St. Finbarr's Boys' National School Website

The Quay & Docks

The area along the South side of the square from Evan's shop down to the Harbour used to be known as the Quay because the bay used to come right up to the square. We met with local historian Donal Fitzgerald who told us about the previous owners of these buildings. Evan's Pink & White shop was built by Benjamin O Connor co-owner of Murphy & O' Connors timber yards. He also was the first chairman of the Bantry Town commissioners elected in the 1980's.

1. Trustee Savings Bank.This used to known Barry's Pub. The owner was Catherine Coen's mother and before that Catherine Coen's aunt owned Cleary's Pub. Mr. Fitzgerald told us there were a lot of pubs along the quay here as they were watering holes for the British fleet in the Bay. There was a bar called "1796" in commemoration of the invasion by the French Fleet. The house with the shutters was lived in by a famous man named William Martin Murphy who later built many tramways and founded the Irish Independant.

2. Murphy & O' Connors.William Martin Murphy and Bengy O' Connor further down founded timber and saw mills. In older days the sawmills were on the other side of the waters edge.

3. The DocksA very busy area built in 1840 for landing fish and coral sand which was got up from the bottom of the sea. The sand was used as a fertilizer for the farms. We could see the blue barrels, which are used to float the ropes of mussels in the bay.Mr. Fitzgerald told us that the pilchard fishing was very important here 100 years ago.There were 3,500 people employed and big shoals of fish used to be landed here. The fish merchants were here to buy them and they were taken to local fish palaces where they were processed and oil taken from them.