Wexford: Famine and (a JFK) Feast

In late August we had two days in County Wexford, which is only around 90 minutes south of Dublin. Our first port of call, literally, was the port of New Ross, where we visited the Famine Ship Dunbrody. This is a replica of the boat that took so many Irish, starving from the potato famine in the mid nineteenth century, across the Atlantic Ocean to America. It was the Irish writer James Joyce who called the Atlantic a 'bowl of bitter tears', with all the sadness amongst the Irish at having to leave their homes to seek a better life in the United States. This was the place where the crying began. Of course, many departed here for Australian shores as well.

 The tour takes you aboard the ship where several actors tell stories about conditions aboard - the poor complaining about the rat-infested conditions of life below deck, the rich talking up the benefits of a first class berth and eating nightly with the captain.  Your entrance ticket to the ship names you as one of the poor passengers who had to live below deck and you can see the spot on the ship where you and your family would have slept. You were only allowed to go above board for half an hour each day! Below deck they had plastic replicas of cabin food spread across the table - a spread which included, among other things, a bowl of second-hand stewed corn (vomit) which was particularly appalling for the girls to encounter.

Ella was a young mother travelling with her husband and baby (a boy). This is the berth they would have slept on, complete with rats! Needless to say, Ella was not impressed.

Pia was a single mother in her 30s with 4 children. They would have slept here. She was not that impressed either.

Some of the food to be enjoyed below deck

And the sick bowl that traumatised the girls!

The ship's kitchen

After the famine, a Kennedy feast. This year Ireland is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the JFK visit to Ireland in June 1963. It is clear that the country looks back to that Kennedy visit  as a mark of its international emergence -  and of being taken seriously. It's precisely what they are looking for now, with the government slashing and burning to escape the clutches of the troika - the EU, IMF, World Bank etc who are asking for more and more cuts so that the Irish economy can be seen as credible in the international money markets again. The government has even puts its shoulder to a tourism blitz this year called 'the gathering' - a program designed to get as many of the Irish who've recently emigrated (in the wake of the financial crash) to come back and spend the economy out of trouble. Apparently it is working: kind of.

The 50th anniversary of the Kennedy visit has been a central part of this: the government in Dublin has even poured millions into restoring the original Kennedy family homestead in Wexford (cue Log Cabin to White House myth!) which we visited first. The homestead now has a small museum which shows the rosary beads he had in his pocket at the time of the assassination, and also his military 'dog-tag' as Commander in Chief.   The homestead is modest and it is certainly easy to see why Kennedy, as well as marking his Irish roots here, wanted to show the humble nature of the Kennedy family's beginnings. This was certainly a long way from the luxurious Kennedy family compound at Hyannis Port.

What is left of the original Kennedy home

The girls sit on the couch that Kennedy sat on during his visit

There have been a whole series of government sponsored events this year to commemorate the Kennedy visit.  An eternal flame was brought over from Arlington Cemetery, every town he stopped at has held separate events and the requisite Kennedy relatives have been flown in - most of the younger ones just wanting to drink Guinness apparently.  I know of no precedent where a state has invested so much money, time and emotional energy in remembering a presidential visit (Australia won't be doing it in 2016 for LBJ's visit of 1966, and we certainly didn't do it for the queen in 2004, 50 years after her 1954 visit) In short - the Kennedy visit has been used as a nostalgic shot in the arm: a harking back to a time when all was well - a time when Ireland's PM made the cover of Time (as did current PM Enda Kenny last year) and a time, most crucially, before all the troubles broke out in Northern Ireland. I think the Irish, in essence, are also saying that it was here, in Ireland, that Kennedy truly discovered himself, and his roots, before he was killed in November 63 in Dallas. Here he became 'one of us'. It is as if they are claiming that Ireland saw the real Kennedy.

 

After the homestead we visited the JFK Arboretum about 5 minutes down the road - just a huge forest/botanical gardens really -  and there was a great kids park here, complete with a maze. Then it was on to our accommodation, Killiane Castle, just outside the town of Wexford. An amazing B&B, it was attached to a 12th Century castle! The owner had about 6 different versions of the history of the place which I won't try and summarise here. They are restoring the castle at the moment but guests are allowed (incredibly) to wander amongst its ruins and climb the watch tower for a marvellous view out over the surrounding countryside. We had dinner in Wexford that night  and then a walk around the castle grounds which afforded a magical view of the castle and the ruins of a small chapel on its outskirts. The moon was just out, the sky dusty blue with the faint glow of red from a setting sun and all round there were the sounds of a day starting to go to sleep: it was a perfect evening.

 

 

 

 

After a very hearty breakfast the next morning, we pushed on to Curracloe beach, where, interestingly, the opening scenes to Steven Spielberg's 'Saving Private Ryan' was filmed. Pia and Ella staged their own D-Day invasion of the little wading pools along the shore!!

On our return to Dublin we stopped at Enniscorthy to visit the National Rebellion Centre, which highlights the 1798 Irish rebellion against British rule and links it to the American and French Revolutions. A small bridge at the entrance tries to connect it to every other revolution in history. The museum is well set out and included a sound and light show of the battle of Vinegar Hill - not something the girls enjoyed with red shirts (the British) popping out of every corner to slaughter the hapless Irish insurgents!

James gets into a rebellious mood of his own

From there it was back home to get ready for what we will write about in the next post: London.