From the archives: Renaming Mayo streets struck a hitch

By Tom Gillespie

ON June 10, 1920, a committee appointed by Castlebar Urban District Council was given the task of renaming the streets of the county town.

They presented their recommendations to the councillors as follows - old name, with new name in brackets:

Market Street (Humbert Street)

Ellison Street (McBride Street)

Bridge Street (Teeling Street)

Linenhall Street (Linenhall Street)

Tucker Street (William Rooney Street)

Castle Street (De Barry Street)

Chapel Street Upper (Church Street Upper)

Chapel Street Lower (Church Street Lower)

Thomas Street Upper (’98 Street Upper)

Thomas Street Lower (’98 Street Lower)

Church Street (O’Reilly Street)

Lucan Street (Sarsfield Street)

The Green (Fr. Conroy’s Green)

Rock Square (Casement Square)

Spencer Street (Pearse Street)

Narrow Lane (Patrick Street)

Shambles Square (Ross Square)

Shambles Street (James Connolly Street)

Newantrim Street (Davis Street)

Newtown Street (MacHale Street)

Richard Street (Lord Edward Street)

Rush Street (Rush Street)

Charles Street Upper (Wolfe Tone Street Upper)

Charles Street Lower (Wolfe Tone Street Lower)

In the list the Telegraph said there was no reference to Main Street, or one of Lower Thomas Street and commonly called the sheep market.

Neither was Mountain View included, and we think it would be only right to give names to the streets running by the Workhouse, Newport Road, Railway Station, Westport Road and the top of Thomas Street.

However, the following month, July 1920, at a meeting of the council - Mr. John Hoban, presiding, members were furnished with an interesting scrap of local history where Mrs. P.J. Tuohy, Chapel Street, came and objected to the name of Richard Street being changed to Lord Edward Street, and claimed that her great-grandfather, Richard Clyne, who named this street; that her progenitors were in the days of the past the principal people of Castlebar; that they always fought for Faith and Fatherland, and played a prominent part in the Penal days and ’98, risking their live in succouring priests and people.

When the minutes of the previous meeting were read, Mr. Collins said that as Mrs. Tuohy was present they should hear what she had to say and let her go.

The chairman then told her that if she had anything to say, he would hear her.

Mrs. Tuohy said that she saw in the Press that the council would consider at that meeting the question of renaming the streets of the town, and she came to object to the name of Richard Street being changed to Lord Edward Street.

Richard Street, she said, was called after her great-grandfather, who actually gave the street its name. He was grandfather also of the late Judge James O’Dowd, and she produced a copy of The Connaught Telegraph of January 18, 1843, containing an announcement of an auction (pictured) for her uncle, the late Judge O’Dowd, prior to him going to reside in Dublin, after being promoted.

Chairman: What was this gentleman? Was he an official of the British Government?

Mrs. Tuohy: He was Judge Advocate General of Ireland.

Chairman: Oh, I see, and he was paid by the British Government.

Mrs. Tuohy: I don’t know anything about that. I don’t want the name of the street changed when it is called after my ancestors. All my ancestors were Catholics and Irishmen and in the penal days, when the priests were being put to death, my granduncle, Francis Maguire, sheltered and protected them, and when a priest was being hanged on the Green he went on the scaffold to succour him. The soldiers arrested him, and he himself was standing on the scaffold to be executed when his own brother and my grandfather, who was the most influential gentleman in Co. Mayo, arrived with his reprieve, which he got from Lord Cornwall.

John Francis Maguire, my grandfather, and uncle of my father, the late Dr. Maguire, was then carried through the streets of Castlebar by the people, and there is a monument to him in Dublin, the inscription on it being: ‘To the noble John Francis Maguire, who was prepared to give his life for his country and faith’.

Chairman: When the report of the committee on the renaming of the streets comes before us we will consider your application.

Mrs. Tuohy: In those days my grandfather owned all Castlebar and the land for miles around it; and he built a place under the ground to save the priests when the British Government were putting them to death.

Chairman: We will consider your objection.

Mrs. Tuohy: I understand the streets would be renamed at this meeting. It is close on 78 years since my granduncle had an auction in Richard Street.

Mr. Loftus: I see by this copy of The Connaught Telegraph that in 1843 pork was £1 6s per cwt at the market of Dunmore.

Mrs. Tuohy then withdrew and at a subsequent stage the report of the committee to rename the streets was again submitted and further adjourned.

As it transpired, the street name changes never took place.