Mayo craftsmen who were geniuses

by Auld Stock

NOWADAYS, with the aid of modern machinery, computers and all kinds of communications systems, producing various kinds of objects is much easier than in former times.

The main altar in the Church of the Holy Rosary, Castlebar, was manufactured and installed by the Pearse family, Dublin, one of whom, Pádraic Pearse, was executed for his part in the 1916 Rising.

Experts in the building of altars and similar work maintain the altar in the parish church in Castlebar is unsupportable.

Likewise, the same standards were applied to Fagan’s gates which adorned the baptismal font at the entrance to the parish church many years ago.

The gates are truly a work of art. Regrettably I don’t know the present whereabouts of the famous gates.

Many years ago, when I was operating a typesetting machine in The Connaught Telegraph, a vital part of the machine snapped and broke in several pieces.

I brought the broken pieces to Austin Quinn, Westport Road, Castlebar, who had an engineering works at Lucan Street.

Austin told me to come back in an hour and he would have a new machinery piece ready.

The piece had a number of acute angles but Austin overcame those problems and presented me with the finished product which was much superior to the original piece.

Denis Fahey, Newantrim Street, Castlebar, was another master craftsman who could manufacture a variety of machine pieces.

He had an able assistant in Ivan Browne, a genius when it came to repairing machinery. Ivan also maintained the clock in Christ Church, Castlebar, for many years.

Harry Hughes, John’s Row, Westport, was in a class of his own when it came to shoeing horses, However, Harry could do much more than shoe horses. He could manufacture and repair a wide variety of machines.

Harry’s daughter Nuala married a lifelong friend of mine, Tony Moore, Drumminwonagh, Lodge Road, Westport, who was employed as a compositor and machine manager in the Mayo News for many years, a man who knew all there was to know about the printing trade.

The people I mentioned above were all genuine craftsmen with a natural ability to carry out the most difficult of tasks with the minimum of tools at their disposal.

They were all geniuses in their particular professions.