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I have a theory about the regular calls after an event in Newry of "I didn't know this was on" or "If I had known this was on I would have been there" etc, after all there must be an explanation for this and I don't think it is always a lack of publicity (though of course sometimes it is!)
The number of people on the Newry.ie Facebook page saying that they didn't know the City of Merchants Festival and maybe more specifically the fireworks display was on, despite articles on the self same Facebook page and on Newry.ie website itself makes me think there may be something else at play.
My theory goes something like this:
Newry for so long was deprived of events and happening things that people no longer expect events to be on, so don't be on the lookout for them when lo and behold they actually are!
In some ways many have actually given up on Newry and will quite happily check for events on elsewhere at different times throughout the year and go to them, maybe 70 miles away, but never think of checking for things and attending sometimes the same or better events in their own back yard.
How else can I explain that the Iúr Cinn Fleadh Festival which was in it's fourth year in September - from 7-10 September to be precise still hasn't hit some local people's radar, and this despite attracting thousands of people to many different fleadh events throughout Newry. People from all over Ireland, from America, Norway, England and Scotland and many more places have all been there yet it's still not seen as a must go to event locally. I could say the same about many other local events.
Regarding the fleadh, you don't even have to like folk or trad music to enjoy it, after all I'd say most people that go to Blues on the Bay aren't that much into the Blues! People go to things for 'the crack'
Examples of the lack of knowledge of the fleadh in particular that I know of personally include two people working at reception at a local hotel who had never heard of it, despite a massive 20 ft banner less than 200ft away from where they sat advertising it. There were also Staff in a local bar who yes, you've guessed it "Didn't know it was on" despite the owner being asked to take part and declining.
How are we supposed to promote our city when the very people who earn a living from the entertainment and hospitality business don't promote something that has the potential to greatly increase their takings on a particular weekend if they only just made a small effort. Have they given up too? You only have to look at the present weekend nightlife in Newry to think that maybe they have?
In case anyone asks, Iúr Cinn Fleadh was promoted extensively from around Easter, had many articles in local papers, front pages, Facebooked to death, promoted via websites including Newry.ie, was mentioned on local and regional radio, 6k event guides were circulated, posters put up around the town and more. Of course there could have been more done, nothing can't be improved on but after quite a bit of effort by volunteers in their own time (and you have to remember that many local events are organised by volunteers) for people to claim that they never heard of it can be quite demoralising, as you can imagine.
Newry has a growing number of happening events over the course of the year. This years City of Merchants festival hosted by Newry, Mourne and Down Council which has already shown great potential is just the latest one to be added to existing ones like Newry Feis, Newry Drama Festival, Pride In Newry, Iúr Cinn Fleadh, Newry Blues Festival, Oktoberfest, Newry Festival of Water, Flagstaff Fiesta, Earwig and many other local festivities. They all deserve your support and are normally on at the same time each year so not too hard to work out when they are coming up.
This leads me to ask, what needs to be done for an event to hit YOUR radar, do you actually go out and try and find out if there is anything on in your home town, and more importantly if you do find out, do you support them?
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A one-off opportunity that will NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN
Tomorrow night 2 October sees a motion come before Newry, Mourne and Down Council that if passed could make a remarkable difference to the everyday lives of every woman, man and child in Newry City not to mention being an attraction in its own right for many visitors to our city.
Yes the motion if passed would see the council and stakeholders working towards the provision of a 15 acre Public Park on the council held Albert Basin site, a natural place to enjoy the great outdoors with the added bonus of a maritime element as well as a long asked for skate park. The health and wellbeing benefits of a local park are well documented and something Newry has been without for too long!
After many years of people asking for a Park for Newry and getting nowhere, now is the time for local councillors to follow the will of the people, seize the opportunity and for once say a resounding YES to over 11,000 people who have signed a petition, the 80 groups, 8 schools and local medical practices who are all demanding access to something all other cities in Ireland already have, a Newry City Park!
It would be a shame if the park motion tomorrow night wasn't allowed an open vote in the council chamber and instead referred to the ERT Committee by the Chairperson where it quite possibly could be quietly 'disappeared' over time.
An open and transparent vote in the council chamber tomorrow night is what we at Newry.ie ask for and so should you!
The Motion in Full
'This Council confirms its commitment to a full, 15-acre community park project on the Albert Basin site in Newry. The Council recognises that the Albert Basin site was given to the people of Newry in 1986 and that a commitment was given at that time to develop it as a recreation and amenity area for the generations of the future. It also recognises the work of community activists in presenting their plans for the park through a petition with over 10,000 signatures.
Council commits to delivering a park in parallel with other capital works projects in Newry within the next Council term. The Council shall within 3 months establish a task and finish group reporting to the Capital Projects Working Group, consisting of elected members, community representatives and a dedicated Council officer to establish plans to move the Albert Basin park project forward and investigate funding options’
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We like to think we've come a long way since Newry.ie started out as Newry.info in 2003 (with a few obligatory links not working) although we still feel we are only at the proverbial tip of the Iceberg when it comes to covering our wonderful city! Facebook didn't even exist them and now thanks to them we have over 13,000 of you on board! 2000 of you visit our site each and every day, for which we are eternally appreciative, thank you.
There is so much more planned and so much more potential and your valuable input into what you would like to see here would be extremely useful.
Don't be afraid to share your ideas - what you would like covered here on Newry.ie now or in the future.
We are here to promote Newry city in all it's facets. Unfortunately time is not endless though and YOU can help by keeping us up to date with what's happening in your area, community group or organisation.
Local Businesses too have a perfect platform here to highlight your achievements and ambitions, just make sure you use it!
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When we started out we were promoting bars including the Bit an Bridle, Hush Bar and Club, Jonathan Swift, Keenans, McCoys, Millies, Soho Place, Squires and The Fair Judge, many gone and some with several name changes since! Restaurants included the Ambassador, Bamboo, Benni's, The Coach House, Goodfellows, Good Fortune, Jay Cees Cafe, Mr Eatwells, Riverside, Rose Garden, Sherridans and Snackaroos as well as still familiar names such as Boyds of course.
The announced closure in this past week of another hyperlocal website based at Ardee thisisardee.ie due to lack of funds has made us realise how fragile local news sites can be. We are determined to keep running but your on-going support is essential to make this aim a copperfastened reality.
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With potentially a lot of snow on the way from the so called "Beast from the East" it reminded me of the last and only 'big snow' I experienced in my life in January 1982.
Living at the time down a half mile long lane at Mavemacullen between Loughgilly and Clare, Tandragee there was no escape from the weather. We ended up cut off for quite a while with the combination of a persistant bout of heavy snow and strong winds causing heavy drifting and hedges trapping the snow from escaping.
I remember my father having to walk through snow that had reached the top of the hedge on our lane, to get a gas cylinder and other supplies at John Acheson's shop at Eleven Lane Ends.
My brother had left Belfast from work early on Friday, no doubt due to the incoming weather and had made it to just over half a mile from home before his Citroen car, (the one with the wonderful rising suspension) decided to give up and ended up in a snow drift higher than the car itself - Of course it made a great photograph for his snapper of a brother. I really thought I had made the big time when I saw them on the front and back page in the Armagh Guardian the following week and even one had made it inside!
If you have any stories from your own memories of the big snow of 1982 of how it affected Newry we would love to hear them from you below or via email to news@newry.ie
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It's Day One of the Newry.ie Plastic Challenge and overall it has been a fairly straightforward day with all our needs met locally although cost certainly is an issue. We have decided to try a week obtaining as little plastic as possible along the way. The fact that many many plastics aren't recyclable and don't degrade was enough of a motivation for us to see how easy it is to live a normal life in Newry minus the plastic packaging!
Today's short shopping list was Bread, Carrots, Parsnips, Apples, Oranges, Chicken Pie, sausages, Buns so along with our reusable shopping bags off we went ...
First call today was at Supervalu in Hill Street in Newry. Bread was straightforward with waxed paper wrapping on the loaf. Loose carrots and parsnips again weren't an issue, but the fact that you seemingly always have to pay more for loose produce than for the same product packed in plastic bags, and sometimes in plastic bags with a polystyrene tray is just not on. Whatever the reason behind it or the sales model used we can't help think that it's just wrong and instead of encouraging people to leave plastic behind, it encourages it's use!
Supervalu certainly isn't alone in this though as it seems widespread everywhere. At 69p per kilo for loose class 1 carrots against 47p per kilo for exactly the same product bagged it just seems ridiculous. Oranges were even worse. We had wanted four ordinary oranges but saying they were almost twice the price of the plastic packaged ones at 45p each compared to 99p for 4, we decided two would do us. I know they were larger but we would have been very happy with smaller ones if we had the choice.
Supervalu did have very nice looking pies loose on foil bases so we will know for again but unfortunately it's very hard for us to go past William Baird's Chicken pie so we decided we would try them with our plastic free challenge.
Before the butchers, a sweet fix was on the shopping list and without any complications whatsoever we managed to get half a dozen lovely buns from the Shelbourne in a paper bag as usual.
On to Baird's in Canal Street and their cooked chicken pies were off our shopping list as they are boxed with a clear plastic top but fair play to them, they sold us an uncooked one wrapped up in a paper bag. An additional ten minutes or so cooking time will sort that out, in fact a delicious smell is wafting towards me as I type!
Home made Cumberland sausages again in a paper bag and stored in a different shopping bag helped us tick that off the list.
The local shops we visited today certainly didn't have a shortage of loose produce but it seems that we the shopping public have been encouraged to see loose products as "premium" and therefore we will pay more for them. If any of you know a place in Newry that charges less for loose product don't be afraid to let us know.
Newry.ie's campaign is inspired by many other local and national campaigns. The Friend's of the Earth #Sickofplastic campaign has been the latest one to catch our eye. See www.irishtimes.com to see how a campaign went on Saturday past, where people were encouraged to leave the plastic packaging from their purchases behind in the shop.
Please feel free all week to pass on any tips you use to reduce your plastic consumption or any local shops that make it easy to dispense with plastic.
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Day Two of the Newry.ie Plastic Challenge showed us just how easy it is to gather plastic without even thinking. Fresh from a brand new tooth filling at Yew Tree Dental Practice (Thanks Michelle) what else would you be thinking of apart from a few lovely sweets.
And so it was to Timoneys we went where lo and behold not only were there Raspberry Ruffles but also lovely sounding Mint Ruffles which were just crying out to be tried, so after very 'careful' consideration we opted for a mix of a quarter of both. It was not to be though! As soon as the jars came off the shelf, they were hastily put back on when we realised, yes of course ... Raspberry Ruffles have plastic wrappers! Needless to say the Cinnamon chews are proving quite a delicious alternative but may necessitate a quicker return to YewTree!
It was a small shopping day as all we needed was something for a sandwich so Dunnes Stores at the Creamery Quarter got a shout.
Forgot to say, yesterdays shopping list included natural yoghurt - for the porridge you understand but after much searching we had just given up on the idea that we would ever source non plastic packed yogurt. You can imagine then the excitement seeing natural yogurt in glass jars with foil tops in Dunne's, yes we are easily pleased! We'll need to wait till tomorrow to see if the fact that it's goats milk is an issue!!! The glass jars will certainly come in useful for sauces or dips.
A few slices of Brady Family Ham carefully packed in paper as it used to be, along with a single red onion made for a most delicious sandwich at lunch time.
The lady at the butchery counter wasn't immediately sure how to deal with our 'unusual' request but quickly suggested the paper option.
One thing I did notice on my wanders around Dunnes was the push to sell eggs in plastic containers as an alternative to the traditional paper cartons. 70% of the display had the plastic ones on offer with only 30% of space given over to the traditional egg cartons.
A red flag for later in the week is starting to appear though, with the possibility that we may not be able to obtain milk or the essential toilet rolls at all as there seems to be no options to purchase these items without their plastic container/ wrapper. Lets just hope supplies hold out.
Anyone got any ideas or will we be newspaper bound ...
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Day Three of the Newry.ie Plastic Challenge.
We are running a bit late with the shopping today as just back from a meeting, but Fiveways was the latest destination on the circuit this evening. Simple shopping list tonight birthday card, toothpaste, fish, potatoes, Broccoli, cheese for sauce.
Well let me announce first of all, if you're expecting a 30th birthday card from us in the next month or so, sufficient to say we didn't get it tonight, as every single card in the very impressive display was wrapped in plastic.
We weren't holding up much hope on the toothpaste front and truthfully it looks like the tube we have, will have to last a little longer. Really don't want to start with the baking soda ...
Just missed the lovely Fiveways fresh fish counter unfortunately so had to settle for something from the freezer and a box of frozen fish did the trick. Obviously we are hoping the fish didn't injest any plastic when it was swimming about in the ocean as has been highlighted by recent investigations.
With the potatoes though we were on to a winner. Had noticed earlier in the week on our travels that the only way we were going to get the spuds in, was to buy a larger 5 or 10kg paper bag of them, but every bag we saw had see-through plastic mesh on the front - Until tonight when we discovered a perfect, all paper 10kg bag of Kerrs Pinks for just £3.99. If we were strong enough we could have bought two, but the walk home with one was excercise enough! It looks like Spuds with everything for the next while!
Broccoli was easily found loose in the Fiveways fruit and veg aisle but as seems to be the trend everywhere it was much more expensive, at £1.79 per kg compared to the lovely plastic wrapped ones beside them (that to our non expert eyes looked exactly the same) for £59p per 500g or £1.18 per kg. Which begs the question, are plastic wrapped cards cheaper than non plastic wrapped ones too?
Lastly finding cheese for a tasty sauce for the Broccoli proved impossible with all the cheeses on display wrapped in beautiful colourful plastic. We will have to try elsewhere tomorrow.
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Day Four of the Newry.ie Plastic Challenge
After a mad busy Thursday where no shopping whatsoever could be fitted in, Friday has certainly made up for it. We're entertaining tomorrow so shopping was certainly a lot more challenging.
Apart from the grocery shopping it was fish and chip takeaway night so the Genoa got a call. Initially we thought it would have been an easy one as they place their fish suppers in cardboard boxes and chips in paper bags but as luck would have it our order of three fish and two large chips meant that polystyrene trays were going to be used, until we asked for them not to and they just wrapped all in paper - the old way of course. A bit of a different way of doing things for the girl on the till but done with a great smile.
Today for the first time this week, a little bit of plastic has crept into our shopping. 5 very small items to be precise but no way to avoid. The plastic pourer on a carton of cranberry juice, also same on carton of Avonmore ordinary milk and the lid of worcestershire sauce bottle. We also were looking a selection of cheeses but nowhere could we find them plastic free until we came across Fivemiletown Cheese in cardboard wedges but when we got them home they were wrapped in plastic inside! (All in the interest of full disclosure)
A busy days shopping, taking in Curtis Butchers, Sunray, Philips's, Sainsburys, Tescos, Shelbourne, The Wine Company and Fiveways and all walking. This plastic challenge is making the weight fly off us!
We knew getting two pounds of steak pieces would be a challenge but taking our own empty tupperware container was not a problem for Curtis Butchers. Phillips's for the fresh vegetables was very easy with a large basket of loose veg for a fiver but nearly got caught at the till though as assistant was about to put everything in plastic bags before weighing them, so we had to put a halt to that.
A great selection of buns in Sunray wasn't a problem. Did see a nice pavalova but unfortunately the plastic base and dome over it meant it had to stay there. Hence back to the Shelbourne and a tasty plastic free pavalova. It was hard though to see all the extremely tempting reduced cakes and buns in the Shelbourne, but as they were all wrapped in beautiful shiny plastic we couldn't take any of them home with us!
Finding a bottle of lemonade in Sainsburys proved difficult but we got there along with lots of jars of sauces. Looking for biscuits both there and in Tescos just proved impossible and we decided maybe we didn't really need them anyway.
One observation today is that Heinz and HP seem to be moving their sauce bottles to plastic with glass ones in short supply.
The Wine Company wasn't an issue with thankfully plastic wine containers few and far between. Lastly finding a 1.5L tetra pack of Avonmore in Fiveways with just the tiniest bit of plastic as the pourer ended a long days shopping.
What we are finding already this week is that it takes twice as long to shop when you are cutting down on the plastic and also can prove more expensive.
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Day Five of the Newry.ie Plastic Challenge and it's getting more difficult by the day. Didn't count the past two days as the sum total of purchases was a newspaper and a tube of toothpaste, unfortunately plastic!
Today it was Milk, Fresh Cream, Bread, Spaghetti, peppers and Salmon steaks and also had to leave a pair of trousers to the Dry Cleaners.
Suitably packed in a plastic bag, (and yes it's one we have used many times) we headed to Elite Cleaners in Hill Street and we are assured that we won't be getting any additional plastic covering when we pick them up.
Supervalu was the location once again for the groceries and while the milk came in a tetra pack carton with a plastic spout, same as the one we got last week, the cream was impossible to get without plastic so we had to bite the bullet and buy it. At least it's the same recyclable plastic as the Milk Bottles.
Peppers were fine as was a bread baguette from Lidl just in a pure paper bag.
Spaghetti unfortunately was another item impossible to buy without plastic wrapping so we had to add to our small mound of plastic once again.
Who would have thought it would be difficult to get a couple of Salmon steaks on a Monday! Supervalu don't do the fish thing on a Monday and after trying Lidl we just gave up as frozen steaks were the only ones available and with all that plastic around them, they just didn't seem that necessary any more. Change of plan for dinner ....
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