A popular ‘photograph’ of Old Newry carries the image on women in 1828 washing clothes in the Mill Race which continued past the site in Trevor Hill into
The Low Ground
John McCullagh
My Ain Native Toun
In an attempt to cushion the blow for Santanta, on his imminent return to his ‘ain native toun’, we publish this earlier tract from another Ulsterman.
History of Newry Workhouse : Part 2
History of Newry Workhouse [Part 2]
by
John McCullagh BA , BSc
Prior to the 1830s some little local Poor Relief was sporadically offered – mainly through the Churches – in almshouses to orphans and to the most destitute. Under the Poor Law Act of that decade a central Board, known until 1847 as the Poor Law Commission and thereafter as the Poor Law Board had overall responsibility for relief.
Clever Parrot
‘He was silent to begin with. The pet-shop owner had promised the parrot would learn quickly but I had spent weeks trying to teach him to say simple things like ‘Hello’, ‘Goodbye’ and ‘Who’s a pretty boy, then?’
Not a word. The dumbest parrot you ever heard. I felt robbed. In anger I expressed my feelings aloud. Then it happened. I know no one believes me, but I didn’t teach him those words. I’m a committed Christian. I don’t use words like that. From his perch in the corner he poured a barrage of invective at me. He seemed to understand the rules of grammar too. If I shouted at him, ‘Silly b****g bird!’ he’d shout back, ‘Stupid bloody man!’
I know I shouldn’t have but I had to test him. I went through my limited vocabulary of foul language. I was on a hiding to nothing. I learned a lot of words from him that I should never have heard. Finally I lost the rag completely, grabbed him from his perch and strangled him.
It was only at that point that I realized I might have killed the goose that laid the golden egg!’ he remarked, rather mixing his metaphors.
Officials in Henan province confirmed that no action would be taken against Li Yong.
All of which put me in mind of the fellow who, somehow or other, managed to bring his dog with him into the cinema. A few seats behind, a friend watched in amazement as the pet reacted to the action on the silver screen, apparantly laughing at the funny parts and crying at the sad bits.
Outside afterwards, he shared his astonishment with his friend.
‘You’re surprised?’ he answered. ‘I’m amazed myself.
He absolutely hated the book!’
Where are they now?
It was that comment about the young debutante who genuflected before entering the stately pew in the old Florentine caf
I started reading back over the ‘Where are they now?’ lists and adjudged they all deserve to be elevated to Main Pages status before their forthcoming removal from Discussions Threads (.. ‘Nothing lasts for Long’ as Joni Mitchell sings on her supurb ‘Travelogue’ album.)
I have retained most pseudonyms here also. I know some real identities and like to guess at others! Maybe you will enjoy that aspect too! Finally apologies to our regulars (especially those who didn’t use pseudonyms) whose names are not here included. They’re still there on the Discussion Threads!
Horst Jankowski
In the course of our walk in the
We were quick to jot down the following list:
1. The Joy Bells (Sunday evenings)
2. The Chinese Burn (Put out your hand!)
3. The lead drinking cup on a chain in the
4. The Maypole & Shepherds
5. Griskins ( Anderson’s of
6. Curley’s Chip Shop ( Jim Reeves on the jukebox)
7. 12 aniseed balls for a penny (18 if you’re over 60)
8. Goosegams
9. The Chapel Entry
10. Going Round The Hill (St Clare’s Convent)
11. Herrings Alive! ( Bring out your plates)
12. When your lunch was called your ‘piece’
13. Sleeping suits ( What a superfluous crease in the trousers!)
14. Fly papers (The last public hanging in Newry)
15. The Holy Family Confraternity ( ‘Happy We Who Thus United join in cheerful melody’)
16. The men’s aisle and the women’s aisle in churches
17. The Rag Store (
18. The Mascot Annual Christmas Dance ( Even money you win the draw!)
19. The Back of The Dam
20. The Frontier, The
21. Pledge Pins & Fainnes ( What a laugh a minute they were!)
22. Bread poultices (Put out your leg!)
23. The two shilling selection box for Christmas (Join Our Christmas Club)
24. Sunday Nights at the Parochial Hall
(“Do you fancy a mineral?”- “Would that be an occasion of sin?”)
25. Eye patches on spectacles ( “You have a lazy eye!”)
26. Ear muffs (“You have a lazy ear!”)
Meanwhile back in the
27. People who poured their tea from cup to saucer ‘to cool it’
28. Martin, Nesbitt and Irwin (
29. Mystery tours (Three times round the Big Clock with the blinds down)
30. Black diamond patches on sleeves when a close relative died
31. ‘Offerings’ at funerals
32. Awnings outside shops (“We’ll stand in here outta the rain”)
33. Fried Christmas pudding (Close your eyes and you’re a child again)
34. “Dear Santa, please bring me a gun and ‘pooch’ and a packet of caps.”
35. Magnifiers strapped to 12 inch televisions (What next? Lucozade wrappers for colour?)
36. Ronson Variflame lighters (A dragon blast of eyebrow-singeing flame)
37. Dobbin for football foots and ‘tube-and-covers’
38. Black-shawled grandmothers
39. Fathers giving children a ‘spin on the pedal’ of their
40. The white National Dried Milk tin with the navy blue writing
41. A spoonful of malt in the mornings / cod liver oil / concentrated orange juice
42. A spin on the
43. Radio
44. The pig market in
45. People with mottled legs (“Sit well back from the fire!”)
46. Sukie Sunkap Orange (“What was IT made from?”)
47. Navy and fawn duffel coats (Some people are still wearing the originals!)
48. ‘Fawn’ – Now there’s a word you seldom hear these days ….
49. People who wore plastic bags on their heads when it rained
50. A peerless pint of Bass in Tommy Casey’s (Well worth waiting for)
51. Seven O’Clock blades
52. Paris Buns, life-size Wagon Wheels, Snowballs and ‘Slim’
53. Marbles: waterloos, taws, glassies and wee dingers. (“Where did they all go?”)
54. Marble talk 1 (“Knuckle your trig and shoot like a pig!”)
55. Marble talk 2 (“Back slappins doesn’t count. There’s no back in a marley!”)
56. The breadcrumbed skating rink outside McCann’s Bakery when it rained
57. ‘Upstairs model’ bicycles (“Mister, your back wheel’s catching up on your front one!”)
And finally, exam results ….
What a change from today’s 10 A stars, 2 A’s and a B.
Back then, a gardener needed one ‘hoe level’, a farmer … one ‘hay level’,
and a joiner … ‘one spirit level’.
Nyuckraker
The smell of Mansion polish.. Blue bag in the washing.. The Newry Telegraph.. The Frontier Sentinel.. the Sun and The Comet comics.. Radio Fun.. Film Fun.. mothballs in the wardrobe.. Crookes Halibut Oil capsules.. scones made on the griddle on the range.. Guinness XXX.. Monk Ale.. Radio Eireann before school (Whelahan’s of Finglas, Gael Linn, The Walton programme (“The Songs our fathers loved’)..Jimmy O’Dea (‘Hands across the border’).. (O)Callaghans hardware shop with the earth floor.. Timoney’s ice-cream in
Getting paid (peanuts) for gathering raspberries out past Savilbeg on the
Aaah! It all comes back… down the Big Slide on a flattened cardboard box.. burning the ‘banks’ (accidentally, of course).. and don’t forget the other big water-hole the GREEN Motion.. and up the
Cloaky
Trays of day-old chicks twittering loudly as they were loaded on the green UTA bus to
A penny worth of Brandy Balls served in a newspaper cone in Jimmy O’Callaghan’s grocery/confectionery in
a)”Flingers”, primitive frisbies made from lollipop sticks.
Normally there were five lollipop sticks held together by their own tension, but you could make “six-stickers” or even “4-stickers.” Some referred to them as “boomerangs” but they seldom came back of their own volition.
(b) “flying saucers”, the silver caps of milk bottles which could be carefully removed from the bottle and washed free of cream. By holding the rim firmly between first and second fingers and briskly “ficking” them , they could be made to describe graceful trajectories.
(c) “Pixies” , knitted helmets for girls with a phallic projection at the back of the head.
(d) Corduroy “jerkins” with zip fasteners for boys.
(e) Advertisements for “Aer Lingus” on Michael Coyle’s coal delivery cart.
And various
And what about “Knifey-knifey” at great risk to your feet?
Anybody remember playing “Jacks” with 5 wee stones?
Does anyone remember playing with a Hoop. This was a single bicycle wheel propelled and steered along the street using a piece of stick.
Yes. Still got a scar on my right cheek just on the cheekbone where I tripped and hit the wheel rim. Wish I’d used a hula-hoop.
what about this one – getting a wash at the jar tub (sink)
Wasn’t that a ‘jaw box’, Sandra?
Cloaky: You didn’t mention paper planes. What an art! Some with a tail and wings, made with new A4 page: some of the jet type. The former, if thrown with index finger along the top, thumb and second finger beneath, would describe several most graceful loops before making a perfect descent and landing!! I still make them for the grandchildren, who crush them immediately. Another lost art??
Marble Talk 3. ‘Fuggy Annie Dowdle in the Wee Town Hall’.
I haven’t a clue what it means but we used it a lot along with ‘Knuckle your trig and shoot like a pig’.
Here are a few more:
The Bucket (fancy a dance)
The Flo (see you in there for a coke)
The Satellite (where we ate the greasiest chips in the world)
Spricks (how many did you catch)
Guest Teas (whose table are you sitting at)
1 p Dainty (chewing for ages)
C& C Drinks (which flavour was best)
1/- worth of cream from The Shelbourne
Black Jacks.. sherbet powder with liquorice ‘straws’.. liquorice ‘laces’.. gob stoppers.. Five Boys chocolate.. Cadbury’s Chocolate Splendid.. Lemmon’s sweets.. Sloane’s liniment..toffee apples.. Inglis (?)penny biscuits.. the watering trough in Trevor Hill.. the Big Clock!.. the ‘Golden Teapot’ teapot!
Ball bearing carts – looking for spare timber at Fisher’s to make them.
Parochial Hall and Town Hall dances on Friday nights.
Marbles and conkers.
The ghost at the
Bag of broken biscuits from Woolies.
Liquorice pipes.
Brandyball sweets.
Clove Rock sweets.
Treacle Apples.
The watering trough at
Door to door collection of refuse to feed farm animals.
Rope around the trees for swings.
Round pink bubble-gum.
1. The Milkman coming to your Street selling
Buttermilk by the jugs. (I hated the stuff)
2. Tommy Byrne with his Tricycle operated ‘Ice Cream
Buggy’.
3. The Mineral Man selling various flavours of Pop,
usually six were purchased much cheaper than from the
shops.
4. The Breadmens Vans daily deliveries. (Arthur Mc Cann,
Bernard Hughes and Sam Warwick.
5. ‘Big Chief’ white sliced pan bread.
Sliding down
Pocket money from selling sticks round doors for firelighters.
The rent man calling every Friday night.
Tin bath in front of fire on Sat evenings.
1.collecting blackberries and bringing them to Gavigans.Benny Connor once took out his uncles seven cutthroat razors and we used them to cut the berries off the bush
2. School ceilis in the Parochial Hall with John Murphy and a young Susan Mc Cann
3. The bus to the Adelphi in
4. Carnival tents in Camlough, Mayobridge, and other places.
5. Dances in the Osbourne in the Point
6. Rockview Rangers and Barney Fitzpatrick
7. Hot orange in the Florintine
Whitening for gutties (powder storm as you walked)
Creamola Foam (add to water for a flavoured drink)
Standing on Dublin Bridge as the train went past (black faces and coke in your eyes)
Swinging on the structure of Dublin Bridge.(great fun)
Hanging onto the back of the milk lorry for a spin (let go at the right moment)
Throwing duckies into the tide to retrieve the ball (the game must go on)
Walking on the glar in the tide if the duckies didn’t do the job (the game had to go on)
White dog turds on the street?
When an ‘impertinent brat’ got a ‘cuff on the lugs’.
Or a “box on the jaw”
. or got the face ate off him (especially if he had a bad eye in his head)…
Or… You’ll laugh the other side of yer face;
Or… I’ll draw the back of ma hand across yer face;
Or… When one of your mates was eating an apple and you wanted him to share it with with you;
“Leave us yer root”.
.. or got the face ate off him (especially if he had a bad eye in his head)…
____________
I’ll bet you know more…………………
Settler Family: Donaldson
I have been assured by a number of people who usually know what they’re talking about, that Jesse James’s forebears hailed from
There are a few cynics too, who would be surprised if this were not so!
In any case this is the story of Ronald Ban Donaldson, whose forebears certainly did, and whose distant American relations were acquaintances of that same James family.
Highlands Slideshow
For the second time in a month we got back into the country just hours before the airways were closed, because of volcanic ash. So consult me in future on these matters before you dare to fly!
<object width=”600″ height=”425″ align=”middle” id=”mix” codebase=”http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=5,0,0,0″ classid=”clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000″>
<param value=”sameDomain” name=”allowScriptAccess” />
<param value=”/images/stories/Slideshows/highlands.swf” name=”movie” />
<param value=”false” name=”menu” />
<param value=”best” name=”quality” />
<param value=”noscale” name=”scale” />
<param value=”#ffffff” name=”bgcolor” />
<embed width=”600″ height=”425″ align=”middle” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”sameDomain” name=”mix” bgcolor=”#ffffff” scale=”noscale” quality=”best” menu=”false” src=”/images/stories/Slideshows/highlands.swf” />
</object>
Are Clubs dying?
Comment was earlier promised on the perilous state of survival of one of the longest lasting traditions in our town, the social club. In the nineteenth century, the middle classes had their hotels and private Clubs for their exclusive entertainment. The working men’s clubs filled a niche for the other five eighths.
In Northern Ireland, these often catered mainly for one section of our divided population, and indeed, also for men only. I still remember clearly the furious debate that raged on the admission of women! I recall too, being ‘chosen’ by a friend for the more exclusive branch rather than the everyday club membership of one nationalist-minded body. The ‘swearing-in’ ceremony had me in stitches, literally, and I was ignominiously dumped. Now that club cannot get sufficient customers to pay the bar-staff’s wages.
Clubs In Newry
There was a time, not so long ago, that they paid social benefits – such as sickness allowance – to working members. The other ‘nationalist’ clubs are similarly bereft of regular support. St Catherine’s committed hari kari by morphing to Bosco and flitting to Water Street.
Shamrocks have long ago dropped Saturday Night music and are lucky to attract ten on this weekend night. Mind you, when there was recently a vote taken on the admission to membership of the police service, ‘members’ in Mercedes and BMWs appeared in droves, to push their point of view: those ‘members’ who never stand in the club premises, or help with teams, but keep up the subscription, just for such a case! What use are members like that?
The Catholic Workingmen’s Club dropped the Catholic, admitted women and ignored the ‘working men’ label, and still cannot attract members. There is one night a year when food is laid on, a free drink provided etc. where members more than recoup their fee. It’s the only remaining packed house. People were being admitted last New Year’s Eve, up to and after midnight. What does that tell you?
The Hibs cannot even produce a quiz team any more. The Indo has recently invested heavily in extensive renovations, but the gamble is unlikely to pay. Out of town clubs are faring little better, despite better community spirit. The Protestant Clubs, Henry Thompson Memorial, Masons, Hockey, Rugby, Newry Town are similarly blighted for lack of support. What has happened?
We will speculate on that soon. Meanwhile expect them all to fall like ninepins in the coming decade. It’s an evens bet we will be less a few this time next year!
Towpath: WIN
Across the road from ‘the pipe’ was Chivers Factory (the Jam Factory), nowadays called the
WIN Business Park today
It was the sort of place that I would have loved to explore, but we would have got short shift from the men who worked there if we had attempted to venture in through the front gates. Even in the evening time, after work for the day had finished, we still didn’t dare explore the wonders of the Jam Factory for fear of the night watchman.
Scott’s big house was beside the Jam Factory. There was a large orchard to the rear of this house. At certain times of the year we used to try and relieve the good people who lived there of their surplus apples. They were not amused by this and usually resorted to putting the dog after us.
This point on the canal side is officially the end of Canal Quay and becomes the beginning of the towpath. As we travel onwards and around a left hand bend on the towpath we come to the first of the thirteen locks on the inland canal (Not counting Victoria Lock on the ship canal).
This first lock was known to us as Riley’s Lock. Mr. and Mrs. Riley lived here; they had two sons Tommy (who later reared a family in The Meadow) and Pete. Mr Riley was the lockkeeper here in the days when the canal was in commercial use. They had a pretty little side garden bounded by a picket fence. Mrs Riley also had a hen house in this garden and there were always hens wandering around somewhere or other.
Behind the lockkeepers cottage was Brady’s Field. We used to play in this field; strangely enough it was one place that was not classed as out-of-bounds to us.
‘Mum we’re going down to Brady’s field to play.’
‘Ok but mind you stay away from the canal!
And I’ll skin you alive if I hear that you’ve been near that pipe.’
… personal tragedy …