100 years ago Warrenpoint
“As a seaside resort Warrenpoint year by year is gaining in popularity with English and Scotch, as well as Irish visitors. Its population at the last census was 1817 which represents the standing population, this being hugely increased during the summer season.
Sean Hollywood and me
A couple of years later when I was the ‘neutral’ judge in an Aer Lingus-sponsored school debating competition in County Down between two Catholic schools, I cast my deciding vote for St. Colman’s College of Newry.
Sheep and Lambs
Writing on Good Friday, I consider it appropriate to continue on the religious and sacrificial theme. The following are two of my favourites by Irish writers:
‘which art in heaven’ …
Austin Clarke is a well known and respected Irish writer of the recent past.
Perhaps his lines written on the burial of Dr Douglas Hyde, first Irish President, are appropriate at this time – especially in the light of recent articles posted here on Newry Journal.
Views on Irish History
By the time I was attending secondary school, it became obvious that we were all being taught differently about the history of
GAA & Protestantism
However much Gaelic games dominated the sporting scene in the 1960’s – and filled the pages of the local press with team photographs and match reports, it remained a closed world as far as I was concerned all through my teenage years.
Cultural & Sporting Divisions
Awareness that a whole social and sporting culture existed of which I was not – and apparently could not – be a part, soon followed.
Catholic & Protestant Schools
When we went to see, ‘The Song of Bernadette’ and a local priest appeared before the start and ordered prayers, we all squeezed down dutifully on the greasy floor between the rows of seats and prayed like mad to Saint Bernadette.
Our Lady of Liberty!
When the ‘
‘He didn’t bless himself!’
My earliest memories of growing up in Newry include being taken into St Patrick’s and St Colman’s by my mother and one of my aunts to see the Christmas crib.
Rooney’s Terrace 1914
In recent decades, the
Thomas Steers, Canal Engineer
Any western social and economic history of recent times will focus centrally on the Industrial Revolution (usually dated from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries) – which paved the way for our modern state of development. Industry and production shifted from cottages to factories, from country to cities, and serviced not just the home but many foreign markets as well.