History Armagh 2018
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£3.50 ISSN 1743-565X (N0.14) Vol.4 No.2 December 2018 History Armagh The man who galvanised medical practice in Armagh Armagh couple meet 60s icon on Primrose Hill Work and play at the laundry An Armagh History Group Publication History Armagh No. 14 - Vol. 4 No. 2 - December 2018 History Armagh Online Armagh and District History Group’s website contains a wealth of information for the local historian. The website www.historyarmagh.org carries details of our meetings, news of local history events, and links to other useful websites and Facebook pages of interest to local historians. The History Group publishes a successful magazine History Armagh and as back issues can be difficult or impossible to obtain, articles from our first four issues are available on the website. You can also keep up to date with the latest news from the History Group at our Facebook page – https:// www.facebook.com/ historyarmagh/ History Armagh No. 14 - Vol. 4 No. 2 - December 2018 2 Vol. 4 No. 2- December 2018 History Armagh This is a publication of Contents Armagh & District History Group A short history of the Police Service in Armagh Chairperson: Mary McVeigh by Stephen Day .................................................................. 4 Vice Chair: Stephen Day Secretary: Helen Grimes Alexander Lane: the man who galvanised medical Treasurer: Kevin Quinn practise in Armagh Press Officer: Eric Villiers by Richard Burns ................................................................ 11 Web Master: Richard Burns ‘A triumph of photographic art’ Editorial committee: by Catherine Gartland ......................................................... 15 Mary McVeigh, Stephen Day, Roy Cummings, Richard Burns, The Pavilion: a Picturesque inspired suburban Catherine Gartland, Eric Villiers, Regency Villa Kevin Quinn, Helen Grimes, by Kevin Quinn .................................................................... 20 Angela Boylan, Stephen Garvin County Armagh Families Copyright: by Gerry Oates .................................................................... 26 No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior Armagh Cricket Club by Brian Weir ...................................................................... 31 consent of the publishers and the relevant author A Halloween tale of gunfire, clergy, police and medical men laying a ghost at a lake Printers: by Eric Villiers ..................................................................... 34 The Postcard Company Limited 51 Gortin Road Irish Street: plenty to be proud of despite poor press Omagh BT79 7HZ by Mary McVeigh ................................................................ 36 Tel: 028 8224 9222 E: [email protected] Armagh City Steam Laundry - through the eyes of the workers by Sean Barden .................................................................. 41 Front cover: Upper Irish St. Police Barracks in 1950s Back Cover: It’s not so unusual to say hello: Armagh couple meet 60s icon Looking east from Navan Street to Primrose on Primrose Hill Hill, courtesy of Armagh County Museum by Kevin Quinn .................................................................... 45 History Armagh No. 14 - Vol. 4 No. 2 - December 2018 3 A short history of the Police Service in Armagh by Stephen Day The focus of this article largely protect life and property, to detect crime should make hue and cry, centres on the history of policing in and deter crime and to maintain (basically shout out loud and clear) Armagh City since the 1770s. public order. The English policing and that the hue and cry must be developments gradually perculated kept up against the fleeing criminal Origins into various parts of Ireland and by from town to town and from county Law enforcement bodies of some the early 1700s a basic form of civil to county, until the felon is kind have existed in Ireland from (as distinct from military) policing apprehended and delivered to the earliest times. Some of these bodies was beginning to develop. sheriff. All able bodied men, upon were made up of ‘Watchmen’ - hearing the shouts, were obliged to Early Records guardians of the peace. In 1285, assist in the pursuit of the criminal. King Edward 1 of England had In Armagh City the 1770 Census It was moreover provided that ‘the passed the Statute of Winchester shows that the Town Sergeant, whole hundred…. shall be which ‘constituted two constables Richard Lutton, lived with his wife answerable’ for any theft or in every Hundred (for example, a and one child in Little Meeting robbery – in effect a form of geographic division of a County, Street (thought to be just beside collective punishment, usually a often a Parish to prevent defaults in Abbey Street) a short distance fine or payment of compensation towns and highways.’ A further Act down from the Cathedral. levied on the community or Parish. of Parliament in 1495 enabled each Those who raised a hue and cry Parish to appoint constables from Many of the Parishes in Armagh falsely were themselves guilty of a the able inhabitants. Over the had their own constables, not many crime and subject to punishment. centuries, when local arrangements in number but effective in times of By 1773 a similar ‘county’ police were not sufficient to deal with a relative peace. One such was Petty force existed in scattered baronies significant threat to law and order, Constable William Cowan of elsewhere in Ireland with the the local officials frequently Tartaraghan Parish, north-west of Baronial Constables often referred enlisted the help of the military. Armagh City. In 1725 he was to as ‘the old Barneys.’ Dublin had executing Warrants on behalf of its own city-wide force from 1778. (To complicate matters, sometimes Thomas Clarke, a Justice of the the position of Constable referred Peace (JP) for the County of In Armagh the local authority was to the military officer charged with Armagh. the Armagh Corporation, a Grand the defence of a castle or Fort. In Jury of twenty three persons headed the aftermath of the Nine Years Petty Constables would also have by a ‘Sovereign’ – a latter day Lord War in Ireland (1594-1603) been assisted in carrying out their Mayor. They served in office for 12 Captain Anthony Smith was listed duties by the obligations of ‘Hue months and at the end of this time as Constable of the Castle of Moyry and Cry’ placed on local another Jury was summoned by the and Francis Anneslie was listed as Parishioners and bystanders. The new Sovereign appointed by the Constable of the Fort at process of ‘Hue and Cry’ related to burgesses. Amongst their many Mountnorris. Both were located in the ancient tradition of common duties was the requirement to south Armagh on the strategic law whereby local people could be prevent the existence of nuisances route from Dundalk to Armagh via called on to assist in the and to nominate town constables Newry). apprehension of a criminal who had for the preservation of the public been witnessed in the act of peace. At the most basic level, the term carrying out a crime. The constable refers to a person of Winchester Statute stated that Corporation Books show that in the authority who has powers of arrest, anyone, either a constable or a early 1780s Armagh had a very under common and civil law, to private citizen, who witnessed a small establishment of police History Armagh No. 14 - Vol. 4 No. 2 - December 2018 4 officers and the Corporation newspapers. The opening of the the local police. (Bradshaw: 1820) regularly set money aside to pay Courthouse came as the Napoleonic them. They had the power to Wars were reaching their end. It Peel’s plans came to fruition two appoint and dismiss these men. was anticipated that over the next years later. By an Act of Also the power to reward them for few years the demobilisation of Parliament, a permanent trained good work and fine them for poor soldiers and an economic downturn police force for the whole of performance. There are references would lead to more unemployment Ireland was created. Called the to Petty Constables, Town and an associated increase in crime. Constabulary Police (1822-1836). Constables, Town Sergeants and An increase in the police was a Opposition to the idea of a national the High Constable who appears to sensible precaution. police force delayed the have had oversight of all law and introduction of the force in some th order issues in the City. Many of On 20 January 1812 the two Town counties and ensured that control of these issues were routine. Sergeants are named as Charles the force was localised. Each Bary and Barney Rocks and the Barony was to have a force of 15th November 1784: Constables listed as Henry Kidd, sixteen constables commanded by a John Barnes, William Irwin, Chief Constable, with an Inspector ‘Every stallion that shall be rode or Thomas Simpson, Patrick Rafferty General for each of the four led for show into the Market Street th and Robert Shillington. By the 7 Provinces of Ireland with County or other streets of this town on a July1813 the numbers appear to Armagh police officers forming Market Day or Fair Day from the have doubled with the names of 26 part of the Ulster Constabulary. hour of nine o’ clock in the Constables listed. However, there However, numbers expanded morning to 6 o’ clock in the remained a need for a more rapidly. By 1824, there were 214 evening shall be seized and kept in efficient and adequate county Chief Constables, 1113 Constables custody by the Town Sergeant until police. and 3465 Sub-Constables in the owner pay a sum of ten shillings Ireland. Manpower expanded for use of the poor of this Many people date the formation of another 23% by 1830. During that Corporation.’ the modern Irish police to 1814 decade there was a Police Barracks when Mr (later Sir) Robert Peel, On 22nd July 1795 the Sovereign at Linen Hall Street (East), Chief Secretary of Ireland, created and Grand Jury published a poster Armagh, just up from the junction the Police Protection Force (PPF) which was to be displayed to the with Abbey Lane.