Memories: A stone of chips in Enniscrone

By Tom Gillespie

I CAN still see the look of shock and disbelief on the face of the owner of the takeaway in Enniscrone when I placed an order for a STONE of chips.

That was back in the late 1970s, when we holidayed in the Co. Sligo seaside resort - always hugely popular with Castlebar families.

I entered the takeaway, just across from the church, and before placing the order I assured the gentleman that I was not joking.

When he realised I was serious he told me to return in 30 minutes for the mammoth order.

We were staying in a caravan in Kilcullen’s caravan park and three families came visiting unannounced and had to be fed - all 18 of us.

And so the chips order was placed.

For many years we, as a family, spent the first two weeks of August in Enniscrone, and as I recall the weather was always good.

When the 30 minutes were up I returned to collect the chips, which were piping hot, bagged and placed in two cardboard boxes.

When we returned to the caravan the chips were plated and handed out to the 10 children who ate them outside sitting on the grass, while the adults crowded into the caravan where we had chip sandwiches.

This was one of the many adventures we had in Enniscronse.

The unique Valley of Diamonds is one of the hidden features along the beach, and is the largest of the ‘volcano-like’ mounds among the long-grassed sand dunes. It is located near the end of the beach towards the Moy estuary.

Sligo County Council have fenced off the sand dunes as part of their dune restoration works programme. But back in the ‘70s the Valley was assessable and was a huge tourist attraction.

To get to it you had to climb to the top of the steep mound and below in the ‘valley’ was shimmering sand dotted with hundreds of tiny sea shells, that sparkled in the sun like diamonds.

After visiting the Valley of Diamonds we would continue back to the estuary where I often went fishing while looking out on Bartra Island. When the tide was out I often picked razor fish and sand eels out of the sand.

Enniscrone's public sandy beach stretches over a long area of shoreline, and is split near the lower part of the town by a small crossable river. This part of the beach is safest for swimming.

One of the huge attractions back then was Tom’s Top Ten, a bar and small hotel on Main Street run by Tommy Battle - now the Ocean Sands Hotel. It was a great family venue and was usually packed both day and night with a fabulous view of the beach. Likewise, it was a huge music venue but there was a curfew on having children on the premises after nine o’clock at night.

There were evening mackerel fishing trips on the Kingfisher from the pier and there was always a queue waiting to board.

One evening I brought my two oldest girls and we had a bumper catch. On returning to the caravan we distributed the excess catch to the adjoining caravans.

I cleaned and filleted a dozen and placed them, six fillets at a time, on a portable smoker. So popular were the mackerel that I has to fillet another six to meet the demand.

One of the other popular watering holes in the town was the Marine Hotel run by big Frank, an affable American. There was no restriction on children so it proved a popular location for families at night-time. Then the walk back to the caravan in the moonlight and to the sound of the crashing waves was just magic.

As a teenager, along with my classmates, we used to camp in the sand dunes and attend the dances in the Marine Ballroom where the music was usually provided by the Tom Kelly Trio from Ballina, with Tom, Noelie Barrett and P.J. Clarke.

Back then we used to thumb from Castlebar. At that time I was working in the Royal Ballroom in Castlebar and I had to return for the Sunday night dances and thumb down again on Monday.

On one particular Sunday I had walked a good few miles towards Ballina and there was no sign of a lift. Eventually a car pulled up. It was driven by the late Johnny Mulvey, Castle Street, Castlebar, a long-serving secretary of the County Mayo GAA Board. Thanks to Johnny I made it in time to start my shift.

One day, many years later, I was sent up town to get some meat for the family for dinner. I went into the Kilcullen’s butcher's shop and landed back with £5 worth of breast of lamb - enough to feed the chips brigade.

The stay in the caravans was from Saturday to Saturday. One year when we were leaving I went to Kilcullen’s to get some meat for the Sunday dinner. This time I hit the jackpot as on special offer was fillet steak, a treat I don’t believe we had before, and I got enough for all the family.

Another Enniscrone experience was Kilcullen’s seaweed baths, which are still a popular attraction.

Enniscrone has changed dramatically since our sojourn there. It is now a top notch tourist location with a state-of-the-art caravan park, popular bars and restaurants.