Patrick Shea, author of Voices and the Sound of Drums and the only Catholic permanent secretary at Stormont at the outbreak of our Troubles prepared a memorandum for the perusal of ministers and fellow senior civil servants on ‘understanding the relationship between the Family background Robert Macan (b. 25 October 1774) a banker of Ballinahone House, Armagh and Canal Street, Newry, was the only surviving son of John M’Can, (later Macan), (1729-1801), grandson of Robert McCann (b.circa 1685) of Cloghoge, Co. Armagh. Robert is listed as a freehold landowner in Mention was made earlier (History: Religious History: Moninna) that the Killeavy monastery formerly… This, allegedly a true story, was contributed. Only the names have been changed, for many of us might hazard a guess as to the real identity of the main protagonist! Please note it is not the character here pictured! Mick was a thief. From the time I knew him he was always up to something shady. He had never worked yet he always dressed well and most of the time had money in his pocket. Janine Masters kindly donated these Old Newry photos today. We upload them immediately because they are so interesting. Mavemacullen is the name of two townlands I was always led to believe… The Williamite ‘settlement’ following the defeat of the Irish at the Boyne saw extremely harsh laws introduced to suppress the Catholic faith and the priests and bishops who helped maintain and propagate it. Although born into the privileged life of a landed Presbyterian family, John Martin laid it aside to serve his suffering fellowman through the dark days of the Famine. He also endured exile to a foreign land because he sought to reform the Government which he saw as destructive to his native land during the poverty stricken years of the 1840’s. Charles Russell 1832-1900 A handsome bust in the foyer of our Town Hall commemorates one of Newry’s most famous sons, Charles Russell, the only ever Irish Catholic to become Lord Chief Justice of The bicycles go by in twos and threes – There’s a dance in Billy Brennan’s barn tonight, And there’s the half-talk code of mysteries And the wink-and-elbow language of delight. To go to Brought him home the evening before the market An exile that night in Mucker. I must appeal to proper Kavanagh scholars who may explain why the poet dedicated the following to his predecessor poet of our region, Art McCooey. The collection ‘A Soul for While deliberating whether Patrick Kavanagh would be acceptable as a ‘local’ poet to our readership, the great irony struck me: that Kavanagh himself, from the black hills and sour fields of Monaghan, struggled to demonstrate the universality of man in his verse and indeed celebrated his people, their time and their landscape to encapsulate the problems of mankind, and of the artist through all regions and ages. Protestant Ireland pre-1920
Robert Macan,Newry Bank 1807-16
Culdees at Killeavy
Mick the Thief
Cowan Street: July, pre-War
Mavemacullen townland
Bard of Armagh
John Martin
Charles Russell
Inniskeen Road: July Evening
Kerr’s Ass: Kavanagh
Art McCooey: [Kavanagh]
Kavanagh: The Green Fool
In short, he feared lest he be seen as just a ‘local’ poet!
