In an exclusive interview with The Echo Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams described Wexford as a county “devastated by emigration” with thousands of its young people now “scattered around the globe and limited to Skype”.
Speaking ahead of his presidential address on Saturday night at the party’s Ard Fheis, which was the first ever political conference to be held at the Wexford Opera House, the party leader said that he didn’t realise the extent of emigration out of the model county until this weekend.
“I didn’t realise just how bad it is, but it’s apparent that the rural areas are being quite literally disseminated,” said Mr Adams.
He added: “It’s certainly worse here than in the big cities like Dublin, that much is clear.”
The often-controversial figurehead also empathised with the family of murdered Garda Detective Seamus Quaid who was shot dead while on duty by former IRA volunteer Peter Rodgers by saying that “they have suffered a grievous loss”.
Referring to the family’s decision to remove a plaque in memory of the late Garda from the Opera House, Mr Adams said that the family were “fully entitled to have done so and they did it with grace and dignity.”
But he maintained strongly that the affair had “nothing to do with the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis.”

Full interview in this week’s Wexford Echo