Posted by murrisk on February 08, 2001 at 03:44:17:
Leaving the county cinema after the pictures - goodnight to the red haired twin Cunningham girls from Newtown(?) who ushered in the cinema. Down past Mitchell's pub, McGrath's tailor, Yank Kelly's pub, past the postbox at the courthouse corner opposite Gavins, and across the road to the green. Across the green to the mall, left towards Christ church, and past the seat where a couple engaged one night and had to be taken to the hospital to disengage. Out the road at the pedestrian opening where, on a Wednesday night in the spring of 1963, Muggy Dunne in his car hit my mother and hospitalised her with a broken leg. Across the road and on towards Church Hill past the statue of a naval type O'Malley holding a broken sword (was he a covey ?). Across the road, Billy Newells (hairdressing & hackney service) just up from O'Byrnes the dentists (now its Burleigh House). Mrs. O'Byrne was a smallish compact woman dentist. Mr.O'Byrne was a tall thin man who wore a dickie bow. The dental drill was located in the room to the left at the top of the steps. And living under the steps, in the basement suite, Tony Gough, a class mate whose Dad worked for the ESB, whom I would years later meet again in UCG. Up from Newells, was Brady's shop. Now it is a national park - not so then! Up past the post office - one slot for papers, one slot for letters and a nifty stamp dispenser where you inserted the requisite change, lifted the metal flap and hey presto the stamps were pushed out through the slot. At the top of the rise Doctors Matt and Sal Moran's house and dispensary besdie Christ Church (older children came from Dr. Matt's bag!). Across the road, Paddy O'Malley's house and vetinary practice (Brian and George were contemporarys). Up the hill past Michael J. Egan's house and legal practice. In 1936 he was one of the group which formed the Hat Factory Company. Up past the library, Reynolds and the houses at the top of the hill where falling slates on a windy night could guillotine you. On past the house where Charlie Haughey was born in 1925, and past where Superintendent Hayden and his family lived. Séan Hayden taught in Castlebar for a short time. On past Thornton's where a happy solicitor's family lived for some time. Past Lough Lannagh House, bought in the late 1950's /early 1960's by the Jennings, where sadly Paddy Jennings died. (Noel and Carmel were contemporarys). Past the Protestant graveyard whose tall trees soughed mournfully in the wind in winter and whose rusted gates were rarely opened. On past the entrance to Bresnehans (spelling?) in the shadow of the hospital incinerator chimeny. Dr. Bresnehans' father , a retired shool teacher from Kerry, would wait patiently at the gate,in the 1950's, to speak with school children making their way home. He was a delightful man, quite tall, thin and 'tweedy'with a walking stick, and I remember him fondly. On past the hospital with its railing of "spears", a hold over from the old gaol and the clinic where as children we were brought for medical and vision check ups, and sugar cube innoculations against polio - one lump or two? Across the road the Travellers Friend which started as a petrol pumps in the 1950's, added a news agents, and expanded into one of the most successful hotels in the county. The later addition of the ballroom in the early 1960's turned a successful hotel into an overwhelming success - all due to the hard work of the Jennings family most especially Mrs. Jennings a lady who never shirked hard work.