I've not been in this glass - fronted centre before. It's in the city centre. Our visit was to watch a rarely shown movie on old Newry from 1924 to 2023 and it was standing room only. I think about 50 people were turned away and they were not best pleased. The movie ran for about three hours and it sure brought back memories. One that really struck was the sheer scary power of the church that dominated ordinary daily life literally bringing thousands of people to the streets on command for Mass Rock and religious processions. Now aside from an annual blessing of the graves they'd struggle to get a few 100 folks out and they are masters of their own self inflicted demise. But the church has patience; if it takes 1,000 years or twice that to re grow - like China - they can and will wait. They've been about for millennia; child abuse will become but a footnote in their history. Admission was £10 with proceeds going to two different non religious charities. It also covered tea, coffee and biscuits during an interval. Ours is a proud city (still can't get used to calling our town a city). It's been around longer than Belfast. We have the first post reformation church in Ireland and the first summit-level canal built in the British Isles. Like later canals, the Newry Canal was also built primarily to transport coal. The world ran in coal for centuries. This is the canal from which President Joe Biden's ancestors sailed from to a new life. As I watched the movie and scanned the faces in the audience many I know who certainly haven't aged as well as me I thought of Dean Jonathan Swift - the man who wrote the Menippean satire Gulliver's Travels. He said of us 'High Church, Low Steeple; Dirty Streets, Proud People'. He wrote this well over 300 years ago but it could have been written last night. As for our venue - it's a Conference and Banqueting Centre belonging to the Catholic Church that's been here for over 15 years and is set up for AV, room dressing, entertainment. read more