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Wexford's Medieval Churches (click for further information)

County Wexford in the Rare Oul’ Times, vol ix.

Nicholas Furlong & John Hayes.

Old Distillery Press, Wexford (2005).

The first three volumes  in this series, featuring  old and rare Wexford photographs,  were remarkably successful and are now collectors items.

This edition features county Wexford at war, 1910–1924, with dramatic photographic coverage of World War I off the south-east coast of Ireland; the 1916 Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War in county Wexford. Many of the photographs  are published for the first time. This important volume will be of interest to the general reader and also for academic  research.

Nicholas Furlong is the author of several  books, stage productions  and historical biographies. As a journalist of long standing he has contributed widely to many publication and currently contributes a weekly feature to the Echo Newspapers group.

John Hayes worked in the People Newspapers Group for many years. His expertise in the field of photographic restoration has been an outstanding feature of the series.

Prices: Limited hardback edition: Ireland and United Kingdom:€30+€8 p.& p.

Elsewhere: €30 + €16 p.& p.

Softback edition: Ireland and United Kingdom: €23 + €4 p.& p.

Elsewhere: €23 + €5 p. & p.

Contact:

Nicholas Furlong,

Rosslare Road,

Wexford,

Ireland.

Phone & Fax: 053 43063

Wexford’s Medieval Churches

In view of the proposed development of Selsker Abbey/Church and a report in the local paper of a suggestion to open up the town’s medieval graveyards as public spaces, a note on the historical significance of these sites may be opportune.  The complex nature of Wexford’s medieval ecclesiastical structure resulted from the combination of Gaelic, Hiberno-Norse and Anglo-Norman foundations both inside and outside the walls, leading to the establishment of five intramural and seven extramural parishes. The association of eight of the twelve churches with the complex Norse parochial system indicates that they were pre-Norman in origin. The extramural churches are located outside the gates of what is believed to have been the original Norse town. Of the five parishes inside the walls, four of the church dedications, St Doologue’s, St Mary’s, St Patrick’s and St Iberius, were Hiberno-Norse as the parishes predated the arrival of the Anglo-Normans. The modern church of St Iberius is believed to occupy the site of the medieval church of the same name: no trace survives of St Doologues; one gable of St Mary’s survives and there are substantial remains of St Patrick’s.

Four churches just outside the gates of the town (Holy Trinity, St Michael’s, St Bride’s and St Peter’s) were also associated with the Norse town. Of these only the graveyard of St Michael’s survives, the others are remembered in street names. The grant by Strongbow before 1176 of a free hospital at Wexford is probably represented by the church of St Mary Magdalene at Maudlintown, 1.5km to the south of the town. The principal Anglo-Norman foundation in Wexford was the priory of St Peter and Paul of Selskar founded as a priory for the Canons Regular of St Augustine, probably on the site of an earlier foundation as Irish monastic houses frequently adopted the Augustine rule in the twelfth century. The double-naved church, possibly of thirteenth-century date, is largely destroyed, except for the gables containing remnants of west windows and an arcade of four pointed arches separating the aisles. The battlements of the somewhat later fortified tower at the east end, described in 1834 as ‘much decayed’, were restored in the nineteenth century when the tower was adapted as a belfry for a new church. The extramural church of St John, at the junction of John’s Street and John’s Gate Street, was part of the preceptory of Knights Hospitallers, probably brought to Wexford by Strongbow who granted them the church of St Michael in the town. The Franciscans were the only medieval religious order to be established in Wexford, arriving about the middle of the thirteenth century. Their foundation, located just outside Kayser Gate, is still occupied by the order, providing a direct ecclesiastical link with the medieval town. The number of street names which originated as medieval church dedications is a clear indication of the influence of churches on the development of Wexford over the centuries.

It is clear that these church sites are an integral part of the fabric of Wexford.  As the last resting place of generations of the town’s inhabitants, Gaelic, Viking, Norman and English, they are a repository of the town’s history and heritage over the past millennium. Any development must be carried out with great sensitivity and to the highest professional standards.