My first trip to Westport was in 1981

by Jack , Thursday, June 25, 2026, 11:04 (30 days ago) @ Jay
edited by Jack, Thursday, June 25, 2026, 11:12

My great-grandfather was born there, incidentally.

It was a really sleepy town back then, and fairly impoverished, gray and dreary. It was not a tourist town at all, even slightly, but rather what it always had been in the past, a market town. I have pictures of the Glendenning Monument in the "Octagon" square and also the Clock Tower at the end of High Street, and while the buildings today are the same and recognizable, the ambience is completely different. For one thing the whole place got a fresh coat of paint, like many other towns in Ireland. It's amazing what proseperity can to do for a place.

What it's become since then is a metaphor for the economic transformation of the country as a whole and County Mayo in particular. It's truly amazing.