Fair days in Callan

BY JOHN FITZGERALD

e buyers at the fowl market in Fair Day included the Flynns and Youngs of Waterford; From Carrick came the Kirbys, Meaneys, Dunphys, Daniels, and Aylwards. e Ayres and the Slaters of Kilkenny and the Barrons of Ballyhale never missed a market day.

Foremost among the buyers was “Turkey Tycoon”, Mrs. Slater of Kilkenny. Wearing a big hat and a shawl, she was driven by stagecoach to Callan to snap up the best of the fowl. A Mr. Shearman inspected the birds for her, to ensure they were “up to standard.”

Carmel Kealy described the colourful scene on fowl market day: “To begin with, the people had to go to the market house and pay six-pence for a ticket to stick on their carts bearing the cargos of birds. e carts lined up from the market house to way beyond the cross, and for the Michaelmas fair they would reach down Mill Street as far as the friary. at was the big day, as turkeys and geese would also be there for the English market.

“ at was the day the woman of the house planned to get winter clothes for the family-boots for some, coats for others. at was their pocket money to spend as they wished. ere was also a sideline trade in bags of spuds, turnips, etc. Jack Walsh (West Street) was there behind the scales to weigh them all.” e price of fowl was small enough, Peter Roughan remembered: “A pullet could be bought for a bob, and if you invested in a “boiling hen” you could expect a couple of pence change out of a shilling. And every penny counted. If she sold a few fowl, a mother might buy a pair of buttoned boots for a young lad down at Pollards in Bridge Street or above in Shelly’s for four-andsixpence.” e Saturday following the Tuesday fowl day was busy too. e Town hall-or Market House- went back into action as sellers brought their loads of spuds, turnips, mangolds, hay, and straw, to be weighed. Often the hall would be choc-a-bloc with bags of spuds, foodstu s, and bog turf. e turf was used to kindle coal res.

Peggie Croke of Clonagoose drove many an ass and cartload of hand turf, selling each consignment for about seven bob to one or other of the local shops. A Mrs. Barry from Kilkenny had her second-hand clothes stall by the Churchyard railings in Green Street for the Saturday market.

Jack Gardiner remembered a

Willie Costello who weighed the turkeys. And he recalled a woman who entered his pub “at all hours of the morning” one Fair Day. On the verge of exhaustion, the lady was shivering with the cold and told Jack she had travelled more than thirty miles on an ass and cart with her consignment of turkeys.

But after two hot whiskeys, sipped leisurely in front of a blazing turf and coal re, she was “rearing to go”. She sold her turkeys and was, Jack noticed, “delighted with herself.” e 37-year-old practising e SNP’s unity, which had been one of its strengths, broke down over arguments about how to achieve a second independence referendum and the best way to introduce social reforms such as transgender rights.

Humza Yousaf is Scotland’s new leader after a bitterly fought contest that exposed deep divisions in his party over policy and a stalled independence campaign.

Muslim succeeds Nicola Sturgeon as leader of the governing Scottish National Party (SNP) and will take over as head of the semi-autonomous government once he wins an approval vote in the Scottish parliament.

Mr Yousaf, who will be the rst Muslim to lead a country in western Europe, said he would concentrate on tackling the cost-of-living crisis, ending the divisions in the party, and making a renewed push for independence.

“ e people of Scotland need independence now more than ever before and we will be the generation that delivers independence,” he said in a speech in Edinburgh after the results were announced.

Born in April 1985, Mr Yousaf was privately educated and got a job working with MSP Bashir Ahmad in 2007 meaning, like so many SNP MSPs and MPs, he has worked in politics almost his entire adult life. Since then he has held the briefs of transport, justice and health secretary with little success amid claims he has been allowed to ‘fail upwards’ by the party.

Mr Yousaf married Nadia ElNakla in 2019. A trained psychotherapist, Ms El-Nakla was elected as an SNP councillor for Dundee in 2022.

Mr Yousaf’s victory was conrmed at Murray eld Stadium after a six-week campaign where the three candidates spent much of the contest criticising each other’s record in a series of personal attacks.

Mr Yousaf takes over a party with an overriding objective to end Scotland’s three-centu-