levels at Newtown and Coolcots running low. The reservoirs and water network are currently refilling. However, due to the loss of treated water in storage, it may take until late this evening for water supplies to return to all areas, especially for those on higher ground or at the end of the network.
(Pic; Uisce Éireann)
Once the burst was identified, water service crews were immediately dispatched and worked for hours repairing and refilling the trunk water main. Every measure was taken to reduce the impact to homes and businesses in Coolcots, Barntown Clonard, Townparks, Whitemill, Whiterock, Clonard, Mulgannon, Carricklawn and surrounding areas of Wexford town and to restore the water supply as quickly as possible.
Jim Fitzgerald, Regional Operational Manager at Uisce Éireann said; “We would like to thank the affected communities for their patience as the water supply returns to the network. To help Newtown and Coolcots Reservoirs to refill as quickly as possible, we are appealing to customers to continue to conserve water until the network recovers.”
Following this type of work, occasionally issues such as cloudy water (air bubbles), discolouration or internal airlocks may arise. For advice on how to resolve these issues please visit www.water.ie/help/supply/after-an-outage/.
A large burst on a water main supplying Wexford town is impacting treated water storage levels at Coolcots Reservoir Zone. Repairs are expected to be completed by this evening, (Thursday) and customers should note “that it typically takes two to three hours following repairs for normal supply to restore to all customers affected by an unplanned outage.”
A statement from Uisce Éireann informs that “Every effort is being made to maintain supply to as many customers as possible, however, repairs are complex due to the location of the burst and the wet weather conditions impacting ground conditions.
Crews are working on repairs to restore normal water supply as quickly as possible. While repairs are underway, customers in the following areas of Wexford Town may experience supply outages and/or low pressure: Coolcots, Barntown Clonard, Townparks, Whitemill, Whiterock, Clonard, Mulgannon, Carricklawn, and surrounding areas of Wexford Town.
Uisce Éireann’s Jim Fitzgerald said; “The repairs in Wexford town are being conducted as quickly as possible to minimise disruption to the community and restore water for all customers. We understand the inconvenience unplanned outages can have on customers and we appreciate their patience as we work to repair the burst and return normal water supply.”
To support impacted customers, alternative water supplies with clean drinking water are in place at: Clonard Village, Cluain Dara, Ferndale, Belvedere, Ard Carman and Clonard Church until normal water supply returns. Customers are reminded to use their own containers when taking water from the tanker and to boil water before consumption as a precautionary measure as per Health Service Executive (HSE) advice.
WexfordLocal.com 