Gibbons Bar

Kilgeever (Mayo)

This pub was the home of the Gibbons/Malley family during the late 19th Century. William Gibbons(Sr.) and Mary Malley, both born on Clare Island, came to the mainland around 1880 and ran this establishment as a pub and butcher shop for many years. The family lived on the upper floors of the building and used the kitchen and sitting room at the rear as a gathering place for the family. There was a scullery at the end of the hall that ran fron the street side to the rear. The Owenbeg River was to the rear of the building. William and Mary had 11 children, the first three born at Tohermore on Clare Island and the remaining eight born in Louisburgh. William Gibbons (Sr.) ultimately opened a larger saloon in Westport. He traveled daily to work in Westport by bicycle and returned  to the place in Louisburgh where he continued to operate the pub/butcher shop. His son Michael's widow, Sarah, was the last Gibbons to run the place in Louisburgh. She willed the business to Kitty Gill, a niece, who later sold to a couple from London in the 1960s. Sally's grandfather, William Gibbons, son of William Gibbons  and Mary Maley Gibbons, left Ireland for Brooklyn, New York in 1915, joining his sister Katie who had come over earlier. He became a street car conductor, then a sailor in the US Navy during WW I and then, for over 30 years, a New York City policeman. He was the father of seven children, five girls and two boys.

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