Saint Moninna

Saint Moninna in Louth
It is often claimed that Saint Moninna was a sister of our patron saint Patrick. 
 
It is unlikely. Perhaps the confusion rises from the common given name Darerca, since Patrick is  also said to have had a sister of that name.
 
In his Confessio Patrick speaks of the number of converts made by him and his followers on their travels; he says  that he does not know the number who ‘are born of our kind and generation’ .

Saint Moninna in Louth

Fews Glossary: R 1

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Dialect ‘R’ 1   Rabble         to talk foolishly Rake            quantity, ‘a rake of…

Minnie the Caddy 1

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‘You’re gonna be eating strange bread!’ said Minnie the Caddy, running her finger round the rim of the tea-cup. She was telling a fortune, in her little cottage up the flank of Slieve Martin, near Rostrevor.


Caulfield Place 1975 Residents

Luke Burke Newry

You will doubtless note among these names, the late Reggie Hunter, uncle of Carmel whose demise we noted a few months ago. 

Luke Burke Newry

Also Luke Burke whose photo appears on the Reunion slides, along with two of his brothers. This is the 1975 Caulfield Place Residents list.

Ships Lists: Buchanan 1765

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The eighteenth century saw some of the earliest emigration from Ireland to the new American colonies.  Here in Ireland this century saw the greatest confiscation of land from the majority Catholics and its re-allocation to Protestants. 


The penal laws remained very much in force and the future looked anything but bright for Catholics or Dissenters [Presbyterians, mainly].  There was a greater fraction of the latter which looked to the new Colonies and indeed for the next eighty years they constituted the larger part of Irish emigrants. 

Boy soldiers

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You know, when you think back to your childhood days and some things that you considered then as a serious matter, now appear quite humorous?

Easter 1916: concluded

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Early in July 1916 some Volunteers from both North and South Camps were taken under escort to a nearby railway station. About 10.30 am some one hundred men were boarded, bound for London. 

Mocha?

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‘I cannot apologise enough, Sir,’ the Manager of Fosters spluttered.

 

‘I have no idea how this happened!

Children of Lir

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The Children of Lir legend is of particular interest to the people of South Armagh since the Palace of Lir was located hereabouts, South Armagh, in the townland of Armaghbrague and reputedly about a mile from the present day Newtownhamilton. 

Amadan gets it wrong!

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There was an amadan one time lived wi’ he’s mother out near Crossmaglen and she wud send him the odd erran’ till the shops.  She knowed he’d not remember unless he kept repeatin’ what she toul’ him.

Father James Coigly

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We mentioned again recently Newry’s Arch-Traitor Samuel Turner (The Glen on Newry’s Dublin Road was originally Turner’s Glen) – which brought to mind the tragic story of one of his victims, Kilmore’s Father James Coigly.

That the dead might rise

Saint Moninna in Louth

When Eddie Maguire first got the job of digging graves and tending the lawns up in the cemetery, he was more than content to be well off-side from snooping Dole men, busybody neighbours and sarcastic so-called ‘mates’. 

Final Memories

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Guest Teas: These were the big thing in the 50’s, organised by ladies of Newry in support of various charities. No alcoholic drink, mind you! Just teas and a plate of sandwiches and sweet things, prepared earlier by the same women. They were great places to exchange all the gossip! The relative popularity of one before another depended on the reputation of the hostesses either for their culinary skills or the breadth of their gossipy connections!