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Do you remember McCorriston's pub in Moville?

Posted Sunday, May 17, 2009

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Donal's

Everyone knows Donal's butchers at the bottom of the main square in Moville which supplies most of the meat for local people and local restaurants. Indeed one top local restaurateur said that she would not buy her meat from anywhere else.

It was not always a butchers, you know. Indeed for many, many years it was a pub called McCorriston's. I've been told that the owner, Paddy McCorriston, used to dump the slops from the Guinness around the trunk of the tree at the bottom of the square.

Supposedly you can tell the age of a tree from the number of rings it has inside it. I would think that when that tree is finally brought down they might find a few wobbly rings inside it.

Beer Pourings

Gerry McLaughlin snr. said that he remembers having a job helping the owner of McCorriston's (Paddy) to pour the beer from the barrels into the bottles and he remembers putting the tops on. They had to be hammered on with a wooden mallet. There were no pumps in those days and the beer was all bottled. The bottles were reused. Hardly anybody drank beer in those days. It was mainly Guinness or whisky.

Gerry and other kids from the area earned money by bringing back the bottles for a penny each. It was mainly people from Gulla duff that drank there. Indeed that was the corner where the Gulladuff men used to hang out of an evening to talk before the advent of TV.

There are no more McCorriston's left in Moville as Paddy and his sister Mary Ann never married.

Sweet Shop

After being a pub it became a sweet shop. It was owned by a Mrs. Farley. Donal remembers going into the shop for gobstoppers on the way up to school.

Gabriel McCarron

After that it was taken over by butcher Gabriel McCarron around 1980. Gabriel actually started work at the age of eleven. He remembers after his father died his mother being in tears and asking what would become of them as they had no money. "I'll get a job and get you some money" said Gabriel and he did, becoming the breadwinner of the family at the age of just eleven.

Donal

Donal took over in 2005 and has been here ever since.