Johnnie Fox's Pub Est.1798

I love this picture, Alan! The sunny weather makes it look so inviting, but the old advertisements also add some humour and I must try to visit it next time I'm in Dublin. Cheers! Theolfa

Thanks Theolfa. They say it's the highest pub in Ireland! I saw your house in Mullingar. In fact, I took a picture but it's a bit crooked looking! I'll take a good one and post it for you. Alan.

You remembered! Thank you, Alan! I know it was a lawnmower shop when my sisters & mother were there remembering the places we once lived. One sister was born in that house and I remember the night well. My other sister & I wanted a brother! The other sister was born in Athlone right by the castle where Dad was stationed and right by the Shannon looking across to the cinema! Before that we lived at the family farm in Annagurra, in the Galtees. I was there this April visiting cousins. Cheers! Theolfa

There's a fancy new restaurant - I think it's a hotel, there the cinema stood! I feel a photographic expedition coming on!

If you do go to Athlone, Alan, Church Street was where we lived about fifty yards from the river and across theroad from the castle. I'd love to see it in Google earth! :D Theolfa

Take a virtual tour of THIS FAMOUS PUB it will make you want to see it in person.

WOW! That virtual tour was GREAT! I LOVED the wicker motorbike in the pighouse! (there's a mission for ya!) Theilfa, I'm very excited to tell you (and I just thought of it...) STREETVIEW is now available in Ireland on GoogleMaps . You can see Church street and Austin Friars street!!!

Our Mullingar home is for sale! I found it on Googlemaps. Now for Athlone. Thanks, Alan

Theolfa, I'm afraid I'm lost now... I thought it was one of the houses - No. 51 or 'Kilmavnevin', 2 redbricks to the left of Auto Care > HERE . It's just that, I see no For Sale sign??

Theolfa, I'm afraid I'm lost now... I thought it was one of the houses - No. 51 or 'Kilmavnevin', 2 redbricks to the left of Auto Care > HERE . It's just that, I see no For Sale sign??

http://maps.google.ie/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=53.525873,-7.334918&spn=0,0.004823&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=53.525873,-7.334918&panoid=ao7TeVhIgzfzwq8D-wQa-w&cbp=12,194.96,,0,0.49

The above link works - Highlight, Right click and 'Go to'

I saw that one and thought it might be the one but it wasn't close enough to the canal and there were two 'posh' houses next door, with little front gardens and iron fences where two civic guards lived and there was a road leading south which we crossed to get to the canal bridge. It's all unrecognisable now. Beyond that was only countryside and eventually - Dublin.

Well, the 2 red brick houses, in the above link, do have little gardens and an iron fence! There is a cross road just a little bit up - McCurtain St./Millmount rd. Maybe it was here you crossed? It's vit very far from here to the canal.

I did get it on Street View, Alan but each time I try to make a link it doesn't work. This is the little house, near Millmount Rd. I remember when I was there with my sisters, there was a lot of reconstruction going on at the bridge, so possibly they moved the canal further out?

I couldn't get it to work either Theolfa. What I did do, to get the link is to press Email in the top right of the Street View picture. This opens an email with the link in it. Just Copy and Paste the link into the comments here and I can open it, as above, by Highlighting it and, using the Right Cick, 'Goto http// ...'. They certainly haven't moved the canal! Maybe the canal was a little further than you remember? I suppose, you weren't as tall then ... ?!!!

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Austin+Friar+Street,+Mullingar,+Ireland&sll=40.758425,-73.985191&sspn=0.068915,0.154324&ie=UTF8&hq=Austin+Friar+Street,&hnear=Mullingar,+County+An+Iarmh%C3%AD,+Ireland&ll=53.52587,-7.334919&spn=0.005791,0.038581&t=h&z=15&layer=c&cbll=53.525873,-7.334918&panoid=ao7TeVhIgzfzwq8D-wQa-w&cbp=11,134.67,,0,5

Alan, I tried & tried but each time the link would only show a map of North America, so this is the best I can do. I was 8yrs old when we left Mullingar. My friends, the Jones family lived in a whitewashed cottage, one of a row of four, that was right by the canal and the boys used to swim and play on a raft, I pulled a little wooden boat that my Dad made for me. Other times we would stand on the bridge and put our colouring books on the wall and spend some time with our coloured pencils. Our parents would not have allowed us to go too far from the house alone, and at 5yrs old until we left, I went there practically every day to play with Mona Jones, so it ca't have been more than 100yards. Theolfa

Theolfa, believe it or not, I got that link to WORK! That's the same houses as I thought! Your house must have been the shop that is now for rent? It's not that far to the canal from here, but for a 5 year old, well... it is a bit, alright! Did you notice the post box outside the house? I remember you said that you remembered having a water pump outside the door. Maybe it was, infact this postbox?

That water pump was our only water supply, Alan, and we had no electricity, only parafin lamps and a turf fire to cook on, and a tiny backyard with a 'privy'. There was a sweetshop opposite, and the lady would make paper cones in which she put our sweets. There was a blacksmiths forge in Millmount Street, and I would watch the farrier & his sons making horseshoes and shoeing the big farmhorses. The forge would be filled with acrid smoke, and I wondered why the horses didn't cry when the shoes were hammered onto their hooves. It was a long time ago. :D

Very beautiful and good photo LIKE Alan. Greetings John.