A Personal And Imperfect History Of A Small Ulster Village
This website tells a small, and sometimes personal, part of the history of the small village of Poyntzpass which sits in the border of Co Armagh and Co Down in Northern Ireland, between Newry and Banbridge. The website takes its name from the English family who arrived during the Ulster Plantations, and gave their name to the village.
I’m Alan Clarke. I was born in N Ireland, and I grew up in Poyntzpass but I’ve lived in Cambridge, England, for well over 50 years, since I graduated from QUB in 1972.
Poyntzpass & District Local History Society
The Poyntzpass & District Local History Society (P&DLHS) was set up in 1971; I was an early member in my late teens, but I lost touch with it when I moved to Cambridge. About 2019, some time after I retired, I reconnected with the society, and initially became very curious about the history and former inhabitants of the house I grew up in; it was about 230 years old and used to sit beside the bridge over the Newry canal, before being demolished to make way for the new Baptist Church.
In 2021, I asked Hugh Daly (then President of the society) if anyone had ever compiled a timeline of the development of Poyntzpass and its infrastructure – the buildings, roads, water supply, sewage system, etc. Some topics are addressed indirectly in the many excellent articles that P&DLHS has published, since 1987, in its excellent journal ‘Before I Forget’ (BIF).
I wanted to create an accessible, online, evolving account of the village, its people and the events which shaped it physically– an account which others can correct, update and flesh out as they unearth more of its history in the future.
P&DLHS has its own website. This website does not replace it in any way. On the contrary, it aims to compliment it, putting my own researches into the public domain, linking them to what the P&DLHS has already published and making them accessible to anyone who is interested.
Biased
In some areas, this account is inevitably biased. I’ve pursued the topics that interested me, and neglected others that did not. In particular, in places I’ve focused on areas that were relevant to my own family’s history. Others would have made very different choices.
Making The Past More Vivid
Although my original focus was infrastructure, I came across many other interesting facts, especially in the British Newspaper Archive. Adding these to my account, to give a more vivid view of local life in the past, became irresistible; the only question was when to stop!
When I found an interesting new fact, it often needed to be put into a historical context, economic or political, and the original project threatened to expand to encompass the whole of Irish history! That way lies madness, of course.
So I have tried to keep these explanations brief and point readers to where they can get more in-depth knowledge, including through live Internet links (URLs). For most of my account, I’ve also tried to stick to facts and events which were directly relevant to, occurred close to, or greatly affected the people of Poyntzpass.
The Poor & The Rich
It is often said that history, especially of war, is written by the victor. Similarly, much, perhaps most local history comes to us through the recorded deeds of the rich and powerful. Their activities, sometimes trivial, filled the pages of the newspapers and their family journals.
The far more numerous, and often far more tragic, individual stories of the poor and dispossessed went largely unrecorded. Often the only trace that remains of them are the official records of their birth, baptism, marriage and death (divorce was almost unknown, and was certainly not for the poor). The main occasions when the lower classes appeared in newspapers a few hundred years ago were reports of their crimes and their subsequent punishment!
Often only mass tragedies, such as epidemics and famine, in which thousands or even tens of thousands died, give us any insight into the miserable lives and struggles of most of the population of Ireland in past centuries.
Limitations
As I live in England and rarely visit N Ireland, I’ve had not been able to examine original documents in PRONI and county archives, just what has been digitised and put online. I hope that others can augment (and correct!) my account by first-hand scrutiny of these, if a particular topic interests them. Even with so much historic material being digitised in recent years, desk research still has its limits.
I’m also very conscious that not being ‘on the ground’ I can easily make mistakes that could be corrected by a swift walk around the location. Context is very important.
Standing On The Shoulders Of Others
This history includes chunks of near-verbatim text written by some of the talented Poyntzpass folk who have researched a particular topic and published it in BIF. Where appropriate, I have lifted text from these articles (and included a live link to the original article where possible); I think the phrase is ‘stealing with pride’! I try to remember to acknowledge all such extracts and their authors.
So, many people should be considered as co-authors, including (in no particular order) Seán Mac Labhraí, Frank Watters, Barbara Best, Hugh Daly, John Campbell, Michael Anderson, Geraldine Foley, J J Sands and others too numerous to mention. Please excuse me if I have not explicitly acknowledged your contribution; I’m happy to correct any omissions. This history was written more by you than by me; I have just compiled, edited and put in context those many stories, tying some of them together and supplementing them with other facts I have unearthed.
Notes
- This is still very much a work in progress, and there are many gaps and ‘notes to self’. Text highlighted in colour flags something that I’m still a bit dubious about or where much more detail is needed. Isolated headings with content to be added sometime in the future are all too common!
- In direct quotes from old sources, I have preserved the original, often archaic, spelling, especially for townland and other place names, where there almost no consistency down the years, even in near-contemporaneous documents. I think this is more authentic and interesting.
- The spelling of some Irish surnames has varied much over the years. Like placenames, I have preserved the original spelling in direct quotations but used modern English spellings elsewhere – my Irish language skills are non-existent! I apologise for any inadvertent cultural offence caused.
- Any bold text in direct quotations is me drawing the reader’s attention to particular phrases or sentences that I think get right to the point!
- Much of the text was imported from MS Word, then edited, so some inconsistencies in the numbering of footnotes have arisen. They will be corrected in due course.
- Many pages are a bit light on images at present. I’m hoping to add more in due course.
All feedback (except typos and spelling mistakes – I’m gradually fixing those!) is welcome, as are images of people places and events mentioned. Email me at arc202 at virginmedia dot com.
Have fun!
Copyright © Alan Clarke, 2025