Towns and villages across the county are gearing up for what promises to be a busy St. Patrick’s Day following two years of Covid-19 restrictions.

  Lecarrow will see the revival of the village parade from 1 pm on St. Patrick’s Day including novelty and trade floats, a vintage display of cars, tractors and implements and the world premiere of ‘Paddy’s Mechanical Ass’! 

  Later on, Cootehall will play host to the Ardcarne St. Patrick’s Day parade at 2 pm featuring well-known grand marshals, Roscommon senior footballers Enda and Donie Smith. 

  The organisers of the parade have confirmed the appearance of the Irvine Memorial Pipes and Drums Band and there will be a Dog Show at Cootehall Barracks starting at 1.15 pm with food and an ice cream van. There will also be prizes for the Best Float and other categories. 

  Ballaghaderreen’s parade kicks off at 2.30 pm this Thursday from the Sligo Road. There’s €1,000 in prize-money up for grabs in the various categories and the theme for this year’s parade is ‘100 Years of Irish Independence’.

  A total of three parades will commence marching at 3 pm. The Ballintubber parade is celebrating its 10th anniversary and always attracts a large crowd while Elphin and Cloonfad will also be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in style this year. 

  The final parade on St. Patrick’s Day in Roscommon will start at 3.30 pm in Boyle. There will be face-painting with Lisa from 2 pm to start the celebrations as well as prizes for Best Floats in a number of categories on the day.

  Meanwhile, Glenamaddy will once again host its popular parade from 1 pm. A large crowd is expected to turn out and there will be live music and other entertainment on the street as the parade makes its way from the local community centre. 

  Finally, the long-awaited return of St. Patrick’s Day festivities will continue into Friday, March 18th as Arigna plays host to its own parade this year. 

  Following two years of Covid-19 restrictions, communities across Roscommon will be back with a bang this St. Patrick’s Day!

Timeline of local parades…

St Patrick’s Day (Thursday, March 17th)

1 pm: Lecarrow

1 pm: Glenamaddy

2 pm: Cootehall

2.30 pm: Ballaghaderreen

3 pm: Ballintubber

3 pm: Cloonfad

3 pm: Elphin

3.30 pm: Boyle

Friday, March 18th 

3.30 pm: Arigna 

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The sheer power of a mother’s love can never, ever be underestimated. That’s why as a mother, I’d like to dedicate this Mother’s Day to all those remarkable Ukrainian matriarchs who inspire us with not just their dignity, but with their unbelievable strength and courage in the face of extreme adversity, distress and insurmountable hardship.

  I want to tell these women who packed bags with a change of clothes, snacks and bottles of water, these women who readied pet carriers and every other practical item they needed in preparation for the nightmare they thought they’d never face, that the mothers of Roscommon stand with them. I want to honour them and tell them we can only imagine the shock and horror they felt as they placed emergency bracelets displaying names, mobile numbers and blood groups onto the wrists of their precious children, before hugging them goodbye and sending them off alone to join a convoy of other refugees.

  For weeks we’ve seen the heartbreaking images of thousands of these Ukrainian mothers, who in the midst of the pounding missiles and the advancing tanks, bid farewell to their husbands, partners, sons, fathers and brothers – knowing they may never again kiss their lips or see their faces.

  The courage of these women is quite simply as astonishing as it is inspirational. Despite being traumatised, terrified and surrounded by gunfire, these mothers somehow managed to make what was a frantic and horrifying journey with their babies nestled in their arms and toddlers clutched to their sides, out of their war-torn homeland of Ukraine and into the terrifying unknown.

  We’ve seen the sheer scale of this war and its devastating effects clearly etched on every single tear-stained face of these beautiful, strong, independent goddesses who didn’t even flinch when giving up everything and everyone they held dear in a bid to get their little ones to a safe zone. We’ve seen them weep with relief as they, along with an unending stream of their fellow country men and women, collapsed into the arms of aid workers and volunteers, waiting to help them at the Polish border.

  We’ve witnessed how these protectors have sacrificed not just their dreams, but their very lives, all in a powerful effort to save their precious children. We’ve acknowledged how despite facing overwhelming obstacles, these angels have somehow managed to hide their own emotions, stifle their own grief, and instead, at all times, managed to remain remarkably strong – a rock between their children and the ravages of a demonic Putin and his lethal forces.

  We’ve sobbed upon seeing the nightmarish images of the heavily pregnant, helpless young Ukrainian woman being stretchered through the rubble following a Russian army airstrike on a maternity and children’s hospital last week. We saw how, cradling her bloodied lower abdomen, this beautiful brave soul desperately tried to hold her unborn infant safe within the confines of her womb despite her hip and pelvis being crushed. We can only imagine the anguish she went through, as she hoped against hope that somehow, by cushioning her injured stomach, come-what-may, she’d manage to save her innocent little infant’s life. Later, we cried gut-wrenching tears when he heard how this mother and her newborn angel had sadly passed away, slaughtered by a merciless madman.

  Ever since this war escalated on February 24th, over 2.2 million – most of them women, children and the elderly (now facing into a new and scary future) – have fled Ukraine. This has become ‘Europe’s fastest growing refugee crisis since World War Two’. This week and every week, the mothers and the grandmothers of County Roscommon stand with these souls. We show them our admiration and offer them our solidarity, and as they wait to reunite with their husbands, partners, sons, brothers and fathers, we pledge to do all that we can to look after them.

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Boyle-based author and historian Tony Conboy has penned an affectionate series of articles on memories of his youth in his native Castlecoote. The articles revolve around the local shop – Hughes’ – and to a lesser extent the adjoining Thatch Bar. A slice of social history, this series will be fascinating reading for people from the area, and further afield. Part 2 next week.

Part 3: Hughes’ staff – ‘Shop Boys’ and ‘Shop Girls’    

Like all such establishments, there was a considerable turnover of staff. This was part of the process with shops and bars throughout the country. The ‘shop boy’ (girls – and there were many – were rarely referenced as ‘shop girls’) was a regular migrant member for an area. Hughes’ shop had employees who were nearly always from a distance away and we got to know them very well. Most of them came from Galway county. I have talked to a number of them in the lead-up to this essay and they invariably had very good memories of the happy times they spent working in Hughes’ where they were treated well.

Jimmy Coyne – ‘Shop Boy’

Jimmy Coyne, who was a pivotal contact, came there from County Galway in 1953 and stayed for a five-year stint. I had met up with him a number of times in later years as he now lives in Sligo. When I phoned him near Christmas 2020 we talked for nearly an hour as we rolled back the decades. Jimmy had a clear and detailed memory of that period of his life. Though he had to work long hours at low pay (as was the case everywhere) he held his employers in very high regard.

He was just fourteen when he decided to leave school and his father asked a teacher of his in Portumna if he might get him into a business premises there. The teacher enquired but there was no position just then and asked Jimmy and his father if he would go to Castlecoote in Roscommon instead. His mother asked if it was a Catholic house. The teacher was David Frawley, a member of the Frawley family from Fuerty.  A week or so later Mattie Hughes collected his new ‘shop boy’ and brought him the considerable distance then to Castlecoote. Arriving late at his new home he relished his cup of Bournvita and started the first chapter of a life away from home, his mother having been assured that Hughes’ was a good Catholic house. The following Sunday Nellie Hughes gave him her bicycle and two shillings to go to the film matinee in Roscommon town.

  ‘Shop Boys’ like Jimmy traversed the country and were part of the communities in which they then lived.

They stayed in the premises and this room and board was the near total payment for their work.

  Soon after he arrived, a colleague, Miss Larkin, took him on her bicycle up to Galvins’ where, as she said: “There are boys there your own age to mix with”. Jimmy himself became a very popular young man in the area. Fuerty was an active GAA club, football mostly, but also junior hurling which suited him more. Coming from Galway he was a valued member of the Fuerty junior hurling team.

  It was a period of mass emigration and eventually in ’59 Jimmy joined some of his Castlecoote friends, Mulherns and Galvins, and took the boat to England. He got a job ‘on the buses’ in Birmingham. His first period in England was short and he returned to a post in Tullamore, arranged by Carmel Hughes. He returned to England a few years later but was enticed home to a position with the emerging supermarket group Spar in 1968. This was to be his life from then and he eventually settled in Sligo town. Jimmy ended his contribution to me by commending the positive start he got in Hughes’ which motivated him for a long life in business subsequently.

  In referencing emigration of the 1950s, nearly every house had members who emigrated. Some Galvins went to Manchester, Wards to Nottingham, Conboys to London, and Neilans to New Jersey. As a boy I was present at an ‘Emigration Wake’ when, in the late ‘50s, the greater part of the McGuire family, including parents, left the village for Melbourne, Australia.    

Anne Cunniffe-Lavin

I contacted Anne (from Creggauns, near Creggs) in Manchester where she had married Martin Lavin from Sligo and spent most of her life there. Anne was the senior one of the three Cunniffe sisters who worked in Hughes’ over a period. After Anne was Lizzie and then Sally. Anne’s time in Hughes’ overlapped with that of Jimmy Coyne. She too had good memories of ‘The Thatch Bar’ and the clientele who were customers there, including my own father. She had some ‘snaps’ from that time of both employees and customers. Getting a picture taken then was a bit of an event but Anne still had them after sixty years. She has not forgotten her home place and (before Covid) visited regularly. Sally worked in Castlecoote from ’68 to ’70, Lizzie was there from ’59 to ‘62. Lizzie and Sally now live in County Galway.

The really busy times in ‘The Thatch Bar’ included the Friday evening when the lads from Farrell’s Mill, armed with their week’s pay, crowded into the bar to slake their thirst. St. Stephen’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day were special days. St. Stephen’s had its local and visiting ‘Wren Boys’ and also the locals home from many locations in England. Occasionally there might be tune from Joe Reddington or Johnny Tarpey. A local play group with John Dunne and Leo Featherstone performing in the Hibernian Hall on the New Road would also be reflected in ‘The Thatch’. So too would visiting play groups from Dublin, known as ‘Fit Ups’. Around the 1960s it was the annual dance Carnival across the bridge that brought the extra crowd.    

  Bridie Gannon was the bookkeeper from Abbeyknockmoy in County Galway. She too emigrated to England. I assume that she had a regular and clear input to the Conboy ‘shop book’.

  Myra Kelly was also from near Creggs and shared her memories of Hughes’, which overlaid those of Anne. She met and married Mickie McCormack of Fuerty.

Josie Kelly, also from Creggauns near Creggs, married Tom Joe Dillon of Fuerty. Her sister Mary and brother Kevin were prominent Irish dance teachers and great friends of my sister Francey. Josie shared her time there with Maura Ward from around Kilbegnet.

Another lady to get married from Hughes’ was Myra Dempsey who married Jack Farrell who was a member of the local Farrell’s mill family. They went on to continue in that business in Mountbellew.    

In the early 1950s the personnel included Madeline Larkin who was the apple of many a local man’s eye then. She came from Kiltormer and was in Hughes’ circa 1953.

  Around that time, in ‘The Thatch’ also, was Phil Regan from Athleague. She too went to England.

There was also a young lady named Reenie Calligy from Laurencetown near Ballinasloe in the early ‘60s and we see her in pictures with Lizzie Cunniffe.

  Apart from Jimmy the only other male shop boys were Jim or Tim Murray who Jimmy Coyne associates with a Jew’s Harp and a Tim Finnerty from earlier.

Those involved with the farming side of things was Paddy Dowd, then Jim Meally. Mickie Ward remembers handing up the thatch to Jim when roof repairs ensued. Mike Gately was another farm-hand and he too emigrated to England. He was from Castlestrange. His sister Marie was the housekeeper in the house.   

  Jim Neilan, who lived across the field from the bar, was an ever-present in that vicinity for years. He tramped the worn grass path to Hughes’ house for his breakfast and did whatever odd jobs needed to be done. One of them was in collecting the empty bottles and washing them as Hughes’, like many bars, ‘bottled’ their own labelled stout. Jimmy Coyne was the main bottler, helped by Jim. Jim Neilan regularly insisted on being a ‘quality control taster’ for the stout being bottled. Now health and safety was well in the future in terms of hygiene and cleanliness but it seemed that people adapted to the conditions and created their own resistance to these threats of the time. Jim Neilan lived and died in the lodge gatehouse at the entrance to Castlecoote House. He is buried to the right of the main gate in Fuerty and is buried with his Neilan connections.

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank all those who responded to my queries and helped me relay, hopefully a subjective, if incomplete, account of the Hughes’ shop and bar in the 1950s and early ‘60s.

  I thank Anne Hughes Cunningham, Michelle Hughes-Walshe and Mamie Delaney, all members of the extended Hughes family. My thanks also to James Moran for all his assistance.

  I thank Anne and Lizzie Cunniffe for evocative pictures from that time. I also thank John Kerrigan for the important local picture of ‘The Thatch Pub’ and PJ Naughton for the aerial picture from 1974.    

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Roscommon LEADER Partnership (also known as Roscommon Integrated Development Company) and its Rural Recreation Officer Ronan Bilbow are hard at work enhancing the current walking trails in the county, and supporting the delivery of new community trails across the region.

  In September 2021, The Lung/Lough Gara Way was added to the national Walk Scheme. Under the scheme, funding is provided to farmers and other land owners to maintain the trails that travel through their holdings. The Walk Scheme aims to open up our countryside to local walkers, hikers and tourists.

  Work on raising the standard and experience of the trail has been ongoing since the announcement and it is anticipated that the 38.2km of the 57km trail that traverses Co. Roscommon will be formally opened to the public later in the spring.

  As well as routine development and maintenance, projects are also underway on our other waymarked trails in the county. €10,000 of funding received from the DRCD (Department of Rural and Community Development) as part of the Walk Scheme Development Fund is supporting a project on The Suck Valley Way. With the support of our fantastic RSS (Rural Social Scheme) supervisors and participants, upgrades are being carried out on sections of the trail throughout the county, including the improvement of underfoot conditions, bridges, and stiles.

  The promotion of The Miners Way and Historical Trail is being enhanced with a marketing project being funded to the sum of €15,000 through the Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme. This follows the completion of a key project on the trail in late 2021, when a pedestrian bridge was replaced after being damaged beyond repair in a storm. This project will showcase the trail and  surrounding regions, and increase visitor numbers to the county.

  The support of existing community trails and the development of new projects is an important part of the Rural Recreation Officer’s role. The community projects currently being supported throughout the county include the Portrun Clooncagh Link Walk (€6,479.07), the enhancement of the Tarmon Bog road walk (€20,000), repair/enhancement work to The Miners Way and Historical Trail (€16,727.40), and Granlahan Loops, Granlahan, Co. Roscommon (€8,280.36).

  If you need guidance with the development of an existing or new walk/trail, please feel free to get in touch with your Rural Recreation Officer by emailing Ronan Bilbow at rro@ridc.ie, or calling 0867713550.

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  Director Con Connolly says the group’s hiatus during Covid-19 was challenging for everyone involved.

  “It was weird getting back out there of course. We tried to keep things going during the lockdowns but it was almost impossible. Even a performance outdoors would have been very difficult to police with social distancing,” he said.

  “We were all really excited to be back together again. We’ve about 50 people involved with the group and they’ve been straggling back over the last few weeks. To be fair, you can see why it (theatre and drama) was one of the last things to return because of the close proximity (involved) but it’s great to be looking forward to a new production once again”.

  The drama group has welcomed new members since the lifting of restrictions with all ages well represented and Con says both actors and backstage crew are learning fast.

  “We’ve four or five new members and three of those have been cast in this production. It’s a great outlet to have and even during lockdown we were lucky to work with Enda Oates on a series of ‘Plays on the Radio’…that kept us alive and kept us in touch on WhatsApp.

  “That was really interesting but at the end of the day it’s just not the same. The whole point is that it’s live drama and so you lose something when you take it away from the stage,” said Con, who also highlighted the longevity those involved can enjoy when it comes to their hobby.

  “Drama is not like football or team sports, where you might get players deciding that the time has come to work on the golf handicap. You can play your part in drama for as long as you wish. There are also people who get involved who don’t want to act, but they go on and play an important role backstage. There’s lots of other things going on behind the scenes”.

  The cast and crew have been busy rehearsing in Hannon’s Hotel ahead of their performances in April and the director is pleased with preparations so far.

  “I’m delighted with them all. Using another sports analogy…it’s like coaching a team. If you have a good team then you can stand back and let them off!”

  ‘Bookworms’ is a comedy farce which remains as topical today as it was when written in 2010 following the post-Celtic Tiger crash, as Con explains: “Larry is an out-of-work builder and his wife Ann has this book club which is a great excuse for these women to get together. It’s when the husbands are asked to get involved that things get tricky!

  “You also have Robert who works in the bank; Dorothy, who has had a tough time of it recently; Larry’s brother Vincent, who’s home from London, and Aisling who has just returned from Australia.

  “It’s a very funny play and it’s full of misunderstandings. Farrell specialises in this kind of thing: throwing a bunch of characters together who would otherwise never normally meet.

  “It’s an Irish production and it’s very relatable and we are hoping that people will come out in their droves to see it,” Con said.

  While local productions were put on the back-burner over the last two years, Roscommon Drama Group did enjoy success on the One Act Drama circuit, recently finishing third in the All-Ireland finals, with Tom Holian winning the Confined Best Actor award.

  The group’s latest production at Roscommon Arts Centre this April will be a welcome return to entertaining local audiences and tickets are priced at €14/€12.

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Boyle-based author and historian Tony Conboy has penned an affectionate series of articles on memories of his youth in his native Castlecoote. The articles revolve around the local shop – Hughes’ – and to a lesser extent the adjoining Thatch Bar. A slice of social history, this series will be fascinating reading for people from the area, and further afield. Part 2 next week.

Part 2: The ownership record for Hughes’ Bar through the 1900s

Death of Andrew McDonagh (1910)

In April 2010 the ‘Roscommon People’ was running an interesting series titled ‘It happened 100 years ago’. The content was extracted from the pages of the ‘Roscommon Journal’ of early in the 1900s’. In it was a paragraph titled ‘Castlecoote Death’. The deceased was a Mister Andrew McDonagh. It stated that Mr. McDonagh was born in Castlecoote 84 years earlier, which would have been circa 1826. It recognises him as ‘proprietor of the licensed premises in his name at Castlecoote’.

  His funeral journey took the remains to Kilbegnet to be buried and the funeral was one of the largest seen in the district for many years. This suggests that Kilbegnet was the ancestral origin of the Castlecoote-McDonagh family from prior to 1826.

  Ann Treacy, Athleague, in her lovely and informative book on the Athleague district titled ‘Ballinturley: The Story of a Roscommon Townland and its People’ references McDonaghs in Fuerty also.

  Her book was published in 2018 and on page 71 has a list of schools and schoolteachers for Fuerty in 1835 with ‘Day-school kept by John McDonagh’.

  There is also a reference to the McDonaghs’ as schoolteachers – ‘hedge’ and ‘national’ subsequently. I have struggled to try and establish accurately when the tavern/Thatch Bar in Castlecoote originated, but the 1850s’ may be close.

The Hughes’ Memorial Cross

in Fuerty (old) Cemetery 

There is an impressive headstone dedicated to the Hughes family to the immediate right of the entrance gate at Fuerty Graveyard which I will refer to later. Behind this there is another headstone with the inscription as follows: ‘Have Mercy O Lord on the soul of Patrick Fannon/Who died Dec. 24th 1875 aged 86 years also his wife/Margaret died March 17th 1873 aged 79 years RIP/Erected by their son-in-law Andrew McDonagh’.

  This Fannon family’s origins were in nearby Colleighter where they had some land prior to the Famine, while increasing it post-Famine. The Fannon son-in-law, Andrew McDonagh, was to marry Ellen Fannon in the early to middle 1960s.

  Andrew I presume was to the fore again with a plaque which is inside the Castlecoote/Creemully church wall, to the left of the entrance gate, as follows: ‘Erected in memory of Ellen/The Beloved Wife of Andrew McDonagh of Castlecoote/ died 21st of December 1893 aged 59 years/Also in memory of his fond daughter Margaret Anne, who died on the 31st of Jan. 1895 aged 22 years/Sweet Jesus have Mercy on their souls’.

  There was also a child, Andrew Patrick, born Oct. 12 1874, who died three years later. I seem to remember this plaque as being in the old church there and it was probably placed in this location when the old church became the local Community Centre.    

  Andrew McDonagh Senior died, as referenced in the opening lines of the paper account above, in April 1910. The surviving member of this McDonagh family was Mary Ellen who was born on Sept. 1867 and lived a long life until 1953.

McDonagh marries Hughes

Mary Ellen McDonagh married Matthew Hughes Senior from near Ballygar on June 8th 1896. So began the Castlecoote branch of the Hughes family. Their family comprised of Margaret Mary born 1897; Ellen Kate (referred to as Nellie through her life) born 1898; Andrew Michael (‘Sonny’ as pictured in the Fuerty football team of 1929) and Matthew (Jnr.) Patrick born 1909.

  So the senior proprietors of Hughes’ Shop and licensed premises were Matthew Hughes Senior succeeded by Matthew Hughes Junior until the 1970s.

  The business obviously did well as members of the family branched out with Andrew Michael ‘Sonny’ establishing a licensed premises at Ballinamore Bridge near Ballinasloe which has become very well known in the region.

  Margaret Mary married a Patrick Kelly from Ballygar and they went into business in Four Roads. A member of their family, Mamie Kelly-Delaney, came to live with aunt Nellie and uncle Mattie Hughes at Castlecoote when a young girl. Mamie later married Mark Delaney and they established what is now Castlecoote Stores and Post Office. Mamie is a highly regarded community activist especially with the ‘Tidy Towns Committee’ which has led to Castlecoote becoming a real contender, at national level, for the premier tidy towns award.   

  Ellen Kate or Nellie managed ‘the shop’ business for many years. Some years after Mattie (Jnr) got married she joined Mamie Delaney in her house which was adjoined later by ‘Castlecoote Stores’. This had been known in the 1800s’ as ‘The Miller’s House’. It was also the residence of the family of J. Frawley N.T. for a period from the late 1940s through the 1950s.

  (Matthew Senior died April 24^th, 1944. His wife Mary Ellen died January 12th 1953. Their daughter Ellen-Nellie died May 20th 1978. All three are buried in Fuerty Graveyard and remembered on an impressive Celtic Cross just right of the main gate as referenced above).

Matthew/Mattie Hughes

Mattie was the proprietor of the licensed premises after his parents’ demise. He also had a great interest in farming, having parcels of land in various townlands in the area. He got married to Carmel Hennessy from Tullamore in January 1956. Carmel was from a business background in Tullamore and so she joined in the running of the Castlecoote business with zeal.

  The famous ‘Thatch Pub’ relocated across the road to its present bar location in the early 1960s as the shop was being wound down. Nellie died in 1978 and is buried in Fuerty with her parents, as stated above. Carmel sold on the premises in 1976 and retired to live in Kiltoom. Carmel J. Hughes died on February 9, 2011 and is buried with her husband Mattie in Athleague cemetery.

Ownership post-Hughes’ era

The business was purchased by Pat and Bridie Carton in 1976 until Nonie and Jimmy Golden took ownership in 1986. The Golden family were in situ until 2002 with son-in-law Joe Ennis and his wife Marie Golden in the later years. JJ Cattigan and Carol owned it for a decade, from 2002 to 2012.

  Since then it has been the property of PJ and Bernie Naughton. It has continued to be a very popular business premises. Like so many such premises’ it is now facing its greatest challenge. I hope however that this iconic crossroads institution continues in the decades to come.

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When was Gleeson’s established in Roscommon town?

Mary: “Gleeson’s was established 31 years in 1991 when Roscommon didn’t even have so much as a coffee shop. Our ethos, even way back then, was that we wanted to source as much of our produce locally as possible. We were and are very proud of ‘local’ and have always made every single dish from scratch.

  “All of our breads and pastries have been made the exact same way over the years and we are still making everything from scratch from local ingredients in our kitchen”.

Has the business changed in any way in recent years?

Eamonn: “Yes, our daughter Cait has taken over from myself and Mary in running Gleeson’s while we have moved to a more advisory role”.

Mary: “We’ve recently come back on board to help out a little bit more following the birth of our beautiful grandson. Before Covid-19 I was looking forward to becoming a ‘grey nomad’ like the retired people you see in Australia but we are very happy to be back meeting customers again!”

How have the last few weeks been post-restrictions?

Mary: “What’s been so lovely is seeing people we haven’t seen in a really long time. It’s great to welcome them back. I’ve also noticed that we’ve all gone back to basics and people don’t take meeting up for a coffee for granted anymore. Customers will sit together for a couple of hours now for a catch-up”.

People have two years’ worth of catching up to do…

Mary: “They really do, and you know what else? Happier occasions have also become even happier. It’s great to see people going all out for events like christenings and seeing people being able to take elderly relatives out for lunch, dinner or even a coffee and scone again. We took this for granted but it’s so wonderful to see that we’re now treating it as the special thing it always was.

  “In terms of other events, we’ve already hosted one deferred Christmas party in recent weeks, and we have another one booked for April! It was great to see people gathering together and toasting each other again”.

In terms of the menu, is there one dish that stands out for visitors?

Mary: “Our Roscommon Lamb Stew is now our signature dish and we have taken it halfway around the world to different events. We’re always very proud to showcase our stew but there was a time when stew was almost looked down upon – it was something mammy made for the dinner!”

Eamonn: “Visitors to an area like to experience the food and produce of that area. It’s the same when we go on holidays to other countries. You’ll have people come in and ask for a local dish and a local beer and we’re lucky to be able to give them that with Roscommon lamb and Black Donkey Brewery from Ballinlough”.

So, fair to say there was an element of food snobbishness around the humble stew?

Mary: “Yes, it was as if people would question what it was doing on an evening dinner menu! Thank God we got over that fear. Most visitors to Roscommon now look for a nice bowl of stew. Our lamb stew has been featured for all those years and it won’t go away, because everyone loves it. They want the authentic, genuine, proper article and we’re so lucky in Roscommon to have Castlemine Farm Shop, our local butchers, and local suppliers such as Audrey Hession with her beautiful organic leaves, and of course Gannon’s Poultry and Molloy’s Bakery”.

Will Outdoor Dining really take off in Roscommon?

Mary: “People got used to it, particularly during the summer months. We have our outdoor dining area to the front, which is now overlooking the new Square, and I have to say it has been a major success so far”.

Finally, what impact will the new-look Square have on local hospitality?

Eamonn: “It’s a big investment for the town and there are plans to allow businesses to make use of the space, particularly during the summer. Town centres are becoming places for people to meet rather than just for shopping in and the new-look Square will add to that. We really welcome it”.

Mary: “It would be great to see other businesses (those with limited outside space) making use of the Square in terms of seating and parasols. It’s a wonderful addition and now we have way more potential for events such as the recent Christmas Markets…that can only be good for everyone in the town”.

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  Meanwhile, 14 Roscommon GAA clubs will also benefit with the likes of Western Gaels and St. Faitleach’s receiving €144,000 and €147,207 respectively.

  In the south of the county, Rahara Rovers FC received the largest allocation with €129,738 towards clubhouse refurbishment while Pádraig Pearses GAA Club receives €115,723 and Athleague Hurling Club €81,000.

  Local public representatives welcomed the news this week with Independent TD Denis Naughten describing the funding as “historic”.

  Minister of State Frank Feighan said it was a great day for sports clubs and community groups following two tough years of Covid-19.

  Some of the successful applicants in north Roscommon include Carrick Golf Club as well as Shannon Gaels (€122,827) and St. Michael’s (€122,060) GAA clubs.

  Fianna Fáil Senator Eugene Murphy said he was “thrilled and chuffed” with the news and that the funding was further evidence of Government support for County Roscommon.

  Fine Gael Senator Aisling Dolan congratulated the successful applicants which also included Tarmon National School, community groups and sports parks, stating that “being active, being part of a team and getting involved” was good for the head and the heart.

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  In addition to this, a further €670,000 was awarded to 19 community and voluntary groups to refurbish community buildings, develop outdoor spaces, deliver training locally and implement biodiversity projects.

  The diverse range of successful businesses supported includes tourism enterprises, creative industries and specialised engineering services from across the county. In summary, this grant-aid is supporting the creation of new jobs in the county as well as sustaining existing jobs in these businesses.

  LEADER funding continues to enable communities to realise local priorities – identified by the local community – and RLP supported 19 groups to access funding in 2021.

  Roscommon LCDC in partnership with RLP has responsibility for the delivery of LEADER funding in the county under the remit of the Department of Rural and Community Development.

  Through LEADER, Roscommon LCDC focuses on supporting community-led local development, including diversification of the rural economy, the creation of employment opportunities, increased social inclusion and poverty reduction in the county.

  If you would like to apply for LEADER funding or require more information, please contact: Amanda (086 046 0046), Claire (086 609 4262) or Denise (086 771 6574).

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Part 1: Hughes’ …The Shop & Thatch Bar at Castlecoote

Boyle-based author and historian Tony Conboy has penned an affectionate series of articles on memories of his youth in his native Castlecoote. The articles revolve around the local shop – Hughes’ – and to a lesser extent the adjoining Thatch Bar. A slice of social history, this series will be fascinating reading for people from the area, and further afield. Part 2 next week.

They are nearly all gone now. They were the businesses which were located at many a crossroads throughout the country. They were comprised of the ‘the shop’ – which was often accompanied by the local pub.

  For me as a boy growing older in Castlecoote, the iconic building, which engages my memory now, was Hughes’ Shop, and to a lesser extent ‘The Thatch Bar’. It served nearly all the needs of the local community for the greater part of the 1900s. I passed it all the days that I went to the national school (not far along the road past it) and the emerging new church.

  It was at Hughes’ corner where men gathered to begin their journey, with hackney car man Tom Pat Heaney, to football matches in distant towns like Tuam and Castlebar. It was here that we played ‘pitch and toss’ on lazy summer days, posted our letters to family members in England and America, and waited for the ‘lift’ to the cinema with Pat Mannion in Roscommon town. We talked too of the many locals who had gone to England or were home from England. This was enhanced with some visitors from the United States, especially the Heaveys’ from Chicago.

  Most of all we talked of football and hurling and repeated the gossip of the world and of the locality. On those occasion that we had those ‘distinguished’ visitors to our home – from Chicago especially – one of us brothers would get the beck by our mother to come outside the kitchen, and were then dispatched to ‘cycle quickly up to the shop’ for ham and tomatoes and Swiss roll – and to ‘put it in the book’! Yes, that very important ‘book’ – the axle of the local economy. I have our family ‘book’ still. It covered the period from May 1946 to November 1959. It is a precise, detailed document which lists the products purchased and especially the ongoing balance of the account. It is decorated with signed-over stamps at irregular intervals which indicated a payment to reduce the eternal debit balance.

  Hughes’ shop had their regular range of groceries that kept the local farming community stocked at short notice.

The importance of ‘The Book’

From May 1952 the pages of our ‘book’ list the following sample of goods bought: Bacon 7/- (shillings, a good deal of money then), the Irish Press 2d (pence). It was always the Press (we got), on weekdays and Sundays. Bread (pan loaf, although a batch loaf did exist; the sliced loaf was in the future). Cigs. 2/4 (for twenty. It was an era of smoking); Tomatoes 1/6 (which almost indicates there were visitors around); Shaving blade 2d (possibly a Mac’s Smile), nails 9d; Raisins 1/3; Shirt 15/10 (15 shillings and ten pence …looks expensive); sausages 2/4 (a treat) Lamp Wick 4d; Sauce 1/2; Onions 1/6; Jam (Red)2/3; Turnip seed 3/6; Paraffin 1/3; Rope 2/9; a half doz. Stout 4/6; 8 stone of flour 1/13/0; Bex 8d; Tide/Rinso/ Persil 1/1; and Lucozade. There is no mention of toilet paper!

  Some of these goods, such as sugar and tea, came in bulk boxes and had to be transferred into the various bags at half pound and single pound weight. The tea chest was a sought after item and had to be booked in advance.

  There is no record in ‘The Book’ of the Christmas Shop when special Christmas-only items enlarged the list into candles, treacle for a cake and custard & jelly for that singular dessert and much more.

Degree of self-sufficiency

This is a flavour of the goods of the time. The shopping, as recorded in ‘the book’, was regular but small. It was often done by men or a family member getting ‘messages’. For the matrons of the house shopping was an occasion to dress appropriately for a day out in the local town with the string bags hung on the handlebars and the rear carrier also having a role. My mother often carried me on it to Roscommon town.     

  Homes had a considerable degree of self-sufficiency in terms of butter, milk, eggs, vegetables, apples, and home-baked bread which only needed the ‘shop’ loaf as a supplement. Some houses killed a pig and salted it away in a big box to provide for the winter. A regular food for country people in the early 1950s was the rabbit, which was widely snared. Then a disease called myxomatosis ended the role of the rabbit in the diet. Some people fished or went shooting wild fowl on the river or the pheasant on farmland. It all contributed to whatever diversity of diet that existed.              

The Busy Shop

‘The Shop’ had its particularly busy times such as on Sunday after Mass when the Sunday papers and cigarettes were core items. The papers were The Press, The Independent, and a single copy of ‘The Times’ for a special resident across the river.

  I can picture the layout of the interior with its active ‘inside the door’ counter for the primary items, a sweet counter with an array of jars for sweets such as bullseyes, liquorice sticks and penny toffee ‘penny’ bars and the many that I forget. Maybe there were Hersey bars because a group of young men were nominated as ‘The Hersey Gang’.

  There was a particular short counter which always attracted my attention. This had a line of big jars with assortments of sweets. Chocolate was special and getting a slender bar of it was an equally slender possibility. I seem to remember one occasion in particular when I appeared to have permission to access a more than generous quantity from these jars. This was enabled by my Godmother Mamie. It may have been after my First Communion.   

  Then a little further on there was an area which was more seasonal with hay rakes and forks, a number of sleáns when in season, shovels and spades, rolls of rope and straw sunshine hats favoured by my father during the summer months.

  There was an area where ‘fletches’ (half a pig’s carcass) of bacon were kept for short periods as there was no refrigeration then. These were delivered by a C.I.E. lorry on a Friday and the ‘fletches’ did not survive the day on that counter.

  The store for the tank of paraffin oil for lamps was in a dark, damp, store a distance from the shop. Across the road was the busy ‘Thatched Bar’.    

  The shop was encased with shuttered windows and a big bar across the double doors in the porch though there was never any threat of burglary or anything like that.

Christmas Shopping

Christmas shopping is always special, encapsulating joy, excitement, anticipation and expectation. It crystallised on the day that the ‘big true Christmas Shop’ was brought home and the sturdy Raleigh bicycle hadn’t the capacity to cope with that. It was then that the donkey and cart, pony and trap (a lovely mode of transport), horse and cart, the odd tractor and carrier box and the rare car were to jostle for staging posts around the shop. What a picture they made.

  (The car owners were few: Dr. Coyne, Fathers Fleming and Keane, Mattie Hughes, and returned yank Johnny Kelly were representative).

  Jimmy Coyne says of this workday: “The atmosphere was such that I cannot describe but I can remember it as if it was yesterday. It was just magic”.

  When this array of normal groceries, enhanced with delicacies, arrived at the home, most of it was stored in a special room labelled as the ‘good room’ or the ‘top room’ of the house, not to be touched until the big day or the day before, if required. As youngsters we were curious to see what the shop owner added to our ‘shopping list’ as a reward for being a loyal customer through the year.

  People would have saved some extra money for this special outing helped by some early ‘Christmas card money’ from members of the family in England, or the magical dollar bills from connections in New York or other great cities in that dreamland of the 1950s.     

Hughes’s Home premises

Part of the premises was the home of the Hughes’ family: Mattie, Nellie and Mamie, and later Carmel. The shop boys and shop girls also lived-in there.   

The shop was run in my early days by Mattie’s sister Nellie who was kind and generous, especially to her sometimes struggling customers. After Mattie married in the mid-50s, his wife, who was from a business background in Tullamore, introduced a new regime. The ‘book’ system was soon cast aside with a new reality and the payment of arrears called in. This was something of a shock to the system and this can be interpreted in the distressed final pages of our ‘Shop Book’!

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