Enniscorthy

Hi folks, new here hope I’m welcome.
I registered having read a few threads here and having been down home a few weeks ago. I’m a born and bred Enniscorthy man, who has been living out of the town since going to college in Dublin in the mid ‘90’s and who on my frequent visits has grown increasingly concerned and saddened.

Enniscorthy of my childhood was a decent place but it was dying slowly with factories closing, Buttles, Davis’s Mill, Genell (spelling?) not much happened or indeed did expect it to. Even as a youth I thought things should and could have been better, I appreciated its natural aspect, its advantageous position at the centre of the county, sitting on banks of the Slaney, Blackstairs Mountains in the distance and Vinegar Hills historic presence looming over the town. The late 90’s was for me a time of optimism, the town seemed to coming to life again, we’d the new library, the new fire and garda station, we’d the revamp of the market square, we’d urban regeneration around the quay, a new cinema and the new swimming pool etc. We’d then the excitement of the 1798 commemorations, the opening of the ’98 centre, we’d the Fleadh Ceol’s and of course the Tour De France, while in the wider Wexford context we had 2 government ministers, in Yates and Howlin and to top it all Wexford were crowned All Ireland hurling champions in 1996. We were it seems top of the world and that things were on the up and that the future looked good.

However Enniscorthy stalled and then slipped backwards, the town seemed to have been left behind as most of the country boomed, unemployment remained stubbornly high and jobs that did exist seemed to be low value ones – construction mostly, the hoped for big Multinational employer eluded us, this meant that most of our young people still had to leave the town, losing vibrancy and draining energy and brains. Then we saw Murphy Floods go up in flames and tracts of the town fall derelict, the roads in many parts falling into a disgraceful state of disrepair and a town centre that was just the same as it was in 80’s in many, many ways.

Question is can it be turned around? Enniscorthy was in the past, 1950’s for example, a relatively booming place where people from around Ireland came to work, both the Wexford hurling team and the local St Aidan’s hurling club (now Rapps/Shamrocks) gained and experienced unprecedented success due in part to outsiders, Ned Wheeler for example. My point is that the town was not always in a slump, the agri sector was at the heart of this – Enniscorthy was the second biggest inland port in Ireland –feeding Davis’s mill etc.

I suggest that first off we need ambition, we need to believe that things can be better and that 20% unemployment is unacceptable, we need to have a vision for the town and an intolerance for accepting anything but the best. I’m interested in getting peoples opinions and suggestions but some things I think would be benifical would be:

• Focus on the quality of the streetscape, the streets need to be meticulously cleaned evey day

• Building, street furniture all need to be fully maintained, painted, glazed, we have some wonderfully old shop fronts which need to be maintained while the less photogenic should be over time transformed for match

• CPO derelict sites, Murphy Floods, the old Dunnes Stores and either develop them or maybe al la the idea behind Temple Bar rent them out cheaply to artists, artisan producers, second hand book shop owners, inject some vibrancy and variety into the town centre.

• Wouldn’t be great to have a place like ‘Green Acres’ in Wexford town in Enniscorthy?

• Look at our strengths and build on these, for me this is town location, could we look to places like Hay on Wey with their literary festival and large number of bookshops, think of Slaney Street with a number of books shops, we’ve connections with writing through Colm Tobín, Edmund Spencer, Thomas Kinsella while in Wexford can lay claim to John Banville, Eoin Colfer to name a few, Listowel has built an small industry on the back of John B Keane!!

• History, we’ve the castle, Vinegar Hill, the Catherdral, Templeshannon monastic ruins plus the layout of the town is atmospheric and olde world, can we build on this? For a small town we are actually richly endowed with sites and maybe we don’t recognise of utilise this to the maximum. How could we make this all come to life to visitors, make it attractive?

• Greater security, far too much menace around the town at night which the gardai are either incapable or unwilling to effectively address (we’d gardai attacked in the market square a few years back with the towns name being dragging through the mud, shameful!!) The gardai reserve should be promoted, more foot patrols and a clamp down on all anti social behaviour, litterling, drinking on the streets, loitering, illegal parking and boy racers speeding, focus on quality of life and make the town somewhere people feel safe going for an evening stroll

• Music and heritage, wouldn’t be great if we had kids introduced to music in school, in particular traditional music and over time develop and grow the town as a centre for this, imagine the lift it would be the pubs and the interest for tourists if this could become an organic aspect of the town. It would need time and money but would be a profitable investment and a boon to our cultural heritage

• Gaelscoils – support the growth of these schools and the use of Irish in signage, in shops and by people in the town, again with ambition we could develop Enniscorthy as an centre for our native tongue on the east coast, something to be proud of and a source of more visitors

• Pottery – we’ve a long tradition of pottery in Enniscorthy, forget about glass works, we’re know for this and should develop it, again low rent space would be great to bring this into the heart of the town but one step further, how about a pottery school, a residential school which could attract people from around the world who would like to learn how to throw a pot

• Now here is a radical one, use the MARKET Square as a market, get the farmers market opening their 3 days a week, focus on quality (no tat) just good food products etc, I think many of the shop keepers of the town are stuck in the past (Yate’s line ‘fumbling in the greasy till, adding half pence to the pence’ comes to mind...) and would oppose this but we need to ignore and see the benefits of brining families into the town.

Anyway these are just a few ideas, shoot them down or improve upon them if you will, ignore them if you wish but I fear unless the decline is tackled soon it will be too late.

Thank Zerks - thats maybe part of the problem, looking for others to act, maybe its time for people who care to act themselves, citizens to take an active part in the life of the town. Maybe we need a mini Farmleigh, where we would bring together people from all walks of life who were from the town and who wanted to see it turned around, get the like of Sam McCauley, Jim Byrne, Michael Foley, Ivan Yates togther along with people from the arts etc - a pointless talking shop maybe but something has to be done.

I'm considering whether getting involved to the extent of running for the council is the way to go, again its another body that needs to be shook up, would we be better served with a Mayor, one person in charge??

Regarding the Strawberry fair, well as Morgan Freeman says in 'Shawshank Redemption' - its time to get busy living or get busy dying. Let it go or reinvigorate it as its become another source of embarrassment of late, its just not fun!
This might be a crazy idea but, but the La Tomatina Tomato Fight in Bunyol in Spain where they empty tonnes of tomatoes onto the street and have a fight with them is famous worldwide, messy but it catches the imagination, we could have a strawberry version. Ok not my best idea but we need something novel to lift it, its a jaded brand at this stage but I'm not sure we should give up on it yet. Big Tom on the stage in the square won't cut it anymore though!

JD another great post and I love the blog, shame about the unhealthy obsession with an odd shaped ball...

Its a pity the mainstream media don't pick up on this and hold the local authority accountable, the playground is a disgrace - remove it if they are not going to maintain it!!

The bench and monument, WTF, some sand paper and a coat of varnish is all thats required and some solvent to remove the grifitti (I'd like to introduce these morons to the sharp end of a pike).

Are our Councillors and officials lazy, incompetent, egoistical, short sighted???

Time has long past for a massive shake up, the Daíl is broken but so too is local government...