Mayo's Shamble Square: The old and the new
by Auld Stock
THERE were 34 families living in Shamble Square, Castlebar, in the 1860s.
The houses in which those families lived had thatched roofs and no running water.
Householders washed their clothes in the adjoining town river. Poor people in those times were shabbily dressed, smoked clay pipes, known as dudeens; potatoes were the staple diet in those years.
Those who could afford to put the fare together headed for America, ‘the land of the free’.
A family named Faul lived on Shamble Square in later years.
Moggie Faul married William Downes, Newport Road, grandparents of Gabriel Downes.
George Smith, an outstanding trumpeter, lived on Shamble Square and in the 1950s and 1960s he played with Brose Walsh’s dance band. George was a member of St. Mary’s Hospital maintenance staff.
The unemployment exchange, better known as the dole office, was located on Shamble Square and was run by Birdie Flynn and Frances Kenny, Newport Road. Frances married Jimmy Rooney, ESB manager for the Castlebar area.
The couple had two children, a son, Gerald, a teacher by profession, and a daughter, ‘Dasheen’, who has lived in Dublin for some years.
A weekly market was held each Saturday on Shamble Square and older people will remember the large scales in the centre of the square.
Mary Montgomery, Shamble Square, contributed a weekly article on cookery to The Connaught Telegraph which was very popular with readers. She had a brother, known as ‘Marshall’ Montgomery, named after the World War 2 hero, Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery. Like many of their friends at the time, the Montgomerys emigrated to England.
The recent installation of hubs on Shamble Square has proven a major success.
Good thinking, Ger Deere.
*I have used the term Shamble Square instead of Market Square. Shamble Square is the original name of the area and is now in popular usage.
The term shambles comes from the old word for a butcher’s slaughterhouse.
The meaning of the word was later expanded to include an area where a variety of items were sold.
Many of will us will have heard the expression ‘the place is a bit of a shambles.’
Not so with Shamble Square, Castlebar, now an oasis of beauty and business in the centre of our county capital.