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Twenty years ago today Newry celebrated becoming a city with a Newry City Day Concert.
Vice Chairman of Newry and Mourne District Council Frank Feely stood in for Chairman of the time Davy Hyland to accept the City Seal from Queen Elizabeth in May 2002. Feely went on to become the first Mayor of the new City in 2003.
Gerry Ryan was compere at the concert with appearances on stage from Newry's own Luv Bug and The Sands Family, Sharon Shannon and Brian Kennedy and many others. Charlie Smyth and Newry Panto Players put on a show and Pop band of the time Six made an appearance at the 'no expense spared' gig. Memorably UK Secretary of State John Reid also got in on the act picking up a guitar and singing Me and Bobby Magee along with the Sands Family.
Ten years later in 2012 the occasion was also marked with a free concert with Jedward topping the bill.
It is debatable if Newry has embraced its city status even 20 years later. Perhaps this is something only the hindsight of history will be able to decide.
The past 20 years have brought new tech businesses such as StatSports while established companies such as Norbrook and FD Technologies have expended their workforce and global reach dramatically.
Infrastructure wise the A1 became a dual carriageway to completely bypass the new city, but it still falls short of the Motorway that is really needed. Newry Leisure Centre complete with new swimming pool opened and a new walkway on Merchant's Quay as well as the Newry section of the Carlingford Lough Greenway opened.
Entertainment wise nightlife in Newry hasn't aged well with the pandemic contributing to fewer bars and nightclubs, many of them not opening Monday or Tuesdays at all or closing earlier in the evenings.
Population wise, Newry has changed quite incredibly. Newry's LGBT+ community are more visible. New residents from Poland, Lithuania and Romania and many other countries have also arrived to contribute to a much more diverse and less insular city.
Sure who knows what the next 20 years will bring?
Check out the photographs from 2002 below.
