Mayo memories: Crubeens, pub-grub and Bungalow bliss
By Tom Gillespie
KENNY’S pub on Castlebar’s Main Street was a hub of activity in the 1960s and ‘70s.
The late Tony Kenny had a huge clientele who packed into the premises, now the Oriental Chinese Restaurant.
Though a small bar in comparison to some of today's large and sprawling watering holes, Kenny’s was a highly popular pub with both the young and old. Kenny’s also had the franchise to sell liquor at the monthly fairs at the town’s Fairgreen.
In the late 1960s it was one of the few pubs to have music outside of the Travellers Friend Hotel and long before the Humbert Inn became an iconic music haunt.
Pictured here are Pete McCarthy and Brendan Fahy singing the Blues in Kenny's in 1968.
Three years later (1971), Brendan, from Ellison Street, was a member of La Salle, a traditional group who won the Castlebar International Song Contest with the song ‘Feeling I’ve Got It Made’.
Initially they won the ‘Pop’ section and went on to win the contest outright with the song which was written by former RTÉ newsreader Michael Murphy, a native of the Mall in Castlebar.
The other members of La Salle were John Dunford (Marian Row), John Donegan (Newport Road), Mary Heverin (Marian Row) and Fintan Murphy - brother of Michael.
Later musicians gravitated towards the Humbert Inn where Mary Black may have received her first taste of success with the newly formed General Humbert group in the ‘70s and recorded her first album in 1982.
The original General Humbert included Mick Black who, in 1975, invited his sister Mary to join. The group then went on to perform extensively throughout Ireland, as well as touring the UK and Europe.
The group released two albums, General Humbert (Dolphin 1975) and General Humbert 11 (Gael Linn 1978). The two albums brought Mary to the attention of some of the leading figures in the Irish music industry and paved the way for her solo career.
The other members of General Humbert were John Donegan (mandolin and harmonium), Shay Kavanagh (guitar and bouzouki) and Vincent Kilduff (uilleann pipes, tin whistle and flute).
Along Main Street nearly every house had a publican’s license for either six-day or seven-day trading. In later years those with a six-day licence upgraded to a seven-day, which made the licence far more valuable. Back then a publican, confined to six-day trading, had to purchase two six-day licences to convert to a seven-day.
Next to Kenny’s on that side of the street you had Clarke’s on one side and Paddy Hoban’s on the other.
At one period, the one toilet out the back served both Clarke’s and Kenny’s and many was the customer who went out from Clarke’s and ended up in Kenny’s scratching his head as to where he had left his pint.
Down the street was Toland’s Bungalow Bar and today is the only licensed premise remaining on this side of the streets, under the proprietorship of John and Orna Scott. The Bungalow has been in business for well over 100 years.
Going back in time, political activist and poet Tom Cadden became the licensee of the Bungalow Bar through marriage.
Tom Cadden was born in Ballyscanlon, Crossmolina, on November 16, 1845, the first child of Robert Cadden and Biddy Heffron.
The family were evicted in 1852 and moved to a 70-acre mountain farm in Kilhale, Glenisland, Castlebar.
Around 1865 Robert gave up approximately half the holding and took a similar amount of land in the adjacent townland of Monagarraun with a house which was on the side of the old Castlebar to Belmullet road.
There are no details of Tom’s schooling but he could read and write English and Irish.
Tom spent some time in the United States and on his return at the age of 50 he married Jane McGoldrick on June 16, 1895.
She was a widow and had the Bungalow Bar. Her maiden name was O’Connor.
Tom was described as a cattle dealer on his marriage certificate. They had no family. After he married he took over the bar licence.
Before the bacon factory was built there was an annual pig fair on November 17 in Castlebar.
In those days pigs were reared outside and they were well used to walking. The Glenisland people walked their pigs to Castlebar the day before the fair. The pigs were yarded behind the Bungalow Bar that night. Their owners played cards or drank in the bar while they waited for the fair to start in the morning.
In more recent times the Bungalow was run by Annie and the late Paddy Cannon and Amy Mulrennan and Ronan Basquill.
Another proprietor in the 1970s was Neil Keys who introduced a novel Friday night treat for customers - cooked crubeens.
However, the promotion was shor- lived as the grease from the pigs trotters soon ‘contaminated’ the Guinness glasses and the porter went flat.
This would have been one of the first pub-grub establishments in the county town. Soon after that Liam Moran, who ran the Humbert Inn, handed out complimentary sausages on a Friday evening, as did Mick Byrne and Johnny McHale’s.
The Humbert Inn also had a short-lived promotion - microwaved ‘beef’ burgers - and yes, they tasted as bad as they sounded.
In Hoban’s Bar pickled eggs were sold from behind the counter, and mind you, they were tasty, particularly after a few pints.
Then in more recent times the complimentary food consisted of black pudding, chips, onion rings, mussels, pork ribs, rashers and sausages and battered cod.