Extracts from “It Really Did Happen – The changes in farming since the 1940’s” by Alan McElwaine.
“Willie Bell. I never knew of him to have his own animals but he was an agent for Donnellys Bacon Company. The farmers used to deliver their fat pigs and on the appointed day every week, the noise was horrific as all these pigs were loaded onto a lorry to be transported to the bacon factory. However, Willie Bell’s main connection with the farming community was as an Animal Feed Compounder. As well as supplying pig and cattle feed to the Bailieborough area, his lorries were on the road every day, delivering feed all over counties Cavan, Monaghan, Meath and Louth. Speaking of lorries, Willie had a problem, namely a narrow gateway! His fleet of 10 Ton Rigid Lorries would bring a load of barley from the docks in Dublin, but when they arrived in Bailieborough, these lorries could not fit through the gateway. The load had to be off loaded on the street, onto smaller pickup trucks, which then reversed into the Mill in the yard. When you consider that we are talking about 16 stone (100kg) bags, with no means of mechanical handling, you can appreciate the task. This task had to be repeated in reverse when the compounded feed was coming out again. ”
“Matt Traynors, now known as “Dynasty”. He kept pigs at the bottom of his garden. A large part of their diet was raw eggs! Traynor’s operated a mobile shop around the country. Often when they supplied tea, sugar etc to the farmer’s wife, she would pay with eggs. These eggs were sold in Dublin. In fact they had a contract to supply the canteen in Trinity College Dublin. Before they could be sent to Dublin, the eggs had to be tested to see that they were fresh. To do this, all eggs had to be passed on a conveyor belt in front of a strong electric bulb. Anything that looked suspect was broken and thrown into a bucket – hence the pigs.”
To the left are two photographs of Bailieborough Fair Day, 1963.
“The highlight of the social calendar in those days was the monthly fair day. This took place on the first Monday of every month. On that day the farmers came to town to buy and sell cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, horses, corn etc. Each part of town had its own activity. Starting at the top end of Market Square on the right, as you look down from Masonic Hall you had the suck calves. These were mostly brought in by lorry by the dealers or jobbers having bought them in the South of Ireland. On the left around the Market House (now library) you had poultry, corn, potatoes etc. On either side of Main Street proper the carts of young pigs were lined up. These were knows as suckers or bonhams (pronounced bonavs).”
“Next door we had Cecil McKinley – Saddler and Harness Maker. Farmers and Horsemen for miles around came to get their harnesses made and repaired.
He also repaired school bags, ladies handbags etc. Cecil had land in different places around the town. It was common then to see him on a Wednesday afternoon, when the shops were closed, driving his cattle down Main Street on their way from Rakeevan to Drumbannon.”
“Tom Murtagh, father of Peter. They milked cows and I seem to remember they fed pigs as well. Tom also had a corn mill where he ground oats and barley. He also “let out”, his yard as stallion quarters on fair day. Another clear memory of Tom Murtagh was that he bought Blackberries. In August – September the kids of the area would arrive in with Blackberries in sweet cans or in buckets. It might take a whole day to fill a bucket but when they were weighted at Murtagh’s you might get a half crown (15c). When weighed the Black berries were emptied into, what seemed to us, huge wooden barrels. We never quite knew what Tom did with them. Some said they went to either Fruitfield or Lambs jam factory, others said they went to make dye for cloth.”
“Shop deliveries took place on different days of the week depending on the route involved. The road I remember most was the Mountain run as it always took place on Saturday when I was off school.
In the late forties & early fifties, very few people out in the country had cars or tractors, and so got to town very seldom. They would get small bits and pieces brought out by the postman or milk carter, but the shop in which they dealt delivered their large weekly order regularly.
Most got a regular order every week, but occasionally they would send a message in with the postman to include something extra in their order. All orders were arranged in large wicker baskets. There was no need to put names on the baskets, as they were loaded onto the cart in house order. We delivered to the same houses every week and in the same order, so the first basket into the cart was for the last house on the run and so on till the last basket loaded would be the first delivered. We put a white cloth over each basket as it was loaded to keep the contents clean. At that time there was very little wrapping used on groceries. When the full load was on the cart we then put on a waterproof cover to cover everything against the weather. The only two things on the cart not under this cover were Willie and I. This was fine in summertime but it was a different matter in winter. I should say that to an enthusiastic 10 year old the thrill of driving Bunny up the Mountain Road was much more important than the possibility that we might get wet.”
“There were two other blacksmiths in town at the time, Crossan’s – opposite the Masonic Hall and Ned Kavanagh in Adelaide Road also known as Australia Street. The latter could only shoe ponies or donkeys, because there was a very narrow entry into his forge and large horses could not get in.
Also at that time we had Corries Forge about two miles out of town. As well as the usual shoeing of horses, they also made Horse Drawn Ploughs, Drill Ploughs, Hay Rakes and Gates (ornamental as well as field).They later advanced to make machinery for Tractors, mainly cock lifters, potato planters and potato diggers. As well as the forge they also had a corn mill. They also repaired machinery. My late mother often told this story about my grand father. A farmer brought in a piece of machinery for some minor repair. When the job was completed he enquired as to the cost. “Oh it is for nothing” said my grandfather. “That’s too much” said the farmer, meaning it was too generous. My grandfather knew what he meant but being a bit of a wit responded immediately with “well, go where you can get it done cheaper”. ”
“In 1901 the total milking cow population in County Cavan was 47,772, by 1926 (Post World War 1), this had dropped to 42,837, however, by 1960 this had recovered to 45,000 and by 1974 had increased again to 55,000.Sheep numbers were as follows: 1901 – 27,103, 1926 – Dropped to 22,952, 1960 – 38,800 but by 1974 had dropped again to 36,200. Finally Pigs: 1901 – 52,746, 1926 – 39,846, 1960 – 57,200, and 1974 – 73,400.(16)
Back to the early days of Bailieborough Co-Op. In the first year milk price was less than 4 Old Pence per Gallon, Butter was sold at 10 Old Pence per Pound and daily intake of milk was approximately 550 Gallons.“
“Graham’s yard. This was where I spent a lot of my youth, and where I got the foundation stone of my love for and knowledge of farming. It was here I milked my first cow, learned how to tackle and un-tackle a horse and cart, watched my first sow farrowing (having pigs) etc. Roy normally milked four cows but occasionally this went up to six. As I said earlier he was one of the first in this locality to keep Friesians (see chapter on Dairy cows). The calves from these cows were reared, and some extra calves were also bought in. The cows were well trained and normally attended to the call of nature on request. It was important that they did not do this in the yard as hotel guests sometimes parked their cars in the yard and they did not wish to walk into “you know what”. Similarly we did not want the cow’s visiting card in front of hotel door. Now for the solution!! If we gave each cow a sharp slap with the palm of our hand, just above the head of her tail, before opening her chain, she would oblige within seconds (normally). If not we then had to run her out and well up the street so fast that she could not concentrate on two things at a time!! Roy kept hens in the then new fangled “Battery Cages”. They were in rows of individual cages. Each hen had her own feed supply and water supply. There was a number 1 to 100 on each cage and when the eggs were collected each day a record was kept of which hens laid and which did not. As I said earlier if a hen did not lay today she would normally lay two eggs or maybe three tomorrow. If she failed to lay for a full week, you first of all checked to see that she was not sick, and if not, she was soon despatched as chicken soup.”