Contents

Styled ‘boy-bishop’ of Ferns: the life and turbulent times of James Keating, 1783-1849    : Celestine Rafferty

The Palatines of Wexford  : Bernard Browne

Before the War: Wexford in the Summer of 1914   :  Nicky Rossiter

Pedigree and History of the Colclough Family    :  Gay Conroy

Thomas David Sinnott (1893-1965)  :  Tom Williams

Co.Wexford Newspapers  : Gerry Breen

The Origins of the Suttons of Longraigue  : David Ian Hamilton

The Maidens Dancing at Boro Hill  :  Tom Mc Donald

The Wexford Catholic Young Men’s Society  : Eithne Scallan

General Sir Henry Johnson’s great-grandson, Lionel Johnson    :  John J Dunleavy

Lives of the poets: Moore and Byron  : Tom Mooney

The Making of Wexford Opera House  :  Matt O’Connor

The Franciscan Noviciate in Wexford 1805-22  :  Fr Patrick Conlon

Some Family Memories  : F Glenn Thompson

Early 1890s Wexford: Class, Party and Conspiracy Padraig G. Lane

From the Harrowto Wexford Town     :    Daniel Gahan

Schoolmasters and Schoolmistresses in County

Wexford, 1826-27    :    Hilary Murphy

Appreciation – Sheila Cloney (1926-2009)

The twenty- first edition of the Journal of Wexford Historical Society was launched on Wednesday, October 3rd in the Riverside House Hotel. With over sixteen articles of interest to the people of County Wexford it is the largest journal to date. It is available in bookshops in Wexford town at €20. Speaking at the launch the Chairman of Wexford Historical Society, Celestine Rafferty praised everyone involved in this fine production including all the contributors, the editor Hilary Murphy and the printer Lee Robinson of The Print Shop, Wexford. The editor Hilary Murphy said that any journal is only as good as the contributions of individual authors and he was delighted with the content and wide range of articles in this year’s journal.

Contributions from thirteen different authors begin with the record of the Franciscans in County Wexford, from the thirteenth century to the departure in 2007 of the last of the Observant, or Brown Friars, from Wexford town where they first settled in 1255, and their replacement by the Conventual Franciscans, also known as the Grey Friars. Fr Pat Conlan, o.f.m., lists all the friars who served in Wexford f rom1918, many of whom, such as Fr Irenaeus and Fr Humilis, will be fondly remembered by older residents.

The discovery that letters written by the ’98 rebel leader General Tom Cloney were offered for sale by public auction in Connecticut, USA, is revealed by John Joyce, who has lived for the greater part of his life in the house once occupied by General Cloney in Graiguenamanagh. The sale was cancelled because of the 9/11 attack in New York and letters were put up for auction again some weeks later and acquired privately at a later date. Copies of the letters are reproduced in John Joyce’s account, including a facsimile of one of them.

Nicky Rossiter recalls a year in the life of an ordinary Wexford seaman, John Joseph Heron from William St, giving extracts from his diary for the years 1915/16 which, he notes, ‘gives an insight into the life of a Wexford-born ship’s engineer on deep sea voyages in the middle of the Great War.

The ’98 rebellion also provides the backdrop for David Ian Hamilton’s account of the extraordinary life of Richard Grandy, one of only two Protestants whose lives in spared in the notorious Scullabogue barn atrocity. The author poses the question as to whether his kinsman Grandy was a ‘villain or victim’.

Celestine Rafferty resurrects the little known diary of Richard Pococke’s tour through Co. Wexford in 1752. The Englishman’s detailed descriptions of his journeys make for fascinating reading and offer a unique insight into life and customs in eighteenth-century Ireland.

Space confines only brief references to the other contributions: Paulstown in 1798 (John J. Dunleavy); The Will and Codicil of John Knox Grogan, 1811 & 1813 (Hilary Murphy); The Wreck of the Demerary, Keeragh Islands, 1819 (Edward Bourke); Wexford Priests in ‘Sensational’ Baptismal Litigation (Hilary Murphy); The Wexford Infirmary (Tom Lambert); The Shouting Down of Fr Thomas Furlong (Tom McDonald); John Redmond – Parnellite and Nationalist (Dermot Meleady); A Portrait of Monastic Wexford (Dr Aidan Breen); Archaeological Excavation of a Nineteenth Century Shipwreck Victim at Hook Head (Cóilín Ó Drisceoil); Festival Tours: the Story (Eithne Scallan); Schoolmasters and Schoolmistresses in Co. Wexford, 1826-27.

An article in the latest edition of the Journal of the Wexford Historical Society, dealing with the erection of St Selskar’s Protestant church, is of particular significance in view of the current proposal to secure funding from the Office of Public Works to re-roof what is being portrayed by its proponents as historic Selskar Abbey.

But, as Etain Murphy’s very interesting article states, the now roofless church was built in 1825/’26, on the site of the13th-century abbey, to cater for the poorer Protestant parishioners who couldn’t afford to pay for pews in St Iberius Church.

The building of St Selskar’s church caused bitter controversy, particularly because it required the destruction of part of the old abbey, probably the original chancel, and disturbance of graves in the adjoining cemetery.

D’Arcy McGee
Selskar figures in another article, in this twentieth edition of the Wexford journal, in a detailed account of the family of Thomas D’Arcy McGee, prominent Young Irelander of 1848 and leading Canadian statesman. The joint authors, Brendan and Jenny Meegan, used the inscription on the McGee gravestone in Selskar to explore the story of the family who came to live in Wexford in 1833.

Their account uncovers some of the little known McGee family history from the time James and Dorcas McGee, together with their eight children, moved from their home near Cushendall, County Antrim to Wexford. James McGee was a boatman with the coastguard service at Point of Garron, near Cushendall and he was being transferred to a new post as Tidewaiter and Boatman with the customs service at Wexford.

After the greatly lamented deathg of his wife Dorcas, James married a Wexford woman, Margaret Day, in Wexford on 2 March 1840, and the authors speculate that she may have been one of the Day family of Gollough in the parish of Kilmore.

Other articles

Professor John Mannion of St John’s University, Newfoundland, contributes a major article on the vast estates of Lord Baltimore, including more than 7,000 acres around his base at Clohamon in north Wexford, and others in Longford, Newfoundland and Maryland in the USA.

Barry O’Leary gives an account of the Wexford church architect and builder, Richard Pierce, whose monuments include the twin churches in Wexford and collegiate wing of St Peter’s College, among many others in Wexford and other counties, while Celestine Rafferty traces Pierce’s family history.

Other subjects include the origin of the Goffs of Horetown by David Ian Hamilton; the post ’98 trial of John Bryan by Billy Sweetman; the Rams of Gorey by Lester Hartrick; the last pre-Reformation Bishop of Ferns by Patrick Comerford; the historian of Ballymackessy by Tom McDonald; and reports on archaeological excavations in Co. Wexford by Isabel Bennett, Emmet Stafford and Cóilín Ó Drisceoil.

Journal 19 of The Wexford Historical Society was published in 2002 – 03. It was printed in Wexford town by The Print Shop Ltd., Whitemill Industrial Estate.

The Journal was edited by Hilary Murphy.

The Contents of Journal 19:

The Star Iron Works
I.M. Hearn

Ballingale Poultry Farm and Gardening School
Mary Forrest & Valerie Ingram

The Burning of Ballynastragh, 9/3/23
Terence A.M. Dooley

Land Commission Eviction Notices in South Wexford 1936
J. Leslie Boxwell

Lost Lanes and Hidden Treasures
Nicky Rossiter

Robinstown Great Stone Circle
Bernard Browne

The County Wexford ‘Nocents’ and the Irish Court of Claims of 1663
Laurence J. Arnold

Copy of Commission appointing Michael Kavanagh Commissioner of Oaths in 1881
Hilary Murphy

The Palatine Families of New Ross
Lester J. Hartrick

The House that Jack, Bryan or Jeremiah Built
Tom McDonald

The Wexford Rebels of ’98 in the Folk Memory of Co. Meath
Eamon Doyle

Journal 15 of The Wexford Historical Society was published in 1994 – 95. It was printed in Wexford town by the Print Shop, High Street.

The Journal was edited by Celestine Rafferty.

The Contents of Journal 15 :

The Famine Years in Forth and Bargy
Richard Roche

Solving a Wartime Fuel Crisis in Co. Wexford
Jim Parle

The Spirit of ’98 Awakened
Anna Kinsella

John Barry: The Forgotten American Hero
Bernard Browne

A Divided Family in 1798: The Grays of Whitefort and Jamestown
David Goodall

The Results of a Resistivity Survey undertaken at Clonmines Co. Wexford
Martin E. Byrne

South-West Wexford in 1798
Sean Cloney

When Wexford Workers First United, 1843
Hilary Murphy

The Roman Catholic Parish Registers of Wexford Town c1672; Some considerations for their significance and use in Historical Research
Celestine Rafferty

Memories of Colonal Jonas Watson
Ed. by Hilary Murphy

Journal 12 of The Old Wexford Society was published in 1988 – 89. It was printed in Wexford town by The Print Shop, High Street.

The Journal was edited by Billy Colfer.

The Contents of Journal 12 :

‘Immensity Confined’ Luke Wadding, Bishop of Ferns
Celestine Murphy

‘The Dunkirk of Wexford’; Wexford privateers during the 1640s
Jane H. Ohlmeyer

Two Early Eleventh Century Viking Houses from Bride Street, Wexford, and the Layout of Properties on the Site
Edward C. Bourke M.A.

Co. Wexford and the French Revolution
Nicholas Furlong, F.R.SA.I.

New Light on Co. Wexford Architecture and Estates in the 17th Century
Rolf Loeber, Ph. D.

An Officer’s Memoir of Wexford in 1798
Thomas Bartlett

The Keeragh Islands: A Review
Jim Hurley, Member

Some Stone Artefacts of South-West Wexford
Sean Cloney, Member

Kiltennel Church, Gorey, Co. Wexford
Kevin Spencer, Member

Journal 10 of The Old Wexford Society was published in 1984 – 85. There was neither a price nor a printer no cost listed on the Journal.

The Journal was edited by Billy Colfer.

The Contents of Journal 10:

Some Aspects of the Economic Life of County Wexford in the Nineteenth Century
Dr. Mary Gwinnell

Preliminary Archaeological Excavations at Ferrycarrig Ringwork, Newtown Td., Co. Wexford
Isabel Bennett M.A.

The Colclough Family
Seán Cloney

County Wexford Priests in Newfoundland
Dr. Kevin Whelan

The Tower of Hook
William Colfer

Occupations noted on some East and South Wexford Memorials
Brian J. Cantwell

Garrylough Mill and the General Development of Water Mills in Co. Wexford
Dr. Austin O’ Sullivan

Journal 4 of The Old Wexford Society was published in 1972 – 73. It cost 50p at the time and was printed in Wexford town by John English & Co. Ltd.

The Journal was edited by Wm. Igoe.

The Contents of Journal 4 :

Maps showing roads and principal placenames used throughout the Journal

The History of Loftus Hall
Thomas P. Walsh

Neolithic Excavation in North-West Ireland
Molly Shallow

The Career of Diarmait Mac Máel na mBó, King of Leinster, Part II
Donncha Ó Corráin

John Kavanagh, Young Irelander, Part I
Edward Culleton

Circular Enclosure at Tomona, Co. Wexford
Thomas Fanning

Rosslare Fort and its People
Gerard Kehoe

Some Early Norman Families in Co. Wexford
Lt. Col. Hubert Gallwey

A Wexford Cause Celebre
Elizabeth Reid

Rambles in Bargy
B.S. Priondagrás

The Manor of Rosslare
Dr. J.B. Swan

The River Slaney
Séamas S. de Vál

FOLK SECTION – Weather Portents
Mrs. G. Jefferies

Journal 2 of The Old Wexford Society was published in 1969. It cost 5/- (five old shillings) at the time and was printed in Wexford town by John English & Co. Ltd.

The Journal was edited by Edward Culleton.

The Contents of Journal 2:

The Origin and Development of Wexford Town Part 3 – The Norman Period
Dr. G. Hadden.

The Knights of the Temple
T.P. Walsh

Hervey de Montmorency
Mrs. S.H. Fitzmaurice

The Castle of the Deeps
J.P. O’Callaghan

The Roches of Wexford
R. Roche

Notes on a Souterrain at Kellystown, Co. Wexford
B.O’ Riordan

Wexford and Newfoundland
T. Ó Duinn

The History of Land Reclamation in Wexford Harbour
N. Furlong

FOLK SECTION – Old Customs of Forth and Bargy
Mrs. E. Jefferies