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Where is it from?
This is a replica building. The original McCusker's operated out of 2 Upper Irish Street, Armagh.
2 Upper Irish Street is one of 14 houses that makes up 'Whaley's Buildings'. The houses are so-called because of an inscription on a stone urn located on the top of the houses on the street corner. This stone urn has also been recreated at the Ulster Folk Museum. The fourteen houses were constructed at different times, with the two-storey houses dating from 1773. The pub closed in 1970s and returned to being a private residence.
Why is it special?
Pubs were social hubs for people - largely men - across Ulster. It was important for the Ulster Folk Museum to include this key element of social history of the 19th and 20th centuries.
One of the reasons that McCusker's was chosen to be replicated was the nature of the building. According to historian Elizabeth Malcolm,
'Few Irish pubs were purpose-built; many were converted houses of shops...Many went by the name of the present or past publican, emphasising the fact that one individual ran the house.'
The large frosted front windows are etched with a traditional pot-still advertisement for Old Bushmills Whiskey. The trademark shown was used by the distillery at the turn of the 20th century, but the distillery itself has been in existence since 1784. The front display windows, along with advertising the pub’s wares, gave privacy to the pub’s customers, which was important during a time of temperance, when drinking was considered disreputable. Bushmills Distillery sponsored the windows that you see in the pub today.
What is it like inside?
The bar is on the right of the door, with a small, more private space, or 'snug', at the rear of the room.
The atmosphere in McCusker's, as in other pubs of the time, would have been lively. Along with catching up on news and partaking in games like cards or draughts, social and political clubs often met in pubs.
Who lived there?
Between 1901 and 1906, Hugh McCusker - formerly a bar manager living on Lower English Street - set up premises on Upper Irish Street. He married Jennie 'Jane' Vallely in 1906. Hugh and Jane went on to have eight children.
Hugh McCusker died in the 1930s, but Jane retained the license until the early 1960s. She died in 1965. In later years, McCusker's was known as the Hilltop Inn, Bar and Lounge.
Who drank there?
McCusker's was situated in a working-class Catholic neighbourhood. The pub had a regular, largely - if not exclusively - male clientele. Some customers preferred to drink ‘on the tick’ and pay up later, usually on pay day.
Who didn't drink there?
In the early 1900s, and indeed for many decades after, women did not generally drink in pubs. There were often laws that restricted or prevented women from being served, and alongside these legalities, there was strong societal pressure that deemed women drinking in pubs to be 'indecent'.
The temperance movement was also at its height in the early 1900s. Adherents saw drinking as a great societal evil, and as the root of violent crime. In Armagh, a meeting of the Temperance Association in 1900 held at St Malachy's Chapel saw nearly 1,000 people take a total abstinence pledge.
