Anyway, nowhere are the misnumbered addresses more evident than in Clanrye Avenue.

Clanrye Avenue begins as you enter the Meadow Road (such an address does not exist but everyone knows where it is!) opposite the Postal Sorting Office, continues on both sides of that road to include The Bungalows, past The Meadow Shops and on down the short incline opposite the ‘phone box’ and round to the left opposite the first few houses of Orior Road. There are also two houses and a few flats down the loanan to ‘The Hut’ – which doesn’t exist any more. In all that stretch there are only six two-storey houses – the rest are flats (excepting the small old-people’s bungalows at the start of the Meadow Road).

The sixteen houses that presently occupy the old Plaits (and McClelland’s enclosure) are also bungalows primarily for senior citizens. They are called Clanrye Park.

So what’s the numbering sequence above? Well, the first house (O P bungalow) opposite the Sorting Office is numbered 70 and the countdown begins there and continues until you meet the large block flats (where Maurice Kane, and Peter Quinn, for two examples presently live.) These are directly opposite the Swimming Pool (which also has a Clanrye Avenue address though I don’t know what number!) and are numbered rising from Number 22. The smaller numbers below that constitute The (Aluminium) Bungalows which were originally Orlit houses.

The ‘last’ two houses were originally those of the Berrys and the McConvilles, 55 and 56 respectively. 57 is 300 metres back, adjacent to Number 22. Is that all clear now?

Anyway you are more interested in the people than in the houses so here is a list of former residents.

We were unable to detail the residents of Clanrye Avenue at any one period of time, but the following list includes an estimated year of occupancy for each named tenant. 

 

23 Clanrye Avenue	James Downey	1953
24 Clanrye Avenue	Hubert Toal	1953
25 Clanrye Avenue	J Trundle	1953
26 Clanrye Avenue	S Hazlett	1953
29 Clanrye Avenue	J White	1953
30 Clanrye Avenue	R McClure	1953
39 Clanrye Avenue	W Bann	1953
40 Clanrye Avenue	M Devine	1953
41 Clanrye Avenue	F Sommerville	1953
42 Clanrye Avenue	Alan Whitlock	1953
43 Clanrye Avenue	William Taylor	1953
44 Clanrye Avenue	Eugene Connor	1953
50 Clanrye Avenue	Patrick Quinn	1953
51 Clanrye Avenue	Sydney Noble	1953
51C Clanrye Avenue	Mary Duffy	1953
57 Clanrye Avenue	Cissie McAteer	1972
58 Clanrye Avenue	Mary Pearse	1978
60 Clanrye Avenue	Margaret Hughes
62 Clanrye Avenue	Lillian Gray	1972
63 Clanrye Avenue	Robert McGivern	1971
64 Clanrye Avenue	Isabella Hughes	1972
65 Clanrye Avenue	Patrick Burns	1972
67 Clanrye Avenue	Mary Brothers	1972
68 Clanrye Avenue	Evelyn Hollywood	1967
5 Clanrye Avenue	Bernard Larkin	1964
6 Clanrye Avenue	Kathleen McNulty	1968
7 Clanrye Avenue	Richard Harte	1968
8 Clanrye Avenue	Patrick McCambley	1968
9 Clanrye Avenue	Matthew Kelly	1968
10 Clanrye Avenue	Robert McGrath	1968
11 Clanrye Avenue	Teresa Murphy	1968
12 Clanrye Avenue	Brendan Carroll	1968
13 Clanrye Avenue	Daniel O’Callaghan	1968
14 Clanrye Avenue	Margaret Doran	1968
15 Clanrye Avenue	C Miller	1968
16 Clanrye Avenue	Peter Mooney	1968
17 Clanrye Avenue	James O’Hare	1966
18 Clanrye Avenue	Rosina McShane	1969
19 Clanrye Avenue	Isobella McCullough	1968
20 Clanrye Avenue	Michael Clarke	1968
21 Clanrye Avenue	A Humphrey	1953
22 Clanrye Avenue	R C Farron	1953
27 Clanrye Avenue	F Brown	1953
28 Clanrye Avenue	Peter Mooney	1953
31 Clanrye Avenue	G Mulholland	1953
32 Clanrye Avenue	William Heaney	1953
33 Clanrye Avenue	T Aiken	1953
34 Clanrye Avenue	R Campbell	1953
37A Clanrye Avenue	E Twining	1953
37B Clanrye Avenue	J Dalzell	1953
47 Clanrye Avenue	R Caldwell	1953
51B Clanrye Avenue	A Murnin	1953
51D Clanrye Avenue	T O’Hanlon	1953
52 Clanrye Avenue	S Henning	1953
53 Clanrye Avenue	A Littlewood	1953
54A Clanrye Avenue	Josephine McMahon	1953
54B Clanrye Avenue	Margaret Rice	1953
54C Clanrye Avenue	Helen Scott	1953
54D Clanrye Avenue	Elizabeth Galloghy	1953
55 Clanrye Avenue	John Barry	1953
56 Clanrye Avenue	Francis McConville	1953
59 Clanrye Avenue	Susan Tumilty
61 Clanrye Avenue	Edith Gallagher
66 Clanrye Avenue	Winifred Keeley	1967
69 Clanrye Avenue	Patrick McElroy
70 Clanrye Avenue	Elizabeth Shevlin	1971

 …………..

I cannot vouch for the total accuracy of the above list but I’d be glad to receive corrections. I am aware that some addresses are missing.

It must be understood that 57-70 (the O P bungalows) were the last to be built. Of course Clanrye Park was later still, but it’s not Clanrye Avenue.

The occupants of The Bungalows are elsewhere listed on this site and you may wish to compare and contrast, from different eras. When we were young many of these were our friends and playmates, for example Paddy, Mickey, Emmett McCambley, the Larkins, Millars, McGraths, Murphys, Clarkes and so on. I think I knew someone from every one of those bungalows. The most celebrated was Councillor Tommy McGrath. That’s his father (Red Robbie) listed at Number 10 in 1968. Peter Mooney I seem to recall, worked in Magowan Printers: at least one son presently works for The Council.

In our time Number 34 was occupied by the O’Loughlin family – who have been on this site before! Today one of the (Derrybeg Drive) McEvoy girls is married and living there. The following block housed the Housing Trust office (where our rent could be paid), Donaghy’s shop, a flat above where the Agnews (one girl a real ‘looker’) lived, and then Crawley’s grocery shop. The flat at 42, where Alan Whitlock is listed, later housed a Sister Collins who worked in Daisy Hill Hospital.

As well as the flats at each corner, the last U shaped block included (to the river side) 50 where Gerry Quinn lived with his family (Joan was a daughter) and 51 (nearest The Hut) which then was Sidney Nobles (today it’s Johnny Carroll).  50 today is occupied by McAleaveys. Father Oliver Mooney was brought up here, with his younger sister Joan.  To the front was Brian and Maureen Donagheys and the Trundles (Bernie lived there until quite recent years). Round the corner, as I said, were the Berrys (Gerry had a wife Eileen and children Ann (now in Canada), Catherine (Dublin) Nicky, John and twin girls Mary and Margaret): and Frank McConville (porter in DHH) whose children were Paul, Martin (teacher) Cecelia and Anna.

That’s enough for now, surely!