Memories of former times in Mayo town centre

by Auld Stock

SOME years ago a house on Main Street, Castlebar, was demolished to make way for an entrance to what is now known as Hoban’s car park.

However, this was no ordinary house.

Indeed it was a unique building with a front garden and a variety of flower beds, surrounded by ornamental railings, right in the centre of Castlebar’s Main Street.

I am not sure but in the early years of the last century the house may have been occupied by Dr. de Exeter Jordan, coroner for West Mayo. Dr. Jordan also lived in Ellison Street, Castlebar, for a time.

In later years the house was occupied by Willie Staunton, who owned a garage in Spencer Street.

For a number of years, I understand the house was occupied by the manager of the hat factory who was collected each morning by Pat Carney who conveyed him to the factory in a pony and trap.

Pat was a native of Derrycoosh and in later years lived with his wife May, formerly Tierney, Snugboro, and family.

Dr. de Exeter Jordan is buried in the Old Cemetery, Castlebar, where a tree grows over his grave surrounded by a mass of weeds.

I am reminded of the words by Thomas Gray in his immortal poem, Elegy in a Country Churchyard . . . ‘the paths of glory lead but to the grave.’

However, Dr. de Exeter Jordan is not completely forgotten in Castlebar.

Mass for the repose of his soul is annually celebrated in the Church of the of the Holy Rosary, over one hundred years after the time of his death.