Kieran Kelly launched a new book covering the history of the pubs and hotels in Letterkenny going back 200 years, at the Regional Cultural Centre on Wednesday. Please click on the arrows to go through the gallery
“One For The Road” covers two centuries of the town’s various pubs and hotels going back to the earliest records from 1824.
It was officially launched by two special guests of honour, Kieran’s uncle, Barney McDaid and Hugo Daly. Barney and Hugo were the first winners of the Singing Pub competition for Sean Harvey’s Singing Lounge in the first Folk Festival in 1969.
The RCC was a “pub” for the evening Each table was named after a former pub in the town – The Lucky 7, The Old Spirit Bar, The Continental to name a few. On display, there was a slideshow of photos from the book, which proved a conversation starter for everyone.
“All of the pubs and hotels that were run by you or your families are now no longer just memories,” local historian Kieran said at the launch. “This book serves as a permanent record of all of these pubs and especially celebrating and remembering who ran them. They existed, and because of this book will now.
“The earliest records we have for the names of the businesses in the town comes from Pigot’s Commercial Directory of 1824. The fact that that made this year exactly 200 years made it a nice round number to try and get the book out for. The problem with that Directory though – and also in another one in 1846 – was that it only gave the names and not their locations. It was last summer, though that I discovered the “Rosetta Stone”, so to speak. The thing that unlocked it all.
“In 1839, a land valuation was undertaken for the town and I found that document while exploring online records. Now, this again gave me names but crucially, I now had their location as each record was the order they were in on the Main Street. Not only did it give me the names of publicans from 1839 but as most of these names were the same as they were 15 years previously in 1824, I now had the conformed locations for the earliest known pubs in the town.
Of course there would have been alehouses, taverns and inns in the early Plantation town of Letterkenny but we don’t have any records from that period, so we know nothing about them. But this new record from confirmed the locations of most of the pubs and hotels from 1824. And bingo! I was on my way.”
Kieran has previously written two local history books on the town, ‘Letterkenny: Where The Winding Swilly Flows’ in 2014 and ‘Then Again: The Past and Present of Letterkenny Town’ in 2020.
“I’d just like to remind everyone that this book is not a celebration in any way of alcohol or taking a drink,” he said of his third book. “Too many people over the years have been affected by the effects of addiction and I am not celebrating that.
“Rather, this book is a celebration of what the pub is and what it offers. The local pub can be many different things to many different people. It has evolved and changed constantly with the times and of course, will continue to do so.
“There is no doubting the impact the pub has had on Irish society over the centuries and the role it can still play in it. The age that you are right now will reflect the memories of where you once used to go. Some of you might fondly recall sitting with your friends and having a chat in the Rainbow Bar, Willie Dillon’s or Fox’s. Others still will remember nights singing in the Old Spirit Bar, Dom’s, Clem’s Place, the Hideout or the Continental.
“Or perhaps for others – like myself – it might be McClafferty’s, The Drum or The Metropolitan. These places are all sadly now gone but when we think back to them, we instantly think of a different town, a different time, a different part of our lives. There was music, and there was laughter. There were good friends, some sadly no longer with us.
“And the pub is more than just a place to drink. I saw it that day when I saw my father coming alive by spending time with his friends. It serves as a meeting point, a place to catch up and tell stories. A place to laugh and indeed a place to cry. All of the pubs mentioned in this book brought us together, perhaps at weekends or on special occasions. Perhaps you met your partner there – I met my wife Olivia in McGinley’s – or perhaps it’s where your parents or grandparents met. In some crucial way, pubs form an essential part in many people’s lives, in making us who we are.”
Following the launch, the book is available in local bookshops and also online. Kieran plans to do a book signing next Saturday, June 29, at Bookmark in the Shopping Centre between 2-4pm, if anyone wants to pop in to say hello or get their book signed.
