Newry

Newry (from the Irish: An tIúr meaning "the yew tree") is the third largest city in Northern Ireland and eighth in all of Ireland. The River Clanrye, which runs through the city, forms the historic border between County Armagh and County Down : Newry was included entirely in the latter by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898. It is about 37 miles (60 km) from Belfast and 67 miles (108 km) from Dublin. It had a population of 33,433 people in the 2001 Census. It was founded in 1144 alongside a Cistercian monastery and is one of Northern Ireland's oldest towns.

It sits at the entry to the Gap of the North, close to the border with the Republic of Ireland. It grew as a market town and a garrison and became a port in 1742 when it was linked to Lough Neagh by the first summit-level canal in The British Isles. In March 2002, as part of Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee celebrations, Newry was granted city status alongside Lisburn.^[1] However, despite being the fourth largest city in Northern Ireland, it is not the fourth largest settlement. Newry was an important centre of trade in early Ireland because of its position between Belfast and Dublin. Newry has a reputation as one of the best provincial shopping-towns in Ireland and also has two of the oldest churches in Ireland.

Newry recently topped the league of house prices increases across the whole United Kingdom over the last decade. Prices in the city have increased by 371% since 1996.^[2]

1 Notable buildings
2 Administration
3 History
- 3.1 The Troubles
4 People
5 Geography
6 Sport
7 Transport
8 2001 Census
9 Education
10 Churches
11 References
12 External links
13 See also

[edit] Notable buildings

Catholic Cathedral of St. Patrick and St. Colman, Newry

Saint Patrick's Anglican Church, Newry

The Cathedral of St. Patrick and St. Colman was built in 1829 at a cost of £8,000. The structure, which consists of local granite, was designed and built by Thomas Duff, arguably Newry's greatest architect to date. Incidentally, Thomas Duff also designed the cathedral in Dundalk, a town just over the southern border in Co. Louth, and it is said that he mixed up the plans for both cathedrals and sent Dundalk cathedral to the builders in Newry and Newry cathedral to the builders in Dundalk.

The town hall is notable for being built over the River Clanrye which is the boundary between the counties of Down and Armagh. The building of a city hall is also planned as part of the celebrations of the granting of city status.

The city also boasts a museum and an arts centre.

St Patrick's (Anglican, 1578), overlooking the city centre from Church street, on the east side of the city, is considered to be Ireland's first Protestant church.

The impressive Craigmore Viaduct lies just north of the city on the NIR mainline. The bridge was designed by Sir John O’Neill with construction beginning in 1849. The bridge was formally opened in 1852. The viaduct consists of eighteen arches the highest being 126 feet, the highest viaduct in Ireland. It is around a quarter of a mile long and was constructed from local granite. The Enterprise Train link from Belfast to Dublin crosses the bridge.

[edit] Administration

The headquarters of Newry and Mourne District Council are in Newry. The area has a majority nationalist population, leading to a council dominated by Sinn Féin and the Social Democratic and Labour Party, but there are some Ulster Unionist and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) councillors and one councillor from the Green Party.

[edit] History

Marcus Square, Newry

The English version of the name of the city comes from the original Irish Iúr Chinn Trá (in older spelling, Iubhar Chinn Trábha), which translates as "the yew at the head of the strand", which relates to an apocryphal story that Saint Patrick planted a yew tree there in the 5th century. In modern Irish the full name of the town is rarely used; instead it is abbreviated to An tIúr.

The town was established in 1144 with the building of a monastery, although there is strong evidence of continual human habitation in the area for several millennia. The monastery only lasted until 1162, when it was burned to the gound, and later replaced by a cistercian monastery. This monastery itself was later converted to a collegiate church in 1543, before being surrendered to the crown in 1548.

Sir Nicholas Bagenal, Marshal of the Army in Ireland, took over the site around 1550, later building a castle there. The remains of the original Cistercian Monastery were still standing when Bagenal acquired the land and it may well have been the Abbot's House that Bagenal proclaimed as his Castle. The site was said to consist of a 'church, steeple, and cemetery, chapter- house, dormitory and hall, two orchards and one garden, containing one acre, within the precincts of the college'. The remains of Bagenal's Castle can be found today on Castle Street, near to the LIDL store, on what was once the site of McCann's Bakery.

A rental roll dated 1575, provides a unique insight into life in the town at the time. It listed the names of the tenants in 'The High Street', 'Tenements within the Fort' and The Irish Street without the Fort'. These three distinct areas also appear in a map of the same time, along with a drawing of the castle.

During the Williamite War, the forces of King James II set fire to the town in 1689, while retreating from William. It is said that only six houses and the castle survived the inferno.

The town was rebuilt shortly afterwards, and its fortunes changed dramatically. Within decades it had the busiest port in Ulster and in 1742, had the first summit level canal in the British Isles. This led to a further period of economic prosperity, evidence of which can be seen in the many fine buildings and public places that can still be seen today.^[3]

[edit] The Troubles

Newry saw a number of violent incidents during the conflict known as the Troubles. For more information see The Troubles in Newry, which includes a list of all the fatal incidents that happened in Newry during the Troubles.

See also: The Troubles in Killeen, for information on incidents at the border and customs post at Killeen on the border with the Republic of Ireland and close to Newry. The British Army moved in during the 1950s and have been there ever since. However, in 2003, the hilltop watch towers started being taken down and in 2005 the main base in Bessbrook started to be dismantled.

[edit] People

John Mitchel, a 19th century Irish patriot who inspired the Young Ireland Movement, is buried in the Old Meeting House cemetery in the town.^[4]
Pat Jennings, a former goalkeeper and most capped player for Northern Ireland, was born in the town.
Actor John and his actress sister Susan Lynch, were both born in Newry.
Gaelic footballer, Seán O'Neill, regarded as one of the outstanding forwards in the game, was born in Newry.
John Dunlop, prominent Presbyterian churchman, was born in Newry in 1939.
Actor Gerard Murphy lived in Newry, and was a prominent member of the Newpoint Players theatre group.
Mountaineer Terence 'Banjo' Bannon is from the town. In 2006 Bannon narrowly survived an attempt to climb K2 in which four team members were killed.^[5]
Danny McAlinden won the bronze medal for boxing (Heavyweight) at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica. Later he became British and Commonwealth Heavyweight champion. He was born in Newry in 1947.
Matthew Russell, SJ. Irish Jesuit, poet and editor. Russell was born in Newry in 1834. He entered the Jesuit Order and was ordained to the priesthood at age 33. Father Russell established the 'Irish Monthly' in 1873 and served as editor for nearly forty years. He also wrote many volumes of verse, and corresponded with the English Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Seán Hillen, artist, was born and grew up in Newry, and made a large body of photomontage artworks related to the 'troubles', many of which are based on his own photographs taken in and around Newry. They include a series satirically titled "LondoNewry, a Mythical Town.."
Charles Russell, Baron Russell of Killowen, (1832–1900), Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, was born in Newry on 10 November 1832.
Susan McCann, world-famous folk singer is from Newry
BML Hillen Keene, a published author of the book Land in Mist, born in Newry on August 20, 1986.

[edit] Geography

A view over Newry, from near the city centre

Newry lies in the most south-eastern part of both Ulster and Northern Ireland. Approximately half of the city lies in County Down and the other half in County Armagh.

The city sits in a valley, nestled between the Mourne Mountains to the east, and the Ring of Gullion to the south-west, both of which are designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Clanrye River runs through the centre of town, parallel to the canal, forming part of the border between County Down and County Armagh. The city also lies at the extreme northernmost end of Carlingford Lough, where the canal enters the sea.

[edit] Sport

Newry is home to Newry City F.C., who play in the Irish Premier League at their Showgrounds stadium.
Down Gaelic football club play their home games at Páirc Esler in the city.
Newry Bosco GFC
Newry Shamrocks GAC
Newry Mitchel's GFC
Thomas Davis GFC, Corinshego
Ballyholland GFC
St. Monnina GFC, Killeavy

[edit] Transport

The Newry Canal opened in 1742, and was the first major commercial canal in the British Isles. It ran for 18 miles to Lough Neagh. In 1777 Newry was ranked the fourth largest port in Ireland. Some surviving 18th and 19th century warehouses still line the canal, and now many houses, shops and restaurants.
MacNeill's Egyptian Arch is a railway bridge located near Newry. It was selected for the design of the British One Pound coin to represent Northern Ireland for 2006.
Newry is served by an Ulsterbus bus station, located in the city centre, that offers local, regional and cross-border services.
A Northern Ireland Railways station, just off the Camlough road, offers cross border services on the Dublin-Belfast line. Planning permission for the construction of a new station, to the east of the current station, was granted in May 2006.

[edit] 2001 Census

Although officially a city, Newry is classified as a Large Town by the NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) (ie with population between 18,000 and 75,000 people). On Census day (29 April 2001) there were 27,433 people living in Newry. Of these:

26.2% were aged under 16 years and 16.0% were aged 60 and over
48.5% of the population were male and 51.6% were female;
89.6% were from a Catholic background and 9.4% were from a Protestant background
5.5% of people aged 16–74 were unemployed.^[6]