In East Mayo: A Community Where Past Is Prologue irishamerica.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from irishamerica.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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The words were painted high on a whitewashed brick wall, just above a red and green Mayo flag flapping in the wind.
MELLETT’S DRINKING EMPORIUM
ESTB 1797
“Is it true?” I ask my friend, a lifelong Swinford resident. “Mellett’s has been in business since 1797?”
“Nearly as old as the town itself,” he tells me as I push the pub door open. “And the same family has owned it the whole time.”
I’ve been visiting Swinford – and Mellett’s – for more than two decades, but somehow I was just now appreciating how long both have been around.
I first came to this quaint East Mayo town in 1998 when I was living in Galway and found myself in a circle of Swinford friends. Occasionally I’d tag along on their trips home, hitchhiking north along the N17, passing through Tuam, Claremorris, and Knock before being dropped off outside Campbell’s Lounge on the corner of Bridge and Main streets.