Crubeens, pub grub and Bungalow bliss in Castlebar

By Tom Gillespie

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 sprawling watering holes, Kenny’s was highly popular with both 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 below 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.

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 the 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 went on to perform extensively throughout Ireland, as well as the UK and Europe.

The group released two albums, General Humbert (Dolphin, 1975) and General Humbert 11 (Gael Linn, 1978). The 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 it is the only licensed premise remaining on this side of the street, 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, through marriage, became the licensee of the Bungalow Bar. Having spent some time in the United States, 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.

In more recent times the Bungalow was run by Annie and the late Paddy Cannon and, later, 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 short-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 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 sound.

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.