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Castlebar publican’s cocktails pack wallop

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

By Andrew Bushe

DUBLIN — A Castlebar publican is putting up with jokes about dynamite drinks and explosive cocktails after sticks of gelignite rained down on him from an attic space when he tore down an old ceiling.

Streets around the Irish House Bar in the Mayo town were sealed off recently as army bomb disposal officers delicately removed the hoard, which they think is over 50 years old.

A shocked publican, Paul Heverin, said about 50 sticks came tumbling down with dust and debris as he and his son began doing minor renovations to the premises.

"One of the sticks broke and my son read N-I-T-E on one bit. He rubbed the dust off the other half and read out C-E-L-I.

"I said, ‘I don’t think it’s a C. I think it’s a G. Get out of

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here,’ " Haverin said.

The army believes it might have been an old IRA cache.

Doing his own arms decommissioning, Haverin quickly alerted the Gardai.

"I told them to make sure they get the date on the gelignite, as you can have your premises confiscated under the laws they have just brought in, if you are storing weapons or explosives for anyone," he said.

An army spokesman in Custume Barracks in Athlone said the explosives had been destroyed as had another cache of old gelignite found hidden in a wall during building work on a house in Carrick-on-Shannon.

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