We were listing past employees of The Action for Community Employment (A.C.E.) Scheme in Newry. I’m sure you know several of these here (D-F) and indeed, I recognise at least one serving Councillor of today! Dickie Rodgers was adjudged overall winner of our recent Reminiscence Competition for a series of short stories and anecdotes. He also recounted powerful incidents from his own life. A single light at Cranfield beams across the sand In turning guides the ships into the bay When I was a young girl, I loved to go over to meet my dad, John Kane, a steam engine driver with the Great Northern Railway, as he was coming out of the railway station at The Action for Community Employment (A.C.E.) Scheme was, in its time, a useful programme to integrate the unemployed back into the workforce and provide necessary community facilities at the same time. Travel to exotic far-flung parts of the earth nowadays is taken very much for granted. But to the children of Newry in the nineteen fifties and sixties, life was a lot simpler. I came across your website by accident, and there was a picture of a derelict farmstead above Slieve Gullion. Thomas D’Arcy McGee, the son of James McGee (coastguard) and Dorcas Catherine Morgan was born in Carlingford, This is the first published of the recently submitted short stories. We do not intend to print these in any particular order, though we will signify the prize-winners! We are most grateful for each and every story submitted! Martin Payne gained second prize with another tale we will print shortly. This is more an amusing little anecdote! We have been requested to reproduce here in full, the ballad written by the famous Thomas Moore (Moore’s Melodies) about Sarah Curran, Robert Emmet’s love. We have written of the patriots mentioned in the Yeats poem, with the exception of Robert Emmet. Since it’s about ‘romantic It’s almost seventy years ago now and only the child on the left has survived. The Yeats poem (opt. cit.) has forever enshrined in verse the name of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. This Irish conspirator (1763-1798) fifth son of James, first duke of Leinster, by his wife Emilia Mary, daughter of Charles Lennox, second duke of They were ACE workers!
Dickie talks of McGladdery
Foothills of the Mournes
My Dad, John Kane
Ace Workers of old (1)
Train trip to the ‘Point
Ballard homestead
Thomas D’Arcy McGee
Lazy lumps!
Sarah Curran by Thomas Moore
Sarah Curran/ Robert Emmet
Linenhall Square 1938
Lord Edward Fitzgerald
