Adamstown, Maigh Arnaí, Co. Wexford

Maigh Arnaí · Co. Wexford

A village, two pubs, a show on the first Saturday of July.

Adamstown sits in the middle of County Wexford, well off the N11, well off the N25 - the kind of village you only end up in if you meant to. The Irish name is Maigh Arnaí, the plain of the berries, which is one of those place-names that turned out to be a prophecy. This is strawberry country. The Wexford strawberry industry, the roadside huts you see all over the south-east in summer, traces back through here.

There isn't much to the village itself: a church, a primary school, a secondary school, a GAA pitch, a community centre, two pubs, a shop. That's a fuller list than a lot of villages this size can manage. For most of the year nothing in particular happens. On the first Saturday in July the whole place fills up for the agricultural show, which has been going since the 1940s and is the kind of country show that still does cattle classes, baking competitions and a vintage tractor parade in the same field.

The other thing worth knowing is the GAA. Adamstown plays as St. Abban's, a 1969 amalgamation with Newbawn and Raheen, named after the local 7th-century saint. The pitch is the social centre of the parish most weekends. If you want to understand what holds a village this size together, that and the two pubs is most of the answer.

Coords

52.4083° N, 6.7333° W

01 / 06

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The crossroads

Inland Wexford, off the main roads.

Roughly equidistant from New Ross, Enniscorthy and Wexford town - 20-odd kilometres from each. A church, two pubs, a school, a shop, a GAA pitch.

Getting there → 02 The show

First Saturday in July.

The Adamstown Agricultural Show is the day the village fills up. Cattle, horses, baking, vegetables, show jumping, vintage tractors. Running since the late 1940s.

Stories → 03 Strawberry country

Where Wexford strawberries started.

Paddy Moore of Adamstown was, by most accounts, the first commercial berry grower in Wexford - wrapping fruit in newspaper and cycling it to New Ross in the 1930s. The county hasn't stopped since.

Stories →

02 / 06

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

Brad Ógs

Local, no frills

Village pub & takeaway

One of the two pubs in the village. A bar at the front, a chipper attached. Pints and a bag of chips on the way home is the standard order.

Cullens Bar

Locals, sport on

Village pub

The other pub. Match days for St. Abban's are the busy ones. Otherwise quiet, the way a village pub on a Tuesday is supposed to be.

03 / 06

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

A bicycle to New Ross, 1930s

Paddy Moore and the strawberries

Paddy Moore of Adamstown is generally credited as the first commercial berry grower in County Wexford. In the 1930s he wrapped strawberries in newspaper to keep them from bruising and cycled them to New Ross to sell. The Second World War cut off English imports, the Irish market opened up, and the growers around Adamstown, Enniscorthy and Wellingtonbridge scaled up to fill it. At its peak there were more than a thousand berry growers in the county. The roadside strawberry huts that mark the start of summer in the south-east are the long tail of that one bicycle.

First Saturday in July, since 1949

The agricultural show

The Adamstown Agricultural Show has been running since the late 1940s - the 2025 edition was the 76th. It's a one-day country show on the first Saturday of July: cattle, horses, sheep, show jumping, horticulture, home produce, baking, arts and crafts, vintage tractors and trade stands. Not a festival in the tourism-board sense. A show in the older sense - the kind farming parishes ran themselves long before anyone thought to put them on a website.

Three villages, one club, 1969

St. Abban's and the parish

Hurling and football were played around Adamstown, Newbawn and Raheen long before the GAA was founded in 1884. In 1969 the three villages amalgamated their clubs into Naomh Abán Maigh Arnaí - St. Abban's Adamstown - named after the 7th-century saint who founded a monastery, Magheranoidhe, in the area around 600 AD. The same saint gives his name to the parish church. A castle was built here in 1418 by Adam Devereux, the family the village is named for, and rebuilt by Nicholas Devereux in 1556. The estate passed to the Earl of Albemarle and then the Downes family. Most of that is gone now. The church, the pitch and the parish name remain.

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Quiet. Lambs in the fields, the strawberry tunnels going in. The first roadside huts open around the May bank holiday.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Show day is the first Saturday in July - if you only come once, come then. Strawberry season runs through August.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Nothing in particular happening. Fine if you are passing. Not a reason to drive over.

◐ Mind yourself

Winter

Nov-Feb

A pint by the fire and a GAA match if there is one on. Otherwise dark and quiet.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Coming for the village itself

Adamstown is a working country village, not a day-trip destination. Come for the show, the strawberries, or the pint after the match - not the sightseeing.

Looking for a sit-down restaurant

There isn't one. The chipper at Brad Ógs is the food in the village. Enniscorthy and New Ross are 20 minutes away in opposite directions.

Show day without parking patience

The first Saturday in July is the one day Adamstown has a parking problem. Walk the last bit. Everyone else does.