Mayo history: Parishioners did not want to be in the ‘ha’penny place’ in church

By Tom Gillespie

ONLY one priest is buried inside the Church of the Holy Rosary in Castlebar. Bishop Michael Higgins was parish priest in the county town from 1911 to 1918 and is interred in front of the high altar.

After his death, Fr. John Fallon, a native of Dunmore, Co. Galway, was appointed as parish priest, a role he held until his death in 1946.

In his book Through Fagan’s Gate, author Tom Higgins recalls the life of Archdeacon Fallon who was educated at St. Jarlath’s College in Tuam and at Maynooth. He was ordained in 1880 by the then Archbishop of Tuam, Dr. John McHale.

Fr. Fallon spent short periods as a curate in Ballinrobe and Ballyhaunis. He then taught in St. Jarlath’s College and was appointed president of the college in 1893.

Five years later (1898) he became parish priest of Knock, succeeding Archdeacon Bartholomew Aloysius Cavanaugh who was a member of the Ecclesiastical Commission of inquiry into the Apparition in Knock in August 21, 1879.

In 1909 he was appointed to Mountbellew, and in 1918 became parish priest of Castlebar, appointed by Archbishop Thomas Gilmartin. In 1922 he was made an Archdeacon.

All through his career, Archdeacon Fallon identified himself with Ireland’s claim for independence. He was an accomplished Irish scholar and student of everyday affairs, and a frequent contributor to the daily press.

A man noted for his charitable work, his purse was always open to the poor. Very much a man of the people, he would be found seated at a bonfire on St. John’s night enjoying the music, song and dance.

When Archdeacon Fallon became parish priest the land question had not been fully resolved. Some landlords were still holding on to large estates. He was outspoken in the campaign for the division of the land and providing people with economic holdings.

There was still a lot of poverty nationally and locally in the 1920s and ‘30s. Archdeacon Fallon had not been the first choice for parish priest of Castlebar. Two others had turned down the appointment because of the debt on the church of about £1,000 that had not been cleared by the two previous parish priests.

Archdeacon Fallon accepted the appointment on condition that he would not have to undertake any further projects calling for money. Without placing any levy on the parishioners, he succeeded in wiping out the debt by means of the ordinary church door collections in the following manner:

Those going in the front door paid 2d, theses entering by the south door paid 1d, and the north door was free.

Inside the church, railings were placed between the piers on the nave arcades, and the people were segregated according to the amount they paid.

The middle aisles held the tuppenny-door people.

It was soon found out that no one was going in the north door. A half-penny was then put on this door and those who entered there were only in the ‘ha’penny place’. Eventually people gave a penny going in the north door, and this took the stigma out of it.

During the war years it was found that no more than three people paid 6d at the door collection on a Sunday.

The church clerk at the time, Pat Jordan, said that in the 1930s the church door collection would amount to about £8 on a Sunday - not bad considering a labourer’s wage was only 15s (75 pence) a week at the time.

During his period as parish priest, Archdeacon Fallon was involved in many innovative schemes, one of which was the erection of a new bell on the church.

The bell from the old ‘barn’ church, next to the Church of the Holy Rosary, of 1800 was used in the Church of the Holy Rosary until 1937. It was located at the back of the old church on a timber trestle.

It fell down in 1937 when the trestle collapsed, leaving the church without a bell until the present bell was erected. The new bell was manufactured by Hammond Lane Foundries in Dublin. It was donated by Bridget Walsh from Linenhall Street, Castlebar.

The tone of the bell is ‘B’ flat. It was said that the bell could be heard as far away as Straide. Its weight was 42 cwt., the largest bell in Connaught.

It was erected by Richard Condon, contractor, Castlebar, father of Anton Condon and Mrs. Ann Geraghty, Thomas Street, and the late Richard Condon.

It was blessed by Archbishop Gilmartin on October 26, 1938. The Archbishop gave the new bell the title ‘Bell of St. Mary’. The total cost, including its erection, was £540.

While Bishop Higgins is the only member of the clergy to be buried inside the church, three are interred in the church vault - Rev. Edmund T. Walsh, C.C. (1873 to 1915); Canon Patrick Lyons, parish priest of Castlebar (1885 to 1911), and Archdeacon Fallon.

In the church grounds there is a grave monument to Rev. Patrick Cadden who was curate in Castlebar from 1906 to 1916. There are two other priests buried in the church grounds - Archdeacon William Nohilly who was parish priest from 1945 to '70, whose grave is located beside the south wall of the church, and Fr. William Fair who was a curate in Castlebar from 1956 to 1968.

He subsequently became parish priest of Keelogues. He died in 2000 and is buried beside Archdeacon Nohilly.