Wexford: A Town and its Landscape is a sister volume of The Hook Peninsula by the same author. It is the third publication in the Irish Landscape Series, an offshoot of the acclaimed Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape. These local case-studies are researched, analysed and edited to the highest academic standards.
The series differs from conventional histories as its objective is to help the reader understand the evolving landscape. Through an awareness of all the sub-categories that comprise history, the reader is better informed of the heritage of the locality and the factors contributing to the character development of its inhabitants.

This publication details the establishment and growth of Wexford Town, Barony of Forth. Together with its sister Barony, Bargy, to the east, this south-east corner of Ireland has a unique history, social mix, and industrious tradition. In the 1100 years since its foundation by the Norsemen (Vikings), Wexford Town (Waesfiord) and its supporting hinterland has absorbed a succession of ethnic groups from England and continental Europe: Celt, Viking, Anglo-Norman (Anglo-English, Welsh, French, Flemish), and 17th century English. All have contributed to give Wexford people a distinctive character, ethos, and heritage.

Billy Colfer's examination of townland names provides information on colonisation and settlement patterns. Townland names prefaced with Gaelic - Bally, Carrick, Rath - predate Anglo-Norman and, particularly around Wexford town, are generally of marginal land quality; whilst those suffixed with town or park, many prefaced with the surname of the original coloniser, are of better land quality. Place names of Viking origin have suffixes donating their topographical feature: Carnsore (ore = headland); Saltee (ee = island); Tuskar (sker = rock). Viking place names are predominately coastal or accessible by sea, reflecting the Norsemen's seafaring ethos and choice of habitation site.

The arrival of the Anglo-Normans and their subsequent establishment in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy make the Wexford Pale, which survived undisturbed for more than four centuries, one of the most anglicised parts of Ireland. Unlike the norm in the rest of Ireland they did not become 'more Irish than the Irish themselves'. They continued to exist as a self-reliant, distinctive, progressive people, developing a local dialect and maintaining their customs, industrious traditions, and family names: Devereux, Roche, Fleming, Stafford, Sutton ….
Reliant on its maritime traditions, improving agricultural methods, mercantile acumen, and belief in its capacity for enterprise Wexford Town was established, evolved, and continues to grow and change. Since its foundation Wexford Town has supported a strong maritime tradition, its own shipping line and boatyard, one of the first cement works in Ireland, three foundries, and a progressive agricultural hinterland community. The best known foundry was the Folly Mill Iron Works (Pierces' Foundry), renowned for its development and production of farm machinery.

With all of this continuous activity and social mix over the last eleven centuries came culture and a rich heritage, which this publication reveals in a relaxed and pleasurable format. Today, Wexford Town boasts a new state of the art Opera House opened in 2008.

Billy Colfer, a retired teacher, is an acclaimed authority and writer on the history, folklore, and families of south Wexford. Together with P.H. Hore, his publications are a definitive source for students researching the history and heritage of Wexford. Notwithstanding this publication being researched and written to the highest academic standards, Billy has utilised his experience as a teacher to communicate an intellectual study which is both easy to understand, and a pleasure to read.

This publication can equally double up as a coffee table display. Its 400 illustrations are fully captioned to appeal to a browser with a casual interest in history and heritage. Cork University Press is to be congratulated on the publication's design and the clarity of the reproduction of all the illustrations. The price of the book fairly reflects the cost of printing a publication of this quality.

 

On active service in World War I

Richard Griffith Bassett Jeffreys was born in Co. Galway and was educated in England. He was commissioned into the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and saw service in the Boer War. In June 1916, at the age of 40 and with the rank of Major, he was sent to the trenches in France. Exactly a month later he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and took command of a battalion. For his part in Messines and Passachaendaele he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. Until he was hospitalised with sciatica in February 1918 he wrote regularly to his wife Grace.
The letters are generally cheerful and optimistic, though to spare Grace anxiety he may have made light of bad situations. The everyday hazards of the western front are described in somewhat matter of fact terms. Jeffreys and his wife were both killed in an air crash in Corsica while on leave in 1923.

Conor and Liam Dodd deserve great credit for having edited and published these letters which provide rare insights to the experiences of a senior officer on active service during the Great War.

 

'No Regrets'

Reviewed by the Editor
The Green Road to the Lighthouse: Memoirs of Clareisland and the Lighthouse Service
- by Jackie O'Grady
Faungloss Press, Church Hill, Clifden, Co Galway.
ISBN: 978-0-9560282-0-4
Hardback 255mm × 185mm, 172 pages, with colour and monochrome photographs;
price not stated.

A beautiful book - beautifully written, beautifully printed, beautifully designed, and beautifully bound, with end papers from paintings by the artist Tony O'Malley.
Jackie O'Grady was brought up on Clare Island during the 1930s and 40s. As a young child he lived with his grandparents in the village of Gurteen, returning to his parents' house at the age of nine. His grandparents had a small farm, divided between pasture and tillage. In his grandparents house he was the only child and was, according to himself, spoiled by his uncles and aunts.

On return to his parents house at the Quay, Jackie found himself the eldest child in a large family. His father ran the mail boat and passenger ferry to the mainland, and was also the Irish Lights boat and cart contractor for Clare Island Lighthouse. As a result, the house was always busy, with Irish Lights staff on their way to or from the lighthouse and most other passengers travelling to or from the island calling to the house on their way.

Jackie was sent to secondary school and, later, to the technical school in Westport, living with his aunt during term time. After school he successfully applied to join Irish Lights. He spent the next 16 years as a Lightkeeper, retiring early and, after a few years in the motor industry, established O'Grady's Seafood Restaurant, Clifden.

The book falls into two distinct parts: life on Clare Island and life in the Lighthouse Service. The Clare Islanders and their traditions and customs are described with affection but with no trace of sentimentality. During World War II the O'Gradys' house had one of the only radios on the island and neighbours crowded in to hear the news. Bodies of those who lost their lives in the conflict were occasionally washed onto the island.

On one occasion a Royal Canadian Air Force Sunderland Flying Boat crashed into the sea near the lighthouse killing all eleven on board. Retired Lighthouse Keeper Bill Scanlan, whose father was Principal Keeper of Clare Island Lighthouse at the time, told me that some of these young men still had their 'wings' in the pockets of their uniforms, indicating that they had only just completed their training and had not had time to sew the emblem onto their uniforms before leaving home to join the conflict in Europe.

Jackie's first posting as a Supernumerary Assistant Keeper was to Slyne Head, where his tour of duty, expected to be for two weeks, turned into three months due to stormy seas throughout that winter. A lesser man would have written out his resignation immediately after coming ashore (and some did so in similar circumstances), but just four days later Jackie was sent to Fastnet, and he went on to serve as a relief Keeper at Rockabill, Haulbowline, Ferris Point, Old Head of Kinsale, Blackrock Mayo, and Tory Island.

After two and a half years he was promoted to Assistant Keeper and posted to Slyne Head again, but this time was allocated a Service dwelling in Clifden. It was in Clifden he met his wife and where he eventually settled with their family. Subsequent stations were Inishtearaght, Poer Head, Eeragh, Clare Island, and Inisheer.

Inishtearaght and Skelligs lighthouse shore dwellings were side by side at Valentia Island. One day in 1956 Seamus Rohu, Assistant Keeper on Skelligs, and Jackie joined the relief vessel, mv Valonia, to return to their stations. Two days later the Keepers on Inishtearaght heard the Principal Keeper of Skelligs calling Valentia Radio 'I wish to report a man missing'. The Keepers on Inishtearaght realised that the missing man must be Seamus Rohu. He was never found. Seamus left a young wife and two small children. Some nine years later when I joined the Service his loss was still fresh in people's minds and spoken of in hushed tones.

Jackie was the last Keeper to serve at Clare Island Lighthouse before it was replaced by Achillbeg. (The Board had considered closing or replacing Clare Island in 1863, and on a number of occasions subsequently, but it was not until 1965 that Clare Island's lighthouse was eventually extinguished).

Throughout his book Jackie's love for his family is palpable, as is his regard for his friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. He compliments Captain Plato Harrison's seamanship when carrying out lighthouse reliefs on the south-west coast before the helicopter era, and Captain Henry Ball's consideration for his situation when he decided to leave the Service.

One of the nicest books I have read for a long time. A proportion of the proceeds from sales of the book go to Clifden Lifeboat Station.

 

Surveying the wreckage

Reviewed by the Editor
Troubled Waters: Shipwrecks and Heartache on the Irish Sea
- by Patrick Ferguson
Nonsuch Publishing, 73 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2, Ireland.
ISBN 978-1-84588 912 8
Paperback, 152 pages, with monochrome photos;
price not stated.

It is probable that few people are aware of the number of shipwrecks, and consequent loss of life, around our coasts in past centuries and in relatively recent times. Patrick Ferguson's intention in this book is to retell the events around just some of them. The scale of the losses described is unimaginable. In many cases atrocious weather was a major factor but one wonders why the decision was made to go to sea in such conditions.

This must have been a difficult book to write - there are only so many words to describe the personal suffering and tragic loss of human life in horrific conditions through shipwreck. Losses covered include the Leinster and the Princess Victoria, both of which were the subject of recent books reviewed in previous volumes of Beam.
The author has researched contemporary newspaper reports for his facts, and I have no reason to suppose he did not do so meticulously. However, newspaper reports can sometimes be inaccurate, and I did notice a few errors. Muggings (p. 57) should be Muglins; radar responding beacon (p. 40) should be transponder; Captain M. Combeg (p. 73) should be Captain Thomas McCombie; Coolamore Harbour (p. 88) is now usually called Colimore; Titanic sank 370 miles south-east of Newfoundland - hardly off Cape Race (p. 93.), though Cape Race Lighthouse did receive the radio distress message from Titanic. A chapter on the Kish Lighthouse gives the impression that the station is still fitted out as it was when the station was established in 1965, including the mf radio and explosive fog signal.

The arrangement of the chapters does not seem to be based on a logical sequence. Incidents off the Waterford coast are hardly within the Irish Sea. Nevertheless, the book is nicely designed and printed and will be a useful reference for the general reader.

 

Watching the coast during World War II

It has often been said that during World War II Éire (the territory now called the Republic of Ireland) was neutral, but neutral on the side of Great Britain. Michael Kennedy's history of the Coast Watching Service gives many examples of how Ireland's neutrality was flexibly interpreted to give support to the Allies.
Since independence Ireland had no coastguard and no navy. Ireland's Director of Military Intelligence Colonel Dan Bryan understood the significance of Ireland's geopolitical position on Britain's western flank and the sea lanes off western Europe. He understood that to defend Ireland in time of war it was necessary to keep the coastline under constant observation.

Following the Munich crisis the Government began to take steps to ensure that the coast would be under observation if conflict broke out. In September 1939, as the battle of the Atlantic began, a Coast Watching Service was formed, with 83 look out posts (lops) stretching around the coast from Carlingford Lough to Inishowen. Seven men led by an NCO manned each lop; most of them had seafaring experience and were familiar with weather, tides, and the coastal waters in the vicinity. Initially the Coast Watchers were accommodated in bell tents but permanent huts, each of identical utilitarian design using 137 precast blocks, were built without delay.

The supply of equipment, and training to ensure that the Watchers understood their duties, were organised through the winter of 1939. Subsequent inspections confirmed that the men were alert and understood their duties well.

Telephones were installed at lops to ensure rapid communication to intelligence officers at regional command headquarters, who relayed the reports for detailed analysis to GHQ in Dublin. The words 'Defence Message - Priority' ensured that telephone operators cleared the lines and put the call through without delay.
The duties of the Coast Watching Service were passive defence and information gathering, keeping constant watch for air and naval activity, enemy forces poised to invade, and potential fifth columnists seeking to assist invaders. These duties primarily related to events within the then three mile limit of territorial waters and overflights through Irish airspace.

Coast watchers also reported dead bodies, lifeboats, and rafts washed ashore; bodies were identified and relatives notified where possible, but often this was not possible. Mines were a deadly hazard, and many hundreds were washed ashore. Coast Watchers tracked drifting mines and reported their position to army ordnance officers. Numerous serious injuries and deaths were caused by exploding mines, including Patrick Scanlan and William Cahill, Assistant Keepers, who were injured when a mine struck Tuskar; Patrick Scanlan died of his injuries the next day.

As war at sea progressed Coast Watchers reported submarines of unknown nationality in Irish waters but rumours of German submarines refuelling and landing personnel on the west coast were pure fiction. The British Admiralty attempted covertly to watch the Irish coast. A Royal Navy Q-boat, the Tamura - a disguised trawler carrying hidden armaments - patrolled the west coast from October 1939 to March 1940, backed up by submarine H-33, with the objective of destroying U-boats. Neither Tamura nor H-33 saw any U-boats but their activities were reported by LOPs from Sheep's Head to Malin Head.

With increasing numbers of British merchant ships being sunk by U-boats, the Dublin authorities agreed to an arrangement by which movements of submarines in Irish waters observed by Coast Watchers would be transmitted on known radio frequencies to the Irish coastal air patrol and could therefore be overheard by the British.

Irish merchant vessels were not immune from attack and the sinking of the Irish Lights steamer Isolda with the loss of six crewmen (not three as stated here) was not an isolated incident. During 1941 local shipping between Tuskar and Waterford was frequently attacked by German aircraft. The Holyhead-Dun Laoghaire mailboat was also often attacked.

From the summer of 1940 increasing numbers of overflights through Irish airspace of German and British aircraft en route to the Atlantic battle zone were observed. Aircraft used Inishtrahull, Eagle Island, and Bull Rock Lighthouses, as well as the radiobeacon at Tory Island Lighthouse, to navigate.

As the war progressed Irish-British co-operation increased, despite Churchill's often aggressive demands for the return of the treaty ports. The Irish authorities' view was that Churchill's pre-1919 world view was dominated by outdated naval technology. It would appear that the British Admiralty and other members of the War Cabinet were embarrassed by Churchill's outbursts, taking a more realistic view. By the summer of 1941 Lough Foyle was being used as a naval base rather than Britain re-occupying the ports.

Early in 1941 the Irish Government agreed to allow RAF seaplanes based on Lough Erne to fly out to sea over Ballyshannon and Donegal Bay. This 'Donegal Corridor' assisted the RAF in the search for the Bismark, which was spotted by a seaplane from Lough Erne on 24 May. Bismark was sunk by the Royal Navy on 27 May, and Coast Watchers reported the returning British ships passing along the west coast on 28 May.

Later in 1941 the British based a rescue boat, manned by civilians, in Killybegs with Irish agreement conveyed verbally to the British representative. The vessel was assisted in its operations by reports from Coast Watchers. From May 1940 a German invasion of Ireland was expected. In response to the threat of invasion, anti-aircraft batteries were established around Dublin at Ringsend, Blackrock, Stillorgan, Ballyfermot, Clontarf, and Dublin Airport, as well as at Rosslare. From July 1940 all non-Irish aircraft entering a prohibited zone over Dublin would be fired on. Such firing was intended not to shoot down the aircraft but to put them off their aim. Luftwaffe aircraft on bombing missions to Belfast made landfall at Tuskar or Hook Head, flew up the east coast, five miles offshore, to Bray, and then to Rockabill which was visible to aircraft at high altitude from as far south as Wicklow Head. These flights were monitored by lops all along the east coast to Carlingford. On some occasions Luftwaffe aircraft lost their way and dropped their bombs harmlessly in the sea to lighten their load and save fuel for the return flight to Germany.

Michael Kennedy has analysed the events surrounding the bombing of Dublin's North Strand on the night of 30-31 May 1941, based on lop logbook entries. He concludes that a scattered force of bombers, having failed to find their targets, were lost and low in fuel. Most of them jettisoned their bombs out to sea, as was normal practice. Two of these planes coming from the north were fired on by the batteries at Ringsend, Clontarf, Stillorgan, and Ballyfermot. Kennedy believes the aircraft jettisoned their bombs to make it easier to escape. Three bombs fell at North Strand and a fourth in Phoenix Park. At various other times bombs were dropped on Dublin's South Circular Road, Sandycove (Co. Dublin), Rathdrum, Carrickmacross, Drogheda, Duleek, and Borris (Co. Carlow). The bombing of Campile was evidently deliberate.

After the United States entered the war in December 1941 U-boat activity intensified further out into the Atlantic. Coast Watchers reported large numbers of troop-ships passing off the north coast, and aircraft delivery flights across north Mayo using Clare Island, Blackrock Mayo, and Eagle Island as landfall points. Belligerent activity off the north and west coasts reached a high level. In June 1942 4,755 incidents off the west coast were reported.

In the year April 1943 to March 1944 21,000 military aircraft were reported near or over Ireland, and there were 40 forced landings, generally because crews were lost and short of fuel. To warn belligerent aircraft of their position the Minister for Defence issued instructions to construct EIRE signs, visible from the air, at lops. Remains of these signs can still be seen on some headlands around the coast. On 15 January 1943 a US Flying Fortress bringing seven high ranking US officers, including Eisenhower's Chief of Staff, from Gibraltar to England, returning after a fact-finding tour of the North Africa war zone, strayed off course over the Bay of Biscay and crash landed outside Athenry. They surrendered to the Army and were given lunch in a local hotel, then brought to the border and released. The aircraft was dismantled and sent to Northern Ireland but was found to be beyond repair. Hempel, the German Minister in Dublin, protested to the Dublin Government that the crew had been released whereas Germans who crash landed were interned. The Irish authorities told Hempel that the Flying Fortress was a transport aircraft on a non-operational flight. After this all American airmen were instructed to claim they were on a non-operational flight if they came down in Ireland.

On 7 April 1943 a US Flying Fortress based in Northamptonshire was running short of fuel and landed in marshy ground near Galley Head. The pilot believed he was in Norway. The Navigator was injured and brought to hospital in Cork. The remaining ten were entertained in O'Donovan's Hotel, Clonakilty, for three days then travelled to Northern Ireland. The plane was repaired and a replacement crew flew it to Northern Ireland, taking off from an 800 yard long runway constructed by the Irish Defence Forces using railway sleepers.

On 27 February 1944 an RAF Liberator, at the end of a 71/2 hour anti-submarine patrol in bad weather, crashed into the north side of the Skelligs and fell into the sea below, 24 miles off course.

On 12 March 1945, just two months before the surrender of Germany, U-260 hit a mine near Fastnet, sustaining substantial damage. The crew scuttled their submarine and took to their liferafts, coming ashore at Galley Head; they were taken to the Curragh for interrogation and internment. A search was made of the area where U-260 had gone down. Items found included the code books for the Enigma and other German codes, which the Irish military passed to the British.
Following the surrender of Germany the Irish Council of Defence agreed that no useful purpose would be served by retaining the Coast Watching Service. The Director of the Marine Service reported that the Coast Watchers had proved reliable and efficient and deserved commendation for their good work, particularly as their operations were largely unknown to the public.

The Defence Forces wished to keep on the service but the Government disagreed and the LOPs were closed down during the following months, with no official commendation or notice.

Due to the intervention of the Director, the logs of the LOPs were retained for future historical study. It was this foresight which enabled this book to be written when these logs were rediscovered.

These are just some of the incidents described in this most interesting book, which I recommend highly. The book is written in a lucid and readable style; sources are cited in footnotes, and there is a comprehensive index. Dr Michael Kennedy is a member of the Irish Manuscripts Commission and secretary of the Royal Irish Academy's Committee for International Affairs.

 

Sailing and digressing

Alastair Scott was born in Edinburgh and has written a number of travel books. More recently he took sailing lessons, bought a boat, and set off to sail, single-handed, around Ireland, starting at Rathlin and going south about.
I was already interested in this author, having heard a radio interview with him some years ago; though I was not particularly expecting to enjoy this book, having little interest in sailing. In fact, I enjoyed the book very much, mainly because of the author's many digressions in his progress around the coast. Indeed, there are so many digressions that really the voyage itself is a digression.
Alastair Scott's colourful writing gives us a fresh view of the Irish coastline and seascape with which most readers of Beam will be familiar. Just a few of the matters discussed along the way are James Joyce, the music of whales, the Special Olympics, the Marie Celeste, the marine environment and ecology, the Lusitania, Tom Crean, the Galway Races, Reek Sunday, poteen, and sailors' beliefs and customs. A brief history of Ireland in five episodes is generally balanced and accurate.

Personalities encountered include the travel writer Dervla Murphy, Gerry Butler (Attendant of Galley Head Lighthouse), John Scannel of Valentia (a centenarian, almost), Fungie, the king of Tory Island Patsy Dan Rogers, and other interesting characters whose names are not given.

The voyage was made in 2003 but the book was only published in 2008. It has an attractive cover designed by the author but the typesetting and printing is utilitarian and ugly. An Irish editor would have eliminated a few mistakes and mis-spellings: Tir Nan Og, Croagh Park, Sean Og hoAilpin, Castle Ward (should be Castleward); the B specials were not part of the UDA; and Aemon McLarity should surely be Eamon McClarty. Alastair Scott's transliterations of Hiberno-English dialects and accents seldom ring true and are frequently irritating.

Despite these quibbles the book is a good read and I am glad to recommend it.