School: Gleann Guail, Dúrlas Éile
- Location:
- New Birmingham, Co. Tipperary
- Teacher: Máire Ní Dhubhsháine
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0563, Page 289
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- XML School: Gleann Guail, Dúrlas Éile
- XML Page 289
- XML “Local Fairs”
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- All the people of this district sell their cattle in Urlingford, Killenaule, and Thurles but sometimes the buyers come to the farmer's houses and buy the cattle, most of them have men for driving the cattle and they are called drovers. When the farmer sells his cattle at the fair he then drives them to the railway station and the buyer meets him there and pays him by cheque. It is a custom when the bargain is made to have the buyer slap the man that he bought from on the hand and another custom is to spit on the money for luck. The buyer also marks his cattle by chalking the two first letters of his name on their sides with a piece of chalk or by a number. Another way is to clip some of the hair off the side of the animals and the buyer dips his bunán in the mud and nubs it to the animals' sides.
All the fairs are held in the streets and if you were in the town on a fair day you could hardly pick your steps through the cattle because they are always up on the side walk and up against the windows. Before a fair the shop-keepers put railings before their houses to protect them. In towns when the fairs are over(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Thomas Kiely
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- New Birmingham, Co. Tipperary
