Newry (; ) is a cathedral city in Northern Ireland, standing on the Clanrye River in counties Armagh and Down. It is near the border with the Republic of Ireland, on the main routes between Belfast (34 miles/55 km away) and Dublin (67 miles/108 km away). The population was 27,913 in 2021.
Newry was founded in 1144 as a settlement around a Cistercian abbey. Britannica website, Newry Northern Ireland Info website, Newry, County Down - Northern Ireland's Fourth Largest City In the 16th century the English dissolved the abbey and built Bagenal's Castle on the site. Newry grew as a market town and a garrison, and became a port in 1742 when the Newry Canal was opened, the first summit-level canal in Ireland. It is the episcopal seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dromore. In 2002, as part of the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II, Newry was granted city status along with Lisburn.
Name The name Newry is an anglicization of An Iúraigh, an oblique form of An Iúrach, which means "the grove of yew trees".Compare the similar Derry, An Doire meaning the grove of oak trees.
The modern Irish name for Newry is An tIúr (), which means "the yew tree". An tIúr is a shortening of Iúr Cinn Trá (, "yew tree at the head of the strand"), which was formerly the most common Irish name for Newry. This relates to an apocryphal story that Saint Patrick planted a yew tree there in the 5th century.
The Irish name Cathair an Iúir (City of Newry) appears on some bilingual signs around the city.Welcome sign in Newry, Northern Ireland, in English and Irish
History
There is evidence of continual human habitation in the area from early times. During the Bronze Age, the Newry area had a community that made very detailed jewellery for garments in abundance. Three of these Newry Clasps can be found in the Ulster Museum, and a massive arm clasp from the same period was also found in Newry.H. E. Kilbride-Jones Craftmanship in Bronze, free to read in Google books Three miles south of Newry is Clontygorra Court Cairn which has large portal stones at its entrance. Excavations revealed pot sherds, hollow scrapers, a polished axe and the cremated remains of one person. Nearby is another, smaller court cairn.
In AD 820, Vikings landed in the Newry area, "from whence they proceeded to Armagh, taking it by storm, and plundering and desolating the country around".Anthony Mamions Ancient and Modern History of the Maritime Ports of Ireland (1855)
Early history A Cistercian abbey was founded at Newry in 1144; in 1157 it was granted a charter by Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn, king of Tír Eoghain and High King of Ireland. It might have been a Benedictine monastery before this. Newry Abbey (now the area around Newry Museum) would have been a sprawling complex of buildings and the heart of a monastic settlement. It existed for four centuries. The abbey was dissolved by the English in 1548, when it was recorded to consist of a church, steeple, college, chapter house, dormitory, a hall, a graveyard, two orchards, and one garden. Modern archaeologists unearthed thirty-three burials from part of the former graveyard, and further bones were found in charnel pits. They included remains of men, women, and several youths, and some of the individuals suffered violent deaths. It is believed this was a graveyard for the lay community from when the abbey was still in existence.
In April 1552, Nicholas Bagenal, Marshal of the English army in Ireland, was granted ownership of the former abbey lands. He built a fortified house known as Bagenal's Castle on the site of the abbey and its graveyard, re-using some of the abbey buildings. Bagenal also had an earthen rampart built around his Castle and the small town of Newry.
During the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Newry was captured by Irish Catholic rebels led by the Magennises and McCartans.Liam Kennedy & Philip Ollerenshaw. Ulster Since 1600: Politics, Economy, and Society. Oxford University Press, 2013. p.29 In May 1642, a Scottish Covenanter army landed in Ulster and seized Newry from the rebels. James Turner, one of the Scottish officers, recounted that Catholic rebels and civilians were taken to the bridge over the Newry River and "butchered to death ... some by shooting, some by hanging ... without any legal process". p. 142 The Scottish general, Robert Monro, said that sixty townsmen and two priests were summarily executed. Turner also said that Scottish soldiers drowned and shot about a dozen Irishwomen before he stopped them from killing more.
During the 1689 Raid on Newry, Williamite forces under Toby Purcell repulsed an attack by the Jacobites under the Marquis de Boisseleau. During the period of the Battle of the Boyne, the Duke of Berwick set fire to the parts of the town which he had restructured to defend it.
Modern era
The 1841 census gives the combined population of the two halves of the city as 11,972 inhabitants. By 1881 the population of Newry had reached 15,590.
During the Irish War of Independence there were several assassinations and ambushes in Newry. On 12 December 1920, British reinforcements travelling from Newry to Camlough were ambushed by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), who opened fire and threw grenades from MacNeill's Egyptian Arch. Three IRA members were fatally wounded in the exchange of fire.Lawlor, Pearse. The Outrages: The IRA and the Ulster Special Constabulary in the Border Campaign. Mercier Press, 2011. pp. 78–81
When Ireland was partitioned in 1921, Newry became part of Northern Ireland. From the 1920s to the 1960s, Newry Urban District Council was one of the few councils in Northern Ireland which had a majority of councillors from the Catholic/Irish nationalist community. The reason, according to Michael Farrell, was that this community formed such a large majority in the town, around 80% of the population, making it impossible to gerrymander. Also, an oddity was that for a time it was controlled by the Irish Labour Party, after the left wing of the Northern Ireland Labour Party defected to them in the 1940s.Michael Farrell Northern Ireland: The Orange State
Newry saw several violent incidents during the conflict known as the Troubles, including a triple killing in 1971, a bombing in 1972, and a mortar attack in 1985. These continued into the late 1990s and even in 2010 – such as bomb scares and car bombs.
See also: The Troubles in Killeen, for information on incidents at the border and customs post at Newry on the border with the Republic of Ireland and close to Newry. In 2003, the British Army's hilltop watchtowers overlooking Newry were taken down. The British Army withdrew from the area on 25 June 2007 when they closed their final base at Bessbrook.
Geography Newry lies in the most southeastern part of both Ulster and Northern Ireland. About half of the city (the west) lies in County Armagh and the other half (the east) in County Down. The Clanrye River, which runs through the city, from Carnmeen (north of the Carnbane Industrial Estate) until Middlebank (start of Warrenpoint Road), partly forms the historic border between County Armagh and County Down.
The city sits in a valley, between the Mourne Mountains to the east and the Ring of Gullion to the south-west, both of which are designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Cooley Mountains lie to the southeast. The Clanrye River runs through the centre of town, parallel to the Newry Canal. The city also lies at the northernmost end of Carlingford Lough, where the canal enters the sea at Victoria Locks.
Townlands Newry is within the civil parishes of Newry and Middle Killeavy. The parishes have long been divided into townlands, the names of which mainly come from the Irish language. The following is a list of townlands in Newry's urban area,Ordnance Survey Ireland: Online map viewer (choose "historic" to see townland boundaries) alongside their likely etymologies:
+ County ArmaghTownlandOrigin (Irish unless stated)TranslationAltnaveighAghnaveigh (alternate local name)glen of the ravensfield of the ravensBallinlaretownland of the fork/gapCarnagatcairn of the catsCarnbanewhite cairnCloghoge stony placeDerry Beglittle oak woodDrumalanebroad ridgeLisdrumgullionfort of the holly ridgeLisdrumliskafort of the burnt ridge
+ County DownTownlandOrigin (Irish unless stated)TranslationBallynacraigtownland of the cragsCarneyhoughorigin unclear—Cloghanramerthick stone structure/causewayCommonsan English name that first appeared in 1810—Creevetree/bushDamollyprobably house of the round hillDrumcashelloneprobably the ridge of Eoghan's cashelGreenaneminent or sunny place
Demography
2021 Census On Census day (21 March 2021) there were 28,530 people living in Newry. Of these:
21.32% were aged under 16, 29.12% were aged between 16 and 65, and 14.51% were aged 66 and over. 50.87% of the usually resident population were female and 49.13% were male. 86.52% (24,685) belong to or were brought up Catholic, 8.07% (2,302) belong to or were brought up Protestant (including other Christian-related denominations), 1.24% (353) belong to or were brought up in an 'other' religion, and 4.17% (1,190) did not adhere to or weren't brought up in any religion. 61.29% indicated they had an Irish national identity, 22.76% indicated they had a Northern Irish national identity, and 9.13% indicated they had a British national identity, and 13.30% indicated they had an 'other' national identity. (respondents could indicate more than one national identity) 20.50% had some knowledge of Irish (Gaeilge) and 2.64% had some knowledge of Ulster Scots.
2011 Census On Census day (27 March 2011) there were 26,967 people living in Newry, accounting for 1.49% of the NI total. This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright. Of these:
21.46% were aged under 16 years, and 12.74% were aged 65 and over. 51.02% of the usually resident population were female and 48.98% were male. 88.27% belong to or were brought up in the Catholic religion and 8.47% belong to or were brought up in a 'Protestant and Other Christian (including Christian related)' religion. 56.12% had an Irish national identity, 27.27% had a Northern Irish national identity and 12.65% indicated that they had a British national identity (respondents could indicate more than one national identity). 35 years was the average (median) age of the population. 19.60% had some knowledge of Irish (Gaeilge) and 2.37% had some knowledge of Ulster-Scots.
Climate As with the rest of Northern Ireland, Newry has a temperate climate, with a narrow range of temperatures, regular windy conditions, and rainfall throughout the year.
Economy Newry has traditionally been considered a merchant's town, and has maintained a reputation as one of the best provincial shopping-towns in Northern Ireland, with the Buttercrane Centre and The Quays Newry attracting large numbers of shoppers from as far away as Cork.
In 2006 Newry house prices grew the most across the whole United Kingdom over the previous decade, as prices in the city had increased by 371% since 1996. The city itself has become markedly more prosperous in recent years. Unemployment has reduced from over 26% in 1991 to scarcely 2% in 2008.Article by Frances McDonnell, Belfast Briefing, page 21, Irish Times, 9 December 2008, quoting Dr Gerard O'Hare