Killarney Christmas Annual 2016
Callaghans : College Street
Tatler Jack : Plunkett Street
The changing face of
Killarney’s Pub Life I can still recall a Saturday morning in the mid 194O’s sitting in Bill Howard’s hairdressing saloon in College Street, when the late Bill a man deeply immersed in the history of his town posed to me the question...
“what is the most important street in this town?”
and as so many seasons have since elapsed, I cannot recall my reply but the genial Bill promptly informed me that New Street was the most important street in Killarney as you travelled there to be baptized, confirmed and married.
“if you decide to enter that state and when the time comes to depart this life you made your journey along that street to your final resting place in one of the local cemeteries”
Courtneys & Corkerys : High Street
Bill’s departing words to me as I left were:
“Sonny hopefully there will be many changes in this town before you make your final journey along New Street and how true those words were” Yes indeed there have been many changes and mostly all for the better in our town and for the purpose of this article I will focus on the many changes that have taken place in the local hostelries or pubs or which ever title you may choose to use. The pub in my time had a multi-purpose use, people went there to socialise, confidential matters including marriage bonds were often discussed in the “snug” while women often availed of it in an age when it may not have been in the public interest to be seen having a nibble of whiskey on a fair day or market days or the occasion of baptisms or other special occasions. We must take cognisance of the fact that we now have far more stand alone pubs in Killarney than we had some 50 years ago when a pub simply augmented a wholesale grocery or new agency business. 88