Born before 1986
According to today’s regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s probably shouldn’t have survived!
..for sleep comes dropping slow
There have been numerous occasions when I was unable to sleep while staying at a strange hotel far from home. The reasons were many.
Aislin McGuckin Actress
Aislin McGuckin is a wonderful actress from Newry, please read below for an…
Lottie in Derrybeg
Lottie and Owen settled into married life in
Lottie McKeown
To leave the subject of
No matter which area of Newry she settled in, she was immediately to the forefront of community life there.
Art Bennett: History of Ireland
Further to that photocopied letter of Art Bennett’s that Tom McKeown found among his papers – a story we published here last month.
Street Games Revisited
What games did we play in yesteryear?
Well, it depended on ‘The Seasons’:
not those with which you are now familiar, but our own seasons;
you know, the ‘marley season’, the ‘caddy season’, etc.
Sixties Songs
We were teenagers in the Sixties ….
Saturday night at The Hop
We’d dance till early morn ..
I still can hear the music ..
I remember every song …..
Fairy Music
There’s them that’s afeard of the fairies
Aye – right up to this present day –
Sure the stories the oul’ folk come over
Can never be let astray!
1901 Census: Monaghan Row
The official 1901 Census Return is of special interest for many reasons, not least because it is the earliest available. The families enumerated are well-remembered, even if all the individuals listed have passed on.
The Cobweb
NOW I learn of all those great sing-song pubs of the recent past.
Our own was the St Catherine’s Club on Merchant’s Quay (see Alice McKay story) but there were a few others too. Notably Maurice Mulgrew’s Cobweb on Monaghan Street.
Skipping Rhymes we knew
DO ACTIONS while jumping in the rope
I am a little Irish girl dressed in blue
Here are the things I like to do:
Salute to the captain, bow to the queen
Turn my back on the submarine.
I can do the tap dance, I can do the splits
I can do the hokey kokey, just like this.
Wartime soldiers in Newry
I meant to ask Benny McKay the last time I saw him, but I’ll save it for the next! You see, his people lived along there by Magee’s Bar on Merchant’s Quay. I think Benny was born there.
Tom McKeown’s youth & friends
Welcome to Pat Duffy, recent contributor to Guestbook. Are you by any chance featured in this photo? Tom donated this to Journal, but I’ve mislaid the list of characters featured.
Into the sand pile!
‘There was some relationship, surely, between the fact that we lived in The Barracks and the reality that so many residents there in an earlier generation served in the armed forces. Practically every family had an ex-soldier. Clearly the homes were allocated according to this criterion. I fought myself at