Livestock Sales in Co. Galway at the Close of the 18th Century
Contributed by , GalwayArthur Young in his description of agricultural conditions around Woodlawn, Co. Galway, in 1776 mentions that even at that early date the landlords had established the custom of leasing large grazing, or, as he calls them, "stock " farms, ranging from 1,000 to 1,500 acres, to middlemen or graziers. The latter, in turn, relet small and often miserable holdings of 2 or 3 acres of marginal land to the ordinary tenantry, who managed to subsist on a tillage economy embracing potatoes, oats, a half rood of flax and perhaps some barley. These cottiers or tillers, as he terms them, paid rents varying from 12/- to 14/- per acre for their small tenancies, which they held merely as tenants at will. There can be no reasonable grounds for doubting that the steady growth of this system of ranch establishment in Co. Galway and Co. Roscommon especially was in itself the dominant factor in making the Great October Fair of Ballinasloe, set up first in the middle of the 18th century, the largest and most important centre in Ireland for livestock sales, just as the Great Wool Fair of Dunlo (part of Ballinasloe township), held annually in those days in July each year, became the Sydney of the Irish Wool Trade for many years.
Ranching lent itself to the centralisation of sales of stock and bye-products. Ballinasloe, a canal port in direct communication with Dublin and centrally situated for the graziers of the western province, offered all the facilities required and under the patronage of the Clancartys the town grew in importance and its fairs the greatest gathering of flocks and herds in Europe. Not alone Counties Galway and Roscommon, but the whole of Mayo, the greater part of Offaly, North Tipperary and much of Clare sent big consignments of stock to the October Fair there, and droves of cattle were pushed along the whole length of Connacht towards Ballinasloe from places as far distant as Belmullet and Co. Sligo.
Nine-tenths of the trade of Ballinasloe Fair was in the hands of these big graziers - he who had 1,000 sheep of his own for sale there was traditionally called a "Ridire Caorach " in East Galway - together with the owner ranching landlords. The last decade of the 18th century, despite such influences as Defenderism, Whiteboyism, coercion, and the low standard of living among 95 per cent of those rooted on the soil, appears to have been an era of lively and flourishing trade as far as Irish livestock was concerned.
The export trade was negligible once the salted meat trade to supply the British Armies in America had ceased, and England had barely started to take stores across the Irish Sea. In fact, in 1799 although the colossal total of 77,900 sheep were sold at Ballinasloe October Fair together with almost 10,000 head of cattle, the total exports from Ireland in the same year reached the negligible figure of 800 sheep and 14,000 cattle of all classes (O'Connell Repeal Addresses, 1848). Our urban population in those days consumed almost all our home-produced meat. In Co. Galway farm produce commanded reasonable prices. The Galway Market Returns for Spring, 1793, gave the following prices: Wheat 10/- per cwt; Oatmeal, 10/4 do; Potatoes 2d. per stone; Butter in hundredweight casks or firkins, 55/-; Beef, 3d. per lb; Mutton a 1/4d. dearer. Wool fetches the comparatively high price of 18/- per stone - a long way behind this present month's (March 1951) record-breaking figure of 183/-; per stone. Potatoes and oatmeal, occasionally a little meat, some milk, and fish in the coastal areas, barrelled herrings in Lent, a poached hare, and barley and oaten bread were the diet of the common people.
Times were "troubled ". Elsewhere Secret Societies, Defenders and the Whiteboys were busy, though generally speaking there were no outbreaks in this county of much importance. Nevertheless the "county" folk, the Grand Jury and the landlords of all classes and creeds had banned themselves into mutual protection groups. The Militia Act of 1793 brought 16,000 tough yeomanry soldiers into being, Co. Galway's levy being 560 men.
Still for all that, the landed classes did not allow Napoleon's wars abroad or agrarian discontent at home to disturb the fox hunting tenor of their ways. "The Gort Chase meet at Hynes', Gort on Monday, 4th February next. The hounds and a bagged fox to be at the Four Roads at ten o' clock and dinner on the table at 5." So reads a press notice of January, 1793, "Hynes " was a well known inn at Gort.
In addition to the huge fair at Ballinasloe fairs were long established by Patent at Tuam, Eyrecourt, Athenry, ("Parsons Fair Green "), Killoscobe, Issertkelly and Kilconnell, besides which the middlemen and extensive graziers and landlord farmers often held dispersal or seasonal sales by auction of all or portions of their flocks and herds. These sales, always by auction, often followed the death of the owner or his failure to obtain a renewal of his grazing takes or a lease of his grass farms. Unfortunately the Galway auctioneers of those days, 150 years ago, were much more modest than their brethren of today. Their press notices and advertisements are all singularly remarkable in so far as the auctioneers' names are never given. The phenomenal extent of these graziers and stock farmers activities can be gauged by the huge numbers of stock offered for sale at the auctions in the years 1793-5.
Following the death of Peter Daly of Cloncah (halfway between Attymon and Woodlawn) his grazing farms extending from near Loughrea to Turloughmore, totalling over 3,000 acres of pasture land, were advertised to let in January, 1793, and a month later a great cant, or auction of his livestock was fixed for Benmore, adjacent to the hamlet of Bullaun, beside Loughrea. The sale included:
"450 2 to 4 year old bullocks 25 2 year old heifers 3,000 sheep of all classes 2 English Brood Mare (in foal to "Tom Turf ") 2 Fillies (By "Distruber ") 3 other Brood Mares and several other horses."
A casual reference on my part to Bloodstock Pedigree references failed to throw any light on the breeding, 'in the purple' or otherwise, of the two sires quoted. Terms at the auction were favourable to purchasers. "Twelve months' credit given on security, interest payable." Incidentally, in passing, this branch of the O'Daly's of Killmordaly Castle was later identified with the Catholic Association and becoming extinct in the middle of the 19th century, the last of them, a widow, whose maiden name was Frazer (probably of Tuam), was interred about 1845 in Killmordaly churchyard.
A few days after Ballinasloe's October Fair, 1793, Michael Burke of Springarden had 2,000 of his ewe flock sold by public auction at Kilmeen, near Loughrea, while on the 22nd of the same month an auction of 150 bullocks and 2,500 sheep was announced to be held at Clogharevaun, near the modern and attractive Catholic Church at Kiltulla, 6 miles from Athenry. These stock appear to have been the property of Thomas Daly, brother to Peter referred to above.
Peter Callanan of Cottage, Loughrea and John Callanan of Eyrecourt - the family was prominent in livestock matters a hundred years later - appear as substantial graziers and stock masters in 1795, having large grass holdings around Dunsandle, Athenry, Moyode etc., in that year. Peter died in March 1795, and arrangements having been made to sub-let his leasehold farms a cant of his livestock was appointed for Carrowroe (afterwards for a while the residence of John Dennis of hunting frame) near Dunsandle. The lots extended to:-
"140 various Bullocks, 2/4 years old 40, 3 and 4 years old Heifers,"
old Plough Bullocks (oxen being then used for draught purposes), Milch Cows, Brood Mares, Fillies, Colts, saddle and draft Horses, as well as 1,400 Sheep.
Mr Lewis Ward of Lisgub, near Ballymacward, decided to retire from farming in November, 1795, and to let his farm, which comprised 2,960 acres, mostly around Castleblakeney and Kilconnell. Accordingly he fixed a dispersal sale by auction or public cant at the Fair Green, Kilconnell, of all his livestock, which consisted of:-
"300 Fine Bullocks
80 Cows and Heifers
2 Bulls
40 Horses of all kinds,"
and no less than 3,000 sheep. Enough to stock an Oregan sheep station or a ranch in Wyoming! Lewis Ward's wife was one Donnellan, home from Jamaica. The marriage was a childless one and on his death he was succeeded by his sister, his sole heiress, who had married Andrew Comyn of the Co. Roscommon. The latter was the great-grandfather of the late much esteemed Dr. A. D. Comyn, LL.D., Loughrea.
The aggregate number of cattle and sheep included in the five auction sales referred to by me comes to about 1,200 cattle and 12,000 sheep, and the volume of business transacted at these sales was so extensive that the cattle would nowadays be sufficient to stock over 60 average East Galway farms and with ample sheep to stock three fair sized parishes! From a personal point of view, I hope these auctioneers were as enthusiastic in collecting their commission on sales as they were careful in hiding their identity, because, if so, they must have had some "good hunting."
Contributor's Remarks:The foregoing is partly based on notes made some ten years ago by me from two bound vols. Of The Connacht Journal, once the property of Hardiman, the Galway historian. At that time these newspapers (first published in Galway, October 1754, by Thos. Hutchinson) were in the care of The Galway Chamber of Commerce; since then they have rather mysteriously disappeared therefrom and no trace has been found of them - P.J. K.