Hi Mike,
I am completely new to all this, but there might be something here. My paternal grandfather was Patrick Joseph Boden born, as far as I know, in the 1880's in Co. Armagh or Co. Down. His mother (name unknown) died young of TB and he was sent to Silent Valley in the Mourne Mountains to protect his own health and later lived in Newry.

He married Nan (or Anna) Garland around 1906-08 - in Newry, as far as I known. Somewhere in the Garland family tree, the name McArdle pops up, and they had a brewery (McArdle's Ales) in Canal Street, Newry, for many years. PJ Boden is listed as brewer/bottler on my father's (Richard Eric,b. 1914) birth certificate.

PJ Boden also engaged in some research into the name "Boden" - not common in the North of Ireland (and no connection to various German variants of the word). The original Bodens seem to have been from Normandy - Boudin and Bodin - and migrated first to Northern England where the "w" seems to have been added, and a few to Armagh and Down.

Given the border geography of Crossmaglen and Newry, I should mention that the Garlands, McArdles and Bodens I know of directly are all Catholic. The PJ Bodens (4 sons: Cyril, Eric, Niall and Ivar) moved to Dublin in about 1929.

Does any of this resonate?

Cordially,

Deirdre