Local history: Fair day in Balla 85 years ago

PART ONE

By Tom Gillespie

THE introduction of livestock marts ended a centuries old tradition in Ireland of the fair day, where farmers and jobbers bought and sold their animals. Fair days were a huge boost to towns and villages where they were held, and people travelled, walking through the night, to get their livestock there.

The high and lows of a fair day in Balla held 85 years ago on Wednesday, January 22, 1936, was vividly recalled by Mike Garry from Clogher in the 2012/13 Balla, Belcarra, Clogher, Manulla Parish Magazine.

He wrote: On the 22nd of January 1936, I went with my father and Jess Hughes to my first fair in Balla. I was just nine years old. It was one of the wettest and coldest nights that had ever come and by the time we landed in Balla we were wet to the skin and famished with the cold.

I found myself outside a sweet shop - McGee’s. She also sold toys. I fell in love with a little car in the window and with the shilling my grandmother gave me going to the fair I bought it for 10 pence. However, when I showed it to my father he gave out about me wasting money on silly things.

My father sold two bullocks he had for £11 and Jess sold his for £10.5. They were well satisfied with the price. Before he marked them the jobber looked at their mouths - if they had two permanent teeth they would only go for half the price and if they had four they were worth nothing. The tariff was on. They railed the cattle and got paid. They then went into the pub and got two pints of porter each and lemonade and biscuits for me.

When they felt it was time to go home, and being so wet and miserable, they decided to hire a car. Tommy Hurst from Clooneen Mills was parked outside the door and after some bargaining he said he would bring them for 1s 3d each and nine pence for me. It was my first time in a car and I loved it. But when we got to Ballyglass school he ordered them out.

My father protested that we lived in Clogher. He said he didn’t know that and if he did he would have charged more, so he wouldn’t take them any further until they gave him another shilling apiece.

There was no way they were going to do that and so we walked the three miles home.

As bad as the effect that the tariff had on cattle it destroyed the market for stripper cows. In order to overcome that the department brought in a scheme where if you had a cow for sale you notified them. They sent out an inspector and whether the cow was young or old, thin or fat, big or small, he gave you 50 shillings for her. She would then be sent to a meat factory in Roscrea. Unfortunately, the money ran out after a short time and the bottom fell out of the trade.

Around that time our neighbour, Jimmy Durcan, had a cow for sale and we had another. We were to bring them to the fair, but, the day before my father got sick, so I struck off with Jimmy.

Before I left my father told me to ask for 10 shillings for her and if I got five to take it, but not to bring her home. Hay was very scarce and dear and she wasn’t worth feeding.

I wasn’t at the fair long when a jobber came to me. I asked for 10 shillings, he bid me five. Jimmy divided the difference 7s. 6d. I knew she was going cheap, but at least we had half-a-crown more than my father expected.

De Valera got into power in 1933 and one of the first things he did was to stop paying the English the £10 million that was due to them in annuities.

Unfortunately for us, we had no market for our cattle except England. So they put a tariff on our cattle going to England knowing that it would bring Ireland to its knees.

Ironically, the tariff did a lot more harm to the big farmers than the small ones. The small ones never had many cattle as they went in more for pigs and hens, some grew beet or sold turf or an odd horse foal. The big farmer relied almost entirely on cattle.

After a few years Dev came under great pressure to swallow his pride and make up with England. The country was in a desperate state, no money for anything, and England was feeling the pinch too. We were great customers for their bikes, coal, steel and manufactured goods, but now we had no money to buy them.

The finest thing that ever happened Irish farming was the day that we joined the EEC. Apart from the subsidies we got, we were no longer depending on England. Up until then when England sneezed we got pneumonia. It was a wonderful change for the better.