Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
And NOW for something special - Cannonballs from Rosslare Fort/Strand, Co. Wexford
Here is a recording I made with a man called Micheál Delaney back in Sept 2017 that I never edited up. It's a chat I recorded in his yard where he was showing me his collection of cannonballs that were fired out to sea off Rosslare Fort/Strand in Co. Wexford sometime in the 19th century.
Basically, the razor clam boats from Wexford Town were pulling them up by accident from the sea bed, where they were completely encrusted with shells, sand and stone. It is believed they were practice fired from the former naval training station at Rosslare Strand or at the nearby Rosslare Fort in the mid to late 19th century.
The fishermen didn't know what to do with them and Micheál built up a collection of them. From what I can see many of these ended up as ornaments in peoples gardens or worse, sold as scrap. These are solid, weighting 13.3kg, with no gun-powder inside. A small clatter of a hammer literally cracked away the crusted shell and revealed a perfectly preserved cannonball. I have two at home myself that I got in a scrap yard however Micheál's collection is a little bit more impressive than mine.
It's a short clip but worth a look and you don't see this type of history very often.
Text: Michael Fortune
And NOW for something special - Cannonballs from Rosslare Fort/Strand, Co. Wexford
Here is a recording I made with a man called Micheál Delaney back in Sept 2017 that I never edited up. It's a chat I recorded in his yard where he was showing me his collection of cannonballs that were fired out to sea off Rosslare Fort/Strand in Co. Wexford sometime in the 19th century.
Basically, the razor clam boats from Wexford Town were pulling them up by accident from the sea bed, where they were completely encrusted with shells, sand and stone. It is believed they were practice fired from the former naval training station at Rosslare Strand or at the nearby Rosslare Fort in the mid to late 19th century.
The fishermen didn't know what to do with them and Micheál built up a collection of them. From what I can see many of these ended up as ornaments in peoples gardens or worse, sold as scrap. These are solid, weighting 13.3kg, with no gun-powder inside. A small clatter of a hammer literally cracked away the crusted shell and revealed a perfectly preserved cannonball. I have two at home myself that I got in a scrap yard however Micheál's collection is a little bit more impressive than mine.
It's a short clip but worth a look and you don't see this type of history very often.
Text: Michael Fortune
