Wexford St. Patrick's Day Parade 2016

A few photographs from the St. Patrick's Day parade in Wexford town. Taken on Thursday, the 17th of March, 2016.

The New Ross & District Pipe Band marching across the end of Wexford Bridge:



The band was founded back in 1974 and it regularly competes in both Ireland and abroad:





The Wexford Fire & Rescue service:





The Wexford Polish Scouting Association (Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego Wexford):



For the year that's in it:



The Coast Guard's search and rescue helicopter doing a flyover:





The helicopter is a regular attendant at Wexford's annual St. Patrick's Day parade:



The Peace Run:



Bricks 4 Kidz:

Wexford General Election count centre.

Photographs of the 2016 General Election count centre in Wexford. The count took place on Saturday, the 27th of February, 2016 in the St. Joseph's Club Community Centre. Labour candidate Brendan Howlin retained his seat by topping the poll. Fianna Fail's James Browne retained his father John Brown's seat by coming in second. Independent candidate Mick Wallace took the third seat after the 11th count. The last two seats were taken by Fine Gael candidates Michael D'Arcy and Paul Kehoe, who managed to edge out Sinn Fein's John Mythen by 31 votes.

The tallies being counted:



Organising the votes for each candidate. This was taken during the first count:



People eagerly awaiting the first count:

Discussing spoilt votes.

Candidates and candidate representatives in Wexford gather around the table to review spoilt votes. This was taken at the count centre in the St. Joseph's Club Community Centre in Wexford on Saturday, the 28th of February, 2016. Visible are Sinn Fein candidate Johnny Mythen, Fine Gael candidate Michael D'Arcy, Social Democrats candidate Leonard Kelly and Labour Cllr George Lawlor, who was representing Brendan Howlin. Funnily enough, one particular vote was spoiled because the voter decided to use fractions instead of numbers!

Leonard Kelly

Wexford Social Democrats candidate Leonard Kelly at the 2016 General Election count centre in the St. Joseph's Club Community Centre. Mr Kelly was eliminated on the 7th count with 2,179 votes - a great improvement for a candidate that received 499 votes in the local elections in 2014. Photo date: 27th February 2016.

Leonard Kelly Election Sign

Yesterday, General Election 2016 hopeful Leonard Kelly discovered that his election sign on the N25 road in Barntown, Co. Wexford had been stolen. Fortunately for the Social Democrats candidate, one of his talented followers was able to whip-up a custom-made election sign using a plank of wood, spray paint and some stencils:

Floods in Enniscorthy.

On the morning of Wednesday, the 30th of December, 2015, the River Slaney in Enniscorthy burst its banks. The floods were caused by a combination of factors:

1. Previous plans to erect flood defences had been objected against on the grounds that they would reduce or damage the natural beauty of the area.
2. Storm Frank spread across Ireland overnight, bringing heavy rainfall and strong southerly gale-force winds. Between 40-70mm of rain fell in the region.

A parked car gets stuck in the flood waters by The Promenade in Enniscorthy - beside Sheehan's Cash & Carry:



A wider view of The Promenade, showing the Riverside Park Hotel:



The N11 in Enniscorthy was impassable:



At least the swans were happy:



A shot of the two bridges:



Two men helping a motorist at the Riverside Park Hotel:

Minor flooding in Wexford Town after Storm Frank.

Photographs of the R730 road between Ferrycarrig and Wexford Town. The road underneath the small railway bridge had become flooded with water due to Storm Frank and some heavy rainfall that had occurred overnight.

The road was still passable if you drove in the right lane (although the brakes did require some pumping afterwards):



Here is another shot, taken from the other side of the bridge.



At the time, the River Slaney was extremely close to the giraffe statue in Ferrycarrig:



These photographs were taken on Wednesday, the 30th of December, 2015.

Wexford Military Show

The Wexford Military Show took place at Bettyville Race Course in Wexford Town. It included re-enactments from Roman soldiers and Celts; as well as military vehicles and weapons (including Airsoft rifles and the like). I even saw what looked to be large Terminator-style rail gun.

This photograph was taken on Sunday, the 31st of May, 2015. Unfortunately, the battery in my camera died seconds after I took this!



A camera phone shot of the Terminator T-800 face mask and rail gun:



A World War 2 era sidecar. The sig rune (aka Siegrune) emblem shows that this was used by the SS, a paramilitary organization that came to power under Hitler:



A white-painted UN truck with an Irish tricolour and machine gun:

12 Pubs of Christmas - Wexford

Photographs of Wexford during the "12 Pubs of Christmas" night on Saturday, the 20th of December, 2014. As you can see, the town was extremely busy and litter was at a much higher level than what it usually is. That night, there were a number of arrests for public order offences (remember, this is when staff parties are in full swing and people are drinking more than what they can handle, simply because the name of the game is to visit 12 pubs and have a drink in each one of them).

A shot of broken glass outside of The Undertaker pub in Wexford's Bullring. To the right, you can see fashion store Fat Face:



Another shot of the Bullring and it's Christmas tree.

Parade on North Main Street, Wexford

A photograph of the Santa parade on Wexford's North Main Street. This was taken in November of 2014, during the Christmas season. As you can see, the place was flooded with people, making it extremely difficult to move! In retrospect, it might have been a better idea to hold the parade on Wexford's quay-front, which would have surely given the crowds more space.

Garda traffic control

A photograph of a lone Garda doing some traffic control at the entrance to Wexford's Common Quay Street. This was taken back in November of 2014, during the run up to the Santa parade, which was due to arrive in the Bullring. The Garda in question was preventing motorists from driving up towards the Bullring, which was packed with people.

Clean Break, Wexford

Photographs of the Clean Break set in Wexford Town. Written by Wexford playwright and actor, Billy Roche, Clean Break is an RTE drama that tells the story of a community that is driven by love, greed, status and revenge. Some of the actors include Adam Fergus, Aidan McArdle and Simone Kirby.

A photograph of the actors and crew members on John's Gate Street. The area had been temporarily cordoned off during filming:



A photograph of the trucks holding the equipment that was being used on the set (Rowe Street Church car park):



These photographs were taken on Saturday, the 8th of November, 2014.

St. Patrick's Fife and Drum Band, Wexford

A photograph of Wexford's St. Patrick's Fife and Drum Band. This was taken on Wexford's Crescent Quay on the 31st of January, 2015. The band was leading a Right2Water protest march.

Right2Water protest in Wexford

Photographs of the Right2Water protest march in Wexford. These were taken on the morning of the 31st of January, 2015. It was a bitter cold day with gale-force winds.

This was taken on Trinity Street in Wexford Town:





Motorbikes lead the way:



The St. Patrick's Fife and Drum Band:



As the protest march was making its way around Crescent Quay:



A man waves an eirigi flag. In case you didn't already know, eirigi is a socialist republican political party. Also visible is Deirdre Wadding, who is a People before Profit councillor. Check out the Irish Water hat on the left!



A member of the An Garda Síochána directs traffic as the march progresses past the Crescent Quay:

New Ross Floods

Photographs of the New Ross flood, which occurred on the 2nd of February, 2014. I happened to be driving through one of the roads when the River Barrow burst its banks.

The road to Fethard-On-Sea was heavily flooded throughout the day. Here, you can see that water had pooled up close to the entrance of the Nolan Transport offices:



A photograph of the quay on New Ross, which had become impassible. You can see the New Ross Garda Station on the right:



The park in New Ross, which had filled up with water. Fortunately, the right side of the park wasn't completely submerged and I was able to get out onto the part of quay that had escaped the floods.