Well everyone had told me to be ready for the “big changes” in Newry…
After all Newry isn’t “the little town” it used to be, but a city now.
There may have been plenty of vehicles on the roads.. and even traffic jams down Hill Street
… but it was the same old Newry to me.
They tried to fool me of course, by adding new fancy buildings and a big hotel.. but the
And no one could have hidden “the factory” (Sweet Afton!!), Catherine Street, Magennis Street ... it was all instantly recognizable…and even the addition of a brand new Courthouse to try to confuse me didn’t work for a minute, either…
Home will always be home, no matter what they try to do to it! And walking down Hill Street, and running into familiar faces..
.. seeing Kathleen and Doris O’Hagan.. looking just the same to me as when we were all living in Magennis Street long ago, and having a little chat with them…
..sitting with my cousin Gerard and his wife Anne in their lovely house with the cousins.. still the same as it always was.
Phyllis holding another baby, just like she was doing long ago when I last saw her. Just another addition to our family chain. Going to visit my brother Derek and his wife Rhoda and laughing and being happy like we had never been apart…
..that feeling of seeing people you are always going to be family with, even if the years carry you apart…
..even the cup of tea I drank at Gerard and Anne’s house.. it tasted like the same cup of tea I drank there when my aunt Alice and uncle Michael were there…
..looking at my cousins Josephine and Theresa, and still seeing the faces as I remembered them..unchanged… causing me to remember that their mother was my beautiful aunt Josie….knowing I am part of them too…
..well, it was just that same comfy, cozy feeling “of home” that nothing and no one can ever take away…
..and the walk through the graveyard .. where my parents, my aunts and uncles are all buried ..
..everyone just where they should be…
..my memories of Newry are secure, safe and sound, and tucked away…never to be changed or altered because of a few shopping malls, or the changes that time makes.
In my mind and in my heart,
NEWRY IS EXACTLY AS IT WAS, WHEN I WAS A CHILD…
bernadette manley
I left newry in 1960 did not get back for 20 years but now i try to get back every 3 years and enjoy newry so much love to go to the shellbourne and have the best of coffee and buns then walk down towards the markets maybe buy a Cd of good music in carlins music shop then awalk over to ballybout call in to see Ramond Kinney in his little flat then off towards monahan street check out gormans Barbers shop called saloons these days look at my watch time for another coffee No towns do not change in general differnt shops selling much the same things buildings changed but the town is still in the same place canal still the same maybe differnt water differnt swans and the thing that has nrver changed is the people In general still ultra friendly tom wharton