Fascinating story behind Wexford’s ‘chosen few’
AN exhibition of ‘ The Chosen Few – recipients of the Honorary Freedom of the Borough of Wexford’ was unveiled at a launch in County Hall.
Produced by Wexford County Council archivist Gráinne Doran, the exhibition comprised free-standing banners of text and images documenting the history of the Freedom of the Borough in addition to a display of original artefacts from the municipal archive collection.
The exhibition was launched by Deputy Mayor Tony Dempsey with contributions from An Cathaoirleach of Wexford County Council Cllr Paddy Kavanagh and from Chief Executive Tom Enright.
‘ The title of honorary freeman was the highest honour that a municipal authority could give to an individual and dates back to the Municipal Privileges Act, 1876 under which the British government granted power to the council of any borough in Ireland to make an person an honorary freeman,’ said Gráinne.
Since ending in 2012, only 31 individuals were hon- oured over the 163 years since the 1876 Act. Many of the ‘chosen few’ had a connection with Wexford town and their conferral with the freedom of the borough coincided with their visit to Ireland for other purposes.
‘Recipients included Charles Stewart Parnell, John F Kennedy, Éamon de Valera, and Mary Robinson, while in a local context, men included John Edward Redmond, Richard Corish, John J Byrne and Brendan Corish,’ said Gráinne.
Each were presented with a scroll which was usually placed in what became known as a ‘freedom box’.
Billy Walsh was the only sports person to be made a freeman and was also the last recipient in 2012 as two years later, under the Local Government Reform Act, 2014, it was abolished.
The municipal honour has seen 31 worthy individuals conferred and will now be consigned to the annals of Wexford town’s prestigious municipal history.