School: Irishtown
- Location:
- Milltown, Co. Westmeath
- Teacher: Margaret McNally
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0742, Page 101
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- XML “Local Heroes - Ploughing”
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- About a quarter of a mile from my home there are the ruins of an old house known as "Gannon's house". Long ago there lived in it an old man named Billy Gannon. He was a noted plougher. The old people say that no man in the district could handle a plough like Billie Gannon. He was only a labourer and worked with and stopped in the house with ancestors of the present family of the Banons of Irishtown.When the Banons owned the barony of Skeagh they had most of it under tillage. In one of the fields of Modrenstown there are the tracks of drills and ridges that were ploughed by Billy Gannon, and we still call it " Gannon's scribes ".There was once a competition in Rathconrath for the best ploughing man in the district. The prize was £3 for the best, one pound ten for the next, and ten shillings for the third. Billy Gannon entered. He brought two of Banon's horses and a plough. He was ready and when the other competitors saw him they would not compete. They say they had no business as he was a very good(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Maureen Kelly
- Gender
- Female
- Age
- 14
- Address
- Irishtown, Co. Westmeath
- Informant
- John Mullally
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 76
- Address
- Corkan, Co. Westmeath
