Logical Deduction
Reasoning Tests If you are suffering from withdrawal symptoms since these were abandoned…
Tourist Brochure
This Tourist Brochure differs little from its c.1994 predecessor. Anthony Russell has been brought on board to lend some historical and literary credence but it must be acknowledged that the misuse of the comma persists and still irks.
The Twelfth of July
Now Willie was an Orangeman as loyal as can be
Virtuous and upright, a decent man was he
A man who’d always do his best to help a friend in need
Isaac Corry, Traitor
Isaac Corry was just 21 when he was first elected to the Dublin Parliament representing Newry. His failed opponent challenged the result and fought a duel with Corry where the former was slightly wounded.
In later years Corry duelled also with Henry Grattan. Puerile as this assumed manner of resolving political disputes appears to us, it was not then uncommon. Newry’s second M.P. of the time was Robert Ross, a prot
Removing Foreign Bodies
The book offered advice to qualifying surgeons and was called ‘Short Practice of…
Poem for Niamh
Niamh
Some hours ago the water fell
To christen you, to work its spell
And wipe your slate, we hope for good
But now your life is sleep and food
Which, with our love will, by your leave
Suffice you now, our darling Niamh.
This happy birth, two thousand years
Our harbinger of peace, endears
Weaves webs of steel to bind our hearts
A laser light to pierce the dark
Darling child, my dream come true
We celebrate this day for you.
Ravelling strands of families mesh
In love knots of two minds, one flesh
Our future’s not our own, we’ll weave
An in-law maze, we’ll nod and wave
With trust: and silently we’ll pray
So this is a billet-doux to say
That on this warm mid-summer’s day
Cradled on my lawn you lay
While all around the raucous sound
Of laughter echoed in the mind
Your loved ones celebrate with food
Your birth in Christ at Cherrywood.
Our journey through this life, this fate
Ordained as by a friendly state
From Avenue to leafy meadow
Track of forebears, free from sorrow
Come and join our happy throng
We’ve waited for you for so long.
17th Century Census
The Census of County Down 1659 [PRONI T497] distinguishes between Scotch (by which was meant Protestants of Scottish or English origin) and Irish (meaning native Irish or Roman Catholic). It was shortly after the rebellion of 1641 and the suppression that followed it. Cromwell’s vengeful and terrible retribution of 1649 was both bloody and protracted. His commander Colonel Robert Venables retook Newry from the native Irish, mercilessly and easily. Plague and famine swept the country.
A Sticky Situation
‘Around
Weapons of Maths Instruction
The school teacher arriving at JFK in New York was found to have in his possession one compass, a protractor and a scientific calculator. He was arrested and sent to Quantanamo Bay, Cuba for importing weapons of maths instruction.
Mayor Parrot
The mayor of Guayaquil in Ecuador has found a talented stand-in to fulfil his duties when he is otherwise engaged. At a specially arranged press conference last week he introduced him to his fiercest critics, the city’s press corps. They have pursued him relentlessly recently over the social security ‘reforms’ he has been trying to introduce.
Castlereagh and Corry
The mid to late 1700s was among the darkest periods for the great majority of the Irish people, dispossessed, disenfranchised, barred from holding public office or filling most positions of employment because of their Catholic faith, landless and spoken of, and to, as inferior beings. The feelings engendered were exacerbated by living among others who were benefiting from the expanding Industrial Revolution of Britain. This prosperity was unashamedly built upon the ruthless exploitation of the resources (human as well as material) of the colonies.