Fethard author’s postcards talk unveils Ireland of old

AUTHOR and historian Liam Ryan gave a talk about postcards recalling Co Wexford of yesteryear at New Ross Library recently, drawing a crowd.

Fethard man Ryan has been collecting postcards of Wexford as a hobby for several years and decided to publish some of them in his latest book called ‘Keep Me Posted’.

Starting in New Ross and moving to the south of County Wexford, the postcards feature the villages dotted around the Hook Peninsula. Moving east along the south Wexford coast, to the villages of Foulksmills, Wellingtonbridge, Carrig on Bannow and Cullenstown. Northwards through Wexford town, Castlebridge, Oylegate and Enniscorthy reaching Gorey and Courtown before finishing at Newtownbarry or Bunclody as it’s called today. With the rise in popularity of seaside holidays at the turn of the 20th century, it is easy to see why villages such as Duncannon, Fethard on Sea, Kilmore and Rosslare were suitable locations to send postcards from.

The towns and villages of County Wexford were recorded by photographers in their quest to provide the perfect photograph for a lucrative market for postcards during the last century. During those years, the photographers captured the changes that Wexford’s landscape went through, especially in the area of farming, housing and transport. The postcards, bearing the postmark of the rural Post Offices from where they were posted, have outlived these very Post Offices and remain as an amazing record of all these changes throughout the Model County.

With postcards now almost a thing of the past ‘Keep Me Posted’ is to serve as a reminder of how some of the now forgotten about areas of our county were once prominent places worthy of being sent around the world with messages of goodwill from the sender.

‘Keep Me Posted’ runs to 122 pages and is hardbacked. It costs €30 and is available locally in Hubb 16 bookshop in New Ross and at Hook Lighthouse.