a cara...... May 11th. .....for some just another day....but for us of once upon a good time May 11th was an important marketing day.....May 11th was the pattern fair day.......the biggest fair day in castlebar...and was always held on the day it fell....not like other fair days that were held on saturdays.....no school ...some years earlier a school child was killed by cattle and so school was cancelled on that day.....john kenny would have his pub tent erected the day before......in the fair green and at about 4Am on may 11th he would lug his barrels of guiness and bottles of booze to his stall on the green.....in those days there was high barrels and low .....and pints were filled by enamel jugs.......clothes dealers had their pitches marked out the night before too.......outside paddy morans pub...there was always a jostle to get the best pitch.....paddy morans yard was a favourite for bonambh sellers.....carts with cribs filled the yard ......cattle could be heard making their way down mchale road at 4.30 in the morning......as farmers and cattle drovers like johnny the whip moranand others.... got their stock to the green......cattle jobbers came from all over the country from the north and south.....the derrigs....the colemans.....and many more.....there were characters like billy mchale who was a jobber in his own right but mainly bought for the mcgreals.....but billy had another gift...he was a blocker.....he could make or break a deal....this was an art.....and only us who were road traders could understand the jargon......the market square was ahive of activity with potatoes...cabbage plants.....pigs......and trick a the loops of all imagination......the travellers who dealt in donkeys...and piebalds had their stock at the but of staball.....on the bridge tom....and jimmy......had their dilesck and mussell stalls.....jimmy sold the finest fresh caught herring and mackerel......jimmy dunnion and cyril chapman....had their stalls of hardware.....selling locks to keep the cat in and the neighbours out......cyril chapman sold rolled gold pens.....that he and the wife rolled on allnight.....tony doherty from castlerea....sold the finest delph.....he was a delight to watch him bang his delph and other wares on tea chests......second handclothing dealers could be heard ranting about jackets that were all wool bar the buttons......exclaiming ...you can go the high mass low mass or no mass atall.....you can go to america on pan american airways and come home riding in a jeep.....still wearing the jacket.....there was the famous doctor that sold brazilian snake oil....with claims to relieve every pain on earth......there were trck a the loops that washed their mouths with meth and then lit it on fire blowing flames ....down rush street....shouting to hell with the devil with the wooden leg.......various travellers .....sang hello patsy fagan...and other songs besides.....pecker dunne was a well known personality of that day.....every arch in the town was filled with cattle and for us boys of the day it was another way to make a tanner....wathching the cattle while their owners went for a pint......we went to the green and got our cans filled up with milk from cattle that had not been milked before their journey to market...... yes may 11th in once upon a good time was aday of excitement.....hustle and bustle....there was no tesco...no dunnes.....or any other mega business.....there was devers....christy hobans....danny mcellins.....mcglinchskeys...mulcahys....bradys....and parsons....and tom cullen sold the best crubeens in the country....and on this day they did a booming trade..... it seems like only yesterday i stood outside paddy morans selling second hand clothes.....then drinking halve the night in john kennys.....then crashing my van on the convent wall outside duksie mitchells....the mark on the wall was there the last time i was in town.....and it all happened on may11th.....

that was the way it was once upon a good time.....in castlebar......

....slan....agus....

.....tog go bog e....