I have just spent two wonderful weeks in Newry with my Mum Bridie, as I have done many times during the past thirty-two years. This time was much like any other; the same laid-back time, same views from my bed-room window. The only difference is the size of this wonderful town, I mean city! It is forever growing and the thing we call progress is very evident. All great things and more to come.
John McCullagh
Wartime Smuggling
Smuggling reached a peak in the War years. The British enforced a blockade of the ports of the neutral Irish Free State and consequently there were many items available to us in the North that were not for sale in the South. It cut the other way too! Things were not requisitioned there for the war effort. For example they had plenty of cloth and the Dromintee pahvee came into his own.
Free Cod Liver Oil!
Remember the time when every home had a cupboard with a shelf containing the ‘medicines’? These consisted of a bottle of iodine, syrup of figs, castor oil and a packet of Beecham’s pills (or powders).
Unapproved Roads
You can recall the time of the ‘unapproved border crossing roads’? Large signs were erected, with the legend: ‘motor traffic between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State is prohibited on this road’.
Wan Hung Loo
The Hol Ches Mingin Hospital disclaimed responsibility at once.
Indeed Matron seemed almost to gloat about the poor woman’s predicament.
Priestly Power Again
But the powers of the priest of old were much greater than that, as Blind Jimmy McCreesh cud tell ye!
Creggan Poets
You have gotten used to the placid view of Creggan Churchyard. Still used today as the burial place of those of both faiths in the neighbourhood, it is celebrated rightly as the final home of the last bards of the twilight age of the old Gaelic order in the Kingdom of the Fews.
Newry Mitchels GAC
The John Mitchel Gaelic Athletic Club in Newry was formed by a group of enthusiasts back in the late 50’s. Gerry Brown of Clanrye Avenue, a Physical Education teacher at the Abbey Grammar was its first Chairman and under his expert guidance the new club attained immediate success with a number of notable championships.