The Anchor Bar, Keady, Co. Armagh was a favourite with American GIs based nearby in Keady Mill. In 1943, Hugh O'Neill owned the thriving licensed premises.
During the war, the bar became famous for late night singalongs around the piano. The young American men in the Co. Armagh town grew popular with locals. Such was the fondness for the American soldiers, that as their trains departed in 1944, the railway station gates needed locking to hold back the crowds.
The story told in Keady is that the men who trained in Keady and drank in The Anchor Bar never made it ashore during the Normandy landings. A Stuka bomber hit their landing craft off Omaha Beach.
9th Infantry Regiment landed on Omaha on 7th June 1944, D-Day+1. They went on to be a crucial part of 2nd Infantry Division who took Hill 192 on the road to St. Lo. Later, they would go on to take part in action at the Battle of the Bulge and crossing the Rhine. Some of those men who enjoyed their time in Keady may have made it off the beaches.
The Anchor Bar is a distant memory in Keady, having since given way to J&P Electrics’ Euronics store. A plaque on the wall commemorates the story of the American GIs of 9th Infantry Regiment.