There is only one challenge greater than building a bridge and that is naming it!
Wexford and Kilkenny are set for unification across the River Barrow via the longest bridge in Ireland at 887 metres and local authorities on both sides of the estuary have different ideas on what nameis best suited to the engineering masterpiece that will serve traffic for generations.
Last May the public was asked to make submissions and the response was less than overwhelming – 142 valid submissions from Co. Wexford and 71 from Kilkenny. In total 77 different names were suggested.
Topping the poll was Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (27), in favour of honouring President Kennedy’s mother; 17 went for Pink Rock Bridge, a well-known spot south of New Ross on the Kilkenny side of the river that was best known to mariners for centuries; and 16 sided with William Marshal, the Norman founder of New Ross.

What the new bridge over the River Barrow will look like, but what name will it be called?

Recently, public representatives of New Ross Municipal District Council and Piltown Municipal District Council had a meeting on the matter and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Bridge was the preferred by a small majority.
Fourteen members of both councils will meet for the final time on Wednesday, October 3rd, in the Rhu Glen Hotel in Slieverue, and after a two-year saga, the new bridge will finally be named.
Taking into account tourism promotion, this unique part of Co. Wexford has already established the Kennedy brand as a world leader and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy would keep alive the traditional ‘Irish mother’ legacy associated with the famine which was the precursor to the Kennedy’s becoming one of the most famous families in United States history.