It was with astonishment that I realized, on paying tribute to Miss Ethel in this section, how few ladies have so far appeared on Characters pages. Of course my late friend Alice McKay has been lauded, and Newpoint Players have many strong females, past and present, but overall I feel I have been remiss.
Although I am contrite I accept too that our womenfolk have in the past, and the great majority of them also in the present, made their greatest contribution in the home, in rearing our finest citizens and often in the most difficult of times and most stringent of circumstances. May I attempt to make amends by stressing that, regardless of what tributes have already been paid here, or will appear in the future, that this author unreservedly admires and salutes the mothers of Newry, and especially of the poor of Newry over the decades.
I pay especial tribute to my own mother who reared fourteen children by the finest man I have ever known, and one of the most humble. She never in his lifetime had more than a