XPW042360 IRELAND (1933). General View, New Ross, Wexford, Ireland, 1933. Oblique aerial photograph taken facing East.

New Ross was the adopted home town of the writer from May 1997 until July 2008!

Sean Og MacSuibhne, Pairc an Bhreanail, Ros Mhic Thriuin, Chontae Loch Garman, An Poblacht na hEireann.

Much of the open space in the picture has since been taken up by the suburban sprawl of modern housing estates and new schools built since the 1950s, but the Quayside has retained much of its earlier character.

At the time this image was taken in 1933, New Ross was the third town in the county of Wexford, after Wexford Town and Enniscorthy, with a population approaching the 5,000 mark (5,055 in the 1936 Irish Free State-later Eire-Census). Published maps of the period reveal a compact town on the east bank of the river Barrow, with a significance as a river port and links with the heart of the country via the Barrow Navigation System. A railway station was opened in 1887, connecting the town with Waterford and Dublin, although it was located in a peripheral location on the Kilkenny side of the river, just off to the left of the photograph. To all intents and purposes, the station was closed to goods and passengers in 1963, although the tracks were left in place between the town and Waterford for irregular freight traffic. The site of the former station has been derelict since 1997.