Dennis Brady

When Brady won with a majority of 28 votes it was a major upset. Only recently had Roman Catholics been allowed to vote (equality of treatment under the law for Catholics had been promised as part of the Act of Union package)  and now there was actually a Roman Catholic Member of Parliament, the first such in Ulster since the time of King James II.

It was a time of relative political stability and the town of Newry was thriving. The new Roman Catholic Cathedral was recently opened and there were new Protestant Churches too. The Union was becoming more accepted if still deeply resented by Catholics and by commercial interests, discriminated against by the ‘Mother Parliament’.

Everything was to change a decade later with the Great Hunger – the defining event of all modern Irish history.