Mick Byrne set to celebrate his familys 100th year in business

CASTLEBAR publican Mick Byrne recalls when there were 77 pubs in the county town, with 17 alone on Main Street/Bridge Street, many of them with groceries attached. Today, there are just 25, writes Tom Gillespie.

Mick’s grandfather, John, a native of Ballyhaunis and a garda stationed in Ballyheane, bought the premises on Bridge Street in 1917 and the family will be celebrating 100 years in business in two years’ time.

Mick’s father, Michael John Byrne, had taken over the business in 1949 and he ran it until he passed away in 1960. Mick’s mother, Margo, ran it for the next 18 years until Mick, known locally as ‘Auld Stock’, went behind the counter in 1978.

Mick told me: 'Times were different and hard in my parents time. My mother had a great loyal base of customers, a lot of the lads from the Bacon Factory - Martin Dolan, Peter Duke, Willie Lyons, Tommy O’Boyle, Pansy Cresham, Michael ‘the bull’ Moran. The lads from Roadstone used to come in too - Dick Quinn, Henry Horkan and Liam McKnight.

'In the evening time you had Micheal and Stan Hynes, Alfie Keegan, Val and John Donegan, Joe Chambers, Gerry Beirne, Michael Caulfield, Ned Killeen, Arthur and Alex Campbell, Frank McDonnell, Greg McDonnell.

'Other customers were the late Willie ‘the Shoe’ and Tommy Staunton, Josie Munnelly and Mickey P.

'Tom Denning would join them and if you were ever in their company you would be guaranteed a bit of devilment, a sing-song and a bit of craic.

'One great story I remember was my mother asking the great Seamus Burke from St. Patrick’s Avenue if he would ever think of going for the urban council and his reply was: ‘Margo, I’d hate to test my popularity’.

'When I took over in 1978 there were 54 licences in the town. There are now currently 25. I would have seen the best part of about 400 different publicans in Castlebar.

'In my mother’s time the Castlebar Song Contest was in full swing and members of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra used to come down here after they finished playing in the Royal Ballroom. They would play here in the pub. The pub would only hold 20 or 25 people. You could have 50 or 60 here in the pub, the grocery shop and the kitchen.

'Closing time was very strict at the time. If you were caught open after hours you were fined. Closing time was 11 p.m. but on the final night of the song contest the whole orchestra came down, with about 22 musicians playing instruments in the pub.

'At about 12 or 12.15 a.m. two local guards were up at Parsons, 200 to 300 yards from here, and a late straggler from the orchestra was coming down from the Travellers Friend and he asked he guards where is Margo’s and the late, great Garda Henry Coll and Noel Campbell, who were on duty, replied ‘Are you deaf or what’.'

Mick said he was blessed to have two great lads working with him - Pat Ruane, who is with him since the day he started, and Jarlath Pendergast who was with him for 38 years (he retired two years ago). Between the three of them they have clocked up 120 years.

Byrne’s is a noted GAA house and always attracted a huge crowd on Connaught final day.

Mick added: 'On the day of a Connaught final you would not get in the door here. All of a sudden the place would be heaving.

'I remember one day we took down the front door and the back door because it was hard to get in the way they were hanging.

'The guards came at one o’clock at night. The place was heaving. The guard turned to Jarlath and said the least you could have done was to close the door. But Jarlath said we have no door because the man who had taken the door down had gone on the beer.

'There were fellows who used to come down from Ballyhaunis for the Connaught final on a Sunday and I would send them back to Ballyhaunis in the Swithwicks truck on a Thursday, and that’s the way it was.'

Mick has two sisters, Maria and Carol, and his brother, William, passed away as an infant.

Mick loves the bar business. He explained: 'It was the business I was brought up in. I never had a bad day. I love meeting people.

'Before I started I had done three years with D.E. Williams - Tullamore Dew. I started in the Palace Bar in Athlone. It was a big Guinness house. I remember the first day I started. A lot of the army used to come in and some of them came along to me one day and told me ‘we don’t mind waiting for the Guinness here because we know it’s good’. If I never learned anything else, I learned that.

'I worked in Carlow and Galway for Tullamore Dew for two or three years. I always knew I was going to come back to Castlebar.'

Mick went to St. Jarlarth’s for five years and even to this day has great friends from his days there.

The late Dermot Earley was born in Byrne’s pub on Bridge Street. His mother was Kitty Byrne, a sister of Mick’s father.

The Byrnes were also in the egg business, which was huge at the time. 'The late Pat Bourke from Moneen Cottages worked for us for up to 60 years,' said Mick. 'We also had a travelling shop. I would go out on my holidays for the craic.

'If people did not pay you with cash they gave you eggs and then got whatever they wanted - the basic needs, butter, bacon or tea. They might give you two or three dozen eggs. We did the same run every week. We went out five days a week, sometimes six.'

He added: 'To me, everybody who comes in the door is special. I get an awful lot of repeat business from people who would come back to Castlebar.'

On the matter of football, he explains: 'We started following football in 1978/79. It is my passion and always will be. I have seen many great Mayo teams. I have been in Croke Park since 1985 some 55 times.

'We formed the Byrne’s Babes in 1981, a mothly crew of men who went from 1981 to 1997 and we never missed a game.

'We had Liam Gavin’s 52-seater bus. He was never the fastest but he always got us there. After Liam retired Sean Gallagher took over and we had the same 52 on the bus all the time. We went from Wexford to Antrim, Donegal to Kerry, and we even went to Kilkenny.'