The name Bull Lane doesn't appear in Griffith's Valuation or on any official map until the early 20th century.
The County Council's translation of 'Bull Lane' (Lána an Tairbh) alludes to the animal, but
I have been told that
the name refers to the Bull family who, apparently,
once owned a farm at the end of this lane. The Bulls were once prominent people in Maryborough.
In A Handlist of the Voters of Maryborough 1760, for instance, a Bartholomew Bull is described in
less than complimentary terms (Under no other influence but money) and, as we've already seen, a Mrs Jane Bull was a bookseller
and library owner in the 1840's.
Richard Bull was Sub Sheriff of
the County (1896), Returning Officer, and Chairman of the local branch of the Red Cross Society.
But it was an earlier Bull who - so to speak - personified his surname.
On April 16 1815, at Ballyhack, County Wexford, the marriage took place between Miss Charlotte Grandy of Duncannon and the avaricious - see above - Mr
Bartholomew Bull of Maryborough. The blushing bride was eighteen; the bould Bartle seventy-five and his fourth time to tie the proverbial
knot1.
Having said all that, I have found no compelling evidence that the Bull family had land in the vicinity
of Bull Lane and I would suggest that the lane was named for the very simple reason that it once led to the stables at the
rear of the 18th century Bull Inn aka the Black Bull. An article in the Leinster Leader of July 30, 1882 supports my contention.
The establishment was later known as Fallon’s, the Maryborough Hotel
(owned by John McEvoy), Gaze’s, the Hibernian (owned by Patrick Kelly) and Lethean. It is Jeremiah Grant, Bar & Eatery today.
See entry for 65 Main Street.
In 1850, only two buildings stood on what was then listed as part of Main Street: one was William Connor's house; the other a forge run by Michael Lalor.
The immediate lessor of both was the previously-discussed hotelier John McEvoy. On Census Night 1901, there was just one family- blacksmith
Joseph Dunne, his wife Katie, sons Michael (see entry for No. 93 Main Street), William, John and Arthur (all scholars); and daughters Annie, a schoolteacher, Julia and Katie, both drapers assistants,
and Lillie, a scholar. Michael Dunne continued his father's line of work well into living memory.
The Dunne family was still here in 1911, but a major addition to the lane was Kellyville House, the new home of hotelier
Patrick Kelly2.
Unlike most houses in the town, this fine red-brick residence boasted, among its numerous outhouses or
'offices', a 'motor house'. (In 1911, there were 48 cars and 44
motorcycles registered for the Queen's County). Patrick Kelly's son, Thomas, later sold
Kellyville House to the Kelly-Bergin family (whose Bottling and Mineral Water
Company adjoined the site). In the 1980's, Mrs Brid Fingleton had a Montessori School here. The house was
subsequently demolished by the Mulhall family to make way for their Kellyville Shopping
Centre.
In the 20th century, Bull Lane was sometimes called Coliseum
Lane, after the old Coliseum cinema3
which stood where Xtravision is today.
One of my informants recalled that when the cinema was being built in 1935,
workers came upon a spring so powerful that electric pumps had to be permanently installed to deal with the
force of the water. The story goes that it was this spring, via a channel down what is today Main Street,
that supplied the town's original 16th century fort with water.
1 The happy occasion was reported in Finn's Leinster Journal of May 2, 1815. 2 He had bought part of Bull's farm and on it (1911-12), built Kellyville (aka Kellyville Park), a commercial venture of ten houses. The remainder of the farm became the Maryborough Cricket and Hockey field on which County Hall and part of James Fintan Lalor Avenue stand today. 3
The first film shown in 'the Col' (September 18, 1936) was Captain Blood starring the swashbuckling Errol Flynn
and advertised as "a picture to stir the blood whether you happen to be a man, a boy, or a girl". Mature women were obviously deemed immune to any
haematic excitations!
[It's interesting to note that, in the next decade, the town had a thriving Film Society which, in 1945, published In the early 1970's, the cinema was rebranded as the Coliseum Film Theatre. It seldom presented live shows, but on Monday,
July 1st 1974, I was surprised and thrilled to find myself at a great concert by progressive rock band, Fruupp.
Pyramid, NOT the popular similarly-named band from Mountmellick, was the support act,
and admission was 80p, the same price as three pints of Guinness.
In 1985, the cinema was destroyed by fire - in March, 1987, Circuit Court judge Kevin O'Higgins ruled that the fire was
malicious - and reopened two years later as Coliseum Twin Cinema.
After a showing of Road Trip - which I've seen described as a "raunchy comedy" -
it finally closed its doors on Thursday November 30th, 2000.
|
 |
 |
| HOMEPAGE |