Fethard-on-Sea

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Fethard-on-Sea is a village situated in south-west County Wexford, Ireland on the eastern side of the base of the Hook peninsula in the parish of Templetown. Fethard-on-Sea is often associated with the Fethard-on-Sea Boycott.

Baginbun Bay, slightly southeast of Fethard-on-Sea, is the site of Norman-era earthworks and fortifications.[1]

In May 1957, Fethard-on-Sea found itself embroiled in controversy related to the Ne Temere decree. The Roman Catholic priest Father Stafford and his parishioners started a sectarian boycott of Protestant-owned local businesses; a Protestant music teacher lost 12 of her 13 pupils, and the Catholic teacher of the local Protestant school was forced to resign. The boycott was in response to the actions of a Protestant woman, Sheila Kelly Cloney. Cloney had left both her Catholic husband, Sean Cloney, and the village, taking her two daughters, rather than sending them to the local National (Catholic) School as Father Stafford demanded. The boycott received national and international coverage through the summer (some TDs regarded this as a case of kidnapping [2]), before ending that autumn[3].

In 1998, the diocese's bishop publicly apologized for the boycott.[4]

A movie, A Love Divided (1999) was made about the Cloney family, starring Irish actress Orla Brady as Sheila Cloney.

See also: Hook Head