Ireland Guide
Kilkenny, Carlow and Wexford
Wexford town
Wexford is a happy-go-lucky kind of town with plenty of scope for enjoying music in its pubs, but it has its serious side too, not least in the shape of its internationally renowned Opera Festival. Though still organized around its medieval narrow lanes, there are few true remnants of the Middle Ages. The town began life as a Viking base for incursions and trading, before becoming an early Anglo-Norman conquest in 1169. Wexford later housed an English garrison whose loyalty to the Crown resulted in vicious fighting against Cromwell's army in 1649; two hundred locals were massacred in taking control. The town also played a significant role in the 1798 Rebellion, which was finally quelled at Enniscorthy. Wexford's lengthy quays pay testimony to its re-emergence as a prosperous port in the nineteenth century, though gradual silting of the harbour's entrance and the development of Rosslare Harbour led to its demise as a competitive port.