Gerry Mac’s (Public House), 7 Canal Street, Newry, Co Down, BT35 6JB

Gerry Mac's is a three-storey granite building with basement and attic, occupying three bays on the east side of Canal Street in Newry. Dating to the late 18th or early 19th century, it remains largely in original condition and significantly enhances the streetscape of this area.

The principal elevation faces west onto Canal Street. The building is constructed of squared granite rubble in regular courses with projecting eaves and a raised base at ground floor left. The pitched natural slate roof features rendered chimneys at each gable and leaded gutters to the front.

The ground floor is divided into two distinct sections. The left section operates as a shop front, with a three-paned window (with transom) to the left and a partly glazed four-panel door with tripartite transom to the right, separated by a painted timber pilaster. A painted timber fascia board reading "Gerry Mac's" spans these openings, with a modern suspended metal sign positioned above. The right section contains a four-panelled bolection-moulded door (now boarded up) with rectangular transom, sharing a painted render jamb with the shop door and fitted with a painted timber pilaster to its right. A semicircular-headed coach arch with dressed granite jambs and imposts occupies the extreme right, containing a pair of tongue-and-groove sheeted timber doors with wicket gate. The wall to ground floor left is painted. Upper floors each have four equally spaced 1/1 sliding sashes with exposed boxes, flat granite heads with splayed voussoirs, and granite cills. The second-floor windows are diminished in height with top sashes double the size of bottom ones, suggesting these were originally 6/3 glazed.

The left gable is abutted by a lower building. Its exposed portion is predominantly red brick with granite towards the street, featuring a small four-paned fixed timber window in the attic at its right side. The right gable, now wet-dashed, was formerly the party wall with an adjacent property destroyed by fire; fireplaces and room divisions remain evident, and the upper-floor rooms over the coach arch, which formerly belonged to the adjoining property, have since been incorporated into this building.

The rear elevation is three bays wide, built of granite rubble brought to courses except for the middle bay, which is red brick. The left bay has a horizontal timber lintel at ground-floor level to the coach way through to the street. At first floor is a 6/6 sliding sash and a diminished height 6/3 sash at second floor. The middle bay contains half-landing windows: a 6/6 sash between ground and first floor, a 6/1 sash between first and second floor (formerly 6/3), and a small modern window between second and attic. The right bay at second floor has two 2/2 vertically-divided sliding sashes. A single-storey modern flat-roof extension abuts the middle and right bays. A further small flat-roof extension over ground floor adjoins the right bay at first-floor left. Ground-floor extension has rendered walls with a metal-sheeted door to yard and no windows; first-floor extension has a single metal-framed window.

The building appears on a 1763 town map by B. Scale, though this is unlikely to represent the present structure. The current building was certainly extant by 1836, when it was occupied by Adam Ledlie. Its first documented use as a public house is recorded in the Valuation book entry of 1893. The building formerly abutted an almost identical three-storey building (three openings wide) to its right, which has since been demolished following fire destruction.