We have another of the ‘mystery man’ episodes today with this photograph from the early 1980s.
Our mystery man of a few weeks ago remains just that in spite of suggestions coming in from Castleisland, Dingle, Dublin, Cork, Roscommon, Texas and Pound Road.
We got several ‘positive identity’ suggestions but they were all rebutted by people who knew those suggested.
In this case, I’ve a feeling that the ‘boy-on-the-bike’ will be ‘made out’ a lot quicker than our other mystery man. As for the Renault 4, I bet it will be known to whom it belonged before long – it’s that class of town.
The two men sitting at Dave Geaney’s Corner are: Michael B. Murphy, Market Cross and Tralee Road and Danny McCarthy, St. Stephen’s Park – God rest them both.
Fine Examples of Stone-work
One of Castleisland’s oldest and finest examples of stone-work, this building has been known as The Post Office, the Old Post Office and Dave Geaney’s Corner.
This is another gem from Timothy Murphy’s collection and it is possible to make out the remaining imprint of Post Office Castleisland on the fascia board.
Anderson Family Boycott
There is also a fading reminder of one of the town’s most shameful periods in its history, that of the Anderson family boycott.
This was an event which dominated the topics of conversation in the Castleisland of the 1940s and which split the town into two bitterly divided camps.
The church wielded its power at the time as part of a dispute in a Catholic and Protestant marriage in which the resulting children were to be reared as Catholics. Its influence and power brought the majority of the business people of the area with it.
Charlie Lenihan to the Fore
Luckilly for the Anderson family there were others in the community, with Charlie Lenihan fearlessly to the fore, who stood with them and helped them with their harvesting and grocery supplies.
On the door over the men’s heads in Timothy are the distinguishable remains of the letters BO.
A painful reminder of the campaign of the time was the daubing of buildings with the word ‘Boycott’ and this was done in a very visible way and at every possible vantage point.
In Hushed Tones
It was an episode which was discussed regularly at The Market Bar – but in hushed tones and by the elders only among the customers.
There was never much written about ‘The Boycott’ in Castleisland but there was close enough to a carbon copy a decade or so later in Fethard-on-Sea in Wexford and about which a book: The Fethard-on-Sea Boycott was published in 2010 and a film ‘A Love Divided’ was made in the late 1990s and screened on RTÉ some time later.
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