The best known pub in Castlebar in the early 1900s recalled
by Auld Stock
Complaints about the condition of footpaths and roads are common nowadays.
My own view is that by and large most footpaths and roads are in reasonably good shape.
Older people are fearful of walking on some footpaths because there is often a ‘lip’ where tiles meet one another. If their foot touches the ‘lip’ older people especially can get a bad fall.
The footpaths in Castlebar and other towns were flagstone in the early years of the last century.
The flagstones were perfectly laid, a tribute to the skills of the workmen responsible for the upkeep of the footpaths.
When it rained the dust on the streets turned to mud. If you stepped on the mud you were sure to have your boots or shoes destroyed.
Not many people wore wellingtons in those times.
There was a business premises on the Main Street, Castlebar, in the early 1900s known as the ‘Sixpenny Shop’ where each item could be bought for 6d.
There were 26 pubs on the Main Street in those days; nowadays there are just three pubs on the street.
The best known pub on the Main Street in those days was owned by a family named Haughey.
One of the Haughey girls married Jim Divney, Breaffy, who had a travelling shop. Jim is remembered in Breaffy as a decent man and a good employer.
The Cahill family from Thomas Street made sticks of brown rock which could be bought for threepence.
One of the Cahill family, Alice, was regarded as the best looking girl in Castlebar at the time. Keeping boots clean in those days was a problem and Day & Martin’s blackening was commonly used to keep footwear clean.
A pint of your best porter cost four old pennies in the 1920s. Wages, for those lucky enough to have a job, were very low and there was massive emigration from town and country.
Many a tear was shed at Castlebar railway station as local young men and women left to seek work in England. Some returned, others stayed permanently in England, married and raised their families.
Some emigrants travelled to Queenstown (Cobh) in Cork and made their way to America on board a liner. Many of them never returned. American ‘wakes’ were held in homes to mark the departure of emigrants.
There were no planes in those days and once you left Ireland for the US it was a final goodbye. A heartbreaking time for thousands of Irish families.
The Civil War stopped the march of the nation and it took Ireland many years to recover from that tragic episode when brother fought against brother.
The scars of the Civil War remained for many years, but that situation is largely over.
The opposing factions made peace with one another after years of bitterness and it is true to say the country has made much progress since those sad times.
Years ago the people of our country could never have visualised Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael joining forces to make up the current government.
That surely can be termed progress. We are a small nation and we should work together for the benefit of all.