The Fethard-on-Sea Boycott was a notorious event in Irish history. In 1957, Sheila Cloney, the Protestant wife of a Catholic farmer, fled her home with her children. Associates of Ian Paisley hid Sheila and her children in Belfast before eventually getting them to Scotland. Sheila Cloney left the Wexford village after refusing to bow to the demands of the local Catholic clergy to educate her daughter as Catholics. In response, the priests launched a boycott of Fethard's Protestant shopkeepers and farmers.
Tim Fanning tells Ciarán Dunbar the story of Sheila Cloney of the boycott of Protestants in Fethard-on-Sea.
","author_name":"Belfast Telegraph"}