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“Much of what manhood lives in Newry may be seen in long wretched lines beside the market place, week after week, reporting at “the burro” - fully half Newry’s able-bodied men live on the bureau, the dole. Some folks from this depressed area get employment in thriving Dundalk, just 13 miles distant across Killeavy moor and over the Border - several omnibus loads go to and fro every day. So is the pride of Newry fallen !”
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This is a description of Newry in 1938!
No matter how anyone views Newry now I think we have certainly improved a bit!
The book is called The Black North and it’s by Aodh DeBlácam (Roddy the Rover).
It was published in 1938 and the book is described as “An account of the six counties of unrecovered Ireland, their people, their treasures and their history” and the foreword is by Éamon De Valéra - so no political undertones at all!!!
It has a very interesting section on John Mitchel detailing his life at great length and also mentions that in Johathan Swifts day Newry was second only to Derry city in size and importance in the north.
Oh how things change …
