Harringtons of Kingsland By John C. Harrington - continued 2

Brendan Dockery would arrive with the post from Ballinameen. Sheila Harrington sorted out the letters with Jim Noone doing the local delivery. On Jim’s return from the rounds, he was sure to have met Paddy Connolly, who had discovered yet another formula for solving the X Word competition and win the £5,000 Jackpot the following Sunday. Both have now gone to their maker and are probably still doing these competitions.

All this preceded the arrival of the ESB in 1961. In around 1964 the game of darts was added to the pub pastimes. We had a very successful dart team and by 1966 we won many pub tournaments in Charlestown and Culfadda. Most of the members are still around today. Team members - Joe Forde, Gos Forde, Vincent Dr ury , Pake Brennan, Jimmy Forde, Jimmy Mullooly, J. J. Sharkey, R. Harrington, Mickey McGarry.

In addition, my father with the help of a local committee ran the Kingsland carnival in 1967 from the 14th - 28th May. In 1970 I went to England to work at a variety of things. In 1976 I returned home on the death of my father and took over the licence (he had held for thirty-years). As I was by now selling insurance I had to travel around Ireland “protecting other people’s interests”. I married Anne Anderson from Co. Meath in 1978. She, together with my mother, looked after the pub in my absence. I returned to run the pub full-time in 1985 and have remained there since. We now have three children, two boys John and Stephen and daughter Zoe Ann.

For all those years the thatched roof was maintained by Mick Lowrey and in the latter years by Michael Harrington. By 1984 I had decided it was no longer feasible to continue with the old thatch. During this period the pub was the local in every sense of the word. Many a tale was told of war and peace and of family fortune and misfortune around a welcoming fire. Toast s were made to the health of newly married couples or the exile home from the States or the U.K. As the thatched pub passed from father to son while maintaining its firmly rooted community base, even the Christian names of the owners have remained unchanged, but the old order changeth sometime and hastened by the ravages of time in latter years the old thatched pub is now no more. In March 1985 it was demolished to make way for a new modern premises which now stands on the same site.

On that evening a small group gathered: John Harrington, Anne Harrington, John and Stephen, Eddie Cummins, Kevin Harrington, Sonny Mullroney, Micky Ward, Frank Beirne, Eugene Broderick to have their last drink and raise their glasses as a final salute to its passing and become entwined in its history.

A familiar landmark to those who travelled the Boyle-Frenchpark road for more than four generations had disappeared, but fond memories still remain. In the new premises we took from the past the bar-grocery which has stood the test of time and is a familiar combination of 

the trade in the Irish countryside. On the 19th of March 1985 the new pub was opened, and Micky Ward was the first customer to have a pint and Terence Harrington the first ½ one. The same intimate conversation continues round the open turf fire. We have also retained the car d game, the pool table and of course the darts, which are a reminder of success in the 60’s. With a son John to make it five in a row, I feel we will turn yet another century and beyond, who knows? A fair achievement if not a record.

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