'Hiring Fairs and Market Places' by May Blair, published by Appletree Press

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extracted from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places by May Blair.

COUNTY FERMANAGH

Four fairs were established in Brookeborough under a patent granted by Queen Anne in 1706 and prospered throughout that century but died out early in the next. A monthly fair was started in 1833 by Sir Arthur Brooke at Coonien (or Cooneen) near a corn mill built by one of his ancestors, but that too eventually failed. However, linen merchants were still attending the markets in Brookeborough in 1835 to buy hanks of yarn. After that the fairs died out altogether until the twentieth century, when they were revived and held monthly until the outbreak of the Second World War.
The Brookes were the leading family in the area. They first settled in Donegal, moving to Fermanagh at the end of the seventeenth century. With them came a new peasantry (English and Scotch settlers) who introduced habits of industry and cleanliness which had not existed before the rebellion. The Brookes grew to love Fermanagh, promoting it at every opportunity and serving their country with distinction both as landlords and soldiers. They were able at the same time to maintain their role as statesmen in spite of persistent pressure from nationalism and the corrosive effects of land reform at the end of the nineteenth century.
Sir Basil [Lord] Brookeborough (1888-1973) for instance, although a born countryman and longing only to farm his ancestral acres, served with distinction in World War I. He applied himself to farming after the war, concentrating mainly on livestock, improving the estate and taking an active part in local affairs including the County Council, the Farmers’ Union and the Fermanagh Farming Society. He also acted as chairman of the committee of management of the Clogher Valley Railway Company during the 1930s, not to mention serving as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1944 to 1963. His three sons served in World War II. Two made the supreme sacrifice.
His estate contained an immense area of mountain, and acres and acres of scrubland which provided good covering for deer. Unfortunately this also provided good covering for rabbits – a gamekeeper and two trappers were expected to catch at least eight thousand a year to keep them under control. If anyone was caught poaching or chasing deer he was summoned to see a friend of Lord Brookeborough, and fined anything up to five pounds, depending on his circumstances and whether he had been caught previously. No one was ever brought to court. The money thus collected was given to charity.
Sir Basil is remembered as being friendly towards everyone, particularly the workers on the estate, a fact corroborated by people like Tommy Hance, Joe Crawford and Annie Reid who spent much of their working lives at Colebrooke. In his younger days Tommy lived in a house belonging to the Clogher Valley Railway Company at a tiny station called Claraghy. His wife opened the gates when a train was due and closed them after it passed by. These are their memoirs:

Tommy:
I enjoyed the job every inch of the way. I was there forty years. Lord Brookeborough was a man among men. Although he was Prime Minister he always came home at weekends and took a great interest in the farm. I remember making hay. There was a permanent staff of about twelve though the numbers sometimes swelled to about fifty at a busy time. Captain King (the farm manager) sometimes hired men at the hiring fair in Fivemiletown, but very often they lived in cottages on the estate or lived locally and came on bicycles. Normally we put in thirty or forty acres of potatoes and a hundred acres of corn. We made about a thousand rucks of hay. During the War we put in extra crops including flax. I was sorry when I had to leave. I felt I had grown into the place. There wasn’t a field in it I hadn’t worked in.
Annie:
I loved my days at Colebrooke. I was brought in at a busy time – like [agricultural] Shows, spring cleaning, during house parties or if the nurse was away on holiday. I would have helped with the children or in the kitchen or with the washing and ironing. I laundered the riding breeches for the family before Balmoral Show or Dublin Horse Show; washed the horses’ tack [blankets etc.] – I even cleaned the harness. I sometimes cleaned the silver or helped in the dining room although that was normally the job of the butler.
They used to have pheasant shoots. They hung the pheasant up by the neck for weeks. They didn’t cook them ’til they began to smell high and the tail feathers pulled out.
There used to be great Christmas parties. All the workers on the estate and their wives each got a pound and the children got a present from the Christmas tree. Then we all had dinner and danced after it. There were beautiful paintings, fireplaces, furniture and a big log fire blazing.
Joe:
Captain King asked me to come as yardman, away before the war. I think it was about 1930. At that time there were lots of cattle, pigs, working horses, bloodhorses too. I remember thirteen horses all working in one twelve-acre field and eighteen men planting potatoes.
I used to saddle horses for Master Julian, Master John and Master Henry. They would go out cheerin’ an’ ridin’ like Indians. If a pony threw one of them the other two were sure to do likewise. The ponies would come back like lightning and the children running after them right into the yard. Then they had a wee black pony. It was given to Master Julian when he was a young lad – I suppose about five or six. When it got on in years it wasn’t much use so we put it in the cart and we used to draw meal round the fields to the cattle wi’ that. Captain John and the other two lads, they thought the world of that pony. When you were goin’ out of the field an’ maybe tryin’ to make up time you would trot a bit an’ the boys could hear that any length an’ they would give you a slatin’ for trottin’ the old pony. But what they’d do after they’d give you that slatin’, off they’d go in the opposite direction on their own ponies. And when they’d get out of reach you’d give the pony another wee touch an’ away you’d go again. An’ they’d be listenin’ an’ they could get roun’ an’ they’d come out through the bushes at you. Oh the children could tell you off!
I used to take corn an’ cattle to Fivemiletown Fair; milk cows or store cattle. Captain King was always there to do the business. It could be Lisnaskea, Enniskillen, Irvinestown, any of them. We bought cattle in those places too an’ then walked them home. I walked a drove of cattle till Trillick (twelve or thirteen miles) out over the mountain, got another drove, turned roun’ an’ walked them home – an’ not a ha’p’oth o’ help wi’ me – not even a dog!

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