Agriculture and its Heritage in South Armagh and South Down

Threshing at Mussen’s Mill, near Hilltown, in the 1930s. Photograph includes Canon Murphy, George Mussen and Tommy Gribben. Courtesy of Mary Savage

Réamhrá an Chathaoirligh

Is mór an pleisiúir domh réamhrá a scríobh sa leabhrán a ghabhann leis an taispeántas An Talmhaíocht agus a hOidhreacht in Ard Mhacha Theas agus sa Dún Theas. Bhíodh eacnamaíocht bheo talmhaíochta thar na céadta i ndeisceart Ard Mhacha agus an Dúin thar na blianta. Ag baint úsáide as réimse leathan de chaipéisí, ghrianghraif agus nithe, rianaíonn an taispeántas seo stair na talmhaíochta sa cheantar agus pléitear an fheirmeoireacht sna tréimhsí réamhstairiúla agus sna meánaoiseanna, tionchar na dtiarnaí talún sa 17ú haois, 18ú haois agus 19ú haois, tús na nAchtanna Talaimh agus athruithe i bhfeirmeoireacht le fiche nó tríocha bliain anuas.

Díríonn an taispeántas seo ar na feirmeoireachtaí áirithe sa cheantar seo, ina measc saothrú na mbarr curaíochta, eallach déiríochta agus mairteola, pórú muc agus caorach, táirgeadh uibheacha agus iascaireacht. Pléitear forbairtí i dteicneolaíocht feirmeoireachta, oideachas na bhfeirmeoirí in éineacht le tionscail atá bainteach le feirmeoireacht, leithéidí cheártaí an ghabha agus muilleoireachta a chur faoi chaibidil.

Tugann na nithe atá ar taispeáint léargas do pháistí agus do dhaoine óga ar chleachtais feirmeoireachta agus ar shaol na tuaithe sna laethanta fadó. Chomh maith leis sin tig leis an taispeántas cuimhní na ndaoine scothaosta a mhúscailt.

Thar ceann na hIarsmalainne ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leo siúd a d’fhreagair achainí na hIarsmalainne ar lorg déantúsán, caipéisí agus eolais. Tá muid fíorbhuíoch as a gcuid flaithiúlachta.

An Comhairleoir Róisín Uí Mhaolchraoibhe Cathaoirleach Chomhairle Ceantair an Iúir, Mhúrn agus an Dúin

Chairperson’s Foreword

I am delighted to write the foreword to this exhibition booklet which accompanies Agriculture and its Heritage in South Armagh and South Down.

South Armagh and south Down have supported a vibrant agricultural economy for centuries. Using a wide range of documents, photographs and objects this exhibition traces the history of agriculture in the area highlighting what farming was like in the prehistoric and medieval periods, the impact of local landlords in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the introduction of the Land Acts and changes in farming in more recent decades.

The exhibition focuses on the different types of agriculture in the area including the cultivation of arable crops, dairy and beef cattle, sheep and pig breeding, egg production and fishing. Developments in farming technology and education for farmers are considered and farming-related industries such as blacksmiths’ forges and milling are explored.

The material on display will give children and young people an insight into farming practices and life in the countryside in days gone by and stimulate memories among older people.

On behalf of the Museum, I would like to thank all those who responded to the Museum’s appeal for artefacts, documents and information. Their generosity is much appreciated.

Councillor Roisin Mulgrew Chair of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council

Introduction

Farming in Newry and Mourne

Around 6,000 years ago Ireland’s economy changed from hunting, gathering and fishing to a settled way of life made possible by domestication of livestock and cultivation of cereals.

These first farmers were Neolithic people who kept animals such as cattle, sheep and pigs and grew wheat and barley. At this time, Ireland was densely wooded, and the farmers first settled in upland areas where the woodland was sparser, but the soils still fertile. Woodlands were cleared using stone axes and rudimentary fields laid out.

It is difficult to find traces of the Neolithic farmers in the landscape, their most enduring legacy is the megalithic tombs they built. South Armagh and south Down are rich in these monuments including Ballymacdermot Court tomb, Slieve Gullion Passage Tomb and Goward Portal Tomb.

Farming continued into the Bronze Age and Iron Age with metal tools such as sickles and metal axes being used. Habitation sites from this period are very rare and probably one of the best known is a lakeside settlement, dating from the Bronze Age, excavated at Cullyhanna Lough.

In the Early Christian Period (400 AD -1170 AD) dairy cattle were important and sheep were reared for wool and food. Quern stones have been found at many local excavated sites, showing the importance of barley, oats and wheat.

The main monument in the landscape dating from this period are raths, which have been interpreted as homesteads built primarily to house a farming family and some livestock. Examples of local raths include

Corliss Fort near Crossmaglen and Clonallon Rath, near Warrenpoint.

The 12th century saw the introduction of continental monastic orders into Ireland and the arrival of the Anglo-Normans. A Cistercian abbey was founded in Newry in 1152 and the Cistercians organised their estates into granges which were individual farms run by lay brothers. It was a mixed economy comprising crops and livestock.

The Anglo-Normans introduced a manorial economy which involved a system of manors with a castle as the estate centre. A local example is Greencastle which was built in the early 13th century and the adjoining lands were granted out to tenants who cultivated the land. In Gaelic areas cattle were a measure of wealth and status. Crops were also cultivated, including flax for production of cloth and oats for foodstuff. Elements of rural society were semi-nomadic with people moving around the countryside with their ‘creaghts’ (herds) of cattle in search of fresh pasture.

The 16th century saw fundamental changes in landownership in Ireland. The aftermath of the dissolution of the monasteries in the late 1530s and the Plantation of Ulster in the early 17th century meant that significant amounts of land were granted to, or purchased by, English or Scottish settlers.

The estates of the Cistercian abbey at Newry along with Greencastle were granted to Sir Nicholas Bagenal in 1552. Bagenal attracted English and Welsh settlers to the area and developed his estates. He also retained Gaelic families such as Magennis, McManus and O’Hanlons. A rent roll of the estate compiled in 1575 show that his tenants were rearing cattle, sheep, pigs and fowl. Crops were also grown and there was cultivation of fruit.

During the 18th and early 19th centuries there was a gradual modernisation of agriculture in Ireland as landlords attempted to make their estates more profitable. An aspect of this was ‘enclosure’ and the implementation of leaseholds, whereby a tenant held land from a landlord on agreed terms. A feature of agriculture in the Mourne area was the rundale system in which extended families held land on a joint tenancy. This involved potato gardens, cultivated ‘infields’, pastoral ‘outfields’ and

transhumance or ‘booleying’ to summer pastures in the Mournes. Potatoes were the main subsistence crop, and the cash crop was oats.

The over-reliance on potatoes, with the outbreak of potato blight in 1845, led to the Great Famine. Death and emigration irrevocably changed the social

Turf stacks at Belleek, south Armagh, in the 1930s. Turf has been cut and harvested for centuries to provide fuel and is still an important part of the agricultural economy in rural economy.

Courtesy of Armagh County Museum

structure of Irish society and the agricultural landscape. Mass evictions had seen families forced from their holdings: ‘cottier’ and landless labourer classes were decimated and estates burdened by debt were sold. The aftermath of the Great Famine led to a downturn in agricultural incomes. Tenant farmers demanded a reduction in their rents from the landlord and the resulting political agitation eventually resulted in the first of a number of Land Acts being passed in 1881. These ultimately gave tenant farmers the right to buy their farms.

The First and Second World War had consequences for these small farmers. With many farmers and agricultural labourers serving in the armed services, women worked on the land, taking on traditional male roles. Shortages in foodstuffs meant that farms increased productivity and, particularly during the Second World War, farmers turned over their pastoral land to the production of root crops.

During the 1940s and 1950s farm mechanisation increased. Tractors and new types of machinery became more widespread, revolutionising arable farming. The introduction of electricity into rural areas facilitated the use of milking machines and milking parlours, increasing dairy yields. Changes in rearing livestock for meat also increased production levels.

After centuries of heritage, farming remains of vital importance to the economy of south Armagh and south Down. Many small farmers are now contemplating what exit from the European Union will mean for agriculture in the area.

Planting potatoes at the Glen, near Hilltown, May 1931. Pictured left to right are Joey, John, Frank and Peter Owen Murphy and their cousin, Peter McConville.

Courtesy of Mary Savage

North East Agricultural Show, Newry, 1879 opened by the Duke of Marlborough, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Newry and Mourne Museum Collection

Cattle being driven along the street in Rathfriland in the 1950s Newry and Mourne Museum Collection

The medieval lordship of Mourne

Ken Abraham

Although the motte at Greencastle indicates an Anglo-Norman presence in the area during the late 12th or early 13th century, the lordship of Mourne was probably not created until the construction of the large stone castle by Hugh de Lacy, earl of Ulster in the 1230s or 1240s. Greencastle was one of a number of castles built by the earls of Ulster around the Ulster coastline including Dundrum, Carrickfergus and also Greencastle in county Donegal.

Evidence for the structure of the lordship of Mourne is sparse. Our first glimpse of the landholding structure on the lordship comes from a survey (inquisition post mortem) of the estate carried out after the murder of William de Burgh, earl of Ulster in 1333. The survey shows that the manor included sixty acres in demesne and a further three carucates (a carucate comprised about 120 acres) which had been under ‘the lord’s plough’. This land was recorded as ‘waste, owing to the war of the Irish and want of tenants.’ The survey also lists land held by tenants who appear to have been entirely Irish. Only several places, which were probably significant, can be identified with modern place names including Dunnaval, Ballymartin, Cranfield and Tullyframe. The lordship of Mourne also contained a borough town which had been burned and a manorial court.

The 1333 inquisition post mortem emphasises the raiding pressure from the Irish which Greencastle apparently endured throughout the medieval period and its destructive consequences for the profitability of the estate. However, this did not deter several magnates in the 15th century from acquiring Greencastle and its estate to enhance their landed wealth. These included

Janico Dartas who rose to prominence in Ireland in the early 15th century and the earls of Kildare who were expanding their power base from the 1490s until 1534.

Quite a detailed survey of the lordship of Mourne was undertaken in 1540 as part of a general survey of royal estates in Ireland for Henry VIII. This survey describes the castle as ‘ruined and decayed’. It records a number of ‘towns’ (villa) which were in the vicinity of the castle and comprised the demesne. Some of these towns can be identified with modern townlands including Dunnaval and Grange. Each of these towns was described as containing arable land and pasture.

The remaining lands were held by Irish tenants, each of whom held a number of towns. For example, Donald og Magennis held lands which included Leitrim, Aughrim, Moyad, Drumcro and Drumindoney. The lands held by the Irish tenants also comprised arable and pasture. Significantly the rents were paid either in money or in cows, reflecting cattle as the traditional measure of wealth in Gaelic Irish society.

The lordship and manor of Mourne was granted to Sir Nicholas Bagenal and became the basis of the Mourne estate of the Nedham (Needham) family, later Earls of Kilmorey, which they inherited from the Bagenals in 1712.

Detail from Robert Lythe’s map of the county Down coast c.1570 showing Greencastle and the lordship of Mourne. The lordship of Mourne is described as having ‘good arable ground and also good pasture and meadow.’

© Crown copyright TNA MPF/89

Farming in Donaghmore in the mid 19th century

Joanne Cummins

James Harshaw was a prominent Donaghmore farmer, playing an important role in the local affairs of the Parish, five miles north of Newry. Much is known about agricultural life in the area due to his diaries which span the period from the 1830s to the 1860s.

Although the Harshaw homestead was in the townland of Ringbane, James leased land in the neighbouring townlands of Ardkeragh, Annaghbane and Ringolish. In 1846 Hill Irvine became his landlord when he purchased the Donaghmore Estate for £11,000.

James was a progressive farmer who worked to improve the land by sowing clover, manuring the ground and using lime, brought from the lime kilns at Faughart to increase the productivity of the soil. His main crops were oats, flax, wheat, root crops, potatoes and hay. Seeds and fertilizers, including guano, were purchased from suppliers in nearby towns, such as McBlain and Co. in Newry.

Donaghmore had its own Farming Society, which held an annual cattle show and ploughing match. At the Society’s cattle show held at the Fourmile House on the 9th October 1843, James Harshaw notes in his diary; “… got a silver meddle from the Royal Agricultural Improvement Society of Ireland for the best bull.”

James had a small herd of cows and also kept small numbers of sheep and pigs, with piglets sold on to other farmers to rear. Horses provided a means of transport and were used to work the fields. Turkeys were taken to Newry to be sold in December and eels were also a caught in the lough. His diary dated 23rd

A portrait miniature of James Harshaw D4149/B/1 reproduction by kind permission of the Deputy Keeper of the Records, Public Record Office Northern Ireland

June 1862 records, “… run the lough for eels, more than a tun of them was caught in the eel wire... 24th . . . great tack of eels, about 22 cwt waight of them, which was sold to McMahon, the eelman at 6 s pir cwt.” Produce was bought and sold at local fairs and markets at Sheepbridge, Poyntzpass, Banbridge, Scarva, Camlough, Rathfriland and Newry.

Local mills also played an important part in farming life. Flax was sent to the mill at Loughorne for scutching, before being sold to linen producers in Bessbrook and Tandragee. Oats and wheat were sent to be ground in Glasker Mill or dried in Glasker kiln.

Farming was labour intensive and James records in his annual accounts the amounts paid to male and female labourers, many of them local and employed on a casual basis. Others were employed at the hiring fair in May and November, such as William Davison who was hired to serve for half a year for £3 10 pence on the 7th November 1859. His accommodation for the six months, shared with other labourers, was the sheep house. In 1861 he notes, “sheephouse likely to be burned by the boys neglecting to put out the candel before they fel asleep.” On this occasion, his daughter Sarah put out the fire with milk.

Work was seasonal; one of the summer jobs was to make mud turf on the bogs at Annaghbane, Ringbane and Kiddstown. Many labourers were involved in the process, with up to seventeen making mud on one occasion. A mud hole was created, the peat broken

Advertisement for Peruvian Guano in a seed catalogue from McBlain and Company, Hill Street, Newry. Newry and Mourne Museum Collection

up and water added. When the required consistency was reached the mud was shoveled out and spread on level ground to harden and cake into turf. The turf was then cut and footed to allow it to dry out further before being clamped and finally stacked. The turf remained in the bog to dry before being brought back and stored in the turf house in the autumn.

The cutting of the last sheaf of the harvest, known as ‘cutting the churn’, was also recorded. This was usually followed by a celebratory meal; 6th September 1852“… ended sheering, cut the churn on the well field. .. John played the fiddle and the sheerers danced.” The “churn” was taken to the farmhouse and either kept until the spring, when the grain was removed and sown, or until the following harvest, when the grain was fed to the animals. Although this signified the end of the grain harvest, work continued throughout the year.

Farming in Ballyholland during the 1930s and 1940s

Eddie McAteer was interviewed by Noreen Cunningham for his memories of farming life in October 2004.

In the 1930s and 1940s there were a number of small farms in Ballyholland townland, outside Newry, ranging from six to nine acres in size. My father, who had come home from America around 1926, bought a small farm adjacent to our own, called ‘Quinns’. It was about four acres in size, and he bought it for £50. It wasn’t great land, as it was very rocky, but most of the land round Ballyholland was like that, and it was once known as the ‘Stoney Quarter’.

At that time ploughing was carried out with horses and crops were grown in rotation, for example you would grow potatoes, the next year oats, and then maybe a crop of hay.

I sowed oat and grass seed by hand using a meal bag. I would cut it, and tie it up round my neck, then fill it with nearly half a hundred weight of oat seed. I preferred to sow by hand, rather than use a seed fiddle, as I could do it more evenly and I could sow about a three yards width walking down the field.

During the war years the government introduced ‘compulsory tillage’, which meant the farmers had to plant most of their land with crops such as oats and potatoes.

Most small farms kept a few pigs, and the type of pig kept was commonly known as the ‘York’ or Large White Pig; it was easy to fatten and was resistant to disease. They were fed boiled potatoes and yellow meal or Indian corn, and if you had a cow, some buttermilk.

Hay stacks on a farm in south Armagh in the 1930s. Hay stacks were used to store hay before haysheds became more prevalent in the 1950s. Farmers carefully constructed the haystacks in such a way that rain ran off and did not penetrate the hay.

Courtesy of Armagh County Museum

Most farms of nine or ten acres, would have kept a couple of cattle, which were usually a breed known as Shorthorn, as continental breeds were not in vogue at this stage. A cow and a calf, and maybe the previous year’s calf were usually kept. If the latter was a male, a bullock, it would have been fattened up and sold at about two years of age at the local fair, or to another farmer.

Women would have played a large part in farming, because the small acreage wouldn’t have been enough to keep a family. The husband would have had another job, and most of the menfolk around Ballyholland were employed in the quarries. So while the men were at work, the women were at home feeding the pigs and keeping hens to produce eggs for sale.

I remember my mother planting potatoes. The drills would have been prepared by a local ploughman, and my mother would drop the potatoes onto the drills. When my father came home from work, my mother had drills of potatoes ready for him to cover with the spade, and that’s the way the majority of the local people farmed.

All the farmers would have kept a garden, and I remember my father planting beetroot, carrots, radishes, celery and parsley. We were nearly selfsufficient and only a few items such as flour, tea, salt, sugar and bacon were purchased in the shops.

c.1940s, on a farm near Kilkeel.

Farm labourers having a break during the harvest

Courtesy of Rae McGonigle

Fruit of the Sea

Anna Marie McClelland

As an island, fishing has always been economically and socially important to Ireland and since people first arrived here, about 9,000 years ago, the sea has provided both a means of transport and a source of food.

In the 18th century, Newry was one of the premier trading ports in Ulster, but smaller ports also developed along the coastline of southeast County Down. In the Mournes, Kilkeel and Annalong were important for exporting granite and for the fishing industry.

Commercial fishing in Kilkeel only became established in the mid 19th century. Fish, especially herring, were abundant in the bay but there was no harbour or shelter to accommodate or develop this resource to its full potential. The first pier was built in 1866 to accommodate up to twenty-four boats. At that time there were already twenty or so boats in Kilkeel so it became inadequate almost as soon as it was finished. From 1872, through a government grant and subscriptions from Lord Kilmorey and local merchants, Kilkeel developed into one of the most important herring fishing centres along the east coast. By 1890, with the building of the South Pier and the ‘Old Dock’, Kilkeel’s business accounted for more than a third of all herring landed in Ireland.

Throughout the 20th century the fishing industry in Kilkeel, experienced many highs and lows; the industry profited from inflated prices during and after the First World War but the post-war economic slump caused a dramatic decline. The introduction of the seine net in the early 1920s, enabled the fishermen to catch deepfeeding species such as cod, whiting, sole and plaice

for the first time, and this enabled the whiting winter fishery to grow and by the end of the 1930s was very important for the region.

From 1971-73 the harbour closed for construction work to enlarge the inner basin at Kilkeel harbour. During this time the Kilkeel fleet operated from Warrenpoint. This new inner basin doubled the size of the harbour; a new quay was also built and the harbour deepened.

Until recently there were around 1200 people employed directly or indirectly in the fishing industry at Kilkeel, with about 120 boats based in the harbour. However, over-production and over-fishing became a major problem leading to the introduction of quotas to conserve fish stocks.

To many the future is uncertain for Kilkeel’s fishing fleet but it has a healthy history of adaptability and versatility in overcoming economic hardship and a willingness to adapt to survive.

Kilkeel Harbour pictured c.1920 Courtesy of Bill Quinn

Prawn fishing in the Irish Sea, c.1950s Courtesy of Bill Quinn

Harvesting the wrack at Mill Bay, near

Greencastle

For centuries farmers around Mill Bay, on the north shore of Carlingford Lough, have harvested wrack (or seaweed) for use as fertilizer on their land. The wrack was harvested from artificial wrack beds constructed using stones laid out on the wide sands at Mill Bay. Peter McAlinden from Glenloughan townland on the shore of Mill Bay shares his memories of harvesting the wrack in his lifetime.

My earliest memories of farming go back to the early 1950s, so I have to rely on the stories of my father and mother, John and Ellen McAlinden, who farmed two ten acre small holdings in the townlands of Ballygowan and Milltown, for the work relating to the wrack harvest. Although my parents had a few cows for milk and butter, hens and also grew oats, their main cash crop was potatoes and the only fertilizer they had for the potatoes was the wrack from Mill Bay.

My mother used to talk about taking stones from the fields or the rounded boulders from the Cassey Water to make the wrack beds. The seaweed grew on the stones. The men from the mountains would take stones down to the shore and place them out on what seemed to be big long strips, like very small fields or gardens. Farmers in the local townlands owned rights to harvesting wrack form these individual beds.

Wrack was harvested from mid-February until June. They tried to get the potatoes in before St. Patrick’s Day and they also used wrack for growing turnips. The wrack was cut with a hook or sickle. This was cold, backbreaking work. My mother’s two sisters would go away in the middle of the night to follow the out-going tide and start to cut the wrack which grew on

Transporting wrack from the wrack beds to a farm in Ballyardel, near Kilkeel, in the 1960s. Newry and Mourne Museum Collection

the stones away out on the channel edge. To me it was a long walk, the few times I went out with them, about half an hour or forty-five minutes.

Once cut, the wrack was placed in a large pile encircled with a rope, sometimes made from twisted seaweed. As the tide came back in the wrack floated and was then towed ashore by a boatman for a distance of one or one and a half miles. As the tide turned the wrack was left on the beach to lose some of its moisture. The wrack was then loaded by hand using a “graipe” or fourpronged fork on to carts pulled by horses or, in more recent times, on to tractors and trailers and taken to the farms. I remember travelling in a green lorry loaded with wrack all the way to Old Town, a district above Annalong, with my uncle-in-law, to his farm there. Storms would often rip the seaweed off the stones and the wrack would be blown onto the shore at Mill Bay. This was known as ‘inblown wrack’. The shore at the high tide mark was measured out in equal parts known as ‘divides’ and the wrack in each divide was auctioned off.

My mother often recalled the hard times she and her sisters endured cutting and spreading the wrack, the placing and replacing of stones or raising them when they sometimes sank into the seabed. She had stories of

being threatened with court if they moved a stone from a neighbouring bed or even if they cut the wrack that grew from across the neighbouring lanes.

Section of a map dating from the 1830s showing the wrack beds at Mill Bay Newry and Mourne Museum Collection

Linda White recounted her memories of her family’s farming background to Noreen Cunningham in August 2017.

My father Jack White was born in 1919 and he had four siblings; Tillie, Tommy, Ella and Sadie. Their mother died young, but the family was fortunate in having close neighbourly ties with another farming family, the McClorys. Many years later, in an interview to the Mourne Observer in 1983, my uncle Tommy described Mrs McClory as being ‘like a second mother to me.”

Tommy White and Sam Jackson pictured taking a cup of tea during ploughing with horses Dick and Chips, at Ballynaskeagh, in 1942. With a keen interest in ploughing by horse, Tommy White helped found a ploughing club, and was Chairman of Annaclone Ploughing Club for a number of years.

Newry and Mourne Museum Collection

Thomas McCrum, Sam Burns, Tommy White and Jack White pictured working at the flax dam, Ballynaskeagh in 1941. After pulling the flax by hand, the flax was placed in a flax dam and weighted down with stones. The ‘retting’ or rotting process broke down the woody matter to release the flax fibre before it was ‘scutched’ in a local scutch mill.

Newry and Mourne Museum Collection

In the same article, my uncle Tommy described how he was the fourth generation to farm their 70 acres. He described how it was not until the late 1930s that the first tractors started to be used in the locality. During the war years (1939 – 1945) horses continued to be used for ploughing at Ballynaskeagh. The family grew crops of oats, roots, potatoes, hay and, during the war years, flax was an important crop and the flax fibres were sold to nearby linen mills such as Bessbrook. Pigs were also raised, killed by the local pig butcher and brought to the bacon curing factories in Newry.

Tommy also recounted how his father hired labourers on a yearly basis in local hiring fairs. They were usually from Mullaghbawn and were provided with accommodation, meals and a wage that averaged about twelve shillings a week. Close ties of friendship often continued, years after the custom of hiring had died out.

Memories of a farming family, the White family of Ballynaskeagh and Ballynagross, County Down

Jeannie Hutchinson pictured with her flock of turkeys, Brague, 1941. Poultry keeping was an important source of income for farming families. Turkeys were kept to sell at Christmas. Newry and Mourne Museum Collection

After Ella and then Tommy got married, Tillie, Sadie and Jack moved to Ballynagross where they had a mixed farm of about 50 acres. In 1954 Sadie left for the Edinburgh College of Domestic Science and Jack married Anna Waddell, who was from Ardkeragh, Ouley.

Although the White family had used horses on their farm at Ballynaskeagh, technology had moved on and my father used an Allis-Chalmers tractor. Each year he grew a field of corn and a field of barley and a few drills of potatoes for the family. He made hay each summer for feeding the livestock over the winter months.

My father kept two cows, pigs and around 40 sheep, and I remember as a child going with my father in the car with a trailer of pigs to the bacon factory on the Armagh Road, Newry.

Poultry were also kept, and the eggs were collected every Wednesday by a man called Bobby Carson, who

took them to Harvey’s Egg Store in Banbridge. My mother prepared the eggs for sale by cleaning them with an emery board and washing them and then packing them in egg boxes.

My mother did not make butter, but my aunt Ella McCallister was an accomplished butter maker.

Receipts kept by my father and mother show they invested in the farm at Ballynagross over the years. In 1963, a local firm, Stewart & James of Rathfriland supplied and erected a hayshed for my father for £518. Another receipt records my father and his neighbour, Owen McClory, buying a hay flash at a cost of £109 between them from J. & M. Elliott of Banbridge, in July 1967.

Neighbourly collaboration was an essential part of farming life to ensure crops were harvested and these ties of friendship and support often endured over a number of generations.

Helping out at the harvest at Ballynaskeagh, 1941. Pictured, from left to right, Sam Burns, Tommy White, Harry McClory, Owen McClory, Tom Nelson, Tom McCrum, Charles McCrum and Isaac Watt. Newry and Mourne Museum Collection

Farming Co-operatives

Declan Carroll

An agricultural co-operative, also known as a farmers’ co-op, is usually a business venture whereby farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activity. A small number of co-operative stores were in existence in Ireland since the 1860s, but progress was limited. The formation of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society Ltd. (IAOS) by Sir Horace Plunkett in 1894, sought to provide an overarching organisational structure for these small co-operatives, providing farming advice, business expertise and financial assistance when necessary.

Despite initial suspicions of farmers, and fear that cooperation would be a threat to traders and shopkeepers, by the autumn of 1903 over 800 different societies had been established. The membership was estimated at about 80,000, representing some 400,000 persons.

Many of these evolved into multi-purpose agricultural societies, processing milk into butter, selling agricultural products, and making short-term credit available to farmers.

After the partition of Ireland in 1922 the IAOS was forced to divide itself into two entities, the IAOS in the south and the newly-created Ulster Agricultural Organisation Society in the north.

Local co-operatives include Loughbrickland Creamery which was established around 1901 due to the efforts of Father Greenan and the Reverend Lusk, and was managed by Loughbrickland Co-operative Agricultural and Dairy Society (Ltd.). A contemporary account stated that the “…creamery extends its operations for a radius of ten miles around. … The creamery supplies

the carts - long, low, commodious vehicles, specially constructed, and smartly painted in blue and red … Every member of the society or other contributor of milk puts out his tall cans, and the carts pick them up in larger and larger numbers as they approach the centre of operations.”

Other local examples include Hilltown Farmers Attested Sales Ltd. formed in 1959 and the Mourne Sheep Breeders Association set up in 1937. Co-operative societies are important for the farming community and some are now large businesses processing food, selling equipment and livestock feed.

Loughbrickland Creamery, c.1930 Newry and Mourne Museum Collection

Rams being inspected at the Mourne Sheep Breeders Assocation sale at Hilltown, c.1962.

Courtesy of Mary Savage

Nine generations of farming at Ballykeel Farm

Ken Abraham

Ballykeel Farm came to the Orr family in 1825 on the marriage of Francis Orr to Eliza, daughter of Richard Trimble. Richard Trimble had been in possession of land in the townland of Ballykeel on the county Down coast between Kilkeel and Ballymartin since November 1797 when he had leased it from the Kilmorey Estate.

A document, dating from November 1881, produced as a result of the Land Law (Ireland) Act, passed in that year, in which tenant farmers could petition for a fixed rent, provides us with a glimpse of the farm around that time and the improvements made by the Orr family during the early decades of the 19th century. In this document, the farm is described as being “in a very barren state” and “without fences of any kind” when it passed to Francis Orr in 1825. Subsequent improvements carried out by Francis Orr’s son, William, and his grandson, also called Francis, included draining a bog “by arterial drainage”, building a dwelling house at the cost of £300 and improving fences. Between £40 and £50 had been spent on fences.

The document describes the land as hilly with a gravel and sandy subsoil, exposed to winds, and liable to drought. Crops grown on the farm in 1881 included potatoes, oats, flax and wheat.

During the 20th century Ballykeel Farm has also seen developments, particularly with regard to the farm buildings. The orchard was removed due to a roadwidening scheme and additional larger sheds were built in the 1950s and 1970s. The dwelling house was also extended and a bungalow was built in 1976.

Two aerial photographs of Ballykeel Farm from the 1960s and 1990s showing how the farm has developed in recent decades. Courtesy of Keith and Anne Orr

Ballykeel Farm now comprises 40 acres and has been farmed for the past eight years by Keith Orr, the eighth generation of the family to own the farm. Keith developed an interest in farming as a child when he spent a lot of time with his grandfather, Francis Orr, who died in 1983. Keith remembers bringing in the cows for milking along with his older brother, Alan, from as young as five and growing vegetables in the greenhouse when he was older. Although his grandfather had kept pigs, sheep and chickens, and Keith’s father had dairy cattle and grew potatoes, Keith now focuses on potatoes and beef cattle. The potatoes are sold to local people and to local retail outlets.

Gareth and Daisy Orr helping with the potato harvest on their father’s farm at Ballykeel in the summer of 2017. A potato harvester can be seen in the background. Courtesy of houstongreen.com

Growing potatoes goes back through many generations of the Orr family at Ballykeel. At one time the main fertiliser for the crop was inblown wrack (seaweed) from the Ballykeel shore but nowadays commercial fertiliser is used. The soil is tested and the fertiliser is customised to each field.

Keith Orr, and his wife, Anne, have two children, Gareth and Daisy, and they are the ninth generation of the family at Ballykeel Farm since 1797.

Demonstration of a power tiller which is used for breaking up soil, near Downpatrick in October 1974. This machine was part of the range of farm machinery sold by Robert Sands Ltd in Newry. Newry and Mourne Museum Collection

A mower conditioner on display at the Royal Ulster Argricultural Society’s annual show at Balmoral, Belfast, in May 1975. This machine is used for harvesting grass crops, which cuts the crop and treats it to speed the drying process.

Newry and Mourne Museum Collection

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to the staff, interns and volunteers of Newry and Mourne Museum for their assistance in this exhibition and accompanying booklet:

Declan Carroll

Joanne Cummins

Lauren Devaney-Quigley

Joanne Glymond

Caroline Hegarty

Gary Martin

Anna Marie McClelland

Amanda McKinstry

Dympna Tumilty

Dr Robert Whan

We would also like to extend a special thanks to those who contributed to the exhibition through articles for the booklet, donations, loans, expertise or memories including:

Sean Barden, Armagh County Museum

Bernie Downey

Catherine Hudson

Houston Green Photography

Peter McAlinden

Eddie McAteer

Ursula Mhic An tSaoir

William McAlpine

Keith and Anne Orr

Public Records Office, Northern Ireland Mary Savage

Francie Turley

Oliver Turley

Linda White

Compiled by Noreen Cunningham and Dr Ken Abraham

Every effort has been made to correctly attribute photographs used in this booklet and accompanying exhibition.

Corn stooks at Moyry Castle, near Meigh, south Armagh, photographed in the 1930s.

Courtesy of Armagh County Museum

Back cover: Owen Murphy selling milk from his horse and cart. Owen Murphy was a dairy farmer in Grinan, near Warrenpoint and also proprietor of The Villa Dairy.

Courtesy of Bernie Downey

Design: G. Watters