How did Rush Street get its name?

RUSH Street in Castlebar will always be synonymous with the pig market, where bonamhs screeched as farmers bargained for the best price, writes Tom Gillespie.

Back in the 1960s, on one Saturday every month, a fair was held and animals of all shapes and sizes were herded onto Rush Street.

Stall holders sold everything from a needle to an anchor, and the master salesman of the day was Cyril Chapman.

He gained the attention of bystanders by offering what would be known today as a ‘combi-deal’ - buy one, get one free. He had tools laid out on large tables, behind which he plied his trade. From bicycle pumps to flash lights, batteries to hatches and catapults to pocket knives, he had them all.

Youngsters were enthralled by his sales pitch and he could be heard above the looing and grunting of the animals. On other days of the week he would travel to fairs around the west of Ireland.

Open-back trucks filled with all types of male clothing, footwear and surplus army clothing, all for sale, added to the sartorial elegance of the occasion.

Paddy Moran’s had a special exemption to open early on fair days and his pub was always packed with jobbers and farmers wanting to seal a deal.

A calf market was confined to Rush Street while older animals were bought and sold at the Fairgreen, where Kenny’s of Main Street had the franchise to sell alcohol from a shed-like bar on fair days.

The aftermath of the on-street fairs was the mess left by the animal droppings which had to be cleaned up on the Sunday morning by the outdoor staff of Castlebar Urban District Council as well as the property owners along the street. Not alone were the streets covered in poo, so too were walls and windows, archways and backyards. Water hoses were at the ready to wash it all away.

The mess was not confined to Rush Street but also spread to Springfield, where the Fairgreen was, Charles Street and Linenhall Street, where animals were kept in back yards after being sold, awaiting to be walked to their new homes. Youngsters made a handy few bob looking after the animals as owners had a few bottles of stout in the pubs in the area.

Sometime farmers would succumb to the effects of the alcohol. They would have risen early to walk their animals to the fair and would have little or nothing to eat all day, and it is a common belief that the porter was much stronger back then. Intoxication led to the odd fist fight, or ‘Hold me back and let me at him’ stand-off, but nothing too serious as the ever-watchful publicans kept tempers at bay and the opposing factions apart.

In springtime cabbage plants were sold and bundles of them would be seen in the pubs as the menfolk toasted their day's work.

Castlebar’s first supermarket run by Charlie Garavan, later to become the Kingsbridge Inn, was on the corner of Rush Street and Lucan Street, with a small pub on the Lucan Street side.

In the photograph (top), the Davitt Restaurant and Bar, now Bar One Gastro Pub, stands out, as does Paddy Bourke’s Chipadora takeaway on the opposite side of the street.

Paddy Moran’s pub and The Brown Cow (Michael McNulty) were hugely popular, as was Breege O’Connor’s and The Quare Fellow, now The Harp, and Ned Cunningham’s. McGolderick’s - now Flynn’s - on the right was just being reconstructed when the photograph was taken, while next door was Doyle’s pub and shop.

True or not, I don’t know, but Rush Street was allegedly so named because rushes were spread on the road to absorb the droppings of the animals.

An Margadh Mór - the big fair - before Christmas, was a huge event, with geese and turkeys being added for sale at the fair. This event attracted huge crowds into Castlebar.

Live geese and turkeys were bought and secured in bags with their heads poking out.

At other times of the year baby chickens were sold at the fair, and a regular there were Jimmy and Charles Whittington from Charlestown who had a dillisk and fish stall - a feature on the bridge just up from Rush Street.

The advent of the cooperative marts marked the death knell for the traditional Irish fair days as business was now confined to specially designed sites, which of recent times encountered health and safety problems.

There was no such thing as health and safety on the fair days of yore as animals wandered all over the streets and I don’t recall any injuries being inflicted on man or beast. The bonamh market was revived at Rush Street four years ago and hopefully it will become an annual event.

 

* Read Tom Gillespie's County Town column in our print edition every Tuesday