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'Historic Newry - Sugar Island' sees McShane revisits this unique and much loved part of Newry, telling its stories from past to present and hopefully rekindling warm memories of the people and businesses that made it the jewel it remains.
The devastating floods of November 2023 brought a national, even international, focus to this exotically named triangle of land, bounded by the Clanrye River and Newry Canal. For a short time it became the centre of attention as business owners fought to save their merchandise - and their commercial futures. Previously overshadowed by the celebrity status and pulling power of the shopping centres at the other end of town, it now briefly held the attention of the city's inhabitants and the wider social media audience.
Inevitably though the TV reporters and commentators were drawn towards the next big issue and Sugar Island has retreated once again from the limelight although this book puts it in the spotlight once again..
Sugar Island deserves so much more than just '15 minutes of fame'. It has been a resilient centre of commerce, ever since its emergence in the 1700s right up to present times. Literally hundreds of businesses have operated in this discreet and intimate part of Newry. Initially driven by the arrival of the canal, it became a thriving hub of activity and entrepreneurship, spawning a whole plethora of wholesale and retail enterprises. The nature and scale of the trade carried out in the 21st century may differ from that of the early years of the Island, but the endeavour and determination of its inhabitants remains undiminished.
McShane's book contains many gems of information about this unique part of our city. There's the time in 1891 that the Mayor of New York, Hugh J. Grant called by to visit his aunt who lived there at the time. It was noted in the Northern Whig report that it was a private visit and Mrs Dempsey was in "a precarious state of health"
Sugar Island contributed greatly to the towns prosperity with the area the residence and workplace of many merchants. 'There are mills, foundries and manufactories; and the town is the busiest and most thriving that I have seen in Ireland.’ said William Makepeace Thackeray who visited the town in 1842.
The book contains an extensive list of who lived where in Sugar Island, Sugarhouse Quay, Bank Parade, Canal Quay and Basin Walk.
Boot Maker William John Donley (54) lived in number 8 Sugar Island with his wife Anne (40), daughters Ida (13), Carrie (11), Marjorie (7) and Elsie (4) as well as relative James Riddle (22), and Michael Patrick Clark (33) both listed as Boot Makers.
Catherine Thompson (29), a Wine and Spirit Merchant lived in number 6 while across the road in number 7 was the Temperance Hotel with proprietress Dora Perry. It was important to keep the balance right no doubt.
The Canal forms the centre piece of the entire Sugar Island area and McShane details how the Council in 1956 agreed to purchase the three bridges between the Albert Basin and Sugar Island. Three years later the "new £18,000 super concrete bridge" was completed at Sugar Island in just 86 days and remains there till this day, cementing shut any chance of Newry Canal being navigable ever since.
We can but dream that an opening structure is put back in place here and elsewhere on the canal over the course of 86 days in the future.
Perhaps with lessons learned from the past, the new Minister in the Department for Infrastructure will overturn current plans to build a fixed bridge over the canal as part of the Southern Relief Road.
To Buy
Historic Newry - Sugar Island is available in Newry from Fiveways, Boyds Stores, John Mitchell Place and The Grotto, Hill Street.
Delivery, post, collection are also available. email: hmcshane1@hotmail.co.uk Text: 07763497086
Check out hughmcshanehistory on Facebook.
