From Castlebar - County Mayo -

Frank Cawley
Christmas Day Cathair na Mart
By Frank Cawley
26, Dec 2015 - 12:54

The weather this year was frightful, and nothing too delightful. Let it rain let it rain. I visited Westport Christmas day evening shortly after sunset. This is the first Christmas day since 1977 that there has been a full moon. It will be another 19 years before there is another full moon on Christmas day. The only way to see the full moon this year would have been to take a flight to somewhere where it doesn't rain 90% of the time. The rain wasn't too heavy so I was able to take a few night shots of the yuletide illuminations in Westport. The readers of the Irish Times voted Westport the best town to live in in Ireland. As long as you have an umbrella I'm thinking.

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The Mall


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The West. There is a story about a gentleman, with the same first name, as Jesus’s surname. Same man was having a pint in one of Castle Street's most famous taverns. Westport came up as a heated topic of conversation. This man contested that it’s only a suburb of Castlebar. To prove it, he said he could ring The West and order a pint of stout. He said he would be back in The West before the pint would be settled. There was intense debate about how long it takes to pour a good pint of stout. The consensus is it’s definitely less than ten minutes. This would make it impossible for any human to make it back to The West in less than 10 minutes. So he called The West. He asked them to put on a pint of plain. They waited 6 minutes and they called The West, and Christy answered the phone. There may have been some technological trickery involved. This is one not to be tried at home. famous taverns,


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The Bridge,


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There is still a few Chieftains left in the West


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Bridge Street


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The Porter House


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Ronan Halpins sculpture "The Sentinel", a beautiful new sculpture, overlooking the town.


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St Patrick Column at the Octagon. I knew a fella, who reckoned it was mandatory to drink a gallon any time he passed through an octagon of any shape, especially an irregular octogon. One pot for each side of the polygon. His liver is in turmoil, and he hasn’t been in Westport in years.


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St Marys Church, where father Charlie McDonnell presides.


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The Carrowbeg River. This is a spate river; it can run almost dry in long spells without rain. The longest spell without rain is usually between 3pm and 5pm on a Tuesday.


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The Sentinel


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Carrowbeg lights


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James Street


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St Marys on The Mall.



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