You can take the bus from Gorey to Enniscorthy. The trip takes about 35 minutes, and the company is called Wexford Bus. It's a good service, with a clear timetable, an online reservation facility, and none of the oddities of previous days' buses. Best to book ahead, though, as the service gets very busy.


Enniscorthy was on my radar because it's the birthplace of Colm Toibin. I've read several of his books, most recently Nora Webster, which is set wholly in this little town.

But whether or not you're Toibin-inclined, there's really lots here that's of interest. Too much, in fact, to fit into one day, especially as we're still in slightly languid recovery mode. So we went twice.

Definitely go to the National 1798 Rebellion Centre. Fired by ideas of liberty that were spreading from America and France, and a sense of British encroachment, the United Irishmen tried to take back control.


There were many armed confrontations, but the Battle of Vinegar Hill, 21 June 1798, was decisive in breaking the main rising. There's a reenactment you can listen to at the Centre, and it's clear that the rebels were hopelessly outgunned. They were forced to retreat, which they did quite successfully. The civilians left behind, however, mainly women and children who had sought refuge in the rebel camp, were not so lucky. They formed the majority of the 1,500 lives lost that day.


The Rebellion saw some of the bloodiest fighting ever witnessed in Ireland. It is reckoned that total deaths amounted to perhaps as many as 30,000 -- by far the majority of them rebels and civilians. In addition, many thousands were left homeless; hundreds were transported to Van Diemen's Land; and several thousand left for America. "It was," as the info boards said, "in every sense a war."

In response, the Act of Union came into force on 1 January 1801. This abolished the Irish Parliament, and incorporated Ireland into an extended United Kingdom governed from Westminster. The ambition of the 1798 Rebellion lived on, however, inspiring later movements such as the 1916 Easter Rising.




This is a good exhibition, I think. Aesthetically pleasing, and conscious that there's never just one story to be told when we piece together these events.

Also well worth a visit is Enniscorthy Castle, which has a wonderfully eclectic history. It has been a Norman fortress; the property of Edmund Spenser (who never lived in it); the rebuilding project of Henry Wallop; a prison during the 1798 Rebellion; the residence of the Roche family; and a museum (and I'm leaving out a lot of other episodes...).

It's all very photogenic:










Upstairs there's also a little exhibition devoted to Eileen Gray (1878-1976), an interior designer and architect, who was born just outside Enniscorthy. She was quite the pioneer, but as is so often the case with women of her generation, she was well on in years before she started to gain the recognition that was her due.



Also upstairs in the castle, there's a temporary exhibition featuring Wexford waters. Manannan gets a mention, which is always good, and there were a couple of very striking ship's figureheads, which sadly feature in tragedies:



It's definitely worth visiting the exquisite St Aidan's Cathedral, which was designed by Augustus Welby Pugin (just like St Michael's in Gorey):







Having read all about the Battle of Vinegar Hill, it would have seemed rude not to make our ascent. It's quite the little lump, and there are great views from the top:





Another pleasant route takes you along the River Slaney:




Clearly visible from the castle roof and from Vinegar Hill was a very striking turreted building:


I bet you that's a mental hospital, I said... And it was.

St Senan's Hospital, then known as Enniscorthy District Lunatic Asylum, opened in 1868. It was soon housing way more than the 70 patients it was designed for: "Families from across Wexford and beyond sent loved ones here when there were no other options. Poverty, trauma, epilepsy, alcoholism, post-natal depression -- many conditions we now recognise and treat differently -- were once grounds for institutionalisation. By the early 20th century, the hospital held hundreds of patients, far beyond its original capacity." During WWI it housed men whose traumatic encounters at the front had left them psychologically damaged.

It was renamed in the 1950s: "The new name softened the edges, but the institution remained large, enclosed, and physically removed from the town below." It became one of the largest employers in the area.

But slowly attitudes began to change, and the number of patients started to decline. In 2015 it closed officially.

These places always make me shudder. I've read too much about the way women in particular were forced into them. I know of cases in my own family that make me curl up just to think about. But for some patients at St Senan's, it was the only home they'd known for decades. It's hard for us to judge whether they would have been better off elsewhere, given the climate of their times.


Meanwhile, it wouldn't be a PT post without some cafe notes:



And finally, back to Toibin:




So that was Enniscorthy. Two highly rewarding days. Would happily return.