Harrowing scenes of emigration from Mayo train station - 1901 newspaper report
By Tom Gillespie
PHOTOGRAPHS taken of Main Street, Castlebar, in 1900 show no motorcars, few if any bicycles, no tarmac road, no electricity poles and no parking signs.
There were plenty of horse and ass carts, sidecars, traps, especially on fair days and on market days, which took place every Saturday.
In his book Through Fagan’s Gate, author Tom Higgins wrote that a layer of hand-broken stones was spread over the road to be slowly ground down to dust by the cart wheels and horses hooves.
These stones were carted in from the country, and men were employed by the county council to break them down for spreading on the streets.
The pay for breaking a ton of stones down to the required size was one shilling - one of the punishments meted out in the local jail and workhouse had been stone-breaking.
The streets of Castlebar were dusty in dry weather but when it rained they turned to mud and slush.
At night there was little light on the streets apart from a few gas lamps and some paraffin lamps in shop windows.
The street gas lights were serviced by a gas works at Newtown. Each evening the glimmer-man went around and lit the gas lamps.
The streets didn’t see electric light until 1916 when Josie Bourke installed a generating plant at Ellison Street which enabled him to provide lighting to churches and some business premises. Up to this time the new Church of the Holy Rosary, for example, was lit by oil lamps placed between the piers of the aisle arcades.
The shops stayed open until 10 p.m. on weekdays and until midnight on Saturday. As plate glass was so expensive, and because windows could be easily broken by flying stones, most shops had wooden shutters.
The footpaths were paved with flagstones. These, and the beautiful cut kerb stones, have long since been removed.
In most shops you could purchase almost anything from a pint of Guinness to a stone of hay. Shopkeepers needed a horse and cart to draw goods from the railway station and for the delivery of flour, meal, coal and other goods.
Salt was purchased in a block. Sugar and tea were weighed on a scales and filled into brown paper bags. Cheese came in large cake-like blocks from which the required amount was cut. Oatmeal and flour were bought in large one cwt. bags. All goods were wrapped in brown paper and tied with twine.
Newspapers were only for the wealthy few and cost half a labourer’s daily pay.
There were at least three blacksmiths’ forges in the town. My grandfather, William Fahey, had a forge at Newantrim Street, which was continued by his son Denny, until his death in July 1980. Another was at Cavendish Lane and the third in the present Castle Street car park. Later there was another forge on the back road of Spencer Street operated by Uli Walsh.
One of the most notable shops in Main Street at the turn of the 19th century was that of Thomas J. Wynne, a professional photographer, newsagent and librarian. His photographic collection is a unique record of life throughout the west of Ireland.
At the end of the 19th century there were 50 public houses in the county town. There were two watch makers, one tailor, one saddler, one coach builder, one corn dealer, five boot makers, one pawnbroker, one carpenter, one butcher, one painter, one newsagent, one clothier and one nailer - a tradesman who made nails for carpentry work - the majority of whom resided at Staball.
In 1836 Bianconi introduced his horse-drawn transport system to Castlebar.
The town became the centre for three services, and the stables were on the Westport Road at Ballymacgrath when the remains of the stables can still be seen.
There were mail coaches via Ballina to Sligo, from Westport to Dublin via Castlebar and Tuam.
Two types of coaches were used. The ‘express’ carried four people and the larger ‘Bianconi car’ carried as many as 20. The fare was one-and-a-half-pence per mile. The coach service, together with the improved roads, encouraged the tourist trade. There was a further development of the tourist trade when the railway came to Castlebar in 1862.
The post office was located in a house on the Mall, the former residence of Dr. Dermot Ryan, and the birthplace of Margaret Burke-Sheridan, the international renowned opera singer, whose father was the postmaster.
In 1901 there were 280,000 fewer people in the country than in 1891. In 1900 alone, 32,000 people emigrated from Ireland.
The human tide flowed out of the country on a daily basis, as witnessed and reported at Castlebar railway station by The Connaught Telegraph on a day in January 1901.
It read: “Here were women, old and young, fair and swarthy, wrinkled and comely, some wore shawls and antique jackets and old-fashioned bonnets - all gathered in from the hills.
“They were all talking, weeping or sighing, or gazing piteously before them with reddened eyes or wailing all of a sudden at the sight of a tear-stained face.
“The men were mostly young - great hulking fellows in grey frieze and slouch hats, boys from hillsides, nearly all armed with blackthorns.
“Now the little group stood for the last time among their friends and faithful companions, home behind them, their faces to the world.
“At the junction the train steamed up. The whole crowd was a mass of excitement. Whistle sounded, voices grew shrill, wails found a sudden note of agony, tears flowed fresh, faces crowded closer, hands darted and clutched, and from warm Irish hearts sprang the most pathetic farewells I have ever listened to.”
The report went on: “Now their last moments perhaps ever together were fleeting. Again the whistle sounded, the train moved easily, the sergeant busied himself untangling the hands that were knotted together. It was a wild, barbaric scene.
“Never before have I looked on the like, never before the primitive emotions of men and women bared so nakedly.
“My sympathies and compassion were with them. Only brutes would jeer at these simple souls. Only boors would do less than love them and weep with them.”