COUNTY WEXFORD lies in the south-eastern corner of Ireland. It is bounded to the west by Waterford Harbour, the River Barrow and the Blackstairs Mountains, to the north by the Wicklow Mountains, and by the sea on the other two sides. The River Slaney flows diagonally through the centre, dividing the county.
First settled seven thousand years ago, the county has hosted a vari-ety of cultures from Celts to Vikings, Flemish and Normans to English. Historically, it maintained a social, confessional and ethnic mix of populations that was more varied than most other parts of the island. Because of its key strategic position, it has always been militarily important and was the focus of the great rebellion of 1798, the most bloody conflict in modern Irish history.
Nicholas Furlong traces the story of the county from its earliest settlements through its Gaelic, Christian, Norse and Norman phases of life to the turbulence of the Elizabethan and Cromwellian regimes. He brings the reader through the great upheaval of 1798 and the institutional revival of Catholicism in the nineteenth cen- tury, which was particularly focused on County Wexford. He details the continued prosperity of the county throughout modern times. Driven by the sporting and cultural revival of the 1950s - the birth of the Wexford Opera Festival and the legendary hurling team of that era - Wexford has today built itself into the nation's holiday playground and a vital European transport hub.
THE AUTHOR
Nicholas Furlong is a writer and historian. He is one of the most distinguished local historians in County Wexford and was one of the principal organisers of Comóradh '98, the series of commemorative events for the bicentenary of the 1798 rising.
Gill & Macmillan
ISBN 0-7171-3461-X