house

Detached four-bay two-storey house, c.1850, retaining some early fenestration to ground floor with two-bay single-storey return to rear to west. Renovated, c.1900, with timber pubfront inserted to centre ground floor. Renovated and refenestrated, c.1990. Gable-ended roofs. Replacement artificial slate, c.1990 (original slate to return). Concrete ridge tiles (clay ridge tiles to return). Rendered chimney stacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods on paired consoled eaves course. Rendered walls. Ruled and lined. Painted. Roughcast walls to rear (west) elevation and to return. Unpainted. Square-headed openings. Stone sills. Early 1/2 timber sash windows to grounds floor. Replacement uPVC casement windows, c.1990, to remainder. Replacement glazed timber panelled door, c.1990, with overlight. Timber pubfront, c.1900, to centre ground floor with fixed-pane display windows and glazed timber door having overlight and timber fascia over with moulded cornice. Road fronted. Concrete brick cobbled footpath to front.

Mick Murphy’s Bar is a fine, substantial building that makes a positive contribution to the streetscape of Main Street as it graduates to merge with Market Square to the north. Although comprehensively renovated in the late twentieth century, the building retains a good proportion of its original character and a number of early features of importance. Original or early timber sash windows remain to ground floor and the re-instatement of timber fenestration to the remainder, using these examples as a model, might restore a more accurate representation of the original appearance of the composition. A rare survival is the early twentieth-century pubfront to the ground floor, which conforms to the true traditional Irish rural shopfront without ornate pilasters and consoles, composed primarily of a plain fascia board - the pubfront emphasises the social and historic importance of the house as early evidence of the commercialisation of the locality.