CASTLE ST LOWER / STREETS

CASTLE ST LOWER

Three lads watch the exchange between another chap and a shawlie as she crosses the road near the Market Cross. No doubt some quip has been made about the photographer and she laughs in response....the joke lost in time but the laugh captured forever...

A view of Lower Castle St outside McCurtins Hardware store at 66 & 67. Denis Carey who was shot in Wolftone Terrace on 26/11/1920 worked here

The lads pondering divilment. Bare feet versus boots and .....can't imagine that happening these days in Nenagh. No designer trainers here

Two young girls in straw boaters and pinafores the epitome of Edwardian young ladies. Notice the ramp over the cobbled gutter to enable the sack cars to rise onto the pavement

The Laughing Lady (Smiling Shawlie) and the Quipster. Notice Gill's railway deliveries cart behind them

Jennets, Mules, Asses and Horses....all provide the power to move the carts. The combustion engine has yet to make an impact.

McCormacks at the Market Cross - Capt John Joseph McCormack of the Tyneside Irish lived here. He was killed on 28/04/1917 in France. He has a commemorative window and plaque in St Marys of the Rosary RC

The streets loaded with delivery crates and barrels outside of shops. A lone cyclist navigates his way through the traffic jam of carts

O'Meara's Hotel porch later to be featured in 1922, the benches outside invite you to sit and watch the world go by. A young lad with pitchforks stands to watch the photographer and meanwhile further up the street.... look at the height of that ladder. No cherry pickers here.

Rolling down the blinds to stop the sun from bleaching the goods. There was a time when most every shop had one of these

Some faces from the street of more than a century ago. Some aware of the camera, most just going about their business. You can also see three automobiles parked outside what we knew as Moynans Garage

A later postcard of Castle St

What looks like a postman crossing the road from the Old Post Office

Hodgins General Merchants on the left and the Hibernian and the Steps on the right

1964 - A much different Nenagh with the advent of automobiles. BP, Shell & Caltex signs appear, cars replace Horse and carts and telegraph poles seem to abound. We no longer have stray dogs or horse manure lying in the middle of the road....everyone is now in a combustion engine driven hurry

The Shops

The Aurora cafe

- a popular haunt for teenagers and rival to the Venetian Cafe across the street. The men used to wear numerous keyrings from their belt loops - a style quickly adopted by us as teenagers

Aurora Cafe lads 1972 -

John O'Donaghue, John Sherlock, Mick Brophy, Ronnie White, Tommy Shoer, John Flannery

Mackey's Tobacconists

Moynan's garage for years had the old fashioned petrol pumps outside. Later they were to cater for cycles and lawnmowers only

1991 - (Catherina Day)

Looking down Chapel Lane later Friar St

A busy Castle St

Still of Castle St taken from an old cine reel

Scroopes grocers and Harry's Bar

Corner of Peter St and Castle St before the rebuilding of the A.I.B.

On the site of the Old Post Office, Sounds of Music had many reincarnations in various premises around Nenagh

The ever popular Venetian Grill. In the door and past the diners eating then climb three steps to get to the Fryer. Later there would be a separate takeaway entrance.

When Dunnes Stores came to town

Tylers shoe shop

The Ormond Garage and the first time I heard of Burmah Petroleum. One of their sales promotions was a print of an Oil Terminal with Letraset transfers that you could rub on the background. Loved it.!

The Gaelic Bar, Tobin's Jewellers & Nolan's Bar

The original Gaelic Bar sign

Tobins Jewellers

Having a natter at the bars outside Nolan's

Louis Maher's sandwiched between the White Swan launderette and Tobins Jewellers

Bemoaning the removal of the bars

The Gaelic Bar sold to Louis Maher for £22,500 and fee's

Previously called Devanes and later The Imperial Hotel after a nephew/brother of Napoleon II, Prince Jerome stopped here for refreshments and a relay of horses in July 1857. His ship "La Reine Hortense" was moored on the Shannon at Limerick at the time. He was touring Ireland incognito.

Herriott's/Harnett's

Same premises, different proprietors and artists

IRISH TIMES - 06/03/1923

Flannery's

Flannery's, one of a number of buildings burned by British forces in 1920 during a Reign of Terror. The building was arsoned after the shooting and wounding of R.I.C. officer McCarthy in the leg on 02/11/1920 outside the Post Office. This culminated in the shooting of a British Intelligence Officer and the Crown forces shooting of two men at Knigh. The building was rebuilt in 1923....also known as The Phoenix Warehouse

Paddy Mackeys

Putting a new roof on Paddy Mackey's pub

A former and later imagining when Mackeys was known as The Half Barrel

When Mackeys was known as Lily's Bar

Some of the regulars

Gough, O'Keeffe & Naughton

The different faces of Gough, O'Keefe & Naughton

Slattery's

a Slattery sandwich - Seamu O'Shea and RTV Rentals surrounded by Slattery premises.

Updated vernacular shopfront

Robinsons Drapers

Hodgins & Son

Hodgins becomes Supermacs

The demolition of Hodgin & Son. Next door, O'Meara's Hotel is secure in the fact it is a modern building....or is it?

O'Mearas Hotel

The site was originally a stand alone house surrounded by gardens, in the middle of Castle St, built by a Scotsman, Quinton Dick in 1734. In 1788 an Inn called the 'Star & Garter' was situated on this site. The proprietor was Barry Smith. James O'Meara took possession of the building 22/07/1858