I hadn’t been to one of our Five Wonders? It was time to visit the Heritage Park…
by David Medcalf
‘ TEN OUT OF TEN,’ declared young Persephone, who is herself a perfect 10 years of age. She was proudly brandishing the certificate of merit declaring her to be an accomplished pan-handler.
In order to qualify as a precious metal prospector, she was not obliged to venture to the far off streams of Alaska, nor even to the gold laced waters over the border in Wicklow. Persephone’s nuggets (or alleged nuggets – let’s not get too carried away) were sifted from a murky pond at the Irish National Heritage Park in Ferrycarrig, Wexford’s own answer to Disneyland, on the banks of the Slaney estuary. Full marks all round, even if the gold is zero carat imitation.
Here, amid the willows and reeds of the Slaney estuary, manager Maura Bell and her staff are happily beating the recessionary blues which have given so much of Irish tourism the glums. I am ashamed to confess that, after spending close to a quarter century resident in Co Wexford, I had to wait until last Tuesday before finally succumbing to the lure of the INHP. There was no excuse. The park could not be more conveniently located close to a national highway with handy road access for traffic from the directions of Wexford, Enniscorthy, Gorey, Clonroche and (goodness help us) New Ross.
Curiosity was finally stirred this summer by dozy breakfast time reading oover the cornflakes of milk cartons trumpeting the ‘Five Wonders of Wexford’. Five? One, the Hook lighthouse – done that and smelled the ozone. Two, the Dunbrody famine ship – shiver me timbers. Three, the 1798 rebellion centre and castle – a dual jewel on the doorstep in Enniscorthy. Four, the agricultural museum at Johnstown Castle – where the spirit of the tractor man supreme Harry Ferguson is kept alive.
But five was a box as yet unticked. Curiosity became determination to break the duck after a brief conversation with a man responsible for a smaller visitor attraction enviously reported counting 80 cars pulled up in Ferrycarrig one recent weekend. It turns out that this is not an unusual occurrence, even in the soggy excuse for a summer in 2012.
The ‘car park full’ sign has been required daily since June, with overflow facilities in constant demand. At 2 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, the 80 was more like 90 as visitors descended on the place to make the most of the last few precious days of the summer holidays. The registrations included a sprinkling of UK and Northern Irish plates as well as at least one from France.
However, the bulk of them were from the Republic, with a fair share of local WX traffic among the mix: ‘I have lunch here every day,’ declared a familiar voice on our arrival. It was none other than Mick Butler, who dines at the Fulacht Fiadh restaurant in the company of half a dozen fellow trenchermen. The lads are such routine fixtures that they have their own table permanently reserved.
The service offered in the dining room ensures that there is continuous turnover of Wexford custom, whether for a simple cup of coffee or for the full Irish stew. However, most of those who drive in to the heritage park come from slightly further afield. The breeze in from Finglas, Foxford, Foxrock and Fenagh in search of the past.
The exhibition presents an exploration of Ireland’s history, from the first human hunter-gatherers to populate this island 9,000 years ago through to the Norman invasion. The story is illustrated, as tour guides such as Jimmy O’Rourke are quick to point out, mainly by replicas: the reality is that he is one of the oldest features of the place.
The man from Barntown has been here since it first opened in 1987 while attractions such as the ‘early mediaeval ring fort’ is part of an extensive and expensive re-fit only now being completed. Even the ’round tower’ is not quite the real thing. It never saw service against ransacking Vikings as it dates back to just 1857.
Jimmy, attired in his Middle Ages sacking tunic, is a joy spend an afternoon with along the trail through the woods and swamps of the estuary, from the ‘Middle Stone Age campsite’ all the way to the ‘Norman ditch’. He has the knack of being able to capture the imagination of the children in his audience as he gives his spiel amid a Bronze Age stone circle or before the stone-built cell of a Skelligs monk. While he casts his humorous spell, it is easy to forget that these are re-creations and not the real thing.
So he makes us consider, and consider seriously too, whether animal hides or reeds were used as first choice for roofing material in the Ireland of 6,000 years ago. This is the topic of earnest academic debate in archaeological circles as the passage of time has eliminated all but the barest traces of our ancestors’ long-gone homes.
Jimmy knows precisely where he stands on the issue of what colour an authentic Norman keep should be. In deference to latter-day sensitivities, the Ferrycarrig replica has been left unpainted but his conviction is that the original keepers of any keep in or around the 12th and 13th centuries would have applied a good coat of whitewash, the better to keep out the damp.
Similarly, he has no doubt that the figures carved into the original stone Celtic crosses were often coloured, the better to put across their Christian message to congregations who had very little colour otherwise in their lives. Anyone found daubing such precious monuments with a dash of brown or blue would nowadays doubtless be slung into jail and to hell with authenticity. THE NATIONAL Heritage Park has benefited from a €1.5m-plus refurbishment, which has yet to be completed. The money – most of it coughed up by Fáilte Ireland – has been the saving of the not-for-profit enterprise. Manager Maura Bell, who has been here for the past 12 years, says candidly that she would not still be there if the money had not come through.
She reports – with undisguised wonder – that the number of visitors is actually up this year, though many of them are not paying at the door. They turn up with ‘golden tickets’ issued at various times over the past 18 months to encourage people to return with their friends. Or maybe they have been drinking their Wexford Creamery milk – the Five Wonders promotion brought 53 families into the park for free during July alone.
Ms Bell is on course for 50,000 visitors this year. She is a great woman for coupons and freebies, bringing her product to the attention of Tesco club cards holder, or Fyffe’s banana eaters or the users of Andrex toilet paper – but not the Andrex puppies. Guide dogs are allowed through the turnstile but no other canines, for fear of disturbing the denizens of the denizens of the piggery – handsome, coppery coloured Tamworth-wild boar crosses.
She and most of her staff have to be willing to don a costume and become one of Santa’s little helpers or perhaps an Easter bunny, whatever form of diversion is in season. She advertises barbecues, conference facilities, exhibition space, firework displays, ghost tours, archery weekends. She is delighted to welcome wedding parties to have their pictures taken, free of charge. Constant re-invention is the name of the game – and pass the ponchos to keep the punters shielded against the awful weather.
The latest attraction is B&B with a difference. For a mere €200, you and your friends can have the run of the ring fort, staying overnight under the thatch and waking up to a mediaeval breakfast of fruit and coarse muesli – no rashers allowed.
That’s next year’s family get-together sorted so.
