Recalling the burning of St. Patrick’s School, Castlebar, 100 years on
by Alan King
Some locals might know that on the night of February 28, 1957, a major fire destroyed St. Patrick’s National School, Castlebar, causing pupils and staff to transfer to the Military Barracks for some time.
However, what is less well known is that another major fire occurred in that building, over a hundred years ago this month.
On January 20, 1921, at around 8 p.m., three young girls rushed to the monastery and told Brother Michael (the then Superior of Castlebar De La Salle Order) that they could see what looked like flames through the windows of the school, located across the road.
When they reached the school, the Brothers could see that a fire had broken out in a room on the second floor and spread onto the ceiling.
The alarm was raised by ringing the bell of the Church of the Holy Rosary, which alerted people all over the town.
Members of the Royal Irish Constabulary arrived and organised people with buckets into lines ferrying water from the nearby fountains and later the town river, behind the church.
At this time, the town had a fire appliance, presented to the UDC in 1901 by Dominic Browne of Breaffy House, consisting of a fire escape (a special type of ladder which could reach 40 ft) and 200 feet of hose, transported in a mud cart.
Several merchants such as James Haughey, Main Street (where the Humbert Inn was located), and John O’Boyle (drapery business, Main Street, where the AIB Bank is today) sent their portable Minimax fire extinguishing machines to help quench the fire.
Local curate Fr. Geoffrey Prendergast got into a motor car and went to the asylum to borrow their fire hose but by the time he returned the fire was under control.
In all, it had raged for about two hours and caused extensive damage.
Canon Fallon, P.P., Castlebar, who had helped direct operations, praised all concerned, whilst tea and sandwiches were given to all who attended from his house and from the monastery.
When the fire was extinguished, two local volunteers were specially commended - John Horkan, Castle Street (uncle of local man Séan Horkan, formerly of Spencer Street), who worked for the family plumbing business, and Paddy Dunne, a member of the Bacon Factory staff.
They showed incredible courage by climbing ladders with their equipment and preventing the fire from spreading to the secondary school next door and not pausing even when a section of the roof collapsed near them.
The school (better known locally then as the ‘Monastery School’) originally opened on September 4, 1888, and had been designed by Rudolf M. Butler, a Dublin architect who married Annie Gibbons from Chapel Street.
Their daughter later married William Howard, the 8th Earl of Wicklow, thus becoming the Countess of Wicklow.
The cause of the fire was never ascertained, and children attended temporary classes in the town hall for a while until the building was repaired sometime later.
The building was eventually restored and today it is the premises of the Castlebar Family Centre, which provides valuable services to the community.
(Alan King is a member of the staff of Mayo County Library).