WHEN Wexford people talk about thee local slobs they do not mean the unkempt, untidy neighbours; their slobs have a capital "S" and are regarded with affectionate appropriation, even pride. For the North and South Slobs, on either side of Wexford Harbour, are a resource of considerable richness, historically, economically and environmentally, to the entire south-east.
All of these aspects, and a few more are dealt with in High Skies - Low Lands, An anthology of the Wexford Slobs and Harbour edited by David Rowe and Christopher J. Wilson (Duffry Press, 363pp, £2.95). It is a lap-top book - its shape and weight demand such a prop - about which Francis Bacon might have been writing when he said there are books which "should be read wholly, and with diligence and attention".
At the same time it is a book which can be dipped into now and then, as its different parts and chapters are self-contained and units in their own right. There are sections on "The Harbour and Man", "Changing Forms", "Life on the Water", "Fauna and Flora" and "Men and Myths". There are poems, ballads and essays; and there are numerous illustrations, including some magnificent full-colour paintings of birds, ships and scenery.
The book, as the editors point out, can be regarded "as a celebration" of the 150th anniversary of the inauguration of the scheme is to reclaim the Slobs from the shallow harbour, a scheme that added thousands of acres of rich land to the county but which had its own setbacks. There were breaches in the embankments which kept out the sea and the banks fronting the South slob remain, to this day, unrepaired after their last collapse in 1935.
But the region retains its unique qualities, with exceptionally rich wild-life - and a history that goes back beyond the Vikings and the Celts to Mesolithic times. In David Rowe (outgoing president of An Taisce) and Chris Wilson (warden of the Wexford Wildfowl Reserve) the Wexford Slobs and harbour have found expert and sympathetic editors of this attractive anthology, to which almost every Wexford writer has contributed.
Coincidentally, slobs had to be dealt with by the builder of the Custom House, Dublin, when he started to lay the foundations in 1781. James Gandon, on seeing the site, said he was "alarmed at the difficulties with which I had to content in having the foundation laid; a vast body of the river water overflowing near a square mile of surface, which portion became always inundated by spring tides".
There was strong opposition at the time to Gandon's choice of site James Napper Tandy was one of those who helped tear down fencing on the grounds that the palisade was an encroachment on the quay. But building continued and the new Custom House was opened in 1791. Its provenance and subsequent history are well told in Hoggers, Lords and Railwaymen, a work researched and compiled by young unemployed men and women of the north inner-city, and edited by Derval O'Carroll and Sean Fitzpatrick. The book was commissioned under the Heritage Programme of the Custom House Docks Development authority in the form of a FAS training scheme. (110 pages; no price given.)
NOT only does the book tell the story of the Custom House but also details interesting aspects of the north inner city, its people, streets and buildings. The "Hoggers" of the title, incidentally, were a group of men who congregated on the North Wall outside the Custom House and who prided themselves on their ability to drink the dregs from empty Guinness barrels left on the quayside.
The Parish of Banagher by Rev Philip Donnelly (published by the author, no price given) is just that - a history of the parish of Banagher in the Diocese of Derry, told by its pastor.
Banagher may have had more than its fair share of trials and tribulations, lying as it does in a troubled frontier region but its provenance of early Christian origins, experiences in war, plantation, famine and resurgence must be common to all Irish parishes. But perhaps not all of those parishes are blessed with the presence and industry of a writer and scholar like Father Donnelly.