Bawnboy and Templeport
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| Bawnboy in Grandfather's Time |
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As far back as people can remember there were traders with special interests calling regularly in Bawnboy. Charlie Kearns and his wife came with their pony and springvan from Swanlinbar to buy all kinds of fowl, hens, chickens, ducks, geese, as well as butter and eggs. They parked in front of the Mill house until the day's trading was over, and visited the surrounding towns and villages on a fixed day each week.
The Greenans, butchers from Ballinamore came to the village on Fridays and parked outside Phil Reilly's pub. Fermanagh butchers, the Corrigans in their time had their meat shop in the Bridge Store and Eugene Morahan from Aughnasheelin who came to live in Kilsob during the 1940s also used the Bridge Store as a butcher's shop.
Bread was delivered to the village shops by many bakeries, such as McDonnells, Cavan; O'Dowds, Killashandra and McDonalds, Belturbet. The best remembered bread supplier to Bawnboy was Mulligan's Bakery, Ballinamore. This was probably due to the fact that a horse and van were used and because it travelled slowly, children and indeed adults had time to have a good look at the driver, his horse and carriage and his movements, in slow motion. Hugh McKiernan was his name (known as Hughie the Loaf), from Ballinamore. He came by Kiltyhugh and Corlough to Bawnboy and returned by Deane's of Glebe and Katie Rodahan's at Garadice Railway Station, on Tuesday and Friday of each week. Many a grown man about Bawnboy remembers clinging on to Hughie’s van and guarding himself from the whiplashes aimed at him with the intention of putting an end to the joy ride.
Owenie Beacom who lorried cream from Swanlinbar to Killashandra took the butter back to the shops in Bawnboy on Friday afternoons. The railway lorry was a regular caller to the village with goods of all kinds from every corner of the country, - meal, flour, food, drink and tobacco, clothing and hardware of every description.
Monday was Market Day and the first Monday of the month was Fair Day as well. It was also the meeting day of the Board of Guardians of The Workhouse, so Bawnboy fair was special and attended in large numbers. Joe Armstrong from Belturbet had a stannin near the priest's gate, where all roads meet in the centre of the village. He had fruit, sweets and sugar-stick, buckets and basins, aluminium colanders.
'Have you no enamel colanders, Joe?'
'When you're choppin' yer cabbage, ma'am, you'll have no metal mixed with it when yer usin' aluminyum!'.
John Lunny parked his stannin between Reynolds' and Daggs' in Kilsob. He supplied meat of every description and delph from which to eat it. He was parked right in front of the people as they emerged from the fairgreen.
Fair day was a great outing for the farmers and their wives. They came from miles around the village on their carts drawn by donkeys or horses to buy provisions for the week, after the eggs or butter had been sold to one or other of the dealers. It was a great day for meeting your Uncle John or auntie Maggie when you got out from school.
'Put that under your tooth' auntie Maggie would say after she handed you a 'lozenger'. Later on you might feel rich when Uncle John slipped you a sixpenny piece. He always seemed to have more money than Dad, but then his children had all grown up.
Travelling companies with their dramatic productions were always welcome in the village. They took over the local hall, and put on stage shows, tragedy, comedy, and a variety of musical entertainment. People still remember The Grays, The Bohemian Players, The Dusky Show, with plays, sketches, recitations, singing and dancing. The local dramatic troupe produced patriotic plays like 'The Dawn of Freedom' or 'The Croppy Boy' and comedies such as 'Mrs. Mulligan's Millions' or 'The New Gosoon'.
When the silent films came there were sub-titles on the screen which the audience would read at the top of their voices. Mispronounced words provided entertainment for the quiet know-alls. Charlie Chaplin needed no sub-titles nor did Laurel and Hardy. It was side-splitting comedy from start to finish. We have come a long way from those early film-show days, but it is doubtful if we can recapture the genuine enjoyment which we experienced then.