extracted from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places by May Blair. COUNTY DOWN Castlewellan was famous over the years for its sheep and cattle fairs which attracted butchers from as far away as Belfast. It once had a small market in brown linen and linen yarns as well as the usual farm produce. Hiring fairs were held on the first days of May and November when prospective hirelings could be seen standing at the market house. According to tradition, Maggie’s Leap outside Newcastle was named after a girl who jumped across the chasm on her way to market with a basket of eggs on her head. There were no markets in Newcastle so presumably Maggie was taking her eggs to either Castlewellan or Dundrum. Good monthly fairs were also held at Mayobridge and Hilltown from about 1850 onwards.       Rathfriland was once one of the best inland market towns in Ulster. All approach roads led uphill to the Market House and weighbridge in Church Square. Each item of produce arrived on its allotted day – pork, oats and grass seed on Tuesday, flax and fowl on Wednesday and so on. The first Wednesday in each month was also the fair day and at the appropriate time it was hiring day as well. On that day a collection of sheep, cattle, donkeys, goats and dogs arrived into the town (on foot) and before long the dealing began. It was a serious business culminating in the words ‘Houl out yer han’, signifying that a deal had been made. The handing over of a luck penny and the sound of smacking palms completed the transaction. Looking at them it was hard to believe that those farmers had probably left home at about three in the morning and walked twenty miles or more, depending on the waywardness of their animals as they passed field gaps and road ends along the way. Poultry arrived quietly, lying in twos in the bottom of a cart with their legs tied. Ducks protested occasionally usually by quacking loudly in chorus. A dealer from Ardglass appeared on market day and sold herrings from a spring-cart. His voice could be heard above the general din ‘Herns alive. Herns alive. Alive an’ kickin’. Sixpence a dozen an’ an extra one for the cat. Herns alive.’ There were all the usual stalls too and a handful of pedlars, musicians and tramps making the most of the opportunities the fair offered.       No town enjoyed its markets and fairs as much as Ballynahinch. Every street had its scene of bustling activity. Cattle and sheep were sold at the fair green, pigs appropriately in Pig Street and beside Smylie’s pub in Meeting Street. Horses went to Dromore Street. The October fair brought droves of foals and ‘six-quarter-olds’ (aged eighteen months). The latter were broken approximately a year later. There were good young horses too, old horses and shelties. Farmers came long distances to the November fair to sell a few cattle and buy a horse for ploughing. When the month of May came round, that horse was sold and calves bought to eat the grass during the growing season. This cycle continued year after year. The price of the horse bought the calves and the price of the calves bought the horse with hopefully a few shillings profit made at each deal.       One dealer from Loughinisland wouldn’t have missed Ballynahinch fair for anything. On one occasion he took pigs to Ballynahinch market and ended up forgetting about the pigs and selling his horse. I daled in horses back an’ forrad you see. (About 1940) I’d brought a litter of pigs into Ballynahinch – suckers [just-weaned piglets] – and I loosed the horse out of the spring-cart up at the market you see. Well I came down to James Cardwell’s yard to put the horse in and this fella stopped me and he says to me, ‘Boy, would you sell that horse?’       Says I, ‘I would certainly.’       ‘Well,’ he says, ‘I’ll be back in ten minutes. There’s a man’ll buy this horse aff ye.’ So I put the horse in the yard and just had all done when him and this other man landed. He says to the other man, ‘That’s the horse and I think he’s a good enough horse.’       ‘Arthur, now that’s a good enough horse definitely,’ I says. ‘I can stan’ over him.’       ‘Well,’ the other man says, ‘What do you want?’       I says, ‘I want sixty-five poun’ for him.’       He says, ‘Would sixty not do you?’       ‘No, it would not. No.’       We argued a while and then Arthur says, ‘Jack, you may divide that fiver with him.’       Then I remembered. Says I, ‘Listen now. I have a litter of pigs to sell and I’ve the spring-cart with me.’       ‘Well,’ Arthur says, ‘That’s all right. In that case we’ll lift the horse the morra mornin.’       And Arthur went away aff and this man says, ‘Come on an’ we’ll get a bottle o’ Guinness here.’ And James Cardwell had a wee back room. And we were maybe fifteen minutes. We had a drink or two an then another one. And another one. And there was a boy come runnin’ in. Says he, ‘You’re a-wantin’ up the street badly. There’s a man stannin’ waitin’ on you.’ So up I went an’ this man says to me, ‘Wait ’til I see yer man. Bringin’ pigs intil Ballynahinch an’ goin’ to a pub an’ drinkin’.’ I says, ‘Listen. I’ve the horse sold an’ I can sell the pigs.’ So I did too.       Then one Saturday mornin’ I went to look at this black horse. And a helluva good horse he was. I says, ‘Is he a good working horse?’ He says, ‘He is. He come out of a hearse in Rathfriland.’ And a good horse he was. I kept him three months and then I sold him till a farmer outside Ballynahinch. Edward Carlisle they called him. He was a dalin’ man too. And the next thing happened was about a month after it oul Billy Poole in Ballynahinch – he was an undertaker – he called me into the bar. He says, ‘ Come in here boy. I want to speak to you boy.’       Says I, ‘ What’s wrong?’ I knew he was angry you see. He says, ‘What was wrong that you couldn’t a toul me you had the black horse? We have a horse here that’s goin’ ‘down the hill’ a bit, an’ when I heered about you sellin’ that horse till Eddie Carlisle – a black horse! And when I foun’ out where he come from!’       I says, ‘Listen. I didn’t know anything about the horse. The only thing I was told about the horse: he come out of a hearse, a place in Rathfriland; a place where they were givin’ up the business.’       He says, ‘I woulda give you any money for that horse if you’d asked me!’ It took two black horses to pull a hearse you see. Extracted from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places by May Blair. Previous extracts regarding County Armagh: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 Forthcoming extracts regarding County Down: Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 |

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