Places

Year ……………. 1841 1851 1861 1871 1891 1901 1911

No. of homes ….. 1720 1634 1599 1650 1779 1727 1669

Population/Newry. 9179 9951 8189 8581 8446 8262 8064

From the close of the Famine Years to 1911 (the approximate year of my father’s birth) Newry’s population, largely due to huge emigration numbers, had dipped by 11% – no fewer than 1,887 fewer persons were registered at the latter date.   With approximately the same total number of houses, it follows that overcrowding in Newry was dramatically worse at the earlier date!

Yet from the Census study we find that four or more persons were living in tiny houses of one or two rooms in Upper Water Street at the turn of the century: the situation was much worse in the many ‘entries’ , in the more deprived Baile Bocht district, and indeed in the Lower Water Street area just yards away. [In 1901 for example, there were 40 dwelling houses in Lower Water Street, 36 of them occupied by 177 persons (all Roman Catholic).  7 were of 1 room and 26 of 2 room.  Average occupancy per house was 5 persons].

Anyway, to conclude our review of residents of Upper Water Street in 1901:

Grocer and Spirit merchant James Heather (32) lived with his wife Maggie (27) brother William (40) a shop assistant and brother Thomas (34) a drapery assistant. Thomas Rankin (15) and Lizzie Hannaway (23) completed the Heather household.

Spirit merchant John O’Hare (25) lived with his wife Susan (25). Grocery merchant Patrick O’Hare (59) shared his house with apprentice Hugh Doyle (18) Monaghan-born Peter Lambe (30) a manager and Mary O’Neill (55) a housekeeper. 

China merchant John McGladdery (44) lived with his wife Maria (38) and their children Mary Maria (15) Robert John (14) Charles James (13) William (11) Martha (6) Francis (3) and Joseph Henry (1). Widowed mother Maria Gracey (68) and cousin Martha McCracken (28) and John’s widowed brother James (36) completed the McGladdery household.

…. more later …

Way back in the fifties the track on the canal towpath was also a much vaunted place for swimming, that is, in the days before the opening of the Bacon Factory.  I remember as a young boy coming down here with my friends and watching with amazement as the older boys from the Barracks stood on the parapet of the bridge and dived into the canal. They would then swim across the canal and climb up upon the wall separating the canal from the County River.  That wall was crowded with boys, all sitting there in the sun and having the best of craic.

Every now and then some of them would swim back over to us youngsters to make sure we were ok as we paddled our feet and splashed about in the much shallower Bessbrook River.  Sometimes the boys sitting on the wall would go the other way and dive into the deeper County River and swim right up to the outlet where the river was diverted through Damolly Mill and back again.

We would have loved to have been able to perform some of those daring acts of aquatic skill, but my friends and I were too young and non-swimmers. All that we could manage was paddling our feet and splashing about in the shallow water.

There was a way however that enabled the younger kids to cross the canal so that they could get to sit on that wall along with the big boys.  If we were to walk further on along the tow path until we came to the next lock on the canal – we called this lock McKnight’s Lock – there was at this place an old rickety wooden bridge across to the other side of the canal.  If we could cross here then we could walk back down the opposite bank to join with the other lads on the wall.  

There was one problem with this plan though! The bridge was a ‘toll’ bridge! There was a charge of tuppence levied against all who wished to cross.  Most of the time we didn’t have this rather large amount of cash on our persons, so then we had to resort to that other method, namely, to surreptitiously sneak across.

Swimming in the canal and County River down at the track sometimes could be quite dangerous, especially at times of flood!  I remember one young lad who drowned here.  There were a few other near-misses. Sometimes boys were rescued only by the quick intervention of friends.

… final …