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Blaise Cronin's life journey from when he was born in Newry 75 years ago to his current home in Indiana, USA would in its own right form the ingredients of an epic book, but we may just have to wait a while for that one. In the meantime though the author has published his latest book, celebrating all that is unique and good about Newry.
Entitled 'Your Newry Bucket List - 70 Things to Do in Newry Before You Die' the 177 page publication celebrates all the things that make Newry ... well Newry. Timoneys is in there as is The Shelbourne. There's the Ghost Walk and Gallows Hill, Newry Market and St Patrick's. The Crimean Cannon and the Big Wood. There's the Canal and Albert Basin and right bang up to date, Pat Jennings new statue gets a shout in and when you're ready for a rest, perhaps Two Stacks Dram in a Can would be an appropriate refreshment!
Friendliness and Pride
A line in the books foreword says it all "The first-time visitor will be struck not only by the friendliness of the natives but the almost unshakeable pride they have in their hometown."
Cronin who has published over 10 books explains the idea behind his latest "Your Newry Bucket List aims to provide the old-timer and the newcomer alike with a sense of the town’s diverse charms and quirks—a mix of the serious and offbeat, the familiar and all too easily overlooked, excluding, I should add, the legally questionable as well as teenage rites of passage, such as playing five-card stud poker in the underpass at the top end of William Street. As with so many lists it will likely provoke debate; why wasn’t your favourite restaurant, historical figure or gambling venue name-checked? Newry is blessed, if that’s the right word, with a welter of casinos, betting shops and bingo halls. Why was that festival, that leisure activity, that civic amenity overlooked? Still, with luck it may just make you see the old town in a new light. Get to work!"
St Colman's Park
Blaise Cronin was born 75 years ago in St Colman’s Park, Newry on the top floor of the house that is now Fisher & Fisher. He was delivered by his grandfather, Dr Thomas Cronin whose surgery was on the ground floor.
Explaining his background the author said "My dad, Gerald Cronin, was Town Clerk (as was his uncle William before him); my mother, Sheila Devenish-Meares, was a music teacher and leader of the Newry Symphony Orchestra. My grandfather, Arthur Devenish-Meares, played rugby for Ireland (when they won the Triple Crown in 1899-90)."
Cronin attended the Abbey Grammar School, played football (in goal) for them as well as with Newry Mitchels (Minors) and Newbrook United. He has an MA from Trinity College Dublin, a PhD and DSSc from Queen’s University Belfast and an honorary DLItt from Queen Margaret University Edinburgh. Currently, he is Rudy Professor Emeritus of Information Science at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Previous to that he was Professor of Information Science at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.
A rich history
The foreword of the book explains "A London friend once described Newry as “the armpit of Ulster.” A bit harsh, you’d have to say. No doubt you’ve heard some negatives about the town; it does, truth be told, sometimes get a bad rap in the news and on social media. But first impressions can be misleading. The town, for all its shortcomings, has a rich history. It certainly is no Johnny-come-lately, unlike, for instance, Craigavon, which was created from scratch in the 1960s. There has been a settlement here in one form or another for almost a thousand years. The Cistercians established a monastery in the 12th century; Abbey Yard and the Abbey Grammar School remind us of the fact. Nearby neolithic remains, from court tombs to bones and pottery shards, tell us that the area was first inhabited some five or so millennia ago."
Newry.ie gets a much appreciated mention in the foreword "Several books have been written about Newry, its history, architecture, traditions, amenities and personalities, yet how many of us—natives, blow-ins, transients—know all there is to know about the place and the immediate hinterland? As a long-time town dweller, maybe you take things for granted, don’t always see what is in front of your eyes or, like many people, imagine the grass to be greener on the other side. As a first-time visitor or new resident, you can’t be expected to have figured out everything about a place, what makes it tick, gives it its special character (a useful resource is Columba O’Hare’s website: www.newry.ie)."
Cronin commented "I’m just about old enough to remember Hill Street and Trevor Hill as they were in the twilight of their heyday. Newry’s mercantile and industrial success in the 19th century gave rise to many fine Georgian and Victorian buildings. Early photographs show a town of some swagger, the poverty only hinted at by the presence of a bare-footed urchin or begging shawlie. Fortunately, neither generations of political unrest nor misguided planning have entirely defaced the cityscape."
The Newry born author moved away to seek his fortune but he returns frequently and certainly his book shows much affection for his birthplace. "Like many other ‘Newry neuks’ I moved away to seek my fortune, returning more or less frequently to my hometown, the place where, as a child, I played football at all hours in the street, watched the Three Stooges in the (long gone) Frontier Cinema on a Saturday morning and routinely took the steam train from Bridge Street station to Warrenpoint. Those were the days, as they say; and, in truth, they seemed so at the time. Of course, the coal-laden tramp steamers have long since disappeared from the Albert Basin and the lumbering locomotives have either been scrapped or put in transport museums."
He added "Still, the town has managed to reinvent itself as something of a fintech centre and, most significantly perhaps, as a retail mecca, attracting hordes of shoppers from far and wide, on such a scale indeed that the New York Times once referred to Newry as “the hottest shopping spot within the European Union’s open borders.” The locals, however, pay a price: traffic jams worthy of the ‘Big Apple’ itself."
You can purchase the book at www.lulu.com
Other suggested reading
Tony Canavan. Frontier Town: An Illustrated History of Newry. Blackstaff Press, 1989.
Blaise Cronin. Hewn from Yew: Newry Notables Past and Present. 2nd ed. PublishNation, 2020.
Michael McKeown. The Book of Newry. Old Newry Publications, 2008.
