It is rare that it can be said of a businessman that he was loved by all. In the case of Christy Maye it is true he held the loyalty, respect and love of all who came to know him, whether as an employee, customer, supplier or competitor. He was a successful businessman, builder, hotelier but above all an entertainer. And more than that he was a great leader in the Tullamore community without ever wanting thanks or recognition. This was best exhibited in his championing and leading the Tullamore Show since he largely founded it in 1991, inspired at the time by the Mullingar Show. He was a member of the Tullamore Lions Club since it started in Tullamore fifty years ago.
Christy Maye was a great supporter of local events and charities. From the time he opened the Bridge House in 1971 to his selling it in 2008 community groups could be sure of a free room for meetings. He went much further with groups such as Junior Chamber, Tullamore Lions the Tullamore Musical Society, the Gramophone Society and many more. The old conference room in Bridge House was famous for launches and meetings. He was a great advocate of the Midlands Heritage and loved to call to Offaly History Centre where he was a donor to many of our projects.
And yes, to quote the Tullamore Tribune he was a man of many parts. For almost forty years he was owner of the Bridge House, Tullamore, and also of the Greville Arms Hotel, in Mullingar, race-horse owner, disc jockey, builder and gadget lover.
A native of Ballymahon, Co. Longford, Christy was raised on a farm. ‘My first job was milking cows’, he told the Tullamore Tribune in 1989. Then he started training as a psychiatric nurse in St. Loman’s Hospital, Mullingar. Simultaneously he began developing his musical interests by going into the disco business. ‘We were the first in the British Isles’, he recalls ‘to do the disco business as it is known today using the proper sound equipment and lighting gear’. He will be remembered from the late 1960s with his Disc-a-go-go in St Mary’s Hall, Tullamore, playing in support of local charities. The music was up-to-the-minute, but he was even more interested in the technology and early on adapted his sound system for the turntable by using foam from the seat of an old car. Lighting was another key interest, and he was way ahead here as visitors to Bridge House will recall.
Bridge House the ‘entertainment capital of the midlands’
If the old-style grocery was swept away in the 1960s it was the traditional style pub in the 1970s that came under pressure with the bringing to the pub of ideas already in play for the new supermarkets and dance halls. In November 1971 Christy Maye, then in partnership with the late Paddy Fagan of Mullingar, opened the Bridge House in Tullamore. This had been Egan’s grocery, hardware and small bar in part of the Bridge House beside what is now Douglas Jewellery up to 1968. After narrowly (and fortunately) missing being converted to car showrooms by the next owner it was re-developed by Christy as a plush lounge bar with restaurant and soon after dancing upstairs. It could seat 300 people and lunch could be had for 55p. It was for many the first time that they stopped going home for lunch on a working day. It has continued in business for now 54 years with Christy Maye selling on in 2008. It had for many years been the main night club venue in Tullamore from the mid-1970s and was later known as Stringfellows. From having no commercial dancehall in Tullamore in 1970 the town soon had three and Christy Maye’s was a fourth and winning formula. Christy loved competition and never shirked it. He made the Bridge House famous in Ireland for its steaks – ‘beef to the heel’ and all that. He adored the impressive stone front of Bridge House (of 1910), rediscovered the brass and got a Mullingar signwriter to emulate what Egan’s had done sixty years earlier to the side of the building. Older Tullamore people will remember the swing doors into the old restaurant; the paintings of Mrs Kennedy on the stairwell and in the ballroom; the great New Year’s dinner and dancing He made Tullamore the ‘entertainment capital of the midlands’.
1980s with Gay Byrne to the left
Greville Arms
About 1980 Maye purchased the Greville Arms, the famous Mullingar hotel and added more buildings and a second pub in Danny Byrne’s on the same street. Christy loved the midlands heritage and the story of the Greville Arms and the James Joyce Connection. He was remarkable in the depth of knowledge he would acquire in pursuit of an objective whether it was James Joyce and Milly in Mullingar, the book of Durrow and Midlands monastic history, or to prove that he has a genuine Canova sculpture of the Penitent Magdalene.
Bridge Shopping Centre and Bridge House Hotel
Notwithstanding such undertakings and enthusiasms, he went on in the 1980s to acquire patiently the lands west of Bridge Street, Tullamore, much of it forming part of the old B. Daly distillery. Brewery Lane. G.N. Walshe garage and part of Williams Waller lands to create the site for the new Bridge Centre, opened in 1995, and with 120,000 sq ft of shops and offices and parking for 350 cars. People told him, he recounted ‘That there would be a herd of elephants running through it’, Such was his ability he secured Dunnes Stores as anchor and first-class tenants. for over twenty shops. For five or six years, until Golden Island opened in Athlone, Tullamore was the premier shopping centre in the midlands. The Bridge Shopping Centre was built to a high standard and has held its place in the hearts, minds and pockets of shoppers.
The moment he had Bridge Shopping Centre up and running he announced the building of a new hotel to the back of the Bridge House – the Bridge House Hotel. The new 70-bed £7m hotel was opened in 1999. In December 2001 30 bedrooms in the hotel were damaged in a fire, but the band (Joe Dolan’s) played on. Christy Maye sold the entire Bridge House hotel in 2008 after 37 years in business in Tullamore. The following year a very enjoyable ‘This is your life’ was held in his honour in Bridge House, of course.
Christy Maye, despite his business interests, was very much a family man and a man of the land and of the library. Our sincere sympathy to his wife Ellen, his children, grandchildren and all his extended family. Our sympathy also to all who worked with him and served him so loyally since he first established himself in Tullamore in 1971 and Mullingar from 1980. That would include Gemma, Jimmy, Paul, Kevin and Colum. One could not leave out Mrs Murphy but in truth there are so many more people who could be added to that list.
Christopher Maye was a successful businessman who was able to combine that career with being a gentleman and a scholar. His contribution to the community in Tullamore and Mullingar will long be remembered. We salute his memory and regret his passing.
Truly, we will not look on his like again.
MB
A varied life in community organisations Bottom as President of the Tullamore Chamber c. 1982.
Christopher Maye died at the age of 82 on 31 May 2025 and was buried in the village graveyard of Forgney, County Longford on 3 June 2025.
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