We three walked the towpath today from Lurganare to Jerretspass. The images are below. Meanwhile, in reference to this entry, Martin Payne emails me with the following message:
“I was talking to a guy on the towpath earlier on this year, his name is McKeown, and his Father was the boxing coach for the old Bosco club years ago.
This chap was telling me that he was once a postman and he used to deliver the post to a little row of houses along the canal at Jerretspass; the postal address for these houses was “The Barracks, Jerretspass.”
I always thought that Linenhall Square was the only place along the canal called the Barracks but apparently not. The reason why this place at Jerretspass is called the Barracks is because when the canal was been cut (1742) a lot of convict labour was employed in the task. This chain gang of convict manual labour was guarded by the military. At the end of the day the convicts were marched to their billet for the night by their soldier guards. This camp where the convict labourers and their military guard spent the night was located at; yes I’m sure you’ve guessed, Jerretspass.
The little row of houses in Jerretspass was built on the site of that old camp and so was given the official Post Office address, The Barracks.