Mayo memories: Pottery and crubeens in Bungalow Bar

By Tom Gillespie

DURING its 22-year history the Castlebar International Song Contest (CISC) ran many fringe events to both publicise the event as well as fundraising to defray the huge costs involved in staging the annual event, which ran from 1966 to 1988.

For 10 of these years I was secretary to the organising committee, a role I gained through the first director, John McHale, who was my editor at The Connaught Telegraph, and from whose offices the contest was organised in the early years.

Great effort was made to ensure the entire community of Castlebar and surrounding areas supported the CISC.

One of the many side events was a unique pottery exhibition which was staged in the Bungalow Bar on Main Street, Castlebar, which at that time was being run by the late Neil Keys.

The then chairman of Castlebar Urban District Council, Councillor William Cresham, performed the official launch, which was well attended.

The pottery came from Ireland’s oldest pottery, Terrybaun, located at Pontoon, outside Castlebar.

Terrybawn fired its first kiln in August 1950 in the remote and beautiful location by the lakes of Pontoon.

The site of these first and subsequent firings was chosen by owners Grattan Freyer and his French-born wife, Madeleine Giraudeau.

The pottery ran for 33 years under their direction and is now owned by Madeleine’s nephew, Henri Hedou, and his wife, Fiona.

Henri has carried on the tradition of producing beautiful slipware using the same techniques, designs and unique glazes that have made Terrybaun highly distinctive and unique.

Even though modernised, in Terrybaun Pottery the traditional methods are still very much alive. So the Terrybaun Pottery of today is a successful mixture of the old and new.

Much of Henri’s pottery is inspired by the natural landscape and wildlife found in the vicinity of Terrybaun Pottery, which is perfectly positioned in the heart of Mayo’s lake district, surrounded by spectacular mountains and lakes.

Neil Keyes was innovative in the 1970s and he introduced a crubeen night on a Friday evening.

However, the grease from the pigs feet stuck to the pint glasses, which made it impossible to fill a proper pint of porter, so after a few weeks the novelty was scratched.

The design and layout of the Bungalow Bar was much different ato what it is today, under John and Órna Scott who rent it from Annie Cannon.

John had been bar manager at the Castle Inn for 25 years before he moved to the Bungalow after Amy Mulrennan decided, in June 2021, not to continue with her lease.

Back then the main bar was on the opposite side of the premises to today while the back section was an open lounge where the pottery exhibition was staged.

I remember when Tolands had the Bungalow Bar in the 1960s. It then became the property of Annie and the late Paddy Cannon. They ran it very successfully, along with their son, Noel, for many years, and it has since been sub-let to several different people.

Mayo Genealogy Group have a most fascinating website chronicling the lives and times of famous and infamous Mayo-born people.

One contribution by author Sean Cadden deals with political activist and poet Tom Cadden who through marriage became the licensee of the Bungalow Bar.

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.

In the early 1900s Tom became a rate collector for the District Electoral Division of Croaghmoyle, his home area in Glenisland. He resigned in 1906 and was later appointed rate collector for the Ballyvary area, a post held until his death.

He passed away unexpectedly on June 16 of that year aged 65 years and was buried in the family plot in Glenisland Cemetery. His obituary said he had poetry published in Irish and English.

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 around. 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.

One of the most specular and equally controversial CISC promotions was in 1971 when Cork man Tim Hayes was ‘buried alive’ to gain favourable publicity for the seventh song contest.

However, the stunt went badly wrong and Tim was lucky to be resurrected. It was an event doomed from the start, but that’s a story for another day.