Looking Back: Gone fishin'

Main photo, section from Lawrence Collection c1900, courtesy NLI.

Our thanks to Joe Murray for spotting this piece about Kilcullen fishing and Bardon's Hotel. It's part of a larger article on fishing on the Liffey and comes from the Fishing Gazette of 7 July 1900.

This section may be said to extend from Newbridge to Ballymore Eustace, and the most convenient stations for it are Newbridge, on the G.S. and W. main line, and Harristown, on the Tullow branch. Most of the fishing on this section is free, at least there is, as they say in Irland, “no privintion," though there are preserved stretches here and there, as, for instance, the Harristown domain.

From Newbridge to Athgarvan Bridge I have never heard of anybody getting much sport; but above Athgarvan Bridge, and under Castle Martin there are some nice glides, in which I have sometimes had fair fishing. At Kilcullen is Mrs. Bardon's comfortable hotel, much frequented by officers from the Curragh. The charges are reasonable, the rooms clean and cosy. Mrs. Bardon makes certain hot cakes which may justly be called of world-wide reputation; for most men who have been quartered at the Curragh know Mrs. Bardon, and those who have once known her do not forget her or her excellent teas. There is a charming old-fashioned garden attached to the hotel, with tea tables in leafy arbours, whence you get a pretty view of the river, a group of firs, and a ruined mill. I have often stayed at Kilcullen Hotel, where they thoroughly understand fishermen, and make them comfortable.

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