The expression ‘Westmeath bachelor’ has long found its way into popular parlance. The late Joe Dolan sung his praises. And every year, the Westmeath Bachelor Festival is a high point in the midlands summer festivities. With regard to the aforementioned festival, a connection of sorts has been made with Mayo with our own Louis Walsh acting as chief adjudicator for the popular event.

But the Westmeath bachelor links with Mayo go much further back than that.

It all began in the 1940s, at a time when the standard of housing was poor, and where families were forced to live in what today would be regarded as primitive conditions. A letter was received by Westmeath Board of Health from a married lady in Athlone complaining that she and her family were compelled to reside in a condemned ‘shack’, while three or four labourers’ cottages in the locality were occupied by bachelors. The letter was the catalyst for a controversy that would elevate the bachelors of Westmeath – much to their discomfort – into the national headlines, and provide the media with a story that would run for several years.

The Athlone woman’s letter got a sympathetic reception from........

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