Linenhall Street in Mayo county town has colourful past

By Tom Gillespie

THIS old photograph of Linenhall Street, Castlebar, was taken at a time when the area was a thriving business community with a pub/grocery in nearly every premises, a bicycle shop cum toy shop at Christmas, a bakery, and, of course, the Town Hall.

Prior to the building being used as a community hall it housed the linen industry. It was built in 1790 by the second Earl of Lucan, Richard Bingham.

After it was discovered that flax could be grown in the west of Ireland, landlords like the Lucans brought in skilled workers from Ulster, where the linen trade was booming, and established the trade here.

The Linen Hall became the central depot for the storing and selling of linen for all of Mayo. The trade was hugely important as whole families were employed in the growing and harvesting of flax as well as weaving and making the cloths.

Lord Lucan’s interest in the linen trade had to do with the profit he could make as a middleman.

The industry changed Castlebar from a poor town into a relatively prosperous one. The hall was famously used as a ballroom by General Humbert after his military victory following the 1798 Races of Castlebar.

The classically-detailed door-case was allegedly damaged in a shoot-out between Crown and French forces during the 1798 Rebellion.

The original Linen Hall has seen many changes down the years. For a period it had been known as the Reading Room.

The building was given to the people of the town after the Great Famine when the linen trade died out.

Despite some slight improvements, the building was fast falling into disrepair. There was no security of tenure to justify a large expenditure on the building.

Canon Patrick Lyons, who was parish priest in Castlebar from 1885 to 1911, has his own vision for the Linen Hall. Over the years he had cultivated a great friendship with the Fourth Earl of Lucan.

In 1896, he approached Lord Lucan who agreed to transfer the hall in trust to him and his successors for the people of Castlebar, on a 999-year lease, with the proviso that it be used as a non-political assembly room for the people of the town.

In April 1897 he commenced on what he called The Concert Hall, which proved a popular venue for plays, concerts, dances, opera and in more modern times bingo and pantomimes.

In 1986, the oldest part of the Town Hall, as it became known, was renovated at a cost of £33,000 and then leased to the Linenhall Arts Committee, and today the building is multi-purpose performance centre.

Opposite the Town Hall was MacNeely’s bakery and Leonard’s shop next door, with Phil Hoban’s bicycle shop further down the street, as can be seen in the photo.

Many of the premises still in business on the street go back several generations.

One of the oldest family-run public houses in Castlebar is still going strong after four generations - one of the few fourth generations in Ireland.

Coady’s on Linenhall Street has been in business for the last 113 years.

Dermot Coady has been proprietor since 2000 and his father, Adrian, looked after the premises before that.

Adrian’s granny, Nora O’Malley from Burren, went from Cobh to Chicago in 1888 with six other people from the Burren area. The journey took them six weeks. She went over to her brother Bill O’Malley who had emigrated earlier.

She married John Duffy, Adrian’s grandfather, from Roosky, Charlestown, in 1901. They returned to Ireland in 1905. They bought this premises where they started a pub and a grocery shop business.

Another distinguished publican on Linenhall Street was the late Mrs. Catherine (Kitty) Sloyan (neé Gilboy), who held the distinction of being one of the oldest publicans in Ireland.

In her 97th year when she passed away in 2018, the Bofeenaun native played an active part in running her bar at Linenhall Street up to the time of her passing.

Kitty had been licensee for the 53 years and her mother before her, Bridget Gilboy, for 35 years after establishing the business in 1929. Kitty’s daughter Una later took charge, making it three generations of female ownership.

Up to the time of her death, Kitty was the oldest and only person still resident in the historic Linenhall Street.

After leaving school Kitty Gilboy worked in the Hat Factory on Newport Road where she met her late husband Denis Sloyan. In 1964 she took over the business from her mother. It was a small shop and pub. Subsequently Una took over the running of the business.

Initially her mother had a six-day licence, like most of the pubs on the street, and later got a seven-day licence.

The Irish scholar and writer, Canon Ulick Joseph Bourke, who was born in Linenhall Street, next to Coady’s, on December 29, 1829, was one of the commissioners appointed to inquire into the ‘alleged’ apparitions of the Blessed Virgin at Knock in 1879.

Also known by his name in Irish, Uileog de Búrca, he was a founder of the Gaelic Union, which later developed into the Gaelic League and more recently Conradh na Gaeilge.

He was son of Ulick Bourke and Cecilia Sheridan, herself a cousin of John MacHale, Archbishop of Tuam. He was educated first at an academy in Castlebar by Matthew Archdeacon, the author of ‘Connaught in ’98’, and next at Errew Monastery outside Castlebar, where he studied Irish under the eminent Irish scholar and historian, James Hardiman.