Carnsore Point ( or ''Ceann an Chairn'') is a headland in the southeast corner of

County Wexford County Wexford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was ba ...

, Ireland. It marks the southernmost point of the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

, on the western side of

St George's Channel St George's Channel (, ) is a sea channel connecting the Irish Sea to the north and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It separates Wexford on the southeastern corner of Ireland from St Davids in on the southwestern tip of Wales. Origin of nam ...

History

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

's ''

Geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

'' (2nd century AD) described a point called Ιερον (''Hieron'', "sacred promontory") which probably referred to Carnsore Point. Grey Wexford granite from Carnsore Point, as well as

Killiney Hill Killiney Hill () is the southernmost of the two hills which form the southern boundary of Dublin Bay, the other being Dalkey Hill. These two hills form part of Killiney Hill Park. Crowned by a monument, Killiney Hill is 153 metres high and has v ...

, Dublin was used for construction of parts of the

Thames Embankment The Thames Embankment was built as part of the London Main Drainage (1859-1875) by the Metropolitan Board of Works, a pioneering Victorian civil engineering project which housed intercept sewers, roads and underground railways and embanked the ...

in London during the 1800s.

Energy

Cancelled nuclear project

Carnsore was proposed to be the location of a Nuclear Energy Board power plant. If built as proposed in the 1970s, the plant would have produced electricity for the

Electricity Supply Board The Electricity Supply Board (ESB; ) is a state owned (95%; the rest are owned by employees) electricity company based in Ireland with operations worldwide. While historically a monopoly, the ESB now operates as a commercial semi-state concer ...

. First proposed in 1968, the then

Government of Ireland The Government of Ireland () is the executive (government), executive authority of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, headed by the , the head of government. The government – also known as the cabinet (government), cabinet – is composed of Mini ...

gave renewed effort to the plans after the

1973 energy crisis In October 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) announced that it was implementing a total oil embargo against countries that had supported Israel at any point during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which began after E ...

. The plan envisaged one, and eventually four,

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by ...

stations. However, the plan was dropped in the late 1970s after opposition by environmental groups, including the Wexford group the Nuclear Safety Association. The campaign against the proposed plant also gained some international support, including from Petra Kelly, who gave a speech at Carnsore. One activist against the plant who later became notable was

Adi Roche Adi Marie Roche (born 11 July 1955) is an Irish activist, anti-nuclear advocate, and campaigner for peace, humanitarian aid and education. She founded and is CEO of Chernobyl Children's Project International. She has focused on the relief of su ...

, who went on to found Chernobyl Children International. Anti-nuclear groups organised a series of rallies and concerts at Carnsore Point from August 1978 to August 1981. Titled "Get to the Point" and "Back to the Point" respectively, and featuring

Christy Moore Christopher Andrew "Christy" Moore (born 7 May 1945) is an Irish folk singer, songwriter and guitarist. He was one of the founding members of the bands Planxty and Moving Hearts and has had significant success as a solo artist. His first albu ...

as lead act, the concerts were served to bring to public notice the question of nuclear power in Ireland. The British and Irish Communist Organisation, who believed nuclear power was necessary to achieve socialism in Ireland, picketed the first concert.

Wind farm

As of 2002, the

ESB Group The Electricity Supply Board (ESB; ) is a state owned (95%; the rest are owned by employees) electricity company based in Ireland with operations worldwide. While historically a monopoly, the ESB now operates as a commercial semi-state concer ...

proposed to build a

wind farm A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...

in the area. The 12 megawatt wind farm began operations in 2003.

Notes

External links

Nuclear Energy (An Bord Fuinnimh Núicléigh) Act, 1971

(archived 2004) {{coord, 52, 10, 14, N, 6, 21, 20, W, source:kolossus-ukwiki, display=title Headlands of County Wexford Cancelled nuclear power stations Wind farms in the Republic of Ireland