Born: October 13th, 1942
Died: May 31st, 2025
Christopher (Christy) Maye, the hotelier and entrepreneur who founded the Tullamore Show and, most famously, introduced the first disco to Ireland, has died aged 83.
Maye spent all of his career in the midlands where he was the proprietor of the Greville Arms in Mullingar and formerly owned the Bridge House Hotel in Tullamore. He remained active in tourism, farming and charity until the time of his death.
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Maye was born in 1942 and grew up as one of eight children on a farm in Forngey, a few miles outside Ballymahon, Co Longford. After leaving school he trained as a psychiatric nurse and worked in St Loman’s hospital, Mullingar.
It was a stable job and one in which he might have stayed had it not been for a fateful night in 1965 when Maye had an epiphany that would not only change the direction of his own life but also have a profound impact on the music scene in Ireland.
This was the era of the showbands, but Maye spotted an opening for another form of entertainment. He noticed there was a gap of up to 40 minutes between one showband finishing its set and the next one starting. He proposed playing records to the audience to ensure there was no lull in the atmosphere.
He trialled his idea in the parochial hall behind the Greville Arms hotel in Mullingar. It was an instant sensation, and he was soon in big demand. His “disc-a-go-go” became Ireland’s first mobile disco and he was soon playing venues across the midlands.
In an interview a number of years later, he described the technical challenges of his new venture.
“I had to find a way of cushioning the turntables, and used a spring from a car seat, and foam and other padding, so that we could get the volume. We managed to separate the bass sounds and got the hi-fi effect, and we improvised in various ways to get the lighting effects.”
It was the starting point of a radical transformation of the entertainment industry as DJs gradually replaced showbands throughout the country over the following decade.
For Maye it was the start of a highly successful business career. He befriended Paddy Fagan, the then owner of the Lake County hotel in Mullingar. In the early 1970s, the two formed a partnership and purchased a site on Bridge Street, Tullamore, which had been a pub and grocery store. Maye transformed it into a restaurant and leading nightclub venue, known for many years as Stringfellows.
During the 1980s, he acquired many of the adjoining lands around Bridge Street, and in the 1990s embarked on a major phase of expansion. Initially he developed the Bridge Street Shopping Centre, which included 11,150sq m (120,000sq ft) of shops and offices and parking for 350 cars.
In 1999, he opened the 70-bed Bridge House Hotel, which he sold in 2008.
Maye acquired the Greville Arms Hotel in Mullingar in 1980 and subsequently Danny Byrne’s pub, also in Mullingar.
The 1980s was not a good time for the Irish economy and Tullamore suffered more than many other towns. Unemployment was high and there was very little economic activity. Maye was part of a small group of locals looking at ways to reverse its fortunes.
In 1988, Maye addressed this group while standing on the stairs of the Bridge House with a pair of turnips in his hand which, he claimed, had led to another epiphany. The first prize he had ever won at an agricultural show in Mullingar in his youth was for the quality of his turnips.
Maye said Tullamore was the only town in the midlands without an agricultural show. He formed a committee that year to start planning. The first Tullamore Show was held in 1991, primarily as a livestock event; it has broadened its offering over the intervening years and now regularly attracts about 60,000 visitors, making it the most successful one-day agricultural show in Ireland.
Maye was the driving force in the early years and acted as PRO until relatively recently.
Chelsey Cox McDonald, secretary of Tullamore Show, described himas a “visionary and ahead of his time, always searching, planning and working to ensure the success of Tullamore Show and the FBD National Livestock Show”.
Tullamore Show chairman John Keena said an event to honour Maye would be held at this year’s show, which is scheduled for August 10th.
Maye was associated with many charitable causes over the years and was a member of the Tullamore Lions Club from its inception.
He and his wife Ellen, originally from Moate, married in the early 1970s and settled at Cullionmore, outside Mullingar, in the mid-1980s. They had three children together, Jason, Jillian and Leigh-Ann. Maye added extensively to his farming interests at Cullionmore.
In 2010, Maye invited expressions of interest from art experts to look at a sculpture he had acquired at an auction in Kilkenny in 1998 for £5,000. It transpired that the piece had been carved by the Italian neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova in 1822 for the British prime minister Robert Jenkinson. It is now displayed in the lobby of the Greville Arms.
There were many tributes following Maye’s death. Tullamore Chamber of Commerce said it was deeply saddened and described him as “a true pillar of our community”.
“His unwavering dedication to the local economy, tireless support of small businesses, and steadfast support of the Chamber of Commerce have left an indelible mark on all of us,” it said. “Christy was more than a leader – he was a mentor, a visionary and a friend to many. His efforts not only strengthened our local economy but also brought people together, fostering a spirit of unity and progress.”
Maye is survived by his wife and three children, son-in-law, four grandchildren and extended family. He was predeceased by his parents, one sister and one brother.
