Ferns (, short for )
is a historic town in north
County Wexford
County Wexford ( ga, Contae Loch Garman) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was based on the historic Gaelic territory of Hy Kinsella (''Uí Ceinns ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. It is from
Enniscorthy
Enniscorthy () is the second-largest town in County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. At the 2016 census, the population of the town and environs was 11,381. The town is located on the picturesque River Slaney and in close proximity to the ...
, where the
Gorey
Gorey () is a market town in north County Wexford, Ireland. It is beside the main M11 Dublin to Wexford road. The town is also connected to the railway network along the same route. Local newspapers include the ''Gorey Guardian''.
As a growi ...
to Enniscorthy
R772 road joins the
R745, both
regional roads. The remains of Ferns Castle are in the centre of the town.
History
Ferns is believed to have been established in the 6th century, when a monastery was founded in
598
__NOTOC__
Year 598 ( DXCVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 598 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar ...
dedicated to
St Mogue
ST, St, or St. may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Stanza, in poetry
* Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band
* Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise
* Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy an ...
of
Clonmore (St. Aidan), who was a
Bishop of Ferns
The Bishop of Ferns () is an episcopal title which takes its name after the village of Ferns in County Wexford, Ireland. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with other bishopr ...
. The town became the capital of the
Kingdom of Leinster
Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ire ...
, and also the Capital of Ireland when the kings of that southern part of the province established their seat of power there. It was a very large city, but shrank after a fire destroyed most of it. The city stretched all the way past the River Bann (tributary of the River Slaney), and it is speculated that had it not burned, it would be one of Ireland's biggest cities today. King
Dermot MacMurrough
Diarmait Mac Murchada (Modern Irish: Diarmaid Mac Murchadha), anglicised as Dermot MacMurrough, Dermod MacMurrough, or Dermot MacMorrogh (c. 1110 – c. 1 May 1171), was a King of Leinster in Ireland. In 1167, he was deposed by the High King ...
founded
St. Mary's Abbey as a house of
Augustinian canons
Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by ...
c. 1158 and was buried there in 1171.
[T. O'Keeffe & R. Carey Bates, The abbey and cathedral of Ferns, 1111-1253, in Ian Doyle and Bernard Browne (eds) ''Medieval Wexford. Essays in memory of Billy Colfer''. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 73-96]
Ferns Castle, an Anglo-Norman fortress, was built in the middle of the 13th century by
William, Earl Marshall. In the time of
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
, it was granted to Sir Thomas Masterson from
Nantwich
Nantwich ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It has among the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England, with notably good examples of Tudor and Georgian architecture. ...
,
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
, who became a considerable force in the county. Today about half of the castle still stands. The town also contains the 13th-century
St Edan's Cathedral (Church of Ireland) This was a big aisled cathedral with a long chancel. The present east wall of the cathedral is the original east wall; the cathedral ran further to the west, towards the entrance to the cemetery. It has been suggested that the ruined building to the east, which has a row of fine Gothic windows, might have been built to house the effigy of Bishop John St John, now on the porch of the church.
The Tower and the Chapter House were added on in the 19th century. The cemetery has several
high cross
A high cross or standing cross ( ga, cros ard / ardchros, gd, crois àrd / àrd-chrois, cy, croes uchel / croes eglwysig) is a free-standing Christian cross made of stone and often richly decorated. There was a unique Early Medieval traditi ...
es and parts of crosses.
The 19th-century population peaked in 1851, but never reached the levels of medieval times. Lewis's Topography of 1834 claimed the town "consists chiefly of one irregular street, and contains 106 houses indifferently built, retaining no trace of its ancient importance". The Abbey, St.Peter's Church (Catholic and Anglican), and the remainder of the great cathedral are regarded as historic, holy places, and are still regarded as churches. This includes the abbey, which has the title of an abbey church.
Annalistic references
See
Annals of Inisfallen
Annals ( la, annāles, from , "year") are a concise historical record in which events are arranged chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record.
Scope
The nature of the distinction between ann ...
(AI)
* ''AI741.1 Kl. Repose of Cúán.u, abbot of Ferna, and Flann.Feórna son of Colmán, king of Ciarraige Luachra,
ied''
Church of St. Aidan
The old Catholic church stood at the north of the town until the 1970s, when it was decided to demolish the building. A convent, St. Aidan's Monastery of Adoration, has stood in its place since 1990.
The foundation stone of the new Church of St. Aidan was laid on the Feast of St. Aidan, 31 January 1974. This new Roman Catholic church was completed in 1975. In 2007, the new church went under a major refurbishment, and during 2007 and 2008 the parish replaced the old slates with new composite-metal material. The interior was also refurbished and few minor changes were made to the look of the building.
A plaque listing the names of parish priests, from 1644, is on the wall to the right of the altar, beside the organ.
The pipe organ in St. Aidan's Church dates from 1901. Its bellows were once inflated by hand, until modifications were made to it in the 1970s, one of which saw a new electric blower to inflate the bellows installed. The pipe organ was transferred from the old church to the new church and is still in use. Before being transferred, it was completely dismantled, reshaped and redesigned to fit into a much smaller space, in the new church.
The Bell, dating from 1911, was installed in the tower of St. Mogue's Church, by Canon John Doyle. It was moved and now stands outside the new Catholic church today, and is rung on special occasions, such as the New Year's midnight celebrations, Christmas, and Easter.
Religion and heritage
The town gave the name to the
Diocese of Ferns (both
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
and
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second ...
). The town's religious traditions live on today through the recent establishment in Ferns of a
hermitage.
The whole history of modern Ireland stems from Ferns – Diarmuid MacMurrough, King of Leinster invited the Normans in 1169 to help him fight his battles (they never left) – he sealed the deal with his daughter Aoife's marriage to
Strongbow.
Ferns has evidence of four distinct periods in Irish history. Archaeological digs have revealed habitations from the Bronze, Iron, early Christian and Norman eras.
Ferns boasts many ecclesiastical sites dating from early Christian era through Norman and the Middle Ages. Heritage sites include:
:Ferns Castle (which has a visitor centre and houses the Ferns Tapestries)
:Cathedral Graveyard
:The Grave of King Dermot MacMurrough
:St. Mary’s Augustinian Abbey
:
St. Edan’s Cathedral
:Remainder of the great Medieval Gothic Cathedral
:Ferns High Crosses
:St. Mogue’s Cottage
:St. Peter’s Church
:St. Mogue's
Well
A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...
:Monument to
Father John Murphy
John Murphy (c. 1753 – c. 2 July 1798) was an Irish Roman Catholic priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ferns, who is mainly remembered for his central role in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 in County Wexford, which is sometimes known as the ...
(who was born near Ferns)
:St. Aidan's Church (New Catholic Church)
:St. Aidan’s Monastery of Adoration (Convent on the old Catholic church site)
Transport
Ferns is located on the
R772 road, having been bypassed by the
M11 motorway
The M11 is a motorway that runs north from the North Circular Road (A406) in South Woodford to the A14, northwest of Cambridge, England. Originally proposed as a trunk road as early as 1915, various plans were considered throughout the 1960s ...
linking
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
to
Wexford
Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 N ...
since 18 July 2019.
Regular (almost hourly) bus services link Ferns to Dublin and Rosslare are provided by a number of companies.
Ferns railway station opened on 16 November 1863, closed to passenger traffic on 30 March 1964 and to goods traffic on 3 November 1975, before finally closing altogether on 7 March 1977.
Sport
Ferns is the home of
Ferns St Aidan's GAA
Ferns St Aidan's is a Gaelic Athletic Association club based in Ferns, County Wexford, Ireland. The club was founded in 1886 and fields teams in hurling, Gaelic football and camogie.
Overview Facilities
Ferns St Aidan's has three full-sized ad ...
, a hurling, Gaelic football and camogie club.
People
*
Anne Doyle - former
RTÉ
(RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...
newsreader
*
Dermot MacMurrough
Diarmait Mac Murchada (Modern Irish: Diarmaid Mac Murchadha), anglicised as Dermot MacMurrough, Dermod MacMurrough, or Dermot MacMorrogh (c. 1110 – c. 1 May 1171), was a King of Leinster in Ireland. In 1167, he was deposed by the High King ...
(d. 1171) - former King of
Uí Cheinnselaig and
Leinster
Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ir ...
*
Gordon D'Arcy
Gordon William D'Arcy (born 10 February 1980, in Ferns, County Wexford) is a retired Irish rugby player who played most of his career at inside centre. He played for Irish provincial side Leinster for his entire professional career and is secon ...
professional Ireland and Leinster rugby player
See also
*
Ferns Inquiry
*
List of towns and villages in Ireland.
References
External links
Ferns Village Website - Heritage, Community and BusinessRoman Catholic diocese of FernsHeritage Ireland's page on Ferns CastleFáilte Ireland's description of Ferns
{{Authority control
Towns and villages in County Wexford
MacMorrough Kavanagh dynasty