Go Ireland:The ancestral home of JFK, which celebrated its 800th anniversary in 2007, has a wealth of maritime heritage, writes Michael Parsons
IF PRESIDENT John F Kennedy’s great-great-grandfather had come from Co Kerry you can bet that today there’d be a huge international airport in Tralee, along with opulent five-star hotels with names such as Pentagon Heights and State Department Palace dotted around the Ring, and a big theme park featuring a replica of the White House with Fungi the dolphin splashing around in the South Lawn fountain. But he didn’t. Instead he hailed from modest, laid-back Co Wexford. In fact, it has taken the local authority 45 years to put up a statue. Of the president, that is, not the original emigrant.
On June 27th, 1963, JFK visited New Ross and left an entire generation spellbound. Speaking on the quays, he famously told the townspeople that if his ancestor hadn’t taken the famine ship to Boston, “I would be working over at the Albatros company”. But Jim Roche, who vividly recalls the occasion, says: “Jaysus he wouldn’t; he’d have been in the dole office.”
The 70-year-old, who lived through those tough years, knew rather more about the economic realities of the 1960s than the suntanned King of Camelot. Getting a job in the big fertiliser factory was no cinch. Roche likes the new statue, but his most abiding memory of the historic occasion was “meeting Brendan Behan, who was here that morning. We met him below in Ryan’s – the pubs were all open at 7am that day – and he shook hands with us and bought pints for four or five of us”.
And thus are reputations in Ireland sealed. Still, the memorial, which features a life-sized bronze figure of the first American president to visit Ireland, is well worth seeing. He’s depicted with an outstretched right hand, about to be shaken. No doubt countless tourists will do just that.
But New Ross has other heroes. Outside the lovely cut-stone town hall, built in 1749, there’s a plaque dedicated to James Cullen, a local boy who became a Jesuit priest and founded the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association. Alas, his legacy is a town full of pubs. But pride of place goes to a monument dedicated to “our heroic ancestors” of 1798, topped with a bronze pikeman now weathered an appropriate shade of green. An inscription on the plinth records, with all the pride the Model County can muster, that it was erected by “a grateful posterity”. It’s time, as Brian Lenihan noted, for patriots once again.
New Ross, which celebrated the 800th anniversary of its foundation in 2007, has always been an important river port. The sister rivers Nore and Barrow merge three kilometres north of the town and flow into a wide expanse of water that meanders southwards to join the Suir at the Waterford estuary and then out to sea. Much trade has been lost to Waterford port, which can handle huge container ships, but New Ross still receives more than 200 cargo vessels a year. Maritime affairs are directed from an elegant little dockside office that is also a subagency of Lloyd’s of London.
The quays, currently under-going the dreaded “roadworks”, have seen better days, and there’s a good deal of vacant property – including new Section 23 apartments still, ominously, sporting for-sale signs. In fact, despite much new building during the boom years, parts of the town badly need sprucing up, especially some lovely traditional shopfronts – surely protected structures? – which are crumbling away.
The maritime heritage has received a new lease of life from Dunbrody, a replica famine ship and floating museum now permanently moored in New Ross, which administrator Carmel Delaney says receives almost 60,000 visitors annually. It’s open all year round and has become one of the biggest tourist attractions in the southeast. Visitors can explore the interior of the ship, which recreates the cramped conditions endured by desperate emigrants.
In a discreet terraced Georgian house nearby a group of women is busy working on the Ros Tapestry Project, a decade-long artistic undertaking that involves creating 15 large needlework panels depicting New Ross – and indeed Irish – medieval life. Some 100 local embroiderers have devoted thousands of hours to this painstaking task since 1999. Most are volunteers, with a few funded by Fás. The result, due to go on public display at a customised permanent exhibition space in April, will be Europe’s biggest embroidery – dwarfing the Bayeux Tapestry – and should become a major tourist attraction. Mary Maher, a volunteer who devotes two mornings a week to the project, says “it’s going to be part of history”. It’s already weaving its way into the lives of the community. And a preview of the work in 2007 delighted President Mary McAleese.
On South Street, a middle-aged saxophonist busks without great enthusiasm. The music doesn’t seem quite right for a country town on a winter mid-morning. “From Hungary,” he says, but his English isn’t up to a chat. He’s one of many migrants who have been drawn to the town.
By a twist of historical fate, New Ross, which was the departure point for countless emigrants leaving Ireland to start new lives in America, has become a magnet for immigrants. New Ross has one of the greatest concentrations of Poles in Ireland, and the language can be heard everywhere. A lady in the pastoral centre and parish office says that “a Polish priest comes up from Wexford every Saturday night” to say Mass for his fellow countrymen.
On the streets it is noticeable that many shops have closed down – due not to the recession but to relocation to a retail park at the edge of town. And the old Royal Hotel on North Street, once a linchpin of south Wexford social life, is silent. Its doors and windows are crudely boarded up. A tattered and dirty tricolour flutters feebly from a rusting flagpole, the hunt balls and dinner dances, wedding parties and afternoon teas just memories now. An obviously redundant site planning notice is dated 2003.
But Irish towns constantly reinvent and renew themselves. Across the street, the garish Ephesus Kebab takeaway has breathed new life into an old shop. And, around the corner, Caesar’s Palace, a “private member’s club”, has a sign announcing Texas hold ’em poker games.
At St Michael’s Theatre, a handsome building on South Street, stage manager Johnny Caulfield tells me the theatre operates 300 nights a year, offering a varied programme from amateur dramatics to an annual pantomime, visiting professionals and a choral festival. He’s proud of what they manage to do and of their history. He points out old black-and-white photographs of visiting stars such as Cyril Cusack and Jimmy O’Dea. “New Ross was booming for the last 10 years,” he says. “God only knows how things are going to work out.”
The ruins of St Mary’s Abbey, one of Ireland’s largest and most important medieval churches, are worth a look. Much of the crucial preservation work was carried out decades ago. In 1949 the celebrated travel writer Richard Hayward, in his classic book about travelling through Leinster, wrote that “their neat appearance and careful preservation bring a glow to the heart, and almost make one forget the small regard which the Irish people generally have for the relics of their ancient land”.
Where to stay, where to eat and where to go if you're visiting the town
Where to stay
Brandon House Hotel Solas Croí Eco Spa. 051-421703, www.brandonhousehotel.ie. Formerly known as the Five Counties Hotel, this four-star period property on the outskirts of the town has been completely renovated. A spa has been added, which uses green energy systems and boasts "Ireland's very first hydrotherapy grotto". The hotel has 79 rooms, and its art collection includes works by Tony O'Malley, Brian Bourke, Nora McGuinness and others.
Portovino. 15 Craywell Road, John Street, 051-448749, www.portovino.ie. This is a new hotel with just 10 rooms. The big attraction is a spacious bar and grill, with large terraces providing sweeping views over the water and upriver to Brandon Hill.
Dunbrody Country House Hotel. 051-389600, www.dunbrodyhouse.com. This hotel at Arthurstown, about 20km south of New Ross, is worth the extra drive for those who prefer a more rustic setting. The hotel, a member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World, is a Georgian manor house set in 80 hectares of parkland, with luxurious accommodation, a spa and a famous cookery school overseen by owner and head chef Kevin Dundon.
Where to eat
Apart from the restaurants in the hotels, Café Nutshell (8 South Street, 051-422777) is strongly recommended. This is one of the best cafes in the southeast. Open Monday to Saturday from 9am to 5.30pm. Delicious fresh food with seating for up to 50, tucked away behind a gourmet deli.
Galley River Cruising Restaurants. North Quay, 051-421723, www.rivercruises.ie. These barges sail up or down river, depending on the tides, between April and October and serve afternoon tea or dinner in heated saloons. Wonderful scenery.
Where to go
Dunbrody famine ship. South Quay, 051-425239, www.dunbrody.com. The tour of this full-scale reconstruction of a 19th-century famine ship last about 50 minutes, including a nine-minute introductory audio-visual presentation. Group bookings are accommodated.
The unmissable bronze statue of John F Kennedy by sculptor Ann Meldon Hugh is located on South Quay beside the bridge.
John F Kennedy Ancestral Homestead. Dunganstown, 051-388264, www.kennedyhomestead.com. Open May to September only. Visit the birthplace of the great grandfather of the late US president John F Kennedy. The visitor centre provides an engaging guided tour around the original farmyard, which incorporates an audio-visual display and rare family artefacts.
John F Kennedy Arboretum. 051-388171 www.heritageireland.ie. Seven miles south of the town on the road to Duncannon. The 250-hectare site has more than 4,500 individual species or varieties of trees, and the forest plots are divided into five areas, representing each continent. There is also a visitor centre, and a miniature railway operates during the summer. Open all year round.
St Mary's Abbey. Church Lane. The abbey is credited to William Marshall and his wife Isabella and dates from between 1207 and 1220. Many plaques dating back to this period can be seen in the ruins.