Wexford
Wexford (Irish: Loch Garman ) is the county town of County Wexford in the southeast of Ireland, close to the port of Rosslare Harbour. The city with 19 918 inhabitants (as of 2011) is located on the N11 national road to Dublin as well as on the N25 between Cork and Rosslare. Wexford is connected via the Dublin- Rosslare Harbour also to the Irish rail system.
History
In 1169 it came in Wexford to an invasion of the Normans at the behest of the King of Leinster, Dermot MacMurrough Kavanagh, led by the British for subsequent colonization of the county. It is widely accepted that the Murphy clan descended from Wexford by the brother of the king. Yola, an old English dialect that was spoken until the 19th century only in Wexford.
During the 1640s annual Wexford rendered great support for the Confederacy Ireland. A fleet of Confederate privateers was stationed in the port of Wexford, the English Parliamentary ships attacked from there and ceded part of their booty to the Confederation of Kilkenny. During the subsequent reconquest of Ireland by Oliver Cromwell, the city was captured, looted and burned for the most part.
1798, the County Wexford was the center of the Irish rebellion against English rule. Wexford town was occupied by the rebels during the insurgency and scene of a notorious massacre in which the United Irishmen some local loyalists were executed on the bridge in the city center.
As a port city of Wexford was not very successful because the natural harbor had constantly changing sandbars. Since then, 20 km south of Wexford the deep-water port was built in Rosslare in the early 20th century, located in Wexford only fishing boats and small private boats.
Today's Wexford
Wexford town is closely aligned to the shore roads running from northwest to southeast. The main street of Wexford runs almost parallel to the river to almost 1.5 km in length from Redmond Square for Barrack Street. Almost all the shops in the city are located on this street, also when opened in the recent past, more and more shopping centers on the outskirts. One of the longest bridges in Ireland connects the city with the northern hinterland.
Wexford is one of the largest and most important shopping cities in the southeast of Ireland. Many national and international retail chains have offices here, for example, Superdrug, Argos, Benetton, Adams, Boots and Tesco, as well as the Irish companies Dunnes Stores, Carraig Donn, Shaw, Alexander Coe and Heatons.
During the last decade of the 20th century there were parallel to the prosperity of the country in Wexford, a number of structural developments, such as the construction of the Key West center on the harbor, the modernization of the complete Kai- conditioning as well as the construction of Clonard Village, a major new residential area about four kilometers from the city center.
In autumn Festival Opera Wexford found in the annual Wexford Opera Festival held, that specialize in opera rarities and thus attract an international audience.
Twinning
Wexford maintains twinning to Couëron in the Pays de la Loire ( France) and Annapolis (Maryland ) (United States ).
Personalities
- Anna Maria Hall (1800-1881), writer
- Robert Brennan (1881-1964), diplomat and writer
- Bunny Ahearne (1900-1985), ice hockey official, president of the IIHF
- John Banville ( born 1945 ), writer and author
- Dick Roche ( b. 1947 ), politician of the Fianna Fáil
- Billy Roche ( born 1949 ), actor, playwright and prose writer
- Brendan Howlin (* 1956), politician of the Irish Labour Party
- Nick Dunning (* 1959), actor
- Eoin Colfer (born 1965 ), writer
- Gordon D' Arcy ( born 1980 ), rugby union national team
- Wallis Bird ( b. 1982 ), musician