extracted from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places by May Blair. COUNTY TYRONE The town of Clogher is dominated by its cathedral which dates back many centuries – back indeed to Saint Patrick who founded it in the year 443. Over the years it was destroyed and rebuilt many times, one of them being in 1041 when it was renamed Saint Macartin’s. In the early nineteenth century a post horse could be obtained at a place called Shepherd’s near the church. Since there was no good hotel in the town, Shepherd’s must have been one of the several ‘miserable’ inns that served as staging posts at that time.       Clogher had two old fairs held on 6 May and 26 July which were, like those of Carnteel, formerly Bishop’s fairs. The July fair was said to be very big and was known variously as the Gooseberry Fair and Spolian or Spolien Fair. The former referred to the sale of gooseberries as it occurred at the time of year when gooseberries were ripe, and the latter to the tents and bothies set up to provide food for the crowds. The sale of second-hand clothes was also a feature. The people were said to amuse themselves on the day by stuffing themselves with mutton and mutton broth. As the day wore on many found their way to McAleer’s Pub and the inevitable fighting broke out before the day was over. As in other places sheep, cattle, cows and pigs were sold – especially sheep. The roads approaching the town were filled with them on the morning of the fair. Long ago selling took place in the main street but nowadays animals are sold at a modern mart near the old tramway station. The markets in Clogher were always well supplied with eggs, poultry, potatoes and oatmeal. The last three before Christmas in Augher and Clogher were each called An Margadh Mór (Great Market). They specialised in the sale of ducks, geese, turkeys and heavy hens.       Markets were held in Augher on Mondays for the sale of corn, potatoes and meal. There were four fairs in the year, held at hiring times. Hiring took place near the church, the boys and girls standing in separate groups ‘with their heels in the water trinket [gutter] be it wet or dry’. Willie Martin (Sunday School teacher and blacksmith in the townland of Screeby) hired his men in Augher. When his son John reached the age of thirteen he was taken from school and brought home to serve his time in the forge. John takes up the story: 'My father had land forby [as well as] the forge. When I left school at thirteen he sent the man that had been helping him in the forge out to do farm work and brought me into the forge whether I liked it or not. I didn’t like the black-smithing no more I had to stay at it. It wasn’t like now. You had to do what you were told.       'It was a very heavy job. Everything had to be done wi’ fire and heat. There was no electric d’ye see, not like now. They can pull the electric down now an’ stick two bits together. We had to do it all wi’ the fire an’ the hammer. Sure I was nearly ‘murdered’ at it. The whole country come till us. Hooping [cart] wheels too. Sure that was a tarra [terror] on a hot day. You put the fire right roun’ them hoops and you got that hoop on when it was red hot. It contracted then as it cooled. The sweat would be runnin’ down your face – an’ maybe a dozen wheels lyin’ there. You’d be near burned alive keepin’ the fire up to the hoops. Still an’ all it wasn’t so bad in a certain way for there was plenty of help an’ the crack was good. You couldn’t get out of it ’til eleven o’clock at night, me father an’ me.       'In the Springtime it was a tarra. They used to come. There was no chill ploughs that time. It was all swing ploughs. The men would pull in their horses at six o’clock and they would land into the forge wi’ a couter [coulter] and sock; throw them down there. And on a wet day they would gather in too. But he hired his men in Augher. Hiring died out in Augher shortly after World War I. The village was said in the nineteenth century to have a ‘wretched appearance’ – in marked contrast to the beautiful little lake and demesne of the castle which was known locally as Spur Royal. Dean Swift is said to have married Stella under a tree in the castle grounds.       Two fairs were held during the 1830s at Newtownsaville, a hamlet a few miles north of Augher. Fivemiletown, so called because it was five Irish miles from Clogher, was the most commercial of the Clogher Valley towns. On hiring day there were the traditional stalls selling such things as delph, toys, watches, razors, and boots – in fact anything that people from the country might ever need. The fair also had its quota of fortune tellers, hobby-horses, swing-boats and the same variety of catch-penny artists that frequented other fairs. Five of its monthly fairs were originally patent fairs. For a time animals were sold just outside the town at a place called The Commons but eventually they returned to the streets. John continues:       'Cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, ponies, horses; all were sold there. And the old women dressed like men wi’ oul felt hats on them and big overcoats. They would have come in with an ass and cart with their butter and eggs; fowl too, maybe even vegetables. There was a woman one day brought heather – heather from the mountain. She sold it in wee bunches – lovely heather it was. The smell would have done you good. Sometimes they’d bring turf too. Anything to make a few pence. Extracted from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places by May Blair. Previous extract regarding County Tyrone: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 Forthcoming extracts regarding County Tyrone: Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12

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