Pubs

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McMackin Shebeen

In a Petty Sessions hearing held in Tamney in January 1876, John Mackin from Doaghbeg was brought before Captain Barton (Chairman) and Captain Peel, R.M.  Constable Kelly summoned Mackin for being a reputed shebeen keeper and for having concealed, just 150 yards from his house, a quantity of poteen whiskey which had a volume of 1 gallon, 1 quart and 6 glasses.  John had not paid the relevant duty on this.  The constable deposed that, having observed parties going to the defendants house and suspecting him of operating a shebeen, he concealed himself in a place nearby.  Here he observed a woman coming to a jar concealed in a field and helping herself to whiskey on two occasions.  A second jar containing spirits was also found in a field nearby.  

Mackin was fined £6 or three calendar months’ imprisonment.

 

Application for Licenses

John ‘Roe’ McAteer (House 5, 1901 Census) made an application to obtain a license for the retailing of beer, cider and spirits at his dwelling in Doaghbeg.  This application was formally made on the 26th August 1878 and John was represented by Joseph Loughrey.   This application was to be reviewed at the following General Quarter Sessions of the Peace in Letterkenny on the 18th October 1878.  This application was provided to the two nearest Justice of Peace, John Cochrane (Clerk of the Peace) and the Sub Inspector of the Constabulary of Rathmullen.

The application was reviewed in October 1878 and was refused based on an objection from Mr. McCay.  Morgan Sweeney and Charles McAteer, also from Doaghbeg, had an application refused too.  Both applications were also objected by a Mr. McCay.  Other licenses reviewed on that day were;

• Manus Callaghan, Maheradrummond, Fannet (new licence), supported Mr. O Doherty, and opposed by Mr. McCay, refused.

• Charles Friel, Araheerah, Fannet (new licence), supported by Mr. O’Doherty, and opposed by Mr. McCay, granted.

• Charles McAteer, Doaghbeg, Fannet (new licence), supported Mr. O’Doherty, and opposed by Mr. McCay, refused.

• John McAteer, Doaghbeg, (new licence), supported by Mr. Loughrey, and opposed by Mr. McCay, refused.

• Michael McElwaine, Ballyheerin, Fannet (new licence), supported Mr. Ramsay, and opposed by Mr, McCay, granted.

• Morgan Sweeny, Doaghbeg, Fannet (new licence), supported by Mr. Ramsay, and opposed by Mr. McCay, refused.

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Araheera pub license

It's told that the Dohertys from Doaghbeg sold the license to Araheera as they were teetotallers.  Previous owner Charlie Doherty showed the license to Mary Doherty a number of years ago.

There may have been a shebeen just behind where O'Dohertys shop currently stands back in the day.

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Post Offices

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McAteers

 

Here is a snippet of the post listings in Scotland for Irish post offices including Doaghbeg in 1907 along with some post box information.  Lastly is a photo of the original McAteer Post Office house as it stands today along with a photo of the location of the Post Office when Benny and Tessie took over.  The PO was located on the left and side of the house. 

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Here is a piece written about the Post Office by Eunan Sweeney;

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Slaters Commercial Directory 1846 records a Post Office in Ramelton to which mail from all parts arrived (from Dublin) at 3pm and departed every morning at 9.30.  From there the post was delivered by Letter Carriers.

Post offices were established in a number of other towns and villages in the county in 1860. Originally, they would have been local mail distribution and dispatch centers.  I have not established when the post office opened in Doaghbeg but suffice to say it was operated by the McAteer family from the last quarter of the 19th century until 2000, when it closed for good.

 

Doaghbeg Post Office was originally in the Upper House and moved around 1913 to the new house.  John Roe was the original Postmaster, although it was not mentioned as part of his occupation on his son James’s birth certificate or in the 1901 Census.  It was recorded in the 1911 Census.  His daughter Biddy’s occupation was given as Postal Assistant in 1901 and his son James as Letter Carrier.  James’s occupation was listed as Rate Collector in 1911.

 

When John Roe died in 1923 Biddy was appointed as Postmistress.  In later years, her nephew Tommie assisted her and when she died in August 1957 he became Postmaster.  Tommie’s nephew Benny McAteer, and his wife Tessie, moved in with Tommie around 1975 and assisted in the post office and shop.  A few years later, Benny and Tessie built a new house, Benny replaced Tommie as Postmaster and the post office relocated to the new premises

 

There was a lot of unrest during the Civil War period and Doaghbeg Post Office did not escape.  A group of local anti treaty republicans or vigilantes (depending on your perspective) were active in the area.  They raided houses and, in some cases threatened people looking for money.  They raided Doaghbeg Post Office in late 1922.  They were wearing masks but made the mistake of speaking and Biddy recognised them.

 

James McAteer was the Rate Collector so they also raided the Upper House looking for the rates money but James heard them coming and threw the notes behind a picture.  He gave them cheques and cash.  Of course they couldn’t cash the cheques.

John Roe wrote to his nephew old Ignatius McIntyre in Glasgow describing the events. Ignatius kept the letter and Ignatius (Jun) may still have it.

 

They attempted to raid Cahiers (Kellys) the same night. Sheila told them to wait a minute and when the door opened there was no sign of her.  She had a fearsome reputation and none of them were brave enough to cross the threshold.  I think it’s important to remember the turbulent times that were in it, that these were mainly young lads in their late teens/early twenties pumped up with all that was going on at the time, so we shouldn’t be too hard on them.

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Tim McAteer also posted his collection of memories from his time working in the Post Office;

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A big thank you to cousin Eunan Sweeney for his detailed early history of Doaghbeg Post Office.  I hope it gives an insight into the development of a thriving post office and shop in Doaghbeg.

Most members of the Mc Ateer family would have helped in the daily running of the post office either by gentle persuasion, or accept the second  option - farm work.  But at the end of the day the wages were top notch; free access to all the sweets and biscuits, especially the ownership of almost empty large jar of confectionery, which tended to stick together at the bottom of the jar, and were not fit to be sold to customers.  Of course some people would take advantage of promotional freebies, for example Jacob's biscuits often attached free club milks to their packets, our customers could never understand why the promotion never extended to Doaghbeg, or at least on very few packets!

I worked in the big house in the early 1970's most days after college and longer shifts during summer holidays.  Uncle Tommy had very important meetings to attend that appeared to always involve checking the farm, on a purely "observational" basis only.  I do not ever remember Tommy holding a shovel, but he was proficient at his job.  I could never learn his skill of parceling up products in brown paper then tying same with a cord, which he could snap cleanly between two fingers.

The working day began at 7.45am until 9pm except on Sunday night's.  Dan Callaghan always liked to visit and stay late watching a western film.  It was the only night Tommy paid a visit to the Lighthouse Tavern so I did not appreciate the overtime.  The telephone switchboard had to be in operation at 8am sharp, Letterkenny Switchboard would ring like a alarm clock at 8am each day and continue to ring until they were sure you were opened for business.

Although the shop officially opened about 9am, Big Francie Sweeney was always guaranteed to be outside between 8am and 8.30am, a gentle giant of a man.  I don't know how he ever squeezed in those small double entry doors, he always came in sideways.  I think he just wanted a bit of privacy to collect his pension, pay for his weeks' groceries and catch up with any breaking news which tended to arrive through the switchboard first.  That was the difficult part of the job - not sharing gossip.  It was frustrating to know the answer to some exciting breaking news, but we had to be professional, except when allowing some payphone customers a little over the 3 minutes allowed before they had to insert more money.  That's why they called me "Dr. Hook", and then the operator said, 50c more for the next 3 minutes" etc.

The early switchboard was a difficult  piece of machinery, a bit like a mini Enigma Code Machine.  I can see a bank of switches, about 10 across, 5 to 6 rows down, when a call came the number flap would fall, you then had to connect it to whoever they were looking for by flapping the correct number, flapping the incorrect number was never appreciated, as some very sensitive information could be shared to the wrong recipient, and just to make life easy, when there was lightning, all 50 or so flaps would fall at once, so the only solution was to flap them all back up and hope if there was a call, or one in progress, they would ring back.  Thankfully that system was later updated to long orange wire plugs which you inserted into sockets which represented customers numbers, but again, it was still very easy to link up the wrong customers, or inadvertently pulling out the wrong plug during conversation, as on a busy evening, you would have multiple plugs criss-crossing each other.

One fond memory was that after disconnecting a customer on the public phone to South Africa, yes even then we had international visitors, and placing a call to the next operator, it got straight through to the exchange in South Africa instead of Letterkenny, somebody had not ended the calI and we had a chat.  Needless to say, chatting to an operator in South Africa would not have been a every day occurrence, she never did come to Doaghbeg!  I think I should have treated myself to extra promotional material of the biscuit kind!

Charlie Paddy Rosie was one of my favorite customers, a quiet little man, who gave me no grief.  I can still see him after choosing his groceries, he would remove a clean handkerchief, with each corner tied into a simple knot, he would then slowly unfold each corner to open the hanky up to make a perfect square, with all his coins forming a pile in the middle.  I would then remove the cost of the groceries, and with a satisfying smile, he would slowly reverse the full process again, tie the simple knot and place the hanky in his pocket.  Never rushed and always trusted.  What simple but beautiful memories.

For people who never stood in Doaghbeg Post Office, it was everything to the local people at that time.  It had a busy switchboard, customers included Fanad Head and Inistrahull Lighthouses, public payphone, stamps, postbox (still visible on the outside wall), pensions, groceries, with everything from foodstuffs; dried fish, a large roll of bacon that had to be cut skillfully ensuring the slices were thin enough to provide something for every member of a family at dinner time, the famous tins of stewed steak ideal when added to a large pan with peas, gravy and onions.  If my memory serves me correctly, we had the fish van call on Fridays.  I can still taste the 'Round' that was in every herring, somebody probably has the proper name, but it was our caviar.  I think we stocked everything a country household would require, even down to the big sellers like 'the wellie'.  You could have any size and any color, so long as it was black!

The store building outside contained a heavy duty weighing scales, in order to weigh farm products, like calf nuts and cattle meal.  The famous dried fish in cloth bags was stored there and didn't look very appealing, but came to life when boiled in a saucepan.  Along the gavel end of the post office, ran a ledge about 5 or 6 inches in width.  It provided light relief on quiet days as you had to balance your body in order to shuffle along the entire length of the gavel.  Falling off meant back to the start, and somehow get round the dreaded post office window and post inlet again.  For the ultimate challenge, when two people met in the middle, a crossover was attempted, seldom achieved but great fun.

In my memory, I can see a Woodbine cigarette rocket hanging just above the counter, a Sweet Afton hanging sign, and outside a paraffin tin sign.  Sadly all have disappeared. 

In 1975 Brendan &Tessie Mc Ateer moved in with Tommy and took over the running of the post office before transferring the business to their new home in Jan 1979, where unfortunately in 2000, Doaghbeg PO, closed for the  last time, bringing to a end a business that was so much a part of a close community, that had supported its existence for generations, the likes we will never see again.