The original Port of Warrenpoint, consisting of a wet dock and piers, was constructed in the late 1770s by Roger Hall, Robert Ross and Isaac Corry with the assistance of £500 of public funds. Until 1971 the Port of Warrenpoint acted as a lightering port for the Port of Newry and jointly these ports handled approximately half a million tonnes of cargo annually. Subsequently the modern Port of Warrenpoint has handled 5 times as much cargo on an annual basis.
The Ballyrory, a self-trimming motor collier and the last vessel on the order books of Hall, Russell & Co. Ltd., Aberdeen, launched in 1962.
The ship, named by Mrs J S Kennedy, wife of the managing director of the owning company, was the second of the identical vessels built to the order of John Kelly Ltd., Belfast.