We are the boys of Wexford.
Who fought with heart and hand
To burst in twain the galling chain
And free our native land – The Wolf Tones
Woolly says – The excitement was palpable as we headed towards the ferry terminal and the start of our next adventure. Boarding and parking up was a breeze, and we ascended to the passenger areas for a quick bite to eat and hopefully a smooth crossing across the sea.
Sadly, the smooth crossing was not to be and as both humans took to lying down faintly moaning as the ferry rocked up and down, I thought that my sea paws were in good working order, well that was until we hit a huge wave and the boat lurched up and down violently which was when I joined them in the lying down trying not to be sick position. A long 3 hours passed before our green tinged faces fled back to the car and land that wouldn’t keep moving. A short drive from the port to find our accommodation and we all collapsed and waited for the sicky feeling to abate before we could set off to see the delights of Ireland.
Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially named Ireland – a sovereign state covering five-sixths of the island) and Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom – covering the remaining sixth). It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George’s Channel.
Gaelic Ireland been well established by the 1st century AD being Christianised from the 5th century onwards. During this period Ireland was divided amongst petty kings, who in turn served under the kings of the traditional provinces vying for dominance and the title of High King of Ireland. Between the late 8th and early 11th centuries, Viking raids and settlement took place culminating in the Battle of Clontarf on 23rd April 1014 which resulted in the end of Viking power in Ireland. Following the 12th-century Anglo-Norman invasion, England claimed sovereignty. However, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th to 17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters and was extended during the 18th century. With the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. The Great Famine of the 1840s saw the population fall by over 20%, through death and emigration. A war of independence in the early 20th century was followed by the partition of the island, leading to the creation of the Irish Free State, which became increasingly sovereign over the following decades until it declared a republic in 1948 (Republic of Ireland Act, 1948) and Northern Ireland, which remained a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s. This subsided following the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. It is also home to incredible literature and of course music, what’s not to like about an Irish jig.
The morning arrived with sunshine outside and tummies feeling loads better we headed to the nearest supermarket for some supplies followed by our first trip into a petrol station where Zoe was delighted to find that the petrol pump played her music as she filled the tank.
Our first night had been spent in Wexford. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town was founded by the Vikings in about 800 AD. Wexford hosts the Wexford Opera Festival every October in its many venues.
And we had one stop to make before heading away from the ferry area. Pulling up after a five minute drive we saw a rather splendid castle entrance and headed through this to the ticket desk.
Johnstown Castle is a Gothic Revival castle located on the Johnstown Castle Estate, a 150 acres (61 ha) estate, the current castle was built between 1860 and 1883 but the first castle had appeared around the late 12th century built by the Esmonde family, Normans, who came to southeast of Ireland from Lincolnshire in the 1170s after the Norman invasion of Ireland. Oliver Cromwell spent a night on the estate in 1649, prior to the October 1649 Sack of Wexford. His Roundhead army used the land around Johnstown Castle to prepare for battle. The Esmondes as Catholics, were expelled during the Cromwellian years. Johnstown Castle was bought by the Grogan family in 1692.
During the First World War, Royal Naval Air Service airships were based at the Castle and were primarily used to deal with the U-boat threat, but with limited success.
The Castle was refurbished and opened to the public in 2019 by the Irish Heritage Trust and now welcomes over 200,000 visitors a year.
As we strolled into the grounds, we followed the pathway towards the small but lovely castle passing alongside the lake with its impressive looking towers on the opposite bank and encountering lots of peacocks and peahens including some young which the humans seemed to spend hours taking pictures of.
We had decided not to take the guided tour of the castle as a. it was over an hour long and we had a lot to cram into the day and b. because we are not fans of tours in general, having peered through and few windows and taken shots of the exterior, which was beautiful, we felt we had made the right choice.
Next came the sunken garden which was defiantly sunken but lacked much in the way of planting so we strolled onwards to the walled garden. The walled garden was still very much a work in progress still and due to the time of year wasn’t showing itself in its full beauty. Having checked out the greenhouses with their tropical flowers we headed off through the tree lined path towards a much older castle.
Although now a ruin Rathiannon Castle had been the original castle in the grounds, built in the 16th century it had been the first home of the Esmonde family. It was a 3 floor tower with just enough room for me and Handsome Jack to live in so I’m not sure how the Esmondes managed.
We continued on finding ourselves back at the lake side we inspected the Italianate statues and the wonderful tower follies which would be perfect for my bestie Sion the sheep and I to live in as neighbours.
Ambling along the lakeside we finally arrived back at the start and the museum. Heading into the former dairy we took our time looking at the carriages, tractors and farming machinery on display before arriving at an exhibition centred around the potato famine that had nearly wiped the whole country out. The castle estate had played a vital role in solving the blight that had reduced the potato crop to nothing with labs set up and scientists brought in to find a cure so that feeding the country could be done again.
Up on the first floor we found room after room filled with beds, cabinets and other furniture, I have to say that the beds did not look the comfiest and it made me glad that we now had cosy divan mattress to lie on at night rather than the thin straw pads on display.
Having exhausted ourselves and the things to investigate it was time to get back on the road and head to our next stop of the day.
For Fun and Diversion we have met together,
I tell you from Waterford hither we came,
We crossed the Big Ocean in dark stormy weather,
Our pockets were light and our Hearts were the same, – The Dubliners
Waterford is a city in County Waterford in the south-east of Ireland. It is located within the province of Munster. The city is situated at the head of Waterford Harbour and is the oldest and the fifth most populous city in the Republic of Ireland. Historically the site of a Viking settlement, Waterford’s medieval defensive walls and fortifications include the 13th or 14th century Reginald’s Tower. The medieval city was attacked several times and earned the motto ‘Urbs Intacta Manet’ (‘The Untaken City’), after repelling one such 15th century siege.
Waterford is the birthplace of several famous musicians, athletes, and artists, including singer-songwriter Gilbert O’Sullivan, famous 1970s TV entertainer Val Doonican, champion cyclist Seán Kelly, and professional footballer John O’Shea.
Hitting heavy traffic as we headed into Waterford, we were glad to find a parking spot and set off on foot, a quick look at a map board saw Zoe frantically banging on spot on it until achieving Jo’s attention who responded with an ‘Oh my god’ and total look at shock.
It was a very strange coincidence, Zoe had spotted an area on the map called John Robert’s Square, my Dad was John Roberts (obviously not the same one) but even more uncanny was the fact that he had died 17 years ago to the day. No question about it we needed to find out about this John Roberts and find his square.
Woolly says – With a determined glint in her eye we headed straight to our first planned place, Waterford Glassworks.
Waterford is known for its glassmaking industry, including at the Waterford Crystal factory, with decorative glass being manufactured in the city from 1783 until early 2009 when the factory closed following the receivership of Waterford Wedgwood plc.
The origins of crystal production in Waterford date back to 1783, when George Penrose and his nephew William Penrose started their business, the Waterford Glassworks. It produced extremely fine flint glass that became world-renowned. That firm closed in June 1851, with the loss of 53 to 100 jobs. Crystal continued to be made until 2009 when the company went into administration.
We had already decided to skip the tour and just enjoy the showroom, and boy was that something to behold. Everywhere I looked there were vases, glasses, musical instruments, sporting trophies all made in incredible glass, stunning. The humans didn’t even need to tell me to be careful having seen the price tag on the first vase, £45,000, not to go near or breathe in the direction of any object in the building. As we took it all in and checked price tags, I can tell you that the cheapest item was a glass snowflake ornament at a hardly believable price of £75 and it was tiny!
Glad to make it out without breaking anything We set off to find John Roberts; the streets were lovely with interesting buildings and wall art murals at every turn.
Arriving at Waterford Cathedral, I greeted some Viking looking statues and headed inside the fairly small place of worship.
Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford, or more formally, the Cathedral of The Holy Trinity, Christ Church, is a cathedral of the Church of Ireland in Waterford City. The first church on the site was built in the 11th century. In 1170 it was the venue for the marriage of Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (“Strongbow”), and Aoife Ní Diarmait. This church was replaced in 1210 by a Gothic Cathedral. Since Christ Church Cathedral was subject to the Protestant Reformation, Roman Catholic adherents were consequently obliged to worship elsewhere. This church was demolished in 1773.
In the 18th century, the city corporation recommended that the bishop erect a new building. William Halfpenny first made drawings of a Palladian vernacular replacement in 1739 around the same time as Jonas Blaymire was also carrying out drawings and plans of the medieval cathedral. The new design chosen was by the local architect John Roberts in 1774, who was also responsible for the Catholic cathedral and for much of Georgian Waterford including the adjacent Bishop’s Palace which was completed from 1775. The steeple wasn’t raised until 1783 and the building not finished finally until at least 1792.
We had found John Roberts, who knew that someone with the same name as my Dad had designed this simple but beautiful building.
Woolly says – Underneath the information on the not Jo’s dad John Roberts were the last remains of the Gothic structure that had long gone, the beautiful ceiling and pillars gave me neck strain as I peered up at them before studying the marble memorial plagues on the walls and there on a brass plate was another mention of John Roberts.
Heading away form the Cathedral we continued to pass interesting things including a blue house plague for the other John Roberts, in fact the place had all number of blue plagues to spot.
Passing through the shops we made it into John Roberts Square which really wasn’t a highlight filled as it was with cut price shops, MacDonalds and a small market, not what we had hoped for, but we had found it.
Getting the women back on track I led the way towards the river and towards something that I was most excited to see.
The Viking Ship Vadrafjordr: Vadrafjordr (the original Viking name for Waterford) was built in 2014 using traditional methods and plans from the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark. Its design is based on actual ship timbers found during local city excavations. Made of Irish oak with a distinctive red sail. It is a smaller Hiberno-Norse coastal trading vessel rather than a massive ocean-crossing warship, I loved it at first sight, I know it wasn’t an original, but it was a beauty.
Next to was the oldest building in the city. Reginald’s Tower, the tower has been in usage for different purposes for many centuries and is an important landmark in Waterford and an important remnant of its medieval urban defence system. It is the oldest civic building in Ireland, and it is the only urban monument in Ireland to retain a Norse or Viking name.
Reginald’s Tower was built by the Anglo-Normans after their conquest of Waterford, replacing an earlier Viking fortification. The tower’s name is derived from an Anglicised form of the Irish name Raghnall, the present tower is likely to have been built in the 13th or 14th century; it may have been constructed between 1253 and 1280. In 1185 Prince John of England landed in Waterford and organised the rebuilding of the city’s defences, including the tower. The tower is 54 feet high; its horizontal cross section is circular. It is 42½ feet in diameter and is surmounted by a conical roof. A spiral staircase ascends within the thick walls; it was part of the ancient city walls of Waterford. Over its time it has been a mint, a prison, a military storehouse and the home of the cities Chief Constable, today it is a museum.
Having climbed up the spiral staircase we sat watching a short video about its history before turning our attention to the items in display cases that the other floors housed including Viking swords and crowns and even a loo with a view. It was a wonderful place to complete our tour of Waterford but with time passing and still one place to go to we headed back to the car and out of the city.
Within ten minutes we were heading into the countryside with mountains in front of us, as the roads got smaller and smaller the mountains got bigger and bigger and we started to climb finally arriving at a car park which played home to a number of sheep.
With the wind nearly blowing us over we set off along the gravel path where we could see a waterfall in the distance.
Mahon Falls is an 80 meter high cascading waterfall located in the Comeragh Mountains of County Waterford. Rising on the plateau of the Comeragh Mountains the river flows 300m down the side of Coum Mahon, formed in the Munsterian period of glaciation approximately 100,000 years ago. The Mahon Falls are a series of cascading waterfalls.
The closer we got the better it became, to the left and right of the main falls were much smaller ones with water trickling down the mountainside where more sheep were grazing high above us.
Standing at the base gave us an impressive sight of the waterfall which would have looked even more spectacular if the country had received more rainfall, so I could only image how impressive it would be then. We stood for a while drinking in the view with Jo looking slightly sad not to have Handsome Jack with us instead of spending his time at home with our lovely friend Bea. Even I knew he would have loved it, finally with the wind now blowing my tusks off we wandered back to the car and onwards to our overnight digs. What a great day it had been and we had only just started on our tour of Island.