McHale Road - heartbeat of Mayo's county town

By Tom Gillespie

FOR 88 years McHale Road in Castlebar has been the heartbeat of the county town.

It was on Wednesday, New Year's Day, 1935, when 109 of the houses in the 116-house estate were officially opened.

Two contractors who undertook the building scheme were Messrs. Molloy and Sons and Messrs. Glynn and Tobin.

However, in the course of construction a problem arose where the foundations of houses from 37 to 60 sank, leaving the dwellings uninhabitable until remedial works were eventually carried out.

That week’s Connaught Telegraph carried a report on the official opening. It read: There was a large attendance of the general public as well as the following Urban Councillors: Mr. Joe Chambers (chairman), Mr. Collins, Mr. T.H. Gillespie, Mr. Moran, and Mr. Lavelle. Mr. F. Ryan (clerk of the council) and Mr. T.P. McDonough (town surveyor) were also present.

Castlebar Catholic Boy Scouts, headed by Mr. Robert Kilkelly (Diocesan Commissioner), formed a guard of honour.

Before the commencement of the ceremony, Fr. Carney thanked the council for carrying out the scheme, which would be a credit to all concerned, eventually.

A few little difficulties had to be remedied, and when they were the houses would be a credit, especially to the council.

The houses were well equipped and laid out, and he had no doubt they would prove comfortable and healthy to those people who had to occupy them.

Everyone realised that some of the poorest people in town had decided to live in the McHale Road houses. Some of them would find it difficult to meet the extra burden of the increased rent, but he could tell those tenants on behalf of the council that anything the council could do to ease the new burden would be done by the council and the authorities in the country.

It was his earnest hope that all those who had taken up residence would be happy in their new homes, and he asked God to bless all the tenants and help the parents to bring up their children well. The children, he was sure, would be reared in the most excellent and healthy surroundings.

While wishing them every success and blessings in their new homes, he was aware of the fact that the tenants’ old homes were sanctified for them in many ways and that the people only left them with a wrench.

Everyone would sympathise with the tenants on that point, but he hoped that the people would bring to their new homes the grand old spirit that characterised the old ones.

It was his wish that the blessings which the tenants enjoyed before, they would continue to enjoy. Especially it was his wish that they would bring with them the old family Rosary.

That was a tradition they should certainly carry with them, so that when persons passed by the cottages at night they would hear that family prayer being said as usual before the angels of God and McHale Road would be known as Rosary Road.

No home in the road should be without that family offering so that the chain of prayer would remain intact - in other words, there should not be a broken link.

Mr. Chambers, on behalf of the council and the tenants, thanked Fr. Carney for coming to bless the houses.

As far as the council was concerned, they would do everything in their power to help tenants in the matter of rent when the time arrived.

Fr. Carney next proceeded to bless each house. He was attended by two acolytes carrying lighted candles, and as the ceremony was being performed the crowd present recited the Rosary.

Today McHale Road is a tree-lined cul-de-sac boulevard where extensive renovations and extensions have been added to the 116 houses. Some, however, remain uninhabited.

The present and past residents are the salt of the earth and are the backbone of the local community.

McHale Road will always be synonymous with Castlebar Bacon Factory where often two or more from each household in the road worked when the bacon curing industry was at its zenith and up to 600 workers were employed.

The factory was originally established as a cooperative and one of the prime movers in the project was Fr. Hughes, a priest in Islandeady.

My grandfather, T.H. Gillespie, then editor of The Connaught Telegraph, who attended the official opening of the houses as a Fine Gael member of Castlebar Urban Council, was a founding member of the Bacon Factory and acted as its secretary up to the time of his death in March 1939.

The factory, I understand, went into production in 1919 and its first manager was Joseph Edward Prosser.

Succeeding managers included George Boyden, grandfather of George O'Malley, Mountain View, Castlebar. Other managers were Mr. De Jong, Holland, Mr. Zwanenberg, also from Holland, Mr. Danclesfen, Blair Holt, Jim Brennnan, Charlie O'Toole, Roger Connolly and Tadhg O'Driscoll, who was the last manager before the closure of the factory in the mid-1980s.

In addition to killing pigs and curing bacon, the factory became famous for its sausages and puddings. Beef was also processed in the factory and during the war years, turkeys were killed, plucked and exported to England, as were rabbits.

The wealth generated by the workers from the factory was never hidden away and the householders of McHale Road were renowned for their spending prowess in supporting local businesses.

MacHale Park, of course, stands sentinel-like over the road and the residents are proud of the many achievements Mayo teams have notched up there over the years.