Of these three submitted poems, two (namely ‘McParland’s Elder’ and ‘McGinn’) are character… In those days, the wireless was the thing. If you possessed one, you were ‘well-off’ – or in our parlance, a swank! The story of Henry Curran, shopkeeper King brought to mind my own recollection. There never was, and I fear never again will be a shopkeeper the likes of In the short time we knew him, we never learned his surname. It didn’t matter somehow. Like Elvis, he was fully defined by just the one name. When the Irish Citizens Association won the day at the Council elections of… While Newry was safe from German bomber air attack, But I had good reason for concern. Whatever I’d said wrong would be relayed to my dad when he called in to Gormans on Saturday for his monthly grooming. Patrick Rankin was the only Newry person to take part in the 1916 Rising. He cycled to Dublin to join the rebels in the GPO in Sackville Street. 32 years later he wrote his memoirs. ‘There wasn’t a lot of flax-growing in Fathom those days. With enormous sadness and regret, I announce the death of Dennis Ward, Meadow Man and late of Carlingford Park. I finally found my vocation when I took up the study of Psychology. Over the following few years I completed a B.A. and then an honours M.A. in Psychology and in the summer when the university was closed to full-time students I worked at a variety of jobs. Submitted poems : reflections
Lord Haw-Haw
Austin
Tom Kelly, Labour Champion
Undercover Girls
Seamus: surgeon
Patrick Rankin, Newry Republican
Pulling the Flax Plant
It’s a very stalky plant, dark green at first, turning light green. It produces a lovely blue flower. It was the phloem – inside – of the plant that was valuable as linen thread. Harvesters pulled it physically out of the ground. It was gathered in bunches -beets, they were called – sheaves about two feet in diameter. There were twelve beets to a stook, the twelfth laid crosswise over the others, to determine the dozen. It was a hard pull, especially from clay soil that hardened in the summer time. Death of Dennis Ward
Part-time Psychologist
