Last Parish in the British Empire

A small town or a city is the centre of the universe, for most of us - a place where experience overruns all boundaries in space and time. Greystones emerged from a fishery in the Nineteenth century, thanks to its natural deepwater harbour. When the railroad reached down the coast from Dublin to Wexford, it became a holiday resort and a refuge for middle-class Protestants in retreat as their political power slipped from them to the nationalists. Even so, after five centuries of British...
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A small town or a city is the centre of the universe, for most of us - a place where experience overruns all boundaries in space and time. Greystones emerged from a fishery in the Nineteenth century, thanks to its natural deepwater harbour. When the railroad reached down the coast from Dublin to Wexford, it became a holiday resort and a refuge for middle-class Protestants in retreat as their political power slipped from them to the nationalists. Even so, after five centuries of British occupation and long after Ireland was declared a Republic, the Union Jack still flew from the harbour flagstaff and the village was mocked by republicans as "The Last Parish in the British Empire." This is the first of a series of short episodes about the town's development and its people during its first one hundred and fifty years.