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    Farming in Rural Ireland

    Photos from Ireland

    There are [5] photos from Ireland

    John Keegan (tillage-cropping farmer) stands with pride beside his Clyde’s Dale horse. These are very strong horses which were used by his father when he was farming. They were an invaluable asset to the farmers before the introduction of machinery. John's father used to plough the fields with 2 horses. He tells me that you could plough an acre a day and he reckons you would walk 36 miles in the acre. His father had 30 acres to plough and it took him 9 weeks to finish. Views[1267] John spreads fertiliser on his crop of barely to help it grow. It will take a further 5 mths before it is ready to harvest. It is a relatively easy task now with machinery, in comparison to 50years ago. Aidan Murphy (miller and sawyer) is standing beside the huge circular saw used for cutting timber for roofing houses. The mill and saw were built in the late 1700's and is still being completley operated by water to this day which has been channeled from the river Urrin. Local farmers would bring there grain by horse and cart in sacks weighing 17 or 18 stone. The grain would be ground by french burr stones into flour and oat meal. During the emergency in 1939 -1946, (World War II) each member of the house hold was entitled to1 barrel (20 stone, 125kg) of wheat meal per annum, ½ oz tea and 1lb sugar per week. Views[987] Once every year these mountain sheep are mustered down from mount Lienster where they are sorted into different groups according to age, sex and weight. The farmers start at first light in order to make it back down off the mountain before nightfall. The terrain is too hard for any vehicle and would be a near impossible task without the help of their trusted sheep dogs. The sheep have just reached the foot of the mountain where the rest of the journey to the sorting yards is by a very narrow public road. Views[1433] As Peter Cullen (cattle and sheep farmer) relaxes in his favourite chair he tells me what life was like when he was a ‘young fella’. “It was a three mile walk to school which was done in their bare feet from April through to Sept. In them days school bags were made out of a sack with a string to carry it across your shoulder. Many kids didn’t stay in school for very long, most children coming from a farming community would leave at the age of 13 or 14 to start farming.” Views[966]
     

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