Mayo memories: The Sunflower Lounge was a pace setter in county town

By Tom Gillespie

PADRAIG Flynn’s Sunflower Lounge on Shamble Street, Castlebar, was one of the first modern day watering holes in the county town.

It was unique in that it consisted of two lounges - one downstairs and one upstairs. Access for staff from inside the lower bar was via a trapdoor to the upper floor.

In the 1970s the Sunflower attracted followers of Fianna Fáil when Padraig Flynn was a member of Mayo County Council before being elevated to Dáil Éireann and subsequently as European Commissioner for Social Affairs for six years.

The Sunflower then was one of the few bars in the town to have live music at the weekends. This entertainment was laid on in the upper deck. Among the regular entertainers was Mick Cuffe from Belcarra with his fellow musicians, guitarist Brendan Smyth, Lucan Street, Castlebar, and drummer Mick Golden from Breaffy.

Mick Cuffe had a golden voice and was a comic par excellence and no one in the audience was spared, so much so that many patrons were even reluctant to go to the loo for fear of being singled out by the bould Mick.

The bar staff at the Sunflower - Joe Geraghty and Sadie Nolan - reflected the level of service that Padraig expected for his customers.

So professional were they that when you entered either of the two front doors your chosen tipple would be on the counter as soon as you got there.

I am old enough to remember when Smiler Murphy from Newtown had a public house on the same site at Shambles Street.

Shambles Street and Shambles Square were the former name for Market Square, an area which was then associated with the slaughtering of animals.

A ‘Shambles’ was a butcher’s slaughterhouse and an archaic name that only survives in place names. It is derived from a mixture of Latin and Anglo-Saxon words and is clearly marked on the Ordnance Survey Map c. 1900 - ‘the shambles’ and the street was the way to it.

After the Famine and during the 1850s the market for meat diminished due to a lower population and a lack of money.

The shambles had no windows but hinged open fronts from where they sold their produce.

The House Survey of 1842 shows the existence of no less than seven butchers trading on the street while a note is attached that the rate of tax should be halved for the three shambles trading in Shambles Square as they are regarded as open sheds (Valuation Office House Survey 1842).

Back then Saturday was market day in Castlebar, where farmers displayed and sold their produce on Market Square and then retired to the Sunflower or to Eddie Cannon’s pub for a few well-earned glasses of stout.

The plush, carpeted lounges in the Sunflower attracted customers from around the town as well as the surrounding districts. It was also popular with families as children were allowed on the premises.

As you can see in the above photograph, taken on Wednesday, Christmas Eve, 1986, the upstairs lounge was packed to capacity.

The Sunflower did a thriving daytime trade but when Padraig was on the premises at the weekend the faithful Fianna Fáilers jockeyed to get a stool at the bar counter and have a chat with Councillor Flynn.

Customers got access to the upper lounge by climbing a carpeted stairs. Halfway up was a coin-operated public telephone - a novelty in any pub at the time.

School teacher Flynn first held political office in 1967, when he became a member of Mayo County Council. Ten years later, at the 1977 general election, he was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil TD for the Mayo West constituency.

That election was a landslide victory for Fianna Fáil with the promise of the abolition of household rates. Normally the West Mayo count was held at the dining hall at Castlebar Military Barracks, but on this occasion it was conducted in the Pavilion ballroom in Westport.

Padraig was a TD from 1977 to '94 and was Minister for Industry and Commerce and Minister for Justice from 1987 to 1991, Minister for Trade, Commerce and Tourism from October to December 1982, Minister for the Gaeltacht from March to October 1982, and Minister of State at the Department of Transport from 1980 to '81.

After Padraig vacated the Sunflower it was run for a period by Margaret Brogan and then Pat Moran, son of the legendary Paddy Moran, bought the premises and ran it as The Bourbon.

I vividly recall rushing from the offices of The Connaught Telegraph to the Bourbon on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, after news broke of the devastating attack on the Twin Towers in New York City. We sat in silence as pictures of the horrific terrorist attack were shown on the pub’s television.

For the record, Padraig Flynn’s Sunflower Lounge was officially opened on Friday night, July 25, 1969, and the guests of honour were Maxie, Dick and Twink.