The growth and prosperity of any settlement are highly dependent on the infrastructure that supports it. First there is the infrastructure that connects it to the rest of the country – main roads, waterways, railways etc. And then there is the more local infrastructure – local roads, markets, water supply, drains and sewerage, and in later years the telegraph, telephones and finally mobile telephony and broadband.
Although it is not the oldest enabler of commerce and transport – primitive roads obviously came first – we shall start with the Newry canal as it pre-dated the rapid expansion of the local road system in the later 1700s and first half of the 1800s.