Billy Colfer’s three superb books on Wexford history appeared in the ‘Irish Landscape’ series for Cork University Press, edited by Kevin Whelan and Matthew Stout. These books were produced to a high quality, were splendidly illustrated and have stayed in print ever since. The first volume, on the Hook Peninsula (2004), is widely cited as the finest Irish local study ever published. Billy then completed a fine volume on Wexford town (2008) and an authoritative final one on Wexford castles (2013).
This year, 2025, is the centenary of Cork University Press and, as part of their commemoration, Billy’s three books were relaunched as the ‘Wexford Trilogy’. A limited edition of the three volumes was launched, featuring an elegant slipcase designed by Anne Brady, the finest contemporary Irish book-designer. This event was held on 23 May 2025 at Murphy’s Barn, a world-class café in a unique setting. It was hosted in an elegant tent in the south Wexford landscape that Billy loved so much. Even in the sunny south-east, the Irish ‘permadamp’ is an ever-present risk but in the end, while many were cold, few were frozen. Local delicacies and Wexford wine soon warmed the attendance up again in the stone barn itself. Not a typo: the wine ‘1860’ is the only one personally vinified in Bordeaux by a Wexford man, James O’Connor of Green Acres. It is the only wine in the world to feature a Wexford image on the labelling.
The event began with a dynamic panel discussion featuring John Banville, Eoin Colfer (Billy’s son) and Helen Corish-Wylde. The chairperson remarked that most book launches are as boring as feck and that the three panellists failed miserably to reach down to that standard. John Banville, from the Faythe isosceles (look at a map) in Wexford town, is Ireland’s most distinguished novelist, and his contributions were witty, heartfelt and ‘brainfelt’. He spoke vividly about the ever-present Wexford atmosphere that seeps into his books, even when they are ostensibly set somewhere else.
Eoin Colfer is among the most admired children’s authors globally, and his Artemis Fowl series has been translated into nearly 50 languages. Eoin spoke beautifully of how his inspiration was ignited by his father, Billy, and his mother, Noreen (an avid practitioner of drama and poetry). Helen Corish-Wylde, from the distinguished Wexford town political dynasty, is a respected community leader in the town. She spoke of how Wexford had always been a cosmopolitan town and why a sense of its multicultural heritage made it a welcoming place for our ‘New Irish’ citizens.
The event concluded with poetry, music and song. Eimear Clowry Delaney read Seamus Heaney’s ‘The Peninsula’, which features on the first page of Billy’s book on the Hook. It is a poem about how places we love and connection with our natural environment can help us to fall awake again after our humdrum routines deaden our creativity.
The fifth-generation uilleann piper Fiachra Potts played a set of tunes associated with his great-great-grandfather, John Potts from Kiltra in Bannow. Fiachra for the first time played a set of pipes once owned by the American actor Jimmy Cagney. Ruaidhrí Whelan of the Dublin band Dominda sang his specially composed song ‘Ar Ais Arís’, a tribute to the Hook.
Many many things my father told me
From when he was young and brave and bold,
The same sweet stories about Bunclody,
No better colours than purple and gold.
Now I’ve been caught
Hook in cheek
By a hill of vinegar and strawberry sweet.
I’m going to where the man from Saltees sea
Sees the same,
The lighthouse famed,
today, tomorrow,
Ar Ais Arís.
This event was co-sponsored by the University of Notre Dame, Dublin City University, History Ireland, the Wexford Historical Society, Lantern Presents, the Group for Irish Historic Settlement, Green Acres restaurant, the Commissioners of Irish Lights, the Field Day Theatre Company and Cork University Press. It was a fitting tribute to the respect in which Billy was held that the event was oversubscribed within a few days and many were turned away. The ‘Wexford Trilogy’ was launched on home ground, in a warm, positive way that offered an appropriate homage to Billy Colfer, a quintessential Wexford person.
Enquiries: https://www.corkuniversitypress.com/.