extracted from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places by May Blair. COUNTY TYRONE The main towns in the east of the county were Dungannon, Cookstown, Stewartstown and Coalisland. When Chichester was awarded lands in 1608, he not only acquired 144 townlands (including Belfast); he also gained ‘the manor of Dungannon with the fort, castle, town and lands, water mills and water courses, alias Drumcoo, Kenemele, Gortmerron, Moycashell, Mullaghmore, Mullaghedun and twenty-five additional townlands.’ His patent authorised him to continue Hugh O’Neill’s Thursday market (established in 1591) and to hold two fairs, ‘one on the feast of the apostles Philip and Jacob and the day after, and the other on the Monday after the feast of St Michael the archangel with a court of piepowder.’       Dungannon soon became ‘one of the most prosperous in the North of Ireland in the linen trade’. By the end of the eighteenth century there were dozens of bleach greens centred round the town and in places like Tullylagan, Desertcreat, Derryvale, Newmills, Coalisland and Moy. In its heyday (around 1800) about twelve hundred weavers and one hundred and twenty buyers attended each market. Its cloth market was far superior to the dozen or so others in the county, well over £200,000 worth being sold annually – not surprising since almost the entire population were weavers and spinners. It is not by chance that in the well-known ballad ‘In the County Tyrone near the town of Dungannon, Bob Williamson lived, a weaver to trade.’ But by 1839 the number of weavers had dropped dramatically and the number of buyers was down to ten. However when the linen trade declined the markets and fairs generally began to improve. Doubtless its cornmarket found a ready customer in the local distillery. Thursday (then as now) was market day and once a month also fair day. Four registered fairs had died out much to the regret of the inhabitants of the town as they were said to be ‘much superior to the present monthly fairs’. By then the landlord was Lord Ranfurly who collected tolls ranging from one penny to four shillings on every item sold. The Ranfurlys sold the market rights to the local council in 1911.       The people of the area were said to be ‘industrious’ and those wanting work (generally called ‘corner’ men) used to assemble at the corner of Market Square where Scotch Street meets Irish Street until someone came to offer them work. This remained a favourite place for hiring until hiring ceased in the 1930s. People for hire also stood at other places in the Square and a few went to faraway Ann Street. There was always a big turn-out on hiring day particularly if that day happened to coincide with Ascension Thursday or Corpus Christi. Wages were often drawn by the father of the person hired (as with Mickey Martin), this system only changing when the hired man either got married or reneged at having to give up the wages he had worked so hard to earn. Fathers were quite happy to collect their sons’ earnings as long as the sons were willing to put up with it. Hiring was already dying out in Dungannon in the mid 1930s as evidenced in The Tyrone Courier of 16 May 1935: ‘Thursday last was the May Hiring Fair in Dungannon and judging by the number of farm servants on the streets in search of labour, this method of hiring is dying out. Wages being offered £12 to £13 plus board for half year. Extra police were on duty but things were quiet.’ Aran Victory and Kerr’s Pink potatoes could also be bought on that day for 2s 6d per cwt. Hen eggs had dropped to 5d. per lb. while duck eggs remained at 6s 8d for ten dozen. It was to Dungannon that the newly married Jack Fleming went to look for a man in 1928. Jack was one of a family of eleven (even Presbyterians had big families in those days) but there was always plenty of work on the seventy-five acre farm at Lamey and a hired man was usually kept. Since Jack had done the hiring this time the hired man stayed with him at ‘Hutchinson’s’ – the name given to an outfarm belonging to his father. Being teetotal and a regular church-goer Jack did not take his man into a pub when the bargain was made but he did give him the half-crown earls. Jack’s father kept a dairy herd and Jack regularly took his turn at taking their own and their neighbours’ milk to Mullnagore creamery. His spring-cart easily held the cans of five of their neighbours along with their own. It was not necessary to go as often in winter when the cows gave less milk and the creamery opened on just three days a week. Jack’s father took pride in the way he looked after the horses; also the pony which was said to be the fastest trotting pony in the countryside. As well as the usual farm work, the horses were used for threshing which took place in a barn at the top end of office housing (byre, stable, meal house etc.) stretching from the entrance gate to well beyond the dwelling house. The horse walk was on open ground beyond the barn. The hay-shed was close by. Jack hired his man in Dungannon but his father preferred to do business in Cookstown. He also considered Cookstown a better town for hiring. It was a great fair in which to look for a clean respectable girl. Farmers’ wives were particular about cleanliness as often the girl lived as one of the family, even to the point of sharing beds with the younger children.       Hiring took place at what they used to call Hirin’ Lane Corner (now the corner of Coagh Street) and anywhere along the main street from the Fair Hill or Loy Street to the Oldtown. Hugh Pat Hampsey was one of many who hired there: 'I hired with a man the name of Tommy Harkness – ‘Tiressan’ the’ called the place. Tommy picked me out at Hirin’ Lane Corner an’ then my father an’ him went for a drink. He gave me two shillings earls. There was older ones too an’ ploughmen. The farmers all went roun’ talkin’. It was just like buyin’ a baste. I was second in a family of nine. My mother was rearin’ the rest of the family an’ I never got any money only tuppence on a Sunday for a packet of cigarettes. If my mother needed a poun’ to get something she went to that man an’ got it on the strength of my wages.' As Hugh Pat said, many farmers viewed and judged those for hire in much the same way as they vetted a horse or cow and as the slapping of palms rang out it was hard to tell whether a young lad had been hired or a good donkey sold. They arrived in the town from an early hour, unharnessed their horses, watered them at the nearest watering trough and quickly stabled them at the rear of a pub or hotel. On fair day the action took place at the Fair Hill. The most indispensable person there was Dick Crane who acted as go-between thus helping buyer and seller come to an agreement. Dick could also be found at social functions, auctions, funerals and even serving the occasional summons on a law-breaker.       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 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 Forthcoming extracts regarding County Tyrone: Part 11 | Part 12

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