A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
Fearna· Irish · main form · validated name
Ferns· English · main form
Place & story
A royal settlement and a Norman fortress
Before the arrival of the Anglo-Normans, Ferns was the political base of Diarmait Mac Murchada, king of Leinster. The surviving castle belongs to the thirteenth century and originally had a square plan with substantial corner towers. Only part of that arrangement survives, but the most complete tower retains fireplaces, a vaulted basement and a circular chapel. The castle thus represents a later phase in a place already important to Gaelic kingship. Nearby ecclesiastical remains provide further evidence of the political and religious institutions concentrated in the settlement.[2]
Carved stone and embroidered history
The chapel in the castle's southeast tower has a rib-vaulted ceiling, carved heads and small cupboards for sacred vessels, with decorative stone brought from Dundry near Bristol. A much later community project interprets the town's earlier history in another material. The Ferns Tapestry comprises twenty-five panels of crewel embroidery, worked over more than five years. Its scenes follow the town from Saint Aidan's traditional arrival to the coming of the Normans. The embroidery is a modern interpretation made by local stitchers, alongside the surviving medieval fabric.[3]
Folklore & tradition
The load of stones on Slieve Bui
Patrick Kennedy's Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts records a tale in which Saint Mogue builds his cathedral in a single night. As dawn approaches, a woman calls out to question how little has been done. The saint drops his arms, the workers stop and a grey horse tips its final load of stones on Slieve Bui. The narrator points to the hillside stones as an explanation for the unfinished cathedral. Kennedy also identifies a related belief, current in the Duffrey, that Ferns's bells could not be heard across the stream. These are recorded storytelling traditions, distinct from the construction history of the surviving buildings.[4]
Both counts use the 2016 settlement boundary, allowing like-for-like comparison. CSO supplies the 2022 count on this older boundary for comparison only. The official 2022 Built Up Area has different boundaries.
View population figures
Ferns — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 2006 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
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Ferns, Wexford — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 1996 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Ferns, Wexford — Census town, CSO 1996 report — census population
Figures cover the historical town area printed in the 1986 report. Boundaries may have changed between censuses. Legal town, environs and suburb totals remain separate and differ from modern settlement boundaries.
View population figures
Ferns, Wexford — Census town, CSO 1986 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Ferns, Wexford
Published census settlement populations
1,415people · 2016
Settlement boundaries changed during this period. Differences may reflect boundary changes as well as population change. Where a 2011 legal-town-and-environs count is shown, it has not been recalculated onto the 2016 settlement boundary.
placenames