O’Connell Street (Knox’s Street): Personal Recollections from 1930s and 1940s (By Bernie Gilbride

THE CORRAN HERALD • 2020/2021 O’Connell Street (Knox’s Street):

Personal Recollections from 1930s and 1940s

By Bernie Gilbride

For years the Corporation had been talking of having our main street, O’Connell Street, Sligo, pedestrianised. On the 15th August 2006 it happened. No more cars, lorries, trucks, vans, buses, motor bikes would be allowed to pollute its pristine air. Henceforth, all pedestrians may criss-cross its broad thoroughfare and its narrow thoroughfare, in complete security, breathing in its unpolluted air in a healthy environment.

Will this bring more business to its many shops? The owners certainly hope so. As leisurely, relaxed pedestrians stroll on its footpaths and its now so safe roadway, window gazing in comfort at their alluring displays, as they did in the past when I was a child.

Looking down on it today from the top of Harmony Hill I see an O’Connell Street so changed from the one l then knew. I marvel how this can be. It should be much the same with all modern transport gone from it. Structurally it has not changed. The answer. l think must be the different type of shops, so changed from when l was young.

As a young child, l visited friends living there, a few times a week. In those days, motor vehicles were as scarce as hens’ teeth. Cars were only becoming popular and could be easily counted. The most common transport then was the horse and cart, and the pony and trap. O’Connell Street would be lined on either side with them, especially on a Saturday, the then market day, when many people from the farming community came to town, to do their shopping. Some of Sligo’s best business shops lined its pavements, and it was possible to do all one’s shopping in that street alone, such was the variety of shops there.

At the time l am referring to, all shop owners lived over their premises. It was a very lively place, with no vandalism, safe to walk its footpaths day or night. The evenings were the most popular for window-shopping. All the shops displayed the very best of their wares, making the windows colourful and interesting. The latest styles, household goods, china, ornaments of all kinds, presents, electrical goods, everything anyone could want. Many were priced for the convenience of comparison.

We visited its shops to do our weekly shopping and were sure of finding everything we required there, the shops were so diverse. Leaving our order with the butcher, grocer, or whatever merchant, we knew they would be delivered to our home by messenger bicycle, with its big carrier basket in front, and the shop name prominently displayed on the gear case, or else by horse and cart sometime before nightfall.

The elderly family friend we visited lived over her shop, groceries on one side and bar on the other. When we visited on a weekday the doors were always open. There was a small porch and the doors were recessed. Before going into the main shop, there was a small snug on the left. Just beyond, the counter of the grocery shop ran to the back of the shop. Directly opposite was an open area. Along the front window and the counter were large tea chests, with bags with the shop name hanging from each chest. Each chest had a scoop for serving, they were labelled, but the only label I remember was ‘Orange Picoe’. At that time one could choose whatever tea one liked, or have a mixture made up for you by the assistant, or take the shop’s own brand—recommended as the proprietor was a tea taster.

In front of the counter on the back wall was a row of biscuit tins with glass tops. These tops all lifted together, so one could have a mixture of biscuits or just one particular sort. A circular stairs ran curled along the wall to the living quarters above. The ground floor also had a large kitchen behind the shop. There were two more snugs to the rear of the shop. All bars had a couple of snugs where the women rested and enjoyed a refreshing tipple after their strenuous journey to town and their shopping. A snug was always warm and comfortable; hence the name, and very secluded, usually located near a door, with a hatch opening to the area behind the counter. Only the attendant behind the counter could see the occupants of the snug, and they were very discreet.

The elderly friend was bedridden and sat up in a frilly nightgown propped up with many pillows. She wore a lacy cap on her snow-white hair. I loved our visits with this old lady, who never said a cross word and was lavish with biscuits and lemonade. As the premises originally had been two houses, there was a slight incline where houses joined. The wide landing covered with linoleum was an excellent place for sliding, especially over the incline. Here, on two cushions, my brother and l pulled each other up and down the landing while the adults chatted.

As I grew older, I loved to sit on the wide windowsill of her bedroom overlooking O’Connell Street, to watch the street below, a new use for my cushion. As we always came to visit on a Sunday this was a vantage point supreme. At that time the various families lived there and went walking, dressed in their Sunday best.

Many an envious glance l cast, as other people’s clothes usually seemed nicer than one’s own.

The bedroom always had a bright fire in the grate, its side tiles of flowers gleaming in the firelight. Overhead a mirror reflected the room—the dark wardrobe with its mirrored doors and shining brass handles, the brass knobs on the top rails on the ends of the wrought iron bed, the brass fender, all caught the glow.

The Sacred Heart picture hung above the bed, with its small red flame in the tiny oil lamp. In the room everything was dark—the furniture, patterned wallpaper, the linoleum covered with rugs. The only brightness provided was the white lace cloths on the dressing table and bedside table. It was a large room with plenty of space and a couple of large comfortable chairs. It was always warm, lit by the glow from the coal fire.

There were no cafés in O’Connell Street in those days and modern fast food restaurants and Takeaways had still to be invented, at least in Sligo. In my memory there were at least five drapery shops, W.T. Johnston, one of the most attractive shops, with its green marble façade, and chrome fittings, large windows almost floor to ceiling, double entrance. I loved when we had some messages to do there as then l would see the magic of its conveyor money system, where the attendant would take the money, wrap it in the docket, put it in its box, pull the cord and off it would go over our heads to the office at the rear of the shop. There the office girl would open it up, put the correct change and the receipt back in the box, pull the cord and send it back along the ceiling to our attendant, who would hear its tinkle, take it out and give us our change and receipt. I always hoped there would be many customers so l would see them get their change too. This elegant shop is gone and l miss its beautiful façade. Mullaney Bros, still in business, equally elegant with dark marble façade and gold lettering, still delights our eyes with its so inviting window displays, showing the lovely styles they carry. Goods, now Moffit’s has another lovely traditional shop front and elegant interior. East’s once a huge drapery, sadly now gone as is D.I. Higgins, ‘The House for Men’ and Harrigan’s – all replaced with new boutiques, all equally lovely, but different.

Right to the middle of the street on the western side was a huge bakeryMc Arthurs’, that supplied bread around the town and in the surrounding counties. The shop had three or four large windows displaying their breads and confectionery. Next door was ‘The Wood and lron’ a large hardware store with china, cutlery, ornaments of all kind, as well as hardware for builders and tradesmen of every trade. Monsoon’s, a big furniture store on the upper corner, its inner walls were covered with mirrors of all shapes and sizes, with lovely old pictures, and very elegant furniture. Also on his side of the street was Mahon’s tobacco shop with its pipes of all sizes and type , Fitzpatrick’s Pharmacy, Young’s Medical Hall, Togher’s Pharmacy.

There were many pubs; ‘The Stag’s Head’, Downe’s, The House for Wines, James Dunne, William Palmer, McGowan’s, Hargadon’s, O’Connor Bros. Wholesalers and Retailers. Some of these were grocers too. A green grocer—Beeze McGann, Sinclair Egg Merchants, and day old chicks, just off the main street, down a short alley. There were big food stores at either end, north Blackwood’s with Noone’s Ships’ Chandlers nearby, most necessary in those days when our quays were constantly lined with ships. To the south was Higgins’s and Keighron’s, occupying the whole corner onto Gratton Street on both sides. Known to the locals as H & K’s. There were Collins’ Butcher shop and a Feeney Butchers. McGee, Saddler, had a lovely leathery smell, and one could see saddles being sewn. Near the south-western end, was Wehrly’s Jewellers, still trading, its sparkling windows full of glittering rings, bracelets, watches. Inside were Grandfather clocks with deep resonant chimes, lovely to view and hear. Broderick’s Newsagents and Bookshop. The street was a microcosm of society. Thinking back, it is no wonder it was such a popular walk on a Sunday afternoon, with all those interesting shop windows displaying their wares and no wonder either that my window seat afforded me so much entertainment.

To get into the house on a Sunday, we had to enter through a wicket gate set in a large gateway to a passage, from where a heavy door led into a cobbled yard at the back of the pub. In this yard were many out offices, a harness room, an open shed that once housed a Sidecar, whose pony grazed a field on the outskirts of town The Sidecar and pony had been used to take our old friend, when young, to visit her family in Dromahair, and her sisters in Grange.

On weekends the street would be full of people, horses and carts, and bicycles. Some of the drapery shops had samples of their goods hanging outside and in tubs along the edge of the footpath in front of the shop. The smell of baking bread permeated the whole street, as did the aroma of coffee being ground to order in Blackwood’s, at the lower end of the street.

One of the first modern stores to come to town was Woolworth’s or the three penny / sixpenny store as it was first called. It opened near the centre on the east side of the street. This was a very large store with wide flat counters and was open plan. It became the meeting place for all and sundry but especially for dating couples. Its front doors were the ‘Nelson’s Pillar’ of Sligo. The teenagers all gathered there to spot the talent and many a couple first met here. O’Connell Street was a wonderful place for me when l was young. I spent many happy hours there.

As I stand at the top of Harmony Hill today on my way down to the now traffic free O’Connell Street, I recall the shops and the people I knew, loved and visited there so long ago.