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Carlingford Lough Maritime Festival
Saturday 15th & Sunday 16th June
The Heritage village of Greenore, Carlingford, Warrenpoint, Killowen and Kilkeel on the shores of Carlingford Lough

"An Emigration Re-Enactment" Killowen Historical Society and Greenore Historical Association will host an Emigration Re-Enactment including music, singing, poetry and storytelling.

The event, an emigration re-enactment organised by the Greenore Historical Association and the Killowen Historical Society to coincide with the Carlingford Lough Maritime Festival will see a tall ship, sail into the Lough as far as Newry Canal. With folk singers from Killowen and residents from both sides of the Lough recounting stories of those who left to seek a better life on ships which set sail from Greenore and Warrenpoint it will be a poignant reminder of how emigration has played such a large role in Irish society down the years.

Greenore a self-contained railway village constructed by the London & North Western Railway (L&NWR) company, as a railway terminal and ferry port, opened on the 1st of May 1873, will go down in history as a significant rail & sea linkage, for passenger and cargo alike, between Ireland & Great Britain and indeed the continents of the world. Although the paddle steamer the “Dodder” operated between Greenore and Warrenpoint in the mid 1870s, the Mersey having been overhauled in Holyhead commenced a passenger / cargo service between Greenore, Warrenpoint and the newly constructed pier at Greencastle on the 1st August 1880. This service catered for, among other things, emigration from the Kingdom of Mourne to the “New World.” The emigrant having said their goodbyes and with a heavy heart, boarded the small steamer from Greencastle Pier, crossed Carlingford Lough to Greenore Pier where they boarded the Steamers bound for Holyhead, from Holyhead caught the train service to destinations throughout England or to the bigger ports where they boarded the liners en-route to destinations throughout the world in many instances never to return.

In the early 1900s to boost revenues the L&NWR advertised tourist related packages whereby the “tourist” could holiday in the Greenore Hotel and as a day trip option, take the steamer across Carlingford Lough where a horse drawn “long car” pulled by a team of six horses awaited at Greencastle Pier to provide a tour of Kilkeel and the Mourne area, inclusive of lunch at the Kilmorey Arms Hotel, returning to Greenore in the evening.

For Further Event Information contact +353 42 9373822 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it