04/12/2011
Wexford’s John Ironside publishes photographic essay, The Soul of Wexford
More than 200 unique images of Wexford town and its hinterland are contained in a new 148 page book titled The Soul of Wexford – A Town and Estuary, and subtitled Where the River Slaney meets the Irish Sea, by the specialist photographer John Ironside.
Author and historian Nicky Furlong will launch the book at a function in the Wexford Book Centre, South Main Street, Wexford on Wednesday 7th December at 7.30 p.m.
The coffee-table style, hard-back book of size ten inches by twelve inches, designed by the acclaimed designer Declan Kenny of The Drawing Board studios in Dublin, comprises specially shot images by the award-winning John Ironside in the past year.
Among the images of the town and estuary in the book are those of The Quays, the Main Street, Wexford Harbour, Mary’s Bar in Cornmarket, Church of the Immaculate Conception, Rowe Street, St. Peter’s College, Institute of Perpetual Adoration, Church of the Annunciation, Clonard, Wexford Opera House, Selskar Abbey, St. Iberius’ Church, The Friary, Presbyterian and Methodist Church, Church of the Assumption, Loreto Secondary School, Presentation Convent and St. John of God Convent and extra theme pieces on the Lifeboat, Seals, Oyster Farming, Maudlintown Regatta, and Sailing on the Slaney.
One of the exclusive pieces in the book which has excited historians, is that of the ruins of the generally inaccessible Wexford Fort, where the Slaney meets the turbulent waters of Wexford bay.
Double-page and major full page spreads in the book feature breathtaking images of dawn and sunset over Wexford Harbour, seagulls in the harbour,ragworm casts, flowers, a unique photograph of a gathering storm over Wexford and another of a close-up of the historic Friary bell.
John Ironside, an award-winning world-class photographer, environmentalist and fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, said that he was shocked to see such a fast-changing Wexford. He said: “Much of Wexford’s past has suddenly disappeared. I said that I must capture the artifacts of the past before they are gone forever”.
