Methodist History Irish Methodist History
Newry has an important place in Irish Methodism. John Wesley visited the town 14 times, first in 1756 and finally in 1789. It was in Newry he wrote his sermon ‘The Witness of the Spirit’. The original preaching house was a ‘garret’ but a member, Mr Scott, gave a site on William Street for the first chapel in 1785. The present church in Sandys Street was opened in 1841.
Warrenpoint’s first Methodist church, ‘a plain slated building’ was built in 1793. In 1797 the famous Rev. Thomas Coke visited the society and when the present church was erected in 1885 (designed by W.J. Watson) it was named the Coke Memorial Church.
Bessbrook began life as a Quaker settlement and model village. It was built around the linen industry in 1845 by the Richardson family to house their workers. The Methodist chapel was built in 1873. (The English PM preacher, Thomas Russell, while stationed in Portadown, married Elizabeth Richardson).
Methodist work in Rostrevor is largely the result of the Rev. John Gilcriest who, in retirement in 1890, began work in the area. Following his sudden death in 1899, his family and friends erected the Gilcriest Memorial Methodist Church in 1901 in his memory and to ensure the continuation of his work. It was closed in 2007 and sold in 2012. It is now the Church Café and Bistro.
