Enniscorthy is the most central of Wexford’s four main towns. Situated on the tidal point of the River Slaney, it has long been a market town with farming and agribusiness at its heart. The town boasted both a wheaten flour mill (Davis’s) and a large maltings up until the 1970s.

One is now derelict, the other a shopping centre. It’s a microcosm of Enniscorthy’s fortunes, where the retail sector faces intense competition from Wexford and Gorey. It has neither the large employers of Wexford, nor the commuter-town status of Gorey.

There are many empty shopfronts around the town, but a resilient core of retail trade remains in a town of over 11,000 inhabitants.

There is a large hub of agribusiness on the Dublin Road side of the town, with Donohoe’s, TFM, and Cooney-Furlong all boasting extensive agri-machinery outlets. The latter two have spent massively on showrooms in recent years. Murphy Concrete Products occupy the old Boortmalt site in Kilcannon, adjacent to TFM.

Mart

Enniscorthy Mart, the largest covered mart in Europe when it opened in the 1960s, still passes a lot of sheep and cattle through its three rings. The Solutions Group, formerly Wexford Farm Relief Services, offers relief labour, contract workers and anchors one of the largest purchasing groups in the country.

Ten per cent of Ireland’s agricultural output comes from Co Wexford, so all these businesses are supporting up to half a billion euros of farming output. While Cooney-Furlong (on the original WFC site) is the only grain merchant remaining in the town, there are a dozen within a 10-mile radius. These range from Tirlán and Boortmalt (assembled through two independent merchants) to a range of family merchants.

Some of these are long established, others are new players. Names like Bolgers, Ballyhamilton Grain, Cooney-Furlong, Cullens, Doyles, Gardiners, Kavanaghs, O’Sullivan and Rothwell (strictly alphabetical order) might mean little on the national stage, but they ensure a unique level of competition for grain purchase, input sales, and provide a wide range of animal feed.

Large hinterland

Indeed, Enniscorthy has a large hinterland, stretching past Ferns and Bunclody northwards, across to the Blackstairs mountains to the west, down towards Clonroche and Oylegate to the south, and past Oulart and Kilmuckridge to the sea along the east.

There are sheep and beef processing plants within its compass, Irish Country Meats outside Ferns and Slaney Foods in Clohamon.

There has also been significant dairy expansion since quotas ended, with most supplying Tirán, although a significant number of former Wexford Creamery suppliers send their milk to Strathroy now. As is typical in a tillage area, there are a number of large pig units.

The historic town of Enniscorthy has always counted farming as the hub of its economy, and that won’t be changing anytime soon.