Enniscorthy

St Senan

Market square Enniscorthy.

St Senan

Templeshannon.

St Senan

The Cotton tree

Cantona's Collars

I've noticed the nice new road surface along Bellfield is subsiding & falling apart already,goes to show the quality of the work that was done by the contractor.No doubt he'll be paid handsomely to replace it. (Although somebody threw a few shovels of tar across on bit which is already ending up all over the footpath)

Judgement Day

I hear from a usually reliable source that two more well known businesses are expected to close after Easter. Won't be many ratepayers left soon.

Cantona's Collars

Judgement Day wrote: »

I hear from a usually reliable source that two more well known businesses are expected to close after Easter. Won't be many ratepayers left soon.

Wouldn't be surprised,noticed one that recently opened has a "closed" sign up more often than not & I've never seen a customer in the place.

I know one shopkeeper who isn't part of the local cartel & they say that it's a daily struggle to stay open,let alone make a few quid.

It's all well and good for the top few that have their money made & effectively closed the gates on the town preventing any new innovation or business get a foothold.So long as they were ok it was a case of "Fuck everybody else".

paulaa

I was in Gorey today and for a Tuesday the place was alive and buzzing. The shops were bright and looked cheerful with all the Valentine's day stuff in the windows. Every single shop I looked into on the main street had people in them. The cafes seemed to be busy with freshly cooked pancakes much in demand.
Come back to Enniscorthy and it's so depressing and dreary. It's such a pity.

Cantona's Collars

+1, was up there Saturday morning & the same story.Arrived back in Enniscorthy and I thought I'd ended up on the set of The Walking Dead.

St Senan

Judgement Day

Meant to post this one after Navarre's excellent pic of the Portsmouth Arms. It used to live where the flat screen TV now is in the Antique Tavern. When the TV arrived the plate went into storage but I kept badgering the late, sadly missed, Ian Noone until he let me have it in exchange for a B+W Dogs advertising figure. I wonder if there are any other bits and pieces from the hotel in people's houses?

St Senan

jpb1974

Old news by now, but for the few that might have missed it -

Every Wexford Farmer's Co-op store in the county, barr Bunclody, shut their doors yesterday. The oil and auctioneering business remain.

paulaa

Judgement Day wrote: »

Meant to post this one after Navarre's excellent pic of the Portsmouth Arms. It used to live where the flat screen TV now is in the Antique Tavern. When the TV arrived the plate went into storage but I kept badgering the late, sadly missed, Ian Noone until he let me have it in exchange for a B+W Dogs advertising figure. I wonder if there are any other bits and pieces from the hotel in people's houses?

That's a real piece of history. I remember being in the Portsmouth Arms with my mother in the 1960's I think it was. There was a queue out the door to see Christy Browne who was signing copies of his book "My left foot".
He was also doing an exhibition of how he could paint with his feet.
The place was packed out to see him

Cantona's Collars

Must scan & post the picture of the hotel during 'the big flood'.

Town was deceptively busy today due to kids being off school but not a lot of business being done.

Judgement Day

Noticed painters in the old Culleton Insurance offices on Castle Hill today - anybody hear anything?

Judgement Day

Like a ghost town here this morning. White's (Rafter Street) closing down sale underway.



Photo: Robin MGP.

McLoughlin

Considering the poor selection that White's stocked I'm surprised they last as long as they did.

Cantona's Collars

Judgement Day wrote: »

Like a ghost town here this morning. White's (Rafter Street) closing down sale underway.



Photo: Robin MGP.

Even quieter this afternoon,I could have parked the car literally anywhere there were that many spaces.

St Senan

Wellington Bridge was like Henry st today compared to Enniscorthy.

trevr

Judgement Day wrote: »

Noticed painters in the old Culleton Insurance offices on Castle Hill today - anybody hear anything?

Gym/Kickboxing classes going in upstairs....

Judgement Day

First dog ****e noted on the new and uncompleted (expensive) pavement on Church Street. I've offered my children a reward for whoever spots the first chewing gum - can't be long now. Incidentally, the previous 'new' paving at the junction of Rafter Street and Church Street is being broken up by diggers/dumpers etc. accessing the construction works. Rubbish all over the place on the grass outside St.Mary's CBS at the St.John's Street entrance.

Cantona's Collars

Judgement Day wrote: »

First dog ****e noted on the new and uncompleted (expensive) pavement on Church Street. I've offered my children a reward for whoever spots the first chewing gum - can't be long now. Incidentally, the previous 'new' paving at the junction of Rafter Street and Church Street is being broken up by diggers/dumpers etc. accessing the construction works. Rubbish all over the place on the grass outside St.Mary's CBS at the St.John's Street entrance.

Nothing changes in the town does it? Across the road from the Bus Stop Shop is the same after lunch time,there's a crew of Council & Fas workers cleaning up litter around the town & the roads surrounding it but they are fighting a losing battle.Out one road they did an amazing job cleaning up & have all the rubbish bagged yet some bollix has dumped a load more stuff in a gateway on the same road.I wouldn't mind but 99% of the stuff can be brought to the recycling centre for free yet some people feel it's handier to throw it along the roadside.

efc67

Heard one of the takeaways in town were up in court today ......action brought by the health inspector, they didnt even bother turning up..................They got a nice €4000 fine for their troubles.....wont bother naming it as it will be in the papers on Tuesday

blindsider

zerks wrote: »

Even quieter this afternoon,I could have parked the car literally anywhere there were that many spaces.

Is that what used to be Eilish O'Leary's newsagent/card shop on Rafter St? Next door to (what was) Aspel's.

The red cigarette sign over the door must be 60 yrs old.

Cantona's Collars

blindsider wrote: »

Is that what used to be Eilish O'Leary's newsagent/card shop on Rafter St? Next door to (what was) Aspel's.

The red cigarette sign over the door must be 60 yrs old.

It is,the original sign was kept when the shopfront was done up.

Ian7

paulaa wrote: »

I was in Gorey today and for a Tuesday the place was alive and buzzing. The shops were bright and looked cheerful with all the Valentine's day stuff in the windows. Every single shop I looked into on the main street had people in them. The cafes seemed to be busy with freshly cooked pancakes much in demand.
Come back to Enniscorthy and it's so depressing and dreary. It's such a pity.

Paula, cheers for bringing this issue up, I have my own theory about this, before I get to the main point though we just have to look at the background factor, both wex and gorey have a larger cachement area and population, gorey especially has seen a sharp rise due to dublin commuters, there has been no reason for scorthy's population to see much rise but thats just one point. I've been thinking about this for awhile now and I reckon a lot if it has to do with urban and centre planning. Notice that gorey and wexford have a linear main street with much variety along the one route, this seems to be of great importance to the modern shopper who expects handy parking and direct walking routes. Now look at enniscorthy, three main shopping areas, rafter st, main st/irish street and to a lesser extent slaney st/castle hill all broken up and separated by a pedestrian unfriendly market square with very little going on in it. There has been little to no foresight with regard to commercial planning in this town and that in my humble opinion is a big big problem.

Cantona's Collars

+1
Nail on the head.No foresight in planning has turned the town centre into a commercial desert.

Another shop put up it's Closing Down signs this week,the House & Home shop on Weafer St. is closing.

kneemos

Big stores and chain stores are what pull in the punters at the end of the day,Enniscorthy town centre is small enough to walk around in a few minutes the trouble is most of the stores are tiny and uncompetitive.Without a big shopping centre we will always leak shoppers to Wexford and Gorey

Ian7

kneemos wrote: »

Big stores and chain stores are what pull in the punters at the end of the day,Enniscorthy town centre is small enough to walk around in a few minutes the trouble is most of the stores are tiny and uncompetitive.Without a big shopping centre we will always leak shoppers to Wexford and Gorey

I don't doubt that bigger name shops get more footfall but wexford doesn't have a shopping centre and gorey's isnt exactly inspiring. Their main streets are still busy. I still maintain it's down to access, parking and walking routes and enniscorthy is a mess in that regard. plus, traffic congestion doesn't help draw people in.

kneemos

Ian7 wrote: »

I don't doubt that bigger name shops get more footfall but wexford doesn't have a shopping centre and gorey's isnt exactly inspiring. Their main streets are still busy. I still maintain it's down to access, parking and walking routes and enniscorthy is a mess in that regard. plus, traffic congestion doesn't help draw people in.

Thing is I doubt half of Enniscorthy are driving to Wexford because they can't get parking or make their way around in fairness.