Enniscorthy

St Senan

furerer wrote: »

Have to agree with you silentshrill. The posts you are writing about say as you state. Unfortunately the 3 individuals concerned cannot see this. Perhaps "Porthos" will snip up my post to make himself look good, as he seems to do that with everyone that disagrees with him.:cool:

Furerer. I have no Axe to grind with you or Silentshrill. So please keep me out of your Tit for Tat with jpb1974. And to be Honest the 2 Threads about Enniscorthy have turned into a TIT for TAT with you two. I am basically saying it it as i see it. The area I have mentioned is an Eyesore. What I hate is Mean lazy Trailer trash who don't give a **** where they Dump there rubbish.

As I have said in the other Thread can we stay on the topic please Instead of the Argy Bargy

Cantona's Collars

The toys have really been thrown out of prams on this thread.A few comments on the degeneration of an area of the town which is near a major tourist site that is The Riverside Hotel.What must visitors think when they look out the windows.The area does need a clean-up and the management company in charge of the apartments need to be introduced to some paint and brushes.
I personally have no axe to grind with any area of the town and just wanted to express my opinions on how part of the town had become an undesirable area to live.Not all residents are bad but I personally know a few and by God you wouldn't want them moving in beside you,not being a snob-just stating facts.
Nobody seems to stay in the area long-term and that's saying something.

Cantona's Collars

Good to see at long last that Hempfield road is being resurfaced,no more wrecking the car trying to negotiate the craters along it.One note-how dim are people that they can't seem to read signs or listen to the workers on it telling them the road is closed and detours are available and signposted.

jpb1974

Good to see at long last that Hempfield road is being resurfaced,no more wrecking the car trying to negotiate the craters along it.One note-how dim are people that they can't seem to read signs or listen to the workers on it telling them the road is closed and detours are available and signposted.

Yippee... that road was like a thorn in my side. I was bringing the young lad to school this morning and had to turn off at the Vinegar Hill - Monageer crossroads as there was a detour.

Any idea how far out they are resurfacing? It needed to be done out to about the old golf course in a bad way.

JayEnnis

jpb1974 wrote: »

Yippee... that road was like a thorn in my side. I was bringing the young lad to school this morning and had to turn off at the Vinegar Hill - Monageer crossroads as there was a detour.

Any idea how far out they are resurfacing? It needed to be done out to about the old golf course in a bad way.

Needs to be done out to Outlart haha! I absolutely hate driving that road, there's a corner just before the bridge as you're driving into the town and you have to drive in the middle of the road or risk the car bouncing out of control!

hamsterboy

JayEnnis wrote: »

Needs to be done out to Outlart haha! I absolutely hate driving that road, there's a corner just before the bridge as you're driving into the town and you have to drive in the middle of the road or risk the car bouncing out of control!

And flipping off the second highest bridge in Ireland :O

HB

jpb1974

Needs to be done out to Outlart haha! I absolutely hate driving that road, there's a corner just before the bridge as you're driving into the town and you have to drive in the middle of the road or risk the car bouncing out of control!

Yup... it's brutal from Hempfield out to the old golf course, then fine for a bit, then lethal at the bridge by Cooladine and then pretty much chronic out to the turn off for Coolgarrow lane.

It's actually fine from Coolgarrow lane to the outskirts of Oulart, píss poor again heading into Oulart.

I live out this way having built a house out there... have to drive that road every day...

Cantona's Collars

Works going from Bill Hendricks Tyres to Mr. Price at the moment-you can detour down Rectory Road,HGV's can't use that road.Hope they resurface to Clonhaston Cross at least.

jpb1974

Works going from Bill Hendricks Tyres to Mr. Price at the moment

FFS what a disappointment... I was hoping for more... a lot more

JayEnnis

jpb1974 wrote: »

Yup... it's brutal from Hempfield out to the old golf course, then fine for a bit, then lethal at the bridge by Cooladine and then pretty much chronic out to the turn off for Coolgarrow lane.

It's actually fine from Coolgarrow lane to the outskirts of Oulart, píss poor again heading into Oulart.

I live out this way having built a house out there... have to drive that road every day...

I feel sorry for you, I used to do a bit of work in Kilmuckridge so would go that way, Still head over about 2 or 3 times a week as a friend lives in Outlart.

St Senan

zerks wrote: »

Good to see at long last that Hempfield road is being resurfaced,no more wrecking the car trying to negotiate the craters along it.One note-how dim are people that they can't seem to read signs or listen to the workers on it telling them the road is closed and detours are available and signposted.

I have a Feeling that it will take a while to resurface this small patch of road
In any other country there will be 2 stretches of motor way laid in the same time that this road will be resurfaced. Also i wonder how long will this resurface last before we start to see potholes.

vedwards

If you're ever coming from the Carnew side to Ferns road over Sli Mhí, you'll notice a dramatic change in the road surface at the Wicklow/Wexford border.
It's like coming off a runway at Dublin airport and then travelling along the Burren. Whether Wicklow do it for a laugh to show how slow Wexford coco are or they definitely have the resources - it's a mystery to me :eek:

Cantona's Collars

Good news JPB the resurfacing at Hempfield is continuing further along the road.I wonder if somebody(the council) reads this and decides to resurface the road from Pettits car park to The Community Workshop.

jpb1974

Far-seeing Tidy Towns’ verdict is welcomed

http://www.enniscorthyecho.ie/news/story/?trs=mhqlqlaucw&cat=news

It reads well in most cases... but I'm truly not convinced by it.

Interestingly enough -

"Residential Areas, 27 marks (max. 40, 2009 marks 31):"

jpb1974

from Pettits car park to The Community Workshop.

I used to live out the Milehouse road... absolutley hated this stretch of road with a passion for more reasons that just the road surface.

Cantona's Collars

jpb1974 wrote: »

Far-seeing Tidy Towns’ verdict is welcomed

http://www.enniscorthyecho.ie/news/story/?trs=mhqlqlaucw&cat=news

It reads well in most cases... but I'm truly not convinced by it.

Interestingly enough -

"Residential Areas, 27 marks (max. 40, 2009 marks 31):"

Show's the areas where pride is taken in the appearance by locals and are well maintained,accuse me of being racist but a lot of residential areas that came in for criticism are well populated by foreigners who don't have any attatchment to said areas and as such don't feel the need to participate in their upkeep.I know a lot of Irish are as bad and seem to feel that the general upkeep of areas all falls back on the council workers,ffs just keep your local area tidy and let the workers concentrate on getting more essential work done.Sean Browne Court was mentioned-can't see the council investing in planting etc. in the area if the local kids insist on wrecking the place.:(

jpb1974

I used to live in one of the areas praised by the report.

There were a few great people in the estate that kept it looking really well... and then there were the few that wouldn't even pay the €50 a year to keep the greens trimmed.

I wouldn't be much of a gardener myself so I stuck to the simple tasks... weeding and spraying the kerbs was my speciality, made a big difference... nothing worse than nasty weeds running along the side of the road.

RKQ

vedwards wrote: »

you'll notice a dramatic change in the road surface at the Wicklow/Wexford border.

I've noticed this too. I thought Wexford roads were so bad because of the weather but it was equally as wet, cold, snow in Wicklow. So how come our roads are still so bad??

The Council waited months to fix the dangerous surface as you drove into Oilgate. I thought they were waiting to resurface the whole road but no they just filled in the patches! What were they waiting months for???

Judgement Day

After a look around the new Enniscorthy Tourism website at http://www.enniscorthytourism.com/ and I was prompted to visit the Children's playground on the Promenade this morning - and surprise, surprise it's still a disgusting mess more than a year and half after I first drew attention to it! Fresh pics on my blog.

The Castle is due to reopen in December according to this week's Enniscorthy Guardian.


http://countywexford.blogspot.com/

Cantona's Collars

The wife brought little fella to the playground today and promptly left due to the state of the place.Even though they cost money at least Wexford and New Ross have Playzones and Playbarns which are well run and indoor.
Saw in todays Echo that plans for an indoor entertainment/activity centre on the outskirts of town have run into objections.Apparently somebody reckons it'd be better placed in the centre of town-lol!! (no parking,traffic congestion,high rent)

Cantona's Collars

Well did anyone venture to the re-opened Castle Nite Club? Heard that little has changed regarding the rows afterwards.Passed by the other night,a gang of 16/17 year olds in tracksuits and runners trying to get in and couldn't get the message that they had no hope.Don't they read the adverts for the place-"Neat Dress Essential".

Judgement Day

zerks wrote: »

Well did anyone venture to the re-opened Castle Nite Club? Heard that little has changed regarding the rows afterwards.Passed by the other night,a gang of 16/17 year olds in tracksuits and runners trying to get in and couldn't get the message that they had no hope.Don't they read the adverts for the place-"Neat Dress Essential".

Well, I have managed to sleep through most of it. I did expect it to be worse but I'm sure we will get there yet. The first night was interesting as several groups of youths who were turned away shouted something about bastards at the bouncers but made sure they were far enough away not to get a dig. A large blonde, wearing a belt, spent a long time trying to gain admission before lying down on the pavement! The real fun starts at 'chucking-out' time when the rows start as people wait for taxis. Usually the shouting dies away after 3.30am - which is nice for local residents but, of course, we should have moved out. :rolleyes:

Cantona's Collars

Just saw in the local papers that Enniscorthy Chamber of Commerce are to begin their big push to shop local for Christmas next month-good luck with that,there's feck all to buy in the town.Anything that I actually need has to be got outside the town.The retail parks in Wexford were packed bank holiday monday,Enniscorthy by contrast was like a ghost town.
Anyone that travels to Wexford to visit Woodies,D.I.D etc generally ends up going to the town centre aswell.But in our great town the established shops can't see that and so we lose out-they want any new venture to be located in the town centre where there is no parking or even an easy way to get there without sitting in traffic for an age:( Take the proposed activity/leisureplex mooted for The Milehouse-objections because some bright spark wants it in the middle of town.

sundula

I cant see how business in Enniscorthy town will ever recover, the established 'safe' 2nd/3rd generation businesses never take any risk's, never expand or never update their premises or the stock lines. There seems to be a hard core element that are determined to object to ever planning application that proposes a business that may threatened the precious town centre or their own little interests.

Judgement Day

Meanwhile this from the latest Enniscorthy Guardian indicates that the Castle reopening has now slid off into 2011 - there's a surprise. If work on site is anything to go by, it will be well into the New Year and I'm afraid to say that I'm not in the least be optimistic about how the finished result will turn out. Incidentally, quite what massive spin-off for the town is envisaged by the discovery of some broken glass during the renovation work is beyond me but clearly FF Councillor Keith Doyle knows something that the rest of us don't!

jpb1974

A Castle that has been closed for how long, a constantly changing re-opening date and a piece of glass found equates to high hopes for tourism in Enniscorthy.

Somehow I don't get it.

Willam Barker

Hi folks, new here hope I’m welcome.
I registered having read a few threads here and having been down home a few weeks ago. I’m a born and bred Enniscorthy man, who has been living out of the town since going to college in Dublin in the mid ‘90’s and who on my frequent visits has grown increasingly concerned and saddened.

Enniscorthy of my childhood was a decent place but it was dying slowly with factories closing, Buttles, Davis’s Mill, Genell (spelling?) not much happened or indeed did expect it to. Even as a youth I thought things should and could have been better, I appreciated its natural aspect, its advantageous position at the centre of the county, sitting on banks of the Slaney, Blackstairs Mountains in the distance and Vinegar Hills historic presence looming over the town. The late 90’s was for me a time of optimism, the town seemed to coming to life again, we’d the new library, the new fire and garda station, we’d the revamp of the market square, we’d urban regeneration around the quay, a new cinema and the new swimming pool etc. We’d then the excitement of the 1798 commemorations, the opening of the ’98 centre, we’d the Fleadh Ceol’s and of course the Tour De France, while in the wider Wexford context we had 2 government ministers, in Yates and Howlin and to top it all Wexford were crowned All Ireland hurling champions in 1996. We were it seems top of the world and that things were on the up and that the future looked good.

However Enniscorthy stalled and then slipped backwards, the town seemed to have been left behind as most of the country boomed, unemployment remained stubbornly high and jobs that did exist seemed to be low value ones – construction mostly, the hoped for big Multinational employer eluded us, this meant that most of our young people still had to leave the town, losing vibrancy and draining energy and brains. Then we saw Murphy Floods go up in flames and tracts of the town fall derelict, the roads in many parts falling into a disgraceful state of disrepair and a town centre that was just the same as it was in 80’s in many, many ways.

Question is can it be turned around? Enniscorthy was in the past, 1950’s for example, a relatively booming place where people from around Ireland came to work, both the Wexford hurling team and the local St Aidan’s hurling club (now Rapps/Shamrocks) gained and experienced unprecedented success due in part to outsiders, Ned Wheeler for example. My point is that the town was not always in a slump, the agri sector was at the heart of this – Enniscorthy was the second biggest inland port in Ireland –feeding Davis’s mill etc.

I suggest that first off we need ambition, we need to believe that things can be better and that 20% unemployment is unacceptable, we need to have a vision for the town and an intolerance for accepting anything but the best. I’m interested in getting peoples opinions and suggestions but some things I think would be benifical would be:

• Focus on the quality of the streetscape, the streets need to be meticulously cleaned evey day

• Building, street furniture all need to be fully maintained, painted, glazed, we have some wonderfully old shop fronts which need to be maintained while the less photogenic should be over time transformed for match

• CPO derelict sites, Murphy Floods, the old Dunnes Stores and either develop them or maybe al la the idea behind Temple Bar rent them out cheaply to artists, artisan producers, second hand book shop owners, inject some vibrancy and variety into the town centre.

• Wouldn’t be great to have a place like ‘Green Acres’ in Wexford town in Enniscorthy?

• Look at our strengths and build on these, for me this is town location, could we look to places like Hay on Wey with their literary festival and large number of bookshops, think of Slaney Street with a number of books shops, we’ve connections with writing through Colm Tobín, Edmund Spencer, Thomas Kinsella while in Wexford can lay claim to John Banville, Eoin Colfer to name a few, Listowel has built an small industry on the back of John B Keane!!

• History, we’ve the castle, Vinegar Hill, the Catherdral, Templeshannon monastic ruins plus the layout of the town is atmospheric and olde world, can we build on this? For a small town we are actually richly endowed with sites and maybe we don’t recognise of utilise this to the maximum. How could we make this all come to life to visitors, make it attractive?

• Greater security, far too much menace around the town at night which the gardai are either incapable or unwilling to effectively address (we’d gardai attacked in the market square a few years back with the towns name being dragging through the mud, shameful!!) The gardai reserve should be promoted, more foot patrols and a clamp down on all anti social behaviour, litterling, drinking on the streets, loitering, illegal parking and boy racers speeding, focus on quality of life and make the town somewhere people feel safe going for an evening stroll

• Music and heritage, wouldn’t be great if we had kids introduced to music in school, in particular traditional music and over time develop and grow the town as a centre for this, imagine the lift it would be the pubs and the interest for tourists if this could become an organic aspect of the town. It would need time and money but would be a profitable investment and a boon to our cultural heritage

• Gaelscoils – support the growth of these schools and the use of Irish in signage, in shops and by people in the town, again with ambition we could develop Enniscorthy as an centre for our native tongue on the east coast, something to be proud of and a source of more visitors

• Pottery – we’ve a long tradition of pottery in Enniscorthy, forget about glass works, we’re know for this and should develop it, again low rent space would be great to bring this into the heart of the town but one step further, how about a pottery school, a residential school which could attract people from around the world who would like to learn how to throw a pot

• Now here is a radical one, use the MARKET Square as a market, get the farmers market opening their 3 days a week, focus on quality (no tat) just good food products etc, I think many of the shop keepers of the town are stuck in the past (Yate’s line ‘fumbling in the greasy till, adding half pence to the pence’ comes to mind...) and would oppose this but we need to ignore and see the benefits of brining families into the town.

Anyway these are just a few ideas, shoot them down or improve upon them if you will, ignore them if you wish but I fear unless the decline is tackled soon it will be too late.

Cantona's Collars

Welcome to Boards William Barker-I agree with your points regarding Enniscorthy.You're 100% correct in stating that the town is stuck in a timewarp,one step forward and two steps back.
All the Celtic Tiger provided the town with was lots of housing estates that would be empty if our Eastern European residents suddenly left.No forethought was put into the improvement of the town just developers looking to get rich quick.I want my town to be a source of pride,many visitors remark on it's lovely location but that's it,we need more.Just look back at the old photo's to see a booming town.No reason why steps can't be taken to return to those day's and make the place attractive again.Consultants and planners were hired and came up with designs to improve the town and so far all we got was a sign at Slaney Street.
Some great ideas have been put forward on this thread but we never see an end result.There was a big furore at the end of the Strawberry Festival due to it's decline but I fear we'll see the same pitiful excuse next year-an example of how things are run in the town,all hot air and bluster followed by broken promises.OUR TOWN is dying and if anyone in a position to act is reading this please do something and ignore the vested interests who can't see the woods for the trees.

Willam Barker

Thank Zerks - thats maybe part of the problem, looking for others to act, maybe its time for people who care to act themselves, citizens to take an active part in the life of the town. Maybe we need a mini Farmleigh, where we would bring together people from all walks of life who were from the town and who wanted to see it turned around, get the like of Sam McCauley, Jim Byrne, Michael Foley, Ivan Yates togther along with people from the arts etc - a pointless talking shop maybe but something has to be done.

I'm considering whether getting involved to the extent of running for the council is the way to go, again its another body that needs to be shook up, would we be better served with a Mayor, one person in charge??

Regarding the Strawberry fair, well as Morgan Freeman says in 'Shawshank Redemption' - its time to get busy living or get busy dying. Let it go or reinvigorate it as its become another source of embarrassment of late, its just not fun!
This might be a crazy idea but, but the La Tomatina Tomato Fight in Bunyol in Spain where they empty tonnes of tomatoes onto the street and have a fight with them is famous worldwide, messy but it catches the imagination, we could have a strawberry version. Ok not my best idea but we need something novel to lift it, its a jaded brand at this stage but I'm not sure we should give up on it yet. Big Tom on the stage in the square won't cut it anymore though!

Judgement Day

Just watching - from behind my laptop - the Sci-Fi horror "28 Weeks Later" on RTE and suddenly I hear horrible zombie type shouting but it's coming from outside on Castle Street! The movie reminds me of this weekend in town and how a sequel to 28 Weeks Later could easily be made in Enniscorthy using locals as extras. Friday night somebody out of his head was screaming at the bouncers at the Castle Nite Club that he would find out where they lived and burn their house down with their mother and granny inside it - I kid you not! Then in the wee small hours this morning a young woman was trying to kick down the door of building nearby before lying down on the ground in the pouring rain. I was on the point of ringing the Gardai when she moved on. At kicking out time at "The Castle" is when trouble seems to start while people wait for taxis. It can only get worse. The situation is totally unfair to residents of the area. :mad: