The Mahon name is synonymous with Irvinestown.

When you think of Irvinestown, you think of Mahon’s Hotel.

Last week the famous hotel celebrated its 140th anniversary and Joe Mahon was front and centre.

Founded by Joseph Mahon in 1883, Mahon’s was later run by his son, Vincent Mahon, and remains in the family in the safe hands of Vincent’s children; Joe, Paul and Aisling.

Photos proudly displayed around the hotel show how it has changed and evolved from a family-run hotel, where the family were born, and died, to a unique hospitality offering.

And unique it is. Not many hotels can lay claim to some of the antics that have happened in this hotel over the years, often in the name of the Lady of the Lake festival.

Controversy

Mr. Mahon recalls how he received 732 emails after a story appeared in this newspaper reporting on his plans to “throw turkeys off the clock tower in Irvinestown”.

“We did the turkeys and one year said we’d do a parade and then we said we’d throw them off the clock tower, but the whole thing was for the hospice out the road. It caused a stir but it was the way it was written. Our turkeys were papier mâché.

“We weren’t going to throw the turkeys off but the story went all around the world.”

“I got 732 emails giving out about me, and only two emails were good.

“One woman from America emailed and said she was going to Ireland on her holidays next year and one place she would not be going is Mahon’s Hotel because of the turkeys and I said to her, ‘I’m glad you’re coming to Ireland, hope you enjoy your holiday, but I’m sure you weren’t coming to Mahon’s anyway as you probably never heard tell of it. Hope you enjoy your visit. I explained it wasn’t live turkeys.

“Fair play to the woman, she called in and apologised for being offensive in the email.”

He recalled with great joy other events over the years; a wolf-whistling competition, a dog-singing competition known as the Rex Factor; a dung-spitting competition, frog-racing, the list goes on.

One joy for Mr. Mahon was a 101 Dalmatians-themed event.

Recalling the event, he said: “We gathered up 101 dalmatians and advertised it around the country and you could get a wee souvenir from Belleek Pottery for taking part but four and a half thousand people came to the show in Necarne.

“We did scenes out of the film. Fair play to the police as they got involved too. We had the scene where Cruella tries to steal the pups and then the police came in and acted it out.

“Jimmy Dundas, God rest him, it was him doing it and he said, ‘I don’t want any dalmatians about me as they are the stupidest dogs in Ireland’.

“Jimmy had gun dogs at the time and I had faxed the Belfast Telegraph at three o’clock in the morning with information about bringing your dalmatian to Irvinestown.

“And then Jimmy had the festival phone and was answering it and telling people he wanted nothing to do with dalmatians, and then I had to go through the phone and ring all the people back to tell them to bring the dogs.”

Strange happenings

Mr. Mahon remembers other strange happenings in the hotel including several horses who made an appearance, with one receiving a performance of ‘Horse It Into Ye Cynthia’ in its honour when it entered the bar.

Another fortune teller visited the hotel and while in the process of booking a room, informed Mr. Mahon that she sensed ‘a presence’ in the room and the spot where his grandmother died.

The hotel has also endured many tough times, including the bombing of the hotel by the Continuity IRA in 2000.

As Mr. Mahon paced the restaurant of the hotel, he said: “We lost this restaurant, we lost the kitchen, we lost five or six bedrooms upstairs, it took a while to sort everything out but we tossed this bit of the hotel and built the whole new block now and joined the Delany Suite into the hotel.

“It was hard at the time. We had two rooms upstairs and used it as a restaurant and we had a temporary kitchen outside. This section was opened in 2005.”

Not to be deterred, the family wanted business as usual: “I said in the paper at the time that we closed for three weeks but after the second week we got the bar all cleaned up, we got the temporary kitchen and got the food going.

“We had a bedroom downstairs we used it as a bakery and it was changed back to a bedroom when everything was opened up.”

Last Thursday night, the Mahon’s welcomed the community in Irvinestown to the hotel to share in the history and the joy of the place that has been an important part of their family for 140 years.