NewBallyhackferry isallsettostart

June 1982

A ferry joining counties Wexford and Waterford swings into action later this month, just four years after Cllr Hugh Byrne, now a Fianna Fáil TD, asked Wexford Co. Council to look into the feasibility of establishing such a link.

The tiny Co Wexford village of Ballyhack, and its counterpart on the Waterford side of the channel, Passage East, will be joined by a drive-on, drive-off car ferry, which can carry up to sixteen cars and small goods vehicles.

The ferry will cut the distance between the counties by over thirty miles, and will save about an hour in the travelling process.

For years ago this month, Cllr Hugh Byrne, from Fethard on Sea, proposed that Wexford Co. Council investigate the possibility of such a ferry.

At that stage, the council had a large development fund available, and were willing to look into the plan. Waterford Council were less interested, however, in a plan which had been ‘ kicked around’ for years and which held little for the people of Waterford.

The same reaction was evident from the Chamber of Commerce in New Ross, which saw the ferry as another ‘escape route’ out of the county for tourists and shoppers.

After much, and at times heated, discussion, it was finally agreed between the two councils that they would each provide the landing facilities for a ferry, if a private company would finance and run the vessel.

The offer was open for a short time when a Dublin-based insurance company, ‘FBD Insurance’, approached the councils with plans to finance the operation. Shortly afterwards, two Wexford businessmen, Derek and Eddie Donnelly, expressed their interest in the scheme too.

However, before any plans were drawn up by either party, a story appeared in one of the local newspapers, highlighting what they believed was a rift between a big business organisation (FBD) and a small private enterprise (the Donnellys). Such publicity was not what FBD wanted, so they withdrew from negotiations.

The Donnellys went ahead with their plans, but the scheme represented a very large financial undertaking for a small firm, so last October they approached FBD with the idea of making the plan a joint venture.

The plan was cleared by both councils, so it was now just a question of finding a suitable vessel.

In November 1981, the Passage East Ferry Company, as it was called, bought a drive-on, drive-off car ferry ‘Elb Clearing 12’ in Hamburg, for a sum in the region of £200,000. It had a virtually flawless operational record on the fresh waters of the Rhine since 1960, when it was first commissioned.

Work began almost immediately on building a slipway on the Passage East side, and a jetty on the Ballyhack side in preparation for the ‘FBD Dunbrody’, as the vehicle was to be renamed. This work is now nearing completion and the ferry is expected to go into operation immediately afterwards.