Those of us less skilled on the playing field got more than our fair share of time to practice such extra-curricular activities, the most enjoyable of which (apart from ‘coourting’ for the teenagers) centred on the nearby river. I remember in later adult life being ‘introduced’ to the sport of ‘bouldering’. To the uninitiated, this involves pursuing a river towards its source, both along its banks and, more often, using stepping stones or ‘boulders’ to advance one’s progress. In the modern adult version, one is practically obliged to frequently fall in and get soaked.
John McCullagh
Slideshow: Aerial 63: Part 2
By 1963 the Livestock market on Patick Street was discontinued, the site serving as a car park. Note the Tech was not yet constructed, and of course, the Sports Centre. Other views are of Monaghan St, Edward St, Chequer Hill, Cecil Street, Pound Road, John Martin Gardens etc.
Slideshow: Aerial 63: Part 3
Apologies for the unwarranted lines on the left of one of these photos. Shown, in addition to the Town Centre, are Meadow/Clanrye estate, Priory Crescent/Chapel Street, Mercy Home and Old Chapel, O’Neill Avenue. Hope you enjoy seeing all of them!
Aerial views of Newry 1963
These photos show some parts of Newry, as it was forty years ago. The five views are of; the Bridge Street region; Dublin Road as Glenvale Park was being built; The first row of Barcroft Park and Raymond Kelly Park; Market Square; and Abbey Grammar and Masters House, two years before the new Grammar opened.
Meadow: Pitch and Toss
I was scanning Newry Reporter back issues of fifty years ago when my eye fell upon a report from Newry Petty Sessions. Mr J C Austin R.M. on the evidence of Constables Ramsey and Moffett, found Bessbrook men Bernard O’Callaghan, William Walsh, Joseph Weir, Thomas McAteer and John Kane guilty of playing ‘pitch-and-toss’ in Frederick Street and fined each one ten shillings.
Meadow Memories 6
We had little call to leave the Meadow for the essential foodstuffs, having Brian Donaghy’s and Crawley’s on Clanrye Avenue and The Hut at Helen’s Terrace as local shops and a plethora of vans regularly calling to sell their wares.
Entering Newry from the South
Newry nestles in a low river valley with the eastern end of the Ring of Gullion on its western side, and rocky outcrops of Newry granite on its eastern side. Along the shore towards Warrenpoint on the east side of the estuary is the only flat access road – except of course for the parallel road to Omeath and Carlingford just across the water.
Shoot the taximan!
Malaysia’s Minister of Tourism may have found a novel tourist attraction.
‘Putting a few taxi drivers up against a wall and shooting them, as an example to others,’ is his solution to alleged rudeness and overcharging on their behalf. Perhaps surprisingly – or maybe not so, given his country’s human rights record – his suggestion has met with a muted response.
Old Rostrevor Slideshow
These five photographs illustrate Rostrevor at the turn of the twentieth century. The Great Northern Hotel is shown, as is Mary Street, The Square and the shoreline below Slieve Martin. Some photos, by nature of age, lack a little in clarity.