Mayo memories: Midnight wail of fire siren awakened county town in 1963
By Tom Gillespie
SIXTY-two years ago this week the population of Castlebar got a rather rude awakening when, in the early hours of the morning, the siren summoning firemen to a call-out was mysteriously activated.
In those days the fire service in the county town was one of the most progressive in the country under fire chief Captain Cathal Garvey.
The siren was mounted on the roof of the courthouse and older readers will remember the wailing sound when it was activated - not unlike that of an air raid siren.
It could be heard right across the locality and was activated from the Sacred Heart Hospital where the ambulance headquarters for the county was based.
It was common practice for reporters in the newsroom of The Connaught Telegraph to ring the switchboard in the Sacred Heart Hospital to find out what the emergency was and probably get a reporter and photographer to the scene of the incident.
The siren was only sounded from 7 a.m. to midnight. After those hours the fire personnel were alerted to a call-out by a buzzer system installed in their homes.
But on Tuesday, July 9, 1963, the siren was mysteriously activated in the early hours, much to the annoyance of the town’s population and particularly those resident in close proximity to the courthouse and guests in the Imperial Hotel across the road.
That week’s Connaught Telegraph carried the following front page account of the night of the siren:
The banshee wail of the fire siren in the still of the early morning in Castlebar awakened the town’s population of 5,228 and left the people living in fear that a serious outbreak had taken place or some other dreaded calamity.
The remote control fire alarm went off at 1.45 a.m. and the shriek of the warning siren roused men, women and children and could be heard for many miles away.
Everywhere in the town there was general commotion as people forced up their windows to look out and see where the fire was, others appeared at skylights, while many people rushed out on the streets hotly pursued by weeping children who were terrified by the uproar.
Firemen dashed from their homes to the fire station - then located in the county council machinery yard where Áras an Chontae is now located - and the excitement increased as the weird blast of the siren continued uninterrupted.
But it was not long until the firemen, headed by Captain Garvey, found themselves baffled and bewildered as they manned the fire tenders in their usual expeditious manner - but did not know where the fire was or the reason for the early morning summons to duty.
Speedy telephone calls failed to throw any light on the situation, as the fire alarm, though still blaring, was not officially set off, and neither was a fire outbreak reported.
Then the scene changed as the firemen, instead of fighting a fire, found themselves battling to try and stop the fire siren, which had roused the town.
After the stormy alarm the calm came when eventually the firemen, who were hampered in their efforts to gain admission to the courthouse building to get at the main switch controlling the alarm, managed to disconnect wires leading to the siren.
Captain Garvey said that seven years earlier (1956) Castlebar was the first town in Ireland to get a remote-controlled fire alarm system installed and since then it never gave any trouble.
Both electric and telephonic controls were used to operate it, but so far, he said, they could not pinpoint the cause of it going off on its own.
Captain Garvey said: “It is operated by a night porter at the Sacred Heart Hospital and is normally only used from 7 a.m. until midnight and during the night firemen are summoned by a buzzer system in their houses.
“It was possible that it could have been set off by a defect in either the electric or telephone installations, or, quite possibly, a flash of lightening could have caused it.”
People living in the vicinity of the courthouse had a very trying time while guests in the local hotels were also roused.
Many houses remained fully lighted until late morning as there was a general feeling of uneasiness because most people thought it was a genuine fire call and wondered where the fire was.
Technicians worked all day Tuesday to try and solve the mystery surrounding the cause of the false alarm.
On another occasion - May 1983 - the siren activated while a jury trial was underway in the courthouse, much to the ire of Judge John Gratten Esmond.
What upset the learned judge was that the noise blared out at ‘a vital part of the case’.
The then Circuit Court judge said: “One would think that Mayo County Council and the fire authority in the area would have by now removed the siren from this building.
“I doubt if the trial is going to be very satisfactory after this intrusion.
“The liberty of a man is at stake. The jury is being asked to make careful decisions on the turn of phrase of persons giving evidence.”