Westport Country Market going strong, 36 years on

IT’S Thursday morning in Westport, and that means one thing – it’s market day.
For 36 years, local bakers, growers and craftspeople have sold the finest of homemade produce from the beating heart of town. The old town hall was their home for many years. In more recent times, they’ve found themselves in St Anne’s Boxing Club of a Thursday – a little hidden away, perhaps, but still at the heart of everything.
Laughter is the first thing you hear when you walk through the door. None of the soulless beep-beep-bop-bop of the supermarket. You don’t come to markets like these just for the excellent produce. You come for tea, the chat and the welcome, like the one The Mayo News received when we called on a recent sunny morning.
You’d miss the big boxing ring and punch bags hanging around the place, such is the array of wares on display. Right in front of the ring stands is a splendid array of canvas paintings designed by Maria Gallagher, Chairperson of Westport Country Markets Ltd.
To the right, the diligent treasurer Lynda Bourke is busy taking cash – like the GAA used to do – as the customers flow in and out at a steady pace.
Over on the left, Chris Smith is selling vegetables dug from his own vegetable garden. Beside him, Sinéad Bracken has just flogged the last of her organic apple juice squeezed from an orchard of over 800 trees. At 10.45am, there are a few empty spaces on the shelves already.
But there’s a good reason for that. As market trader Helen Shanley points out, these very stalls were ‘groaning’ with the weight of free-range eggs, freshly-baked loaves and treats when the market opened bright and early at 7am. Nearly three hours from closing time, and they are nearly all gone.
“If you don’t come in by about half-nine the stuff is sold,” Chris reliably informs us.

Sociable space
The one thing you can’t escape is the harmonious clamour of friendly conversation.
From market newcomers like Siun Stevens, who’s been selling tea and coffee here for the past year, to Bea Moran, who was here when it all began in 1987, everyone has a smile on their face and a warm welcome for friend and stranger alike.
Sat at the tables drinking the finest coffee and tea – served in a pot, the way it should be – are people from all walks of life. A group from Western Care are here with their carers. They never miss a Thursday. At another table, the local garda is causally shooting the breeze with another group of customers. There’s no rush particular on anyone.
It’s a joy for traders as much as it is for the customers, even if it means getting up at the crack of dawn each Thursday.
“I love meeting people in the market. It’s just a great social outlet,” says Sinéad Bracken.
“Some of these customers have been with me for the 36 years. I come for the social craic now, rather than making a living,” offers Chris.

Charm
Like The Saw Doctors once sang, it’s the ‘same oul faces’ that give the Westport Country Market much of its charm.
But newcomers regularly come upon this little gem in a boxing club, tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the surrounding streets.
“We had a lot of new customers this morning. They were amazed,” says Anne Nolan, who’s been selling homemade bread and cakes since the town hall days.
“They didn’t know we were here, and they were amazed with the stuff we had. They couldn’t believe it, for a small co-op. There’s going to be many more years of it.”
There’s even one client who regularly travels from Dublin to buy 12 pots of Bea Moran’s finest homemade jam. There are no preservatives to be found when Bea’s in the kitchen, only the finest of locally bought ingredients brewed in a pot brimming with tender loving care.
The supermarkets can compete for price, but not for quality. “You might get jam for 85 cents, but it’s not jam,” Bea sagely observes.
Shopping at the country market is not that dear either, despite what you may think.
“I got my whole vegetables for the week for less than a tenner. Carrots, turnips, the whole lot,” one customer tells The Mayo News.

The beginnings
The Westport Country Market is boutique, but it is part of a much larger organisation called Country Markets Ltd, a totally independent, registered, co-operative society.
Its very first branch was founded in Fethard Co Tipperary in 1947 by the Irish Homespun Society and the Irish Countrywomen’s Association (ICA). Unsurprisingly, the local Westport ICA branch was instrumental in the founding of Westport Country Market.
One of its founding members, Mary McGreal, recalls visiting other country markets in Ramelton, Co Donegal, and Kilkenny City before they took the plunge in Westport in 1987.
“To gauge the interest, we had public meetings in the Teagasc centre at the time, which I chaired, and got the permission from the CEO, which was Terry Gallagher in Davitt House, to use the centre in Westport,” Mary tells The Mayo News.
“That time it could seat about 100 people in it, that’s the setup we had back then. We had big crowds. We had three public meetings and by the time they were all over the crowd had dwindled down to about 40, but some people felt it didn’t suit them. People were curious just to know what it was going to be about.”

Market tradition
Soon market was up and running every Thursday in the old Westport Town Hall. Those Thursdays used to be wedged, some of the old-timers recall. Back then, you could walk out the door with a selection of cheese, fish or organic meat in your shopping bag, along with your spuds, bread and jam.
“There’d be three lines outside the counter, and they’d be saying ‘Oh, such-a-thing for me, oh and such-a-thing… It was lovely – it was really, really busy. We had everything,” Bea Moran recalls with a smile.
After many happy years in Westport Town Hall, there came a time when the venue could no longer host the market, which prompted the move to its current home in St Anne’s Boxing Club.
Lynda Bourke, another veteran of those early days in Westport Town Hall, says there ‘aren’t as many local people’ coming to the boxing club on Thursday. However, the market still gets healthy support from Covies and tourists alike – even with the reduced footfall from no longer being in the busiest part of town.
It hasn’t helped that the indoor markets were not able to operate during much of Covid, while the big supermarkets stayed open.
“I’d say there was a heavier footfall pre-Covid, although we are ticking along,” Maria Gallagher tells The Mayo News.
Maria and others like her hope the younger folk will keep the market tradition going, like the Ukrainian trader who’s looking to set up a stall in their market. It’s the only way to ensure that the market will keep celebrating its birthdays – the latest of which, its 36th, was celebrated with a hearty cake last Thursday.
Shirley Piggins, who has been here selling pancakes, flowers and other things since the early ’90s, can’t say how much longer it will keep going. But she sure knows the value of the country market.
“These flowers are grown locally,” says Shirley, “the supermarket flowers have been flown in from somewhere. This is all local stuff.”
Westport Country Market, keeping it local since 1987.

See next week's Mayo News for more photos from Westport Country Market's anniversary celebrations