Change must come!

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I like many “liberal” Irish Protestants, admired Gaelic games and sportsmen like the eminent Sean O’Neill (whom Newry rightly honours among its greatest sons) and the remarkable Sean Hollywood – but the sad reality is that I could not feel that there was any real place for me in the GAA.

Petie McKeown’s Smuggling Days

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‘Did you do any smuggling in your youth, Petie?’
 
I did to be sure.  I smuggled cattle across the border for the McMahons amongst others.  And for John (Jock) Quinn.

Belgians from Newcastle!

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Summertime!

Bare feet, well water, spricks, burning whins, sunburn, going to bed late… these are the things I remember best about my childhood.

Yes, a strange childhood then during the War years. Ration books, coupons, margarine, fresh eggs, country butter.

Rachel: 3

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The next morning my vehicle pressed its way through the sand-encrusted track that was the main street and there I saw Rachel, just as she had said – sitting with her friends.  A smile broke across her dark complexion as she stood up and walked in the direction of my on-coming land cruiser. 

Michael J : his art

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The writers to whom he was most attracted at this early stage were Sean O Faolain (whom he always singled out as the best Irish short story writer), Liam O’Flaherty, Frank O’Connor, Peadar O’Donnell and Michael MacLaverty.  

Philosophic Driver

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In their desperation to retain the few bus conductors they had managed to recruit, the East Thanet Bus Company found accommodation for those who required it, with landladies in the immediate vicinity. They, of course, were of the xenophobic, nagging, take-it-or-leave-it type and, difficult as it may be to believe, we found it genuinely preferable to work as long hours as possible, in order to avoid their company. And their soggy dinners. 

St Vincent de Paul

Tom McKeown Newry Tannery Lane

In those difficult War Years, it was the young married couples with small children that got it hardest to survive.

Bridgit’s monasteries

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When she was of marriageable age her father tried to arrange a marriage for her, but Brigit refused all suitors, being determined to become a nun. 

November reviewed

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I haven’t laughed as much in ages! Indeed, owning a hearty guffaw, I could be heard all over the auditorium, to the consternation of my dear wife and companion. But ‘November’ was absolutely hilarious!