New Exhibition and Talk Explore Newry’s Global Trade and Caribbean Connections

Newry and Mourne Museum will open its new temporary exhibition ‘Making Waves: Newry’s Rise as a Global Trade Centre’, on Thursday 16 October, which will look at the development of Newry as an international trading hub beginning almost 300 years ago.

To complement its launch, the Museum will host guest speaker, Geraldine Foley on Saturday 18 October at 2pm. Her fascinating talk, ‘From Canal Street to the Caribbean – Newry, Links to Slavery and the Plantation Economy’, will explore how 18th century Newry was part of a global economy exporting Ulster linen and butter across the world with some merchants investing in plantations and enslaved labour in the Caribbean.  

The talk will also trace the fortunes of figures such as Jemmy Blair, whose family amassed wealth from South American sugar plantations and will touch on other Newry people with Caribbean connections.

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Chairperson, Councillor Phillip Campbell said, “The new exhibition highlights the huge importance of the canal and port of Newry, revealing a history often untold. However, Geraldine Foley’s talk will also examine Newry's role as an international port handling cargoes connected to 18th-century slavery and plantations, underscoring the complexity of our relationship with this history.”

Tickets for the talk are £2.50 per person. To book or for more details please email Declan.Carroll@nmandd.org. 

‘Making Waves: Newry’s Rise as a Global Trade Centre’ is open to the public to view until September 2026 during Museum opening hours - Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 4.30pm with free admission.