Drogheda's Industrial Life 1979

The Drogheda Industrial Exhibition of 1979 showcased some of the best of Drogheda's local businesses held in the White Horse Hotel (now the Westcourt Hotel) on West Street.

The Chairman of the Exhibition Committee Richard Greene said in his introduction in the souvenir catalogue:

"Why an Industrial Exhibition?  Apart from keeping a few people out of worse mischief, the urge to organise this exhibition was motivated by three objectives:

1. To provide Drogheda Industry with the excuse to polish its shoes, comb its hair and practise its smile for four days. In other words, to stand up with confidence to be counted by its peers and public.

2. To promote the national concept of Guaranteed Irish, by reference to the opportunities that are missed here in Drogheda to substitute Irish for imported.

3. To instill the idea, in these industrially-divisive days, that there is a broader picture to be seen, and a fiercer enemy to be faced, than that which one imagines to be within the gates of ones own workplace. All industry, whether it be state, semi-state or private, is in competition with someone somewhere, either for the means to operate or for the share of markets.

So much goodwill has been encountered from so many different people, that we have had our faith in the event preserved during the inevitable setbacks, and now gives us confidence that these objectives will be handsomely achieved."

Some of the exhibitors were household names that sadly, either through falloff in demand, buyouts by the competition, or cheaper labour abroad, no longer exist, whilst some are happily still going strong. The list of exhibitors for 1979 is as follows and is a great insight into the working life of the town at that time:

Drogheda Aluminium, Eobain McDonnell, builders & Drogheda Fireplace Centre, Boyne Valley Foods, Bari Taylor Ltd. clothing manufacturers, Irish Tapestry Co., Bissell Ireland, Robert Roden (electrics), Poclain Hydraulics, The Boyne Valley Hotel, Suko furniture manufacturing, Charles Dougherty (incorporated Drogheda Oatmeal Milling Co. Ltd, produced oatmeal, wheatmeal, seeds, fertilizers etc.), the I.D.A., Drogheda & Dundalk Dairies, Peter Lyons Ltd. bakers, Tegral Pipes, Tower Fireplaces in Mornington, Mell Furniture, Centronics Ireland, Wilson & McBrinn clothing manufacturers and their 'Dingo' jeans, D.K. Agencies electrical equipment, Becton Dickinson & Co. medical equipment, Ushers Mills, D. Myles (Life & Pensions) Ltd., Old Drogheda Society, Gerrard O'Reilly Fireplaces, Keltic Marketing, Ann Murphy Designs, Morgan Landy photographers, WESCO, Drogheda Printers Ltd, W. & C. McDonnell (food stuffs), Flogas, Halco Plant, Boyne Marine Engineering & Electrical Centre, Rosita Gilsenan (batik artist), Globe Travel, Rock House Ltd. (sportswear), Connolly-McNamara Vintage Wines, G. Morgan & Sons (furntiture production), and The Drogheda Independent.

Memories of Drogheda in the Forties

The following article was first published in the Old Drogheda Society Journal 2000; it is written by Paddy Lynch and in it he recalls the social and cultural scene in the town at the time:

"This is just one persons memory of the old Town by the Boyne in my teenage years and early twenties i.e. 1940 - 1950.

I remember Drogheda as a great town to grow up in. Despite the war, the scarcities, the black outs, and rationing, there was always something to do. In fact to me these shortages seemed to make us more resilient.

During this period I attended the CBS, somehow we were educated despite the shortage of text books, copies with paper made with straw, poor heat etc. At that time before free school transport, pupils came to secondary school in Drogheda from Skerries, Balbriggan, Ardcath, Dunleer, to mention a few, and all seemed to arrive in time for class. The social scene was vibrant with plenty of amenities. The pictures as we called them then, at the Boyne, the Abbey and later the Gate. There were always two houses (performances) each night at 6.45pm and 9pm, Monday to Saturday, two on Sunday at 3pm and 8.30pm. I would always admit that the back row of the balcony was a favourite for girls and boys.

Dancing was another popular pastime, the main venue for this was the Whitworth Hall and the AOH Hall and it was great to make the long journey to Bettystown for a dance in the Northlands (on yer bike) which was our only means of transport. Drogheda had their own dance bands, Pat Jackson and his Band, and the Carlton were the main bands.

We did not lack other amenities as there were many social clubs. C.Y.M.S. Hall, Workmans Club, all in Fair St., the A.O.H. and the Catholic Club in Shop St., the Commercial Club in the Mayoralty House, St. Mary's Hall Dublin Road and YMCA in Peter St. During that time table tennis was a very competitive sport in the town, with leagues etc. There were also two tennis clubs, The Tredagh Club in the North Road, which was a part of the GAA grounds. The tennis club was situated opposite Smith's Garage and is now the main entrance to the grounds. The Drogheda Rowing Club on the Marsh Road was a great amenity on the river with a large club house. Rowing was a popular sport and the annual Boyne Regatta was a great event. The races started at Tom Roe's Point and ended at the boat house.

The GAA was very strong in the town with famous clubs nearly all centered in particuar areas. Wolf Tone GFC, Dooley Gate; Newtown Blues GFC, Newfoundwell; St. Magdalenes GFC, The Markets and Bolton Square; Oliver Plunkett GFC, Mell; Parnells GFC, The Marsh Road. Owen Roes was my club which attracted those not converted by the other clubs and newcomers to Drogheda. Soccer was also very popular with Drogheda United doing extremely well in this period. United Park was their home.

There can't be too many left who will remember the many services we had to protect our town if we had an air raid. The L.D.F. (Local Defence Forces) and The A.R.P. (Air Raid Precaution), The A.E.S., The Rescue Service, Knights of Malta, and The Red Cross. I was in the A.R.P. but due to my youth I was only a messenger, from post to post on our bikes. We all had uniforms. The A.R.P. uniform was grey. The best uniforms were the Knights of Malta and the Red Cross. The secret command post was in the cellar of the Library in Fair Street, state of the art for the time, with telephones to the various other centres. Thankfully we were not called upon. Although a bomb was dropped from a plane in a field on the Mornington Road, opposite the old cement factory.

The Whitworth Hall was an extremely popular venue. It was a cinema, dance hall, whist drives, sales of work, concerts and roller skating. We then had the Drogheda Operatic Society, and the Drogheda Musical Society, both gave first class performances. The drama groups, the workmans, St. Mary's, St. Philomenas, and St. Bridgets. All the visiting theatre groups played there, Anew McMaster, Michael MacLiamoir and Hilton Edwards. It was here I first saw Jimmy O'Dea and Maureen Potter.

Feis na Boinne was founded in the forties and attracted great crowds to the GAA grounds each year on the third Sunday in June. I was later to help in the Feis and felt very privileged. Poiltics were very strong in that period and the large crowds that attended the public meetings either at the Tholsel or down outside the Custom House. The parades to the meeting were fantastic and the hecklers were always on top of their form. The Drogheda and Reed band must be mentioned as they played at all occasions, football matches including Croke Park, political parades, processions and rectitals at Donor's Green and the Ramparts.

Summer was seaside time, the crowds going up the Dublin Road for the train to Laytown and the same road filling up again on the late evening on their return. Others took the bus to Mornington or Termonfeckin or Clougherhead. Cycling to Mornington for a swim after work, anyone remember where the "Ministers Hole" was? It was a popular bathing sopt for swimmers at Mornington Village, there was a path to the central channel of the Boyne opposite the old church in the village and there was a natural pool of deep water which did not vary with the tides. There was also a spring board for diving, our parents never knew we used it as it was quite deep.

I have only remembered some of the activities available in my youth and I must be nostalgic for my own street in the town. Narrow West Street was my street, at that time it was a lived in street with the best of neighbours, as far as I can see there is only one of the old names left, Callan the computer shop. I trust I may have stirred up old memories for some and for the younger reader to know that Drogheda was a great town to be born and to live in.

Drogheda's Underground Tunnels

Excavations in James St. before the dual carriageway construction

There has long been plenty of urban legends in Drogheda about various subterranean passages that exist around the town. They are referenced in many of the written histories of Drogheda down through the years, probably taken from local rumours themselves. They were allegedly used as various escape routes around and out of the town. 

John D'Alton in his 1844 History of Drogheda says that "it should not be omitted that in and about Drogheda, several subterranean passages have been discovered and many of considerable extent; one reaching from St. Peter's Church towards the Tholsel, another in the line of West St., a third near the ruins of the Dominican monastery (Magdalene Tower), and a fourth near the burial ground popularly called the Cord."

Basset's guide and Directory to Co. Louth also mentions the tunnel from St. Peter's, perhaps copying D'Alton: "Of traditionary subterranean passages, honey-combing the ground on which Drogheda stands, there is no lack. A very well authenticated one is said to run from St. Peter's Church toward the Tholsel."

In 1891 it was reported in the national news that in the course of construction of a house in Narrow West St., a large passage was discovered: "After excavating about ten feet beneath the surface the workman displaced a large flagstone, under which a large, dark subterranean passage was discovered. One of the workmen took a long crowbar and failed to touch the bottom with the end of it. All the surface water which originally passed through the sewer now drains into the underground passage referred to. It is considered that this discovery reveals one of the subterranean passages for which old Drogheda was famous. One of these passages (also) extended from the town to Mellifont Abbey."

It is also on record that a Mr. Hatch, the Borough Engineer explored a passage in Narrow West St. in 1893.

Finally, in 2006 when West. St. was in the process of being 'upgraded', people noticed apparent underground tunnels in the middle of the excavations. There are also reports of tunnels around the old Grammar School site, in the Duke St./Fair St. area and even that the Cellar Bar in Laurence St. was part of a larger network. Whether all these tunnels are the remains of cellars from older, previous buildings or perhaps old sewerage tunnels, the fact that there are so many stories and that they still persist is an indication that there is perhaps a grain of truth behind the urban legends.

Dowth Souterrain image c. Brian McElherran

Edit: The tunnels may also be the remains of souterrains, underground Iron age tunnels or galleries used, as has been suggested, as food stores or hiding places. They were dug out and then lined with either stone slabs or wood, which could be part of the passage found in West St. Co. Louth has a high concentration of these souterrains and considering Drogheda and the surrounding Boyne Valley area has evidence of human habitation since the Neolithic Age it seems within the realms of possibilty to suggest that these tunnels could be souterrains. With the recent geophysical survey of Millmount in Drogheda it can be hoped that if it shows evidence of a passage tomb on a par with Newgrange, then the immediate Drogheda area can be given another definite date for historical habitation. 

5 History-Changing Events that Happened in Drogheda

Drogheda has, perhaps surprisingly, been in the middle of a lot of important Irish events. Some may be very well known (Cromwell's Siege, the Battle of the Boyne come to mind) but there are less well-known happenings that had a huge effect, not only on Drogheda's history, but Irish history as a whole.

Here's your quick guide as to why Drogheda is more important than you think:

1. Poynings Law
Possibly one of the most important historical events to affect Irish history, this law, introduced by the then Lord Deputy of Ireland Sir Edward Poynings in the Irish Parliament sitting at Drogheda in 1494, was an attempt to bring the rebellious Irish back under the yoke of the Tudor Monarchy soon after the English War of the Roses. In it it stated that no Irish Parliament could meet without the permission of the King of England and no legislation could be passed or any parliamentary business done without first running it by the King's Deputy & Council in Ireland. It succeeded in restricting Irish affairs for the next 300 years and wasn't repealed until Henry Grattan's Parliament in 1782.

2. Synod of Mellifont
One of the many meetings of Irish bishops, but one of the most important, occurred in 1152 at Mellifont Abbey. It was basically to decide a whole reshuffle or redefinition of the Irish Church as it stood then; they increased the number of bishops and importantly redefined the number and size of the dioceses. This was when Drogheda was divided into the two dioceses as it still stands today; the diocese of Armagh on the northern side of the town and the diocese of Meath on the Southern side with the Boyne being the dividing line. This had the knock-on effect of Drogheda itself being founded as two separate towns initially in 1186 - one for each diocese, Drogheda-in-Meath & Drogheda-in-Louth - until their eventual unification in 1412.

So not only did the Synod redefine Ireland it also defined Drogheda itself.

3. King Richard II receives the submission of the Irish chiefs

Richard II knighting the Earls of Leinster & Ulster

In 1394 King Richard II came to Ireland with the intention of dealing with the problem of the native Irish; namely from the self-styled King of Leinster Art McMurrough. Richard's initial plan was to forge a military campaign against the Irish but their guerrilla tactics constantly had the English on the back foot. Many Irish lords and chiefs decided to submit to the king, possibly in order that he would then stay in the Pale and leave them alone to deal with their own lands instead of marching across Ireland interfering, as it were.

Richard II came to the Dominican Priory at Sundays Gate in March 1394 to accept the submission of the notable chiefs of Ulster, including the O'Neills, the O'Donnells and the O'Hanlons. This gesture in turn caused Richard to try the diplomacy tactic with McMurrough who did indeed take the deal offered, of a full pardon for past actions, a royal pension and swathes of land in Kildare and any others he could take off other rebel Irish. Unfortunately the truce didn't last and the Irish were back fighting the English in Ireland before King Richard had even left.

4.Battle of the Boyne
There have been many histories written about the battle, its origins and tactics and aftermath. It has often been said that the Battle of the Boyne was fought in Ireland but it wasn't an Irish battle. To an extant, this is true; what was at stake was the throne of England, fought over by William of Orange and James Stuart. It was also an international battle; the Dutch William wanted England so he could enter into an alliance against France. Religion of course came into the mix; with the Catholic James Stuart on the throne, Catholics would once again be able to hold public office, and regain their lands and livelihoods lost under Cromwell. Protestants naturally fought for the Protestant William, also fearful that a Catholic monarch would mean their removal from high society and their massacre and eviction from Ireland.

William did indeed win the day to become King William III of England whilst James II fled back to France. The political and historical landscape had once again changed.

5.Treaty of Mellifont.

Hugh O'Neill

The Treaty of Mellifont in 1603 brought to an end the 'Nine Years War' in Ireland, a series of skirmishes between Gaelic Chiefs (namely the Earl of Tyrone Hugh O'Neill) and Queen Elizabeth I. O'Neill, deflated by the loss at the Battle of Kinsale, agreed to meet the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Lord Mountjoy at Mellifont to sue for peace and to parley for pardon for his acts of high treason. Mountjoy made him beg for mercy on his knees and left him in that pose for an hour until Mountjoy would allow him into his presence. O'Neill was granted his pardon & his past transgressions forgiven, although Lord Mountjoy neglected to tell O'Neill that although he was surrendering to the Queen, she had in fact died 4 days beforehand.

The aftermath of the Treaty led to the 'Flight of the Earls' in 1607 to Spain and saw the end of the great Gaelic nobility.





Honourable mentions:
Cromwell's Siege: see our piece on Drogheda's gruesome events: http://droghedamuseum.blogspot.ie/2013/10/5-gruesome-drogheda-events.html

Famine Emigration: Drogheda was the second largest port of departure for people emigrating due to the Famine of 1845-52. In 1847 alone over 70,000 people left Ireland through Drogheda Port, mainly bound for Liverpool to seek a new life.