Time was when every farmer in the country reared a pig or two. In the Castlebar area most farmers reared a few pigs and the animals were sold to Castlebar bacon factory. Most farmers kept a pig for their own use and a fletch of bacon was hung from the ceiling of their kitchen.
Some farmers made black pudding, a mixture of the pig's blood and flake meal, with a fair sprinkling of salt. My mother and some of our neighbours on McHale Road in the 1940s regularly made black pudding, and very tasty it was, too.
A.J. Carolan, The Green, Castlebar, was secretary of Mayo Committee of Agriculture for many years. He was a low-sized man with a waxed moustache who reminded me of Charlie Chaplin.
He was an outstanding official who worked alongside T.F. O'Reilly, Station Road. T.F. was a huge hulk of a man who cycled all over Mayo in the course of his work. He was known as 'Ten to Two' but that's another story.
Poor old A.J. Carolan found himself on a sticky wicket when a boar was allocated to a particular farmer in the Ballyvary area. The saga became known as the battle of the Ballyvary boars.
The allocation of this particular boar to a local man was hotly contested and the saga dragged on for a considerable time. The rules stipulated that farmers owning boars had to live three miles from each other.
The most sophisticated measuring tapes were used to determine the distance between several Ballyvary farms. Engineers were called in to solve the problem.
The expertise of Gerry O'Callaghan, agricultural instructor, Newtown, Castlebar, was taken into account before a local farmer was eventually allocated the boar.
Needless to say, the decision didn't meet with the approval of the other applicants.
T.S. Moclair, committee chairman, remarked that the wisdom of Solomon wouldn't keep everyone happy. Sentiments with which I readily agree.
T.S. was father of Paddy Moclair, Castlebar, the famous Mayo footballer. Both father and son were very colourful characters.
I have a feeling their home on the Newport Road was known as Cherry Cottage, now occupied by the Derrig family and at one time owned by Mr. Cernik, a native of Czechoslovakia, who worked in Western Hats.

Professor Tom Moran, St. Gerald's
Saint Gerald's College, Castlebar, was established over 100 years ago and during that time a number of outstanding teachers have served on the staff of the school.
Professor Tom Moran, a native of Kilmeena, Westport, was a member of the staff of St. Gerald's for 15 years. He died at the early age of 36 years, leaving a young wife and child.
It is interesting to note that in 1934 six students from St. Gerald's College won scholarships to teacher training colleges. The successful students were Henry Kenny, Joe Kilroy, Joe Staunton, Anthony Golden, Tom Quinn and Gerry Brady. Colm O'Quigley won a scholarship to a preparatory school.
Other scholarship winners were Michael Fergus, Frank McCormack and Frank Cunningham.
Henry Kenny, a member of Mayo's 1936 senior team, All-Ireland football champions, later became a member of Dáil Éireann and was father of the current Taoiseach, Enda Kenny.

Tommy Garvey from Castle Street
Nowadays huge crowds attend open-air concerts with all kinds of modern gadgetry used to project the voices of the artistes. But back in the 1930s a young Castlebar man, Tommy Garvey, Castle Street, sang in front of 85,000 people at the famous Soldiers Field in Chicago.
Garvey had a rich baritone voice and thrilled the huge audience, many of them Irish exiles. His rendering of 'When Irish Eyes are Smiling' and 'Mother Machree' were the highlights of his performance.
Tommy Garvey was brother of Stephen Garvey, bandleader and opera producer, and Jimmy Garvey, a fine saxophone player. They were cousins of Leo Garvey, Ballina, still going strong and a great character.

Albert Wilkinson in the Horseshoe
In the 1940s, '50s and '60s travelling shows, known as fit-ups, were very popular. Professional drama groups pitched their tents on various green areas. The Fairgreen in Castlebar was a popular location for such groups and they usually stayed in the venue for a week.
Gaby Taylor and Bob Carrickford were members of a group that regularly came to Castlebar.
Bob later played a leading role in The Riordans on RTÉ. Gaby Taylor was a great all-rounder and played serious and comic roles, as well as fronting a one-man band.
However, there was another wandering showman who travelled around Mayo and surrounding counties in the 1950s and played in small country halls.
His name was Albert Wilkinson and he presented a mixture of singing, dancing and talent contests.
Boxing bouts were also included in Albert's show and I can tell you the Marquess of Queensbury Rules were totally ignored in those bouts. It was hammer and tongs the whole way through with hitting below the belt, striking with the open glove and other illegal gimmicks employed in an effort to win.
In the early 1950s Albert Wilkinson presented his show in the Horseshoe Hall, French Hill, then owned by a man named Tony Walsh. Myself and Jimmy Foy from McHale Road were tramping our way to the Horseshoe Hall on a sunny evening when along came the legendary George Lally and his brother Tom in their Hillman Minx, IZ 7913.
George was an excellent all-round athlete and, like his brother Tom, a fine singer. George got up on the stage in the Horseshoe and gave a rousing rendition of his favourite party piece, 'The Leitrim Volunteers', followed by his brother Tom with 'The Laughing Policeman'. They really shook the rafters.
George then got into his boxing gear and slugged it out with a local hero before the bout was stopped in George's favour and the referee held his hand sky-high.
It was a memorable occasion in the Horseshoe with the night being rounded off with the traditional raffle for a statue of the Child of Prague. This was a regular feature of shows at the time and on bonfire night.
Every home in Ireland had a statue of the Child and it was believed if the head of the statue was missing it bestowed additional graces on the household.
Albert Wilkinson later left for Scotland, disappearing into the night but leaving many happy memories behind him.
I can still hear his parting shot at the end of each show . . . "Good night, folks, keep smiling at the world."
And we all did smile at the world for we were all very happy.

Coach a' Bower
I recently met a friend of mine from Breaffy and he swears that a younger brother of his saw the Coach a' Bower coming through the village many years ago.
In Irish folklore this strange happening is known as Cóiste Bódhar, meaning deaf or silent coach. It was said to be a death warning like a banshee.
The first time I saw reference to this strange phenomenon was in Ireland's Own, which always carried a fair batch of ghost stories, some of them written under the penname of Kitty the Hare.
My old neighbour in McHale Road, the late Martie McGough, had a very extensive repertoire of ghost stories, which he suitably embellished for us in his own inimitable fashion.
Martie kept ferrets and fed them on milk and bread. The little animals used to run up and down his sleeve. They were used to hunt rabbits and Martie always seemed to be on good terms with them. A decent man from another age.

Sweet Castlebar Town
Some time ago I came across an evocative poem entitled 'Sweet Castlebar Town'. I will publish the poem in full some time in the future. The author was Thomas Cadden, a Castlebar man, and it was written in 1897.
There is mention of Foy's Hill on the shores of Lough Lannagh. There was also a Foy's Hotel in Castlebar over 100 years ago, though I am unaware of its location.
There was a hotel in Newantrim Street in the dim distant past, though it wasn't an hotel in the strict sense of the word. This was the Shelbourne Hotel, though I doubt if it had anything in common with its more salubrious namesake in Dublin. And there was a Gibbons' Hotel on Ellison Street where Daniel O'Connell was dined and wined when the visited Castlebar.
The well-known McEvilly family, Thomas Street, always referred to this thoroughfare as '98 Street after the 1798 Rising. The McEvillys were a well-known republican family and Staff Captain Séamus McEvilly lost his life in the Kilmeena ambush. He is buried in the republican plot in the Old Cemetery, Castlebar.

Mike and 'Scorch'
It is heartening to see cycling thriving in Castlebar and the Western Edge team competing in this year's An Post Rás. Good luck to Chris Coyle, Ciaran Clarke, David Brennan, Bernard Twomey and Patrick Clarke. Well done to John Brennan and his colleagues who do such a splendid job in promoting cycling.
Scanning though some old issues of The Connaught Telegraph I came across the heading 'Bernie Ludden wins again'. Bernie and his brother Pat were indeed fine cyclists. There were many others, of course, too numerous to mention.
One of the most colourful cyclists of the 1950s in Castlebar was Willie Kelly, a tailor in Paddy Howard's on the Newport Road. The bobs were scarce at the time but at the end of one race in Ballyglass we all headed for Miss Matthews' pub where Willie Kelly bought us all a drink. We were all broke but Willie always seemed to have money.
On another occasion, during a 50-mile time trial, George Lally, Séamus Neary, Mick Kilcourse and Tommy Devereux passed Willie Kelly at Ballyvary. And to their consternation they again passed the bould Willie at Manulla. The mystery was solved when it was discovered Willie had got a lift in Mike Dolan's truck. It was Mike's job to pick up cyclists who had fallen by the wayside.
When Mike arrived back in Spencer Street at the end of the race, he asked Martin 'Scorch' Connor to get 10 Players in Paddy's Golden's. 'Scorch' arrived back with a tin of pears. There was obviously a breakdown in communications between Mike and 'Scorch'.
To put it mildly, some cross words were exchanged between Mike and 'Scorch'. The vocabulary certainly didn't come within the ambit of the King's English.

 

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