Gorey

This article is about the town in Ireland. For other uses, see Gorey (disambiguation).
Gorey, Co. Wexford
Guaire
Town

Main Street, Gorey

Coat of arms
Gorey, Co. Wexford

Location in Ireland

Coordinates: 52°40′37″N 6°17′31″W / 52.677°N 6.292°W / 52.677; -6.292Coordinates: 52°40′37″N 6°17′31″W / 52.677°N 6.292°W / 52.677; -6.292
Country Ireland
Province Leinster
County County Wexford
Elevation 48 m (157 ft)
Population (2011)[1]
 • Town 9,114
 • Urban 3,463
 • Environs 5,651
Irish Grid Reference T151598

Gorey (/ˈɡoʊr.iː/; Irish: Guaire) 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 and Gorey Echo.

Gorey is an hour's drive from the southern outskirts of Dublin. Gorey's position on the N11/M11—a direct link to the capital—has made it an attractive choice for commuters, many of whom spend less time travelling to work than their counterparts living in particular areas of Dublin. As a result, there has been a dramatic increase in the building of new houses in Gorey. Between 1996 and 2002 the population rose by 44% in the town and by 23% in the surrounding district.[7]

Amenities

Esmonde Street

For visitors, there are two modern hotels, both with leisure centre, swimming pools, and conference facilities. The town has several restaurants, catering for Italian, Indian, Chinese, Thai and Irish cuisine

Courtown Harbour or Courtown, a small holiday resort popular with weekend visitors from Dublin, is situated 5 km (3.1 mi) east of Gorey.

The town celebrated the 150th anniversary of the consecration of Christ Church in May 2011. The church, which was completed in 1861, was designed by James Welland, one of the provincial architects of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of the Church of Ireland. It is noted for its stained glass windows designed by Harry Clarke and Catherine O'Brien.[8]

Entertainment

Gorey has an extremely active theatre group which produces several plays through the year and organises performances by visiting groups. They also host an annual, week-long Drama Festival. In the summer months the group produces a twice-weekly play, which is popular with both locals and visitors. Every second year a pantomime is produced, which is always well received.

Gorey Musical Society has one production a year; in 2006 they staged the all-Irish musical The Ha'penny Bridge, and were the first amateur group to have been given the honour to do so. In 2007 the Society successfully staged Oklahoma!, for which it received several nominations in the Association of Irish Musical Societies' annual 'Oscars'. At the awards ceremony in Killarney, Gorey MS received the award for the Best Overall Show in Ireland, as well as the awards for Best Male Singer and Best Supporting Actress.[9]

Several music groups are active in the Gorey area, which play both traditional Irish music as well as rock, popular local bands include Sinsaol and Arís.

Gorey Choral Group, a mixed-voice choir of around 38 members, has participated in contests all over Ireland and Wales, and brought many trophies back home.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, an eclectic arts festival, organised and directed by Paul Funge—a well-known Gorey artist—was held in the town during the summer. Many big and soon-to-be big name performers appeared including U2, Horslips, the Virgin Prunes, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the Glasnevin Musical Society, the Wexford Festival Choir, Niall Tóibín and Eamon Morrissey.

Every year, varying from the last week in July to the first week in August, Main street closes for four days for the Market House Festival. It has become tradition that acts, local and non-local play in the street during the night while family activities go on throughout the day on the street and in the town park.

There is also a substantial number of pubs, bars and nightclubs, including Oscars 64 (which is also home to the O2 nightclub), Paddy Blues, McGovern's, French's, Breen's Bar, The Coach House, Katie Daly's, and The Bridge Bar.

A new 7 screen cinema, Movies at Gorey, opened in June 2010; it is located on the Courtown road.

Naomh Eanna (G.A.A club)

Naomh Eanna was founded in 1970 by a group of Christian brothers. Naomh Eanna's club ground is called Pairc uí Síochain located at the top of Clonattin Gorey Co.Wexford. It has 2 adult playing fields with one having floodlights. Also has an U12 hurling field. Their biggest achievement's were winning the Intermediate county final in 1974 and 2015 to go up to the senior grade.

Shopping

Ruby Rouge

Gorey has many shops unique to the town which makes it a popular shopping destination for many locals. Ruby Rouge is one of these unique shops, located on the Dollshouse 21/22 Esmonde Streets, which caters to not only the locals and surrounding towns of Gorey, but internationally. Many people order online from Ruby Rouge all across Ireland and even travel down to the South East to shop. They ship internationally and have regular fashion events. Gorey shopping centre opened in October 2007, and is home to many shops such as Dunne Stores, Hickey's Pharmacy, Bella Moda along with many others. It is also the site of cafes such as the Bagel Factory and Insomnia.

Development

The town lies on the N11 (Dublin-to-Rosslare) route, and until recently traffic congestion was a major problem. A by-pass was opened at the end of June 2007. It is a 23-kilometre-long high standard dual carriageway, and was upgraded to motorway status in August 2009.

Education

Rapid growth has led to an overcrowding problem in the local schools, with the secondary school, Gorey Community School having the largest student population of any school in Ireland with over 1,600 students. In 2012 another post-primary school, Creagh College opened to accommodate Gorey's increased population of secondary school students. Five local primary schools, Gorey Loreto Primary, Saint Joseph's Primary, Gorey Central School, Gorey Gaelscoil and Gorey Educate Together National School feed the Community School, as do a number of schools in various local areas. A new secondary school, Creagh College, was opened in 2011 as a result of the overflow of the community school.

The library in Gorey opened its doors in 2011 after a decade of plans to build it and is open from Monday to Saturday with the exception of Bank holidays. The library has a wide variety of books, comics CDs and DVDs.[10]

Transport

Gorey railway station opened on 16 November 1863.[11] It is located on the Dublin to Rosslare Europort line.

Various bus services serve Gorey. Bus Éireann route 002 links the town with Dublin Airport and Rosslare Harbour, operating day and night, while route 006 links Gorey with Dublin and Waterford.[12] Ardcavan also operate a daily service linking Gorey with Dublin.[13]

Wexfordbus operates a service linking Gorey with Dublin Airport.[14]

In addition, Gorey Bus Links operate two local routes, one linking Gorey with Ballycanew, Ballygarrett and Courtown, with another linking the town with Ballymoney, Castletown and Inch.[15]

Tourism and accommodation

Tourism in the town thrives during the summer months (June–August). There are two main hotels in the town; the Amber Springs and the Ashdown Park hotels. The town also neighbours the holiday village of Courtown, which attracts thousands of tourists with multiple caravan parks and B&Bs.

Local Newspaper

Gorey News paper

The Gorey Guardian and the Gorey echo are both the local newspapers of gorey. Here you can read the local news and funny articles like big massive dangerous leaves[16] you can also read of local sport news and what's happening in smaller villages around the area. Both news papers are produced on a Tuesday each week.

Town twinning

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Census 2006 – Volume 1 – Population Classified by Area" (PDF). Central Statistics Office Census 2006 Reports. Central Statistics Office Ireland. April 2007. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  2. ↑ Census for post 1821 figures.
  3. ↑ http://www.histpop.org
  4. ↑ http://www.nisranew.nisra.gov.uk/census
  5. ↑ Lee, JJ (1981). "On the accuracy of the Pre-famine Irish censuses". In Goldstrom, J. M.; Clarkson, L. A. Irish Population, Economy, and Society: Essays in Honour of the Late K. H. Connell. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press.
  6. ↑ Mokyr, Joel; O Grada, Cormac (November 1984). "New Developments in Irish Population History, 1700–1850". The Economic History Review. 37 (4): 473–488. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.1984.tb00344.x.
  7. ↑ McDonald, Frank. "An overdeveloped vision". The Irish Times. Retrieved 8 September 2007. Wexford County Council's plan for Gorey is riddled with contradictions
  8. ↑ The Irish Times, "Church of Ireland Notes", 14 May 2011
  9. ↑ The 2008 production of South Pacific was complimented by the performance of Garreth Kinsella, a Transition Year student in G.C.S. "Association of Irish Musical Societies". Retrieved 8 September 2007.
  10. ↑ http://www.independent.ie/regionals/goreyguardian/news/readers-paradise-at-new-library-27343584.html
  11. ↑ "Gorey station" (PDF). Railscot – Irish Railways. Retrieved 7 September 2007.
  12. ↑ "Airport-Dublin-Arklow-Gorey-Enniscorthy-Wexford-Rosslare Harbour and return" (PDF). Bus Éireann. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2009. Retrieved 14 January 2009.
  13. ↑ "Timetable_Dublin" (PDF). Ardcavan Coach Tours. Retrieved 14 January 2009.
  14. ↑ "Wexford-Dublin Airport Express". Wexford Bus. Retrieved 14 January 2009.
  15. ↑ "Timetable_Dublin" (PDF). Gorey Bus Links. Retrieved 15 January 2009.
  16. ↑ Ireton, Robbie. "Massive dangerous leaves".
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gorey.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.