1730 to 2000 – A History
In 1730 Westport experienced one of the first steps in organised and carefully planned building, laid out by one of the famous architects of the time – Richard Cassels. Richard Cassels was employed by John Browne, later to be Baron Lord Mount Eagle, Viscount Westport and First Earl of Altamont, and was commissioned to build a town. Richard Cassels designed some of Irelands many famous buildings including Leinster House, which is now Dail Eireann.
Cassels began his work in Westport by removing the hovels and cottages from in front of Westport house, giving the occupants the choice of moving to the West Shore, Westport Quay, or to the east, where the town proper lies in the valley of the Carrowbeg river. But the town did not develop overnight and in the Dublin Journal of 17 March 1767 there appears a notice inviting tenders for the construction of “a new Town” that is to be built near the old town of Westport in the County of Mayo according to plans and elevations already fixed upon. The notice goes on to detail the scale of the work envisaged; the construction of “a large and elegant Market house situated in the centre of an Octagon Area of 200 feet to be enclosed with twelve large slated Houses together with three Avenues for streets of thirty slated Houses and several very large Streets for great Rows of thatched Houses and Cabins to be built separately in such Streets where Houses and Cabins are to be admitted in”. The notice then lists allowed construction prices for each house (20 to 40 guineas) and invites would be contractors to send in their offers to the Hon Peter Browne Kelly at Westport or to the architect who is presumed to be the same one as designed the Octagon and Market house – William Leeson. The first registered deed concerning property in the new town is an agreement in 1780 between John Browne, Earl of Altamont and the Revd Alexander Clendinning relating to ownership of dwelling houses, offices and plot… in the Square which is a reference to No. 1 the Octagon where the Clendinning family lived – the house which is now known as Dunning’s Cyberpub. Rev. Clendinning was Vicar of Westport at the time, and ministered in the old Parish Church, which now lies in ruins beside the Carrowbeg river in the Demesne. He paid a yearly rent to the Earl of Altamont of £1.00 as listed in Lord Altamont’s rent roll of 1785. Rev Clendining came originally from Longford and married a Westport girl, one Eleanor Clarke of Carrowbeg. They had three sons, John, George and Thomas Valentine and two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. George and John were educated in Westport and entered Trinity College. John graduated an M.D. but there is no record that George ever graduated. George went on to become Port Surveyor, in the Custom House at the Quay, Westport, and was appointed first Agent in the Bank of Ireland on Mill Street, the property which is now known as The Monastery. He married Margaret Nicolson and they had 3 sons and five daughters. The 1818 rent rolls shows the house on the Octagon still occupied by the Clendinning family at a yearly rent of £8.00.
The property on the Octagon passed on to John who, at this stage, had established a thriving medical practice for himself at Wimpole St. in London. John died on the 2nd June 1848 leaving the property to his wife Anna Maria Clendinning who paid a yearly rent of Stg£7.00 to Lord Altamont. Anna Maria was living at Carlton Hill in St John’s Wood in Middlesex and records show the property as rented and worked by one Valentine Fitzgerald in 1858. A Conveyance was made between Anna Maria Clendinning and one Ellen Keirnan, widow, in 1859 assigning the property at the Octagon to Ellen Keirnan. Ellen Keirnan appears to have been a daughter of Anna Maria and she in turned passed the property on to her sister, one Jane Chapman, also a widow, with an address at North Brunswick St. in Dublin, in payment of a debt of £60. Jane Chapman passed the ownership in the property on in her will to her daughter, Mary Jane Leddy in 1898.At this time the house was let to a James Joyce who lived in it with his family and kept a Public house there. The Census of 1901 shows the house being run as a Public House by Thomas Joyce (son of James Joyce) and states that the house had 7 rooms. The house contained 3 Bedrooms, a Sitting Room, Kitchen, Dining Room, and Tap Rooms. In 1907 Martin Geraty bought the key of the door to the house on the Octagon from Mrs Joyce, the widow of James Joyce for the sum of £4.00. Mrs Joyce immigrated with her son Tomas to America.
Martin Geraty continued to pay rent to Lord Altamont of £6.9.6. and on the 14th December 1925 bought the premises from Mary Jane Leddy and her son John Leddy for the sum of £575. Martin Geraty ran the business as a Public House and Grocery. The Pub was a side line for a thriving grocery servicing far and wide. At this time the bar would close at 7pm each evening. Martin married one Ellen Brady from Cavan. They had four children, 3 daughters Maudie, Kitty and Aileen, and one son Charles. From the original house occupied by the Clendenning family, to this time, there is no record of any major structural changes being made. On the death of Martin Geraty in 1947, his youngest daughter, Aileen, took over and ran the business. In 1948 Aileen Geraty married Paddy Dunning from the Quay. They had four children, Martin, Geralyn, Cathal and Pat. In the mid 50’s Paddy and Aileen bought the neighboring house, occupied at the time by a Miss Barrett, on the James St. side of the property. The bottom half of this house was used as a store room for the Bar and the top lay idle for a few years as construction work was already going on to convert the old Tap Rooms to living accommodation. In the late 50’s/early 60’s Miss Barretts house was converted into a Lounge Bar downstairs and two Bedrooms upstairs. In the 1960’s Aileen started a Guest House Business. In the 1980’s Pat and his wife Mary took over the running of the business. Major and minor structural changes have been made to facilitate the growth of the business and updating it into the 21st Century. Dunnings Cyberpub now operates as a Pub, and boasts a Guest House, Restaurant, Cyberpub with public internet access and a Bureau de Change.
