Newry At The Beginning Of The Twentieth Century

By the turn of the century Newry was coming to the end of its heyday. Since the middle of the eighteenth century - when the Newry canal was first opened - it had been one of the primary towns of Ireland, and long pre-dated Belfast, for example. The age of canal transport however did not last long. Newry was quickly connected to most major cities and towns by railway in the nineteenth century but by then it had lost out to Belfast and other centres.

Still, at the beginning of the twentieth century it was a bustling and thriving commercial, manufacturing and market town, with a busy sea-port and a canal which opened up markets from central Ulster via Lough Neagh to England and beyond. The canal bridges at Bridge Street, Ballybot and Monaghan Street would swivel to close road traffic and open canal traffic allowing ships to cross the town to and from Lough Neagh. This route was less used than before for already road and rail were making canals obsolete - though I know many men today who remember using as excuse for late arrival at school up to the fifties that “the bridges were open”. Road traffic was further disrupted and delayed by the opening of the many railway crossings - six in all - when a train had to pass.

Saint Mary's Street (then as now known simply as Mary Street) was almost entirely residential, though there were many boarding houses, especially busy because of the nearness of the port. The residents were not particularly wealthy. In fact these were the homes of fairly ordinary townspeople. At the rates of pay for servant girls, most people who themselves held a steady, reasonably paid job could afford to employ one. Monaghan Street was industrial, commercial and residential (see separate list of occupancy in 1901) but it especially catered for South Armagh farmers - as it continued to do for another generation!

Newry's population, the life-blood of the town, was regularly and steadily infused with new arrivals from outside, in search of work. Even a cursory study of the entries under the heading "Birthplace" will reveal this. Some were migrant workers: most came to stay. They arrived especially from Newry's large agricultural hinterland of South Down, Louth and especially South Armagh. These areas were much more populous then than today, before rampant mechanisation and specialisation reduced the demand for agricultural labourers on the land. The railways had not yet rendered all canal traffic obsolete.

Indeed - at the risk of anticipating myself - I believe that it was by barge or boat from Lough Neagh to Newry that Bridget's future life partner was to come to Newry. Some others also came from Tyrone to settle in Newry, as will shortly be seen.