Between Mee and You

Book launch by Johnny Mee

Hosted by Edwin McGreal

7pm*, Festival Dome at Bridge St

*PLEASE NOTE EARLIER START TIME - THIS EVENT WILL BE FOLLOWED BY IRELAND v NEW ZEALAND ON THE BIG SCREEN IN THE DOME

For more than 20 years, Johnny Mee’s Auld Stock column in The Connaught Telegraph has been compulsory reading every Tuesday.

Johnny is a treasure trove of memories of the Castlebar and Mayo of yesteryear. His ability to recall people, places and events right back to his childhood in the 1930s is exceptional.

He has a phenomenal recall and his columns are a marvellous trip to another era, recalling the characters, happenings and day to day life of previous generations.

Johnny doesn’t just recall his own childhood and adult years but the stories passed onto him by older generations. He’s a wonderful storyteller with wit, knowledge and he offers a pithy look at many of the flaws of modern life.

This collection of the best of his columns is a unique and vital social history of Castlebar and Mayo.

His love for ‘the town I have loved so well’ is clear and he honours the memory of those who went before him and those who will follow him with this wonderful trip down memory lane.

About the author

Johnny Mee has been writing his Auld Stock column for The Connaught Telegraph for more than 20 years. He was employed as a member of the staff of the newspaper for over 60 years, starting at the age of 14.

Johnny is a former Labour Party urban and county councillor and contested two General Elections for the party. He was a member of Castlebar Town Council (previously the Urban District Council) for 34 years and Mayo County Council for 18 years, prior to his retirement in 2009.  He was Mayor/Cathaoirleach of Castlebar Town Council on six occasions. 

He is a former player and official with Castlebar Celtic Football Club. 

A long-time campaigner for people with disabilities, he was one of three founding members of Western Care.

He was the first person to be given the Freedom of Castlebar.

One of a family of 12 children from McHale Road in Castlebar, he lives in St Bridget’s Crescent with his wife Mary, née Cameron, a native of Westport. They have two daughters, Mary and Ann, and three sons, James, John and Alan.