School: Maolach Mór (roll number 12173)
- Location:
- Meelick More, Co. Mayo
- Teacher: Seán Mac Coisdealbha
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0099, Page 234
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- XML “Local Fairs”
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- (continued from previous page)Once people came long distances for to attend a noted cattle fair. They would not go to bed at all the night before the fair. They would be up all night getting ready. Some old men would be afraid in going to bed at all that night through fear of not waking in time for it. They would leave the house at about four a.m. and reach the fair green at about seven a.m. They would light lanterns in winter to show them the way to the fair. They would have big ash-plants for driving the beasts.
After selling the animals and buying more, they would keep going round the town looking for fight. They would go into a public-house and demand free drink in it. They paid for some drink and demanded more. They would be very drunk afterwards and start singing and shouting and falling on the streets. About 9p.m. they would return for home challenging all the people on the road to fight.
There is a fairgreen outside the town to which cattle are brought. Sheep are brought to Church St. and Main St. and horses to the Square. Some cattle are brought to the Railway Station if a jobber buys them and sent to another district or another country.
