10 Feature HISTORY EMBRACES US EVERY DAY IN WEXFORD In the first of a four-part series on Irelands walled towns, we visit Wexford, where history is quite literally in peoples back gardens ByRositaBoland I f Billy Colfer talked to you about history, youd sit up and listen, Paul Walsh tells me. Walsh is walking me around Wexford towns historic walls, which he knows so well that he regularly leads walking tours under the name of WexWalks. He is telling me why he first became interested in history. One of his primary school teachers was Billy Colfer, father of childrens writer Eoin Colfer, who made the past come vividly alive to his young pupils, including Walsh. Colfer died in 2013, but his inspirational legacy endures, not least through the definitive history books he wrote about Wexford. Even today, if there is some argument about anything to do with Wexford, well look it up, and if its in a Billy Book, we take that as the truth, Walsh says. After the Vikings arrival in the ninth century, the Anglo-Normans came in the 12th century. They built Wexfords walls. There were originally 1.2km of wall. There are about 800m left now, Walsh says. The stones were quarried locally and would have been brought in by horse and cart. Wexford once had six fortified public gates. None survives, but the heavily restored Westgate Tower, a private 13th-century gateway to Selskar Abbey, is the towns last medieval gateway. Perhaps surprisingly, Wexfords historic walls are mostly to be found Nextweek,parttwo: Derry where most people probably dont look too attentively at them, chiefly in car parks dotted around the town and in their gardens. At the Mary Street car park, the South Main Street car park and others where Walsh walks me, modern vehicles are parked up alongside medieval walls. The challenge for any built heritage is how modern life can develop around it, while still preserving as much of the past as possible. The garden of the towns lovely airy library, for instance, backs on to part of its medieval wall. A lot of people have stuff like this in their back yard, Walsh says as we walk around the garden. I ask what awareness he had growing up of the historic significance of the walls. THE IRISH TIMES Weekend Saturday, August 1, 2026 When youre a kid, you just kind of accept whats around you. Its not that you dont care about it, you just take it for granted. One couple who did not grow up in Wexford, and whose garden ends at the town wall, are Swiss-born André Tschan and his wife, Colleen. They live on Abbey Street with their two cats, Mis and Chief, who like to nap perilously high atop the ancient walls. Some people said to us that it must be like living in a prison, that all you see out the back is this huge wall, André jokes. The couple, former and current punk-rockers, had been looking for somewhere to retire to other than within Zurich and landlocked Switzerland. It was a toss up between Wexford and Nova Scotia, and Wexford won out. The two met by chance on New Years Eve in Londons Trafalgar Square in the early 1980s. André had just broken up with a girlfriend, and Colleen, seeing he looked sad and it being New Years Eve, went over to chat to him. They have been together ever since. André is a former archaeologist, as well as a co-author of art and music books, a record label operator and exhibition curator. Their Abbey Street home, which used to be a doctors surgery, is a work of art in itself, full of beautifully curated vintage furniture, art and all kinds of objects. When we first looked at this house, you didnt actually see the wall because it was so grown over, Colleen says. Prior to their purchase of the house, an extension to facilitate pa- Clockwisefrom above:PaulWalsh regularlyleads walkingtours aroundWexfords historicwalls (below);thewallat theRobert BrennanMemorial Park,Abbey Street,Wexford; PeterHusseyat theWestgatearea andWallyONeill stocksaselection ofWexfordhistory booksinRed Books. Photographs: NickBradshaw When youre a kid, you just kind of accept whats around you. Its not that you dont care, you just take it for granted tients to the surgery ran right up to the back of the wall. They removed this when renovating the property. The idea of being inside the town walls was an amazing thing; a privilege to live in a place where its ancient wall is the back wall of your garden. For me it is about cultural continuity, André says. About all the people who have come before us and engaged with the wall, or approached the wall for their needs. It is a bit of a memento mori, we are only custodians. History embraces us every day. Colleen points out that they own their house, but they dont own the wall. The wall is an Irish national monument, she adds. Both of them are unsure who owns the wall, or who holds responsibility for its maintenance. The local council? The OPW? They wonder if public access is required before a State body can repair or restore or maintain a historic monument. They have asked locally, but there doesnt seem to be any clear answer. I dont think anyone wants to claim ownership because the wall costs money to maintain if it gets overgrown, André says. A few doors down the street is their neighbour, Peter Hussey, former manager of the towns flagship Whites Hotel. The Husseys have lived in their 1830s home for half a century, and share the same section of medieval wall that the Tschans do. Their domestic washing line is fixed to the wall. We know from the deed of the house that it was built on the sparrows DavidSedarisontheseriousbusinessofcomedy.Page8 WalledtownsofIreland:RositaBolandvisitsWexford.Page10 PatrickFreyne:GlenHansardwasIrelandsbandleader.Page5 WEEKEND THE IRISH TIMES Saturday, August 1st, 2026 A WOUND IS HEALED Afterdecadesofheartbreakandnearmisses, Mayofinallyhasitsmomentinthesun By 2 Cover story A HOUSE OF PAIN NO MORE MayosAll-Irelandtriumphreleased75yearsof pent-upemotioninoneunforgettableafternoon ByKeithDuggan M acHale Park in Castlebar has always been best suited to those Saturday-night matches in winter, when the season is young and the promise uncontained. An ideal Cover story meme, the jokes came thick and fast. Through all that, Mayo footballers and supporters never shied away from speaking about it, nor returning to All-Ireland finals. Maybe we make too much of the football, Fr Leo Morahan, the former county board executive, said back in 2007. Mayo has the 4 Cover story 2004, when he was beginning his sec- ond term as Mayo manager. By September, he had the county back in an All-Ireland final, when Kerry defeated his young team. Like most GAA counties, the network of names and connections within Mayo football are impossibly dense: you could fill the People GLEN HANSARD WAS OUR NATIONAL BARD TheFramesfrontmanwasIrelandsbandleader, anditfeltlikehewouldbedoingthejobfor alongtime ByPatrickFreyne I n the 1990s, I wasnt convinced by The Frames. They felt a bit mainstream. A bit major label. I was a young idiot. Later, a friend convinced me that I 6 Music THE PIANIST WHO PLAYS WITH ONE HAND ONLY Freya Terris is the first pianist to pass their Grade 8 piano exam playing solely with their left hand ByJohnOConnor L ike countless other young musicians, Freya Terris discovered her love of music at the piano stool. Yet her journey has been anyt People 7 Fearkeptmefrom doingwhatIreally wantedtodoorsay Q&ARevJanetBroderick The Donegal-based priest on childhood games with her brother actor Matthew Broderick, how people react when she preaches sermons, and who could play her in a biopic Howagreeableareyou? I think life has made me agreeable 8 Interview I DONT LIKE EXTREMISTS. BUT I FIND THEM THRILLING AS CHARACTERS TheUSwriterandhumouristtalksabouttheseriousbusinessofbeingfunny onthepageandathislivereadings ByPatrickFreyne WEEKEND INTERVIEW DAVID SEDARIS A few days after I interview David Sedaris, I receive a thank-you postcard fe Interview 9 I just tried to get through my days [at school] without being found out as gay. Im 69, so no one even really imagined then that anyone could be anything that awful back then DavidSedaris: Idontknowhow tobuyaplane ticket.Idontopen anymailthat doesntlooklike fanmail. Photograph: Leonardo 10 Feature HISTORY EMBRACES US EVERY DAY IN WEXFORD In the first of a four-part series on Irelands walled towns, we visit Wexford, where history is quite literally in peoples back gardens ByRositaBoland I f Billy Colfer talked to you about history, youd sit up and listen, Paul Walsh tells me. W Feature field. We discovered that Sparrow was a surname of ship owners back in the 1830s, Hussey says. Hussey brings me out into their back garden to show me where, more than a century ago, a house was built against the other side of their wall. The medieval wall thus became a party wall. It towers 12 Photo essay Formedtotacklethe siltingissueintheriver Liffey,thereservenow extendstotheentirety ofthebay WILD AT HEART Photographs: DaraMacDónaill andEndaODowd Words: EndaODowd O f the 797 Unesco biosphere reserves across 147 countries, Dublin Bay is the only one to include a national capital Photo essay DublinsNorth BullIsland,partof theDublinBay Unescobiosphere reserve,isnow hometo180 differentspeciesof bird.However, conservationists warnthat,asworks tostopcoastal erosionareerected alongthecoastline, theirlong-term impactonthe ecologyand landscapemaybe difficulttopredict. Photographs: 14 Feature TWINS PEAK WERE PROBABLY MIRROR IMAGES OF EACH OTHER Whetheritsthehighsofalwayshavingcompanyor thelowsofsensingtheotherspain,thebestpartof beingatwinisneverbeingstuckforafriend ByJenHogan I relands birth rate may be falling, but the incidence of twin births continues to rise, with al Feature 15 Its sometimes fun and its sometimes not, because they could steal your stuff had a friend beside you. In fact, the twins only really went their separate ways when they went to college and that was a major shock, Emma says. Rebecca says there are lots of upsides to being a twin, but the T 16 Essay he vintage front page shows a street full of Dublin holidaymakers smiling at the camera, sitting on the kerb, waiting for the bus in the sun. But these early queues soon dissipated. Bank holiday spoiled by weather, announces the reusable headline. The citys thoroughfares were WEEKEND E Essay 17 Governments might fancy deploying bank holidays to foster cohesion and goodwill, but that doesnt mean everybody has to play along crashing out of the Fifa World Cup was that Friday, July 24th, became the bank holiday that never was. Would Keir Starmers mooted last act have applied across 18 Feature BE LIKE JOHN LENNON AND BUY AN IRISH ISLAND Four islands for sale off Mayo, Donegal, Tipperary and Galway, with bidding starting at 299,000 ByJessicaDoyle W hen you attract screaming fans everywhere you go, what do you do to get some peace and quiet? You buy an island, of course. Tha People 19 SARAH MOSS Teenage dieting made me an expert in mental arithmetic I bofin. It is suitable for grazing and features two natural freshwater lakes. The island measures 1.2km by 0.4km and rises to a maximum height of 63.3m above sea level. It is a Special Protection Area under the EU Bird 20 Environment TOMAÍ Ó CONGHAILE Our beautiful, troubled planet needs a skilled reconciler T he World Cup may be over but the fallout continues: Trumps unwanted interventions; Germanys early exit; football not coming home; Argentinas post-final petulance. Not to mention, of course, that banner. Environment 21 British navy, spent several days imprisoned in the Tower of London on corruption charges, and died of smallpox before reaching 40. Initially, a strait running between the two main islands was named after him and, by 1765, the Falkland Islands had become the English name for the entire 22 Obituaries FIRST WOMAN DIRECTOR OF A NATIONAL INSTITUTION, LIBRARIAN AND ACADEMIC Patricia (Pat, Patsy) Donlon Born: January 28th, 1943 Died: July 23rd, 2026 Patricia (Pat, Patsy) Donlon, who has died peacefully aged 83 at Blackrock Hospice, Dublin, was a leading light in that remarkable generat Obituaries 23 RENOWNED ORNITHOLOGIST AND COMIC ACTOR WHO STARRED IN THE GOODIES Bill Oddie BillOddiewasamemberofcomedy trioTheGoodies,whoseanarchicTV sketchshowairedinthe1970sand 1980s.Photograph:IanGavan/Getty Born: July 7th, 1941 Died: July 25th, 2026 Bill Oddie, who has died aged 85, was a mul 24 Last word DAVID McWILLIAMS ThefirstvictimofAI? Theeconomy W e are in an era of great technological advances, or so say all the tech bros who are championing not just AI, but a whole host of technological innovations from finance and healthcare to supply chain management and communications. In