Youghal

REMEMBERING PROFESSIONAL CHARACTERS OF YOUGHAL IN THE LAST CENTURY

STARTING WITH THE BUTCHERS : -

There was only one butcher shop in the Strand and it was operated by Dick Curran who had come downriver from Cappoquin. Dick was very busy - especially in the summer season when every bed was taken up. In those 1950 years - the population of the town in winter was 5,000 - but August week saw it swell to 15,000. The train from Cork made Youghal so near that it became the 'Brighton' of Ireland. And when the large numbers employed at Ford's and Dunlop's got their industrial holidays - they flocked to Youghal.
We think of Paddy Linehan who had a butcher's shop at the Market Square where he sold venison (from Ballynatray) as well as beef and lamb. That corner shop was later absorbed into the bar to become 'Moby Dick's' following the making of the film.
Ned Coyne was another popular butcher who started off at the top of Mall Lane before moving up to 161 North Main Street. He was a good business man who always gave a bonus of a piece of lamb's liver or a couple of kidneys free with the purchase. That meant a lot to poor people who could only afford a half-pound of steak once a week.
Dick Power had a shop at 10 South Main St.. Dick was a member of the Youghal Urban District Council .

Harry Jones and his son Bobby were at 74 North Main St. and after Harry's death - Bobby went on to run the butchers for many years. He was a great man to brew his own beer and his pals would visit him to partake of it cheaply.
Brodericks had a butchers shop at 49 North Main St. - later taken over by Paddy Kelleher. He employed young butchers from West Cork because he was too busy himself managing the local tannery factory at Green's Quay corner.
Now we come to Connery's butcher shop at the corner of DeValera Street. Toomey Connery was well known to everybody and he employed John Mulhaire - a chatty popular man who went on to start his own business in Cobh. Later John Cannon came to work for Twomey and stayed in digs with a Mrs. Murphy in DeValera Street. Seemingly John took part of his wages in meat and so all the lodgers in that house were well fed.
The next butchers was called 'Fitzgibbons' (owners) but it was run by Tommy Keniry - another well-known local man who lived in Brown Street and features in a lot of Billy Swayne's stories.
Jimmy Bush was the next in line at 24 North Main Street (near the Red House) with the meat hanging on hooks outside the door. Jimmy was a brother to Phyl and a son of Ernest Bush who ran the British Legion branch at Market Quay.

NOW TALKING ABOUT ALL THE BAKERS AND BAKERIES : -

Mikie Hannon's at the top of Water Lane was a big grocery shop baking it's own bread. It had two vans going on the road with groceries and bread - driven by brothers Tom and Jim Dalton.
Then we come to Jackie Forrest's bakery at 47 South Main Street. Jackie worked very hard - walking around the streets carrying a big basket of bread for delivery to his customers.
Tommy Murphy had a large bakery that ran the whole way through the block at Quay Lane. Tommy was also the driver of the fire brigade engine housed in the Market Square nearby.
Pasleys bakery came next as one of their three shops at 95-6-7 North Main Street. The other two were a grocery and sweet shop. They had a large staff with three van drivers : Paddy O'Brien, Paddy Power and Joe Moloney. Another member of the Forrest family had a bakery for awhile at 102 North Main St.. When it closed down - Paddy Forrest then bought a bus and was hired to bring teams to matches and pilgrims to Mellerary. Moving on uptown - Collins bakers was at 59 North Main Street and was run by John Quill who was married to the daughter of John Collins the owner.
A large stretch of the street - without any bakery - then brought us up to the corner of Cork Hill where the huge Fleming's bakers was located. We think of all the different types of loaf that they produced like the plain one, the basket, concertina, grinder, and 'S' pan. A very nice kind man named Jack Ryan worked there and when purchasing a pan for our tea - he would give us the bonus of a 'cold' pan (a yesterday's one returned from the country vans). Flemings had several big lorries on the road carrying grain to the local mills and they also had smaller vehicles for the bread deliveries. Drivers remembered are Jack McGrath, John Sexton, Frankie Kiely, Paddy Cooley and Tolly Bagge.

SMALL SWEET SHOPS: -

Permit me to list some of the smaller (corner) sweet shops that we had in town. These were little (family) shops that stayed open until 11 pm at night - after the bigger shops had closed at 6 pm. Some were open as well on Sundays.
Starting in the Strand - you had Pidge Aherne's across from the Showboat. This was the Strand Post Office as well and the letter wall-box is still in use at the site. Pidge was a sister to Mick Aherne - another member of Youghal Urban District Council and the man who drove the taxi several times every day to carry the cases of the bus passengers across the old metal bridge. The bridge was getting rusty and the heavy buses (with driver Bertie Doyle and conductor Mick Keogh) were not allowed to drive over it. Now we come to a very famous outlet - Tom Donovan's Lighthouse shop. Ice cream, buckets and spades, windblowers, postcards, beach balls and newspapers could all be had at Tom's. As we move into Friar Street we had Rohan's and Lombard's side by side. Both did great trade with fans of the two nearby cinemas - before the Regal started their own in-house shop and Connie Hurley opened his across the way. Bridgie Quirke's at Windmill Hill corner was our favourite stop when going to a matinee on a Wednesday or Sunday - if we could wangle the sixpence from somewhere - four for the cinema and two for Bridgie's slab toffee. Then you had Bill Quirke's sweet shop beside Mague Jeff's. Mague sold the Woodbine cigarettes singly to poor people who couldn't afford the five pack paper packet. Moving towards the Clock Gate we have Freddie Barrett's at the corner of Quay Lane and at the Clock Gate is the very small shop of the Fox family. Maison Fox was the well-known barber for the south side of town while his aunt ran the sweet shop at the corner.
Moss Kelly's at 60 North Main St. - at the bottom of Chapel Lane - was popular with the laners. This lane supplied most of the founder members of the local G.A.A. club in 1891. A great number were shoemakers and coblers like the Swaynes.
Madge Harney had a delightful sweet/grocery business at no. 47 N.M. St.. Madge lived overhead and her customers could knock her awake late at night for milk or Woodbines. Liam Noonan later ran that shop until 11 pm every night. The Hegarty family had a shop at the bottom of DeValera St. selling biscuits and sweets. One of their sons (Teddy) became a priest in Rome but died at a young age. Another son (Pat) played inter-county hurling for Cork and won several All-Ireland medals.

Crossing over the street brings us to Dan Long's sweet shop a No. 146. This was where the small sweets were counted out for ten a penny - and it took five minutes to buy sixpence worth. Dan was very patient with us and plenty chat was had about the Shamrocks G.A.A. club of Knockanore - Dan's home parish. Who worked there in my time was Johnny Swayne and he counted out the sweets generously for my kids. A few years later - Johnny was repaid when he secured a job with me in An Post as a postman. He went on to spend his life driving for An Post and is only recently retired. While in this area of town - we mention the Noonan sisters at No. 23 who sold us the rubber balls to play with down in Dunne's Park (Green's Quay).
Another bit up the street brings us to 'Balla' Roches shop that sold the famous pink lucky ball sweets where you could win a thrupetnny bit coin in the middle of it. And across from that was Tony Cashell's shop with all the different toffee bars on display inside the plate glass window - Sailor's Chew, Giftee Toffee, Plug Tobacco and Pixie Bar. We spent minutes trying to decide what to buy with our pennies - before going inside to bang on the timber counter to bring that quiet man out the ten yards from the kitchen to sell us a few penny bars.
Moving on to Tallow Street - Tommy Flavin (of Kenilworth) had a shop beside Paddy Maher's pub before he sold it on to Audrey Jackson's dad (Mr. Woods) who ran it for another few years.
Crossing the street - we enter Mary Murphy's - not just a shop - more like a clubhouse. Where old folk played cards in a room there at night and another room at the rear was a bicycle park. On Sunday nights the boys and men from Ardsallagh, Park, Glendine, Piltown and as far as Ardmore - cycled to town to go to the 'pictures' and they deposited their bikes in Mary Murphy's. Then removing the bicycle clips from their trouser legs - they marched down town as if they had come by taxi. After cinema time they came back to Mary Murphy's to collect the bikes - and drank bottles of milk with cakes before cycling off home in great glee. The guys who had no light on their bike had to stay in the middle of the group to avoid the Garda waiting out the road. Just to mention that at least two very happy marriages resulted from the visits of those West Waterford cyclists. Bridget Murphy (daughter of Mary and Paddy) married Donal Lenane of Sand Road, Ardmore - while Noelle Cashman of Tallow Street married John-Joe Carlton of Ardmore Village.

A few little shops away from the main streets tend to be forgotten like: - Jack and Anna Daly's in Cork Hill; Willie Broderick's at the top of the Jail Steps (later run by Sylvie Rohan and then Angela Twomey)); Annie Loughlin's at the bottom of Water Lane - handy to spend a few pennies (if we had it) when going back to school after lunch.
And the last mention is of a small shop across the river - where the Ferrypoint meets the hill. It was owned by Dan Lehane and run by his wife and daughters. That was where we headed for - after our trip over the river on the ferry boat to get our lemonade and Taytos crisps.
Agus sin e anois - (That's it for now) hope it brought back pleasant memories

MIKE HACKETT - MAY 2026.

Pictures:
A Young Paddy Lawlor

Angela Piggott, Eileen Hackett, Lee Dower and Bridget Murphy

Bobby Jones with Mossy Fitzgerald

Butcher Johnny Power

Light House Shop

Long's 16 N.M. St.

Paddy Lawlor and Family

Pasley's showing some saff

Tom Donovan

Tommy Flavin with Madge Ryan ... See MoreSee Less

🍻 Memories of The Blackwater Inn on South Main Street, Youghal

South Main Street in Youghal has seen many changes over the years, and one of them came in the 1960s when Kevin Power transformed the old Blackwater Inn into a modern style lounge bar.

It was a new kind of pub experience for a changing Ireland: comfortable seating, a plush interior, smartly dressed barmen in white jackets with red trim, and every pint served properly on a beer mat.

The lounge was designed by local architect Raymond Morris and quickly became popular with locals and visitors. It was also a time when public houses were changing socially, with women becoming more accepted in lounge bars and pub settings.

Among the staff remembered from those days were Charlie O’Neill, the late Jim Hogan, Martin Hennessy, and the Cooney brothers.

There’s a great story too about British journalist Claud Cockburn, who was a regular there. He would send his copy to Fleet Street in London from the public phone inside the bar.

As the years went on, music and entertainment became part of the Blackwater Inn’s charm, with the husband and wife duo Pat and Eleanor among the regular performers.

Kevin Power sadly passed away in 2025, but his part in Youghal’s social history lives on through the memories of the Blackwater Inn and the people who gathered there.

The premises remains a familiar part of South Main Street today as Hennessy’s Bar.

The Blackwater Inn, a piece of Youghal's social history, and a reminder that even the local pub can tell the story of a town changing with the times.

Were you ever in The Blackwater Inn, or do you remember South Main Street around that time? We’d love to hear your memories in the comments.

Article by Kieran McCarthy, 2026 | Original article by Michael Hussey, 2022 ... See MoreSee Less