extracted from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places by May Blair. COUNTY TYRONE Stewartstown’s markets and fairs were much like those of Dungannon but on a smaller scale. The market was held on Wednesday and was said to be amply supplied with ‘all agricultural produce, provisions, cloth and yarn’. Maggie O’Neill remembers it well:       'Graips and shovels and buckets were set out on the street outside the shops. An’ somebody singin’ a song an’ goin’ roun’ with a hat for you to throw in a penny or a ha’penny. An’ a row of carts turned up an’ some o’ them wi’ eggs an’ butter an’ things an’ they just kep’ all in the cart – sold it out of the cart; fowl too. There were plenty of second-hand clothes stalls an’ other stuff. I might as well tell you the truth. I was reared off them. They called it the ‘cant’ (or kant). That was the name of the market where they were shouting and selling things. They would talk about the cant in the Square in Stewartstown.' Those for hire stood on the footpath along the main thoroughfare. Maggie used to feel sorry for them and showed them friendship by inviting them to her house:       'I was born in Ballywhilloan outside the town. I hardly ever went to school. There were nine of us. I was the oldest so I reared some of them, for my mother had to go out to work. She had it to do. I’m sure her heart was sore many a time not knowing what was going on when she was away. They were hard times. I run about with a girl that was hired. She was from Moneymore. She met up with a boy here in this part of the country. Then they got married and I was bridesmaid at the wedding. We walked to Stewartstown Chapel, just the four of us. And the Charlemont Arms Hotel; we went there for our breakfast and that was it – and back home. She was hired. I suppose she went back till her work the same day.       Then when I come thirteen or fourteen I got a job across the road from where I was living for three days in the week and three days some place else. Then the next place was Whitetown near Newmills. He was a farmer. She was a schoolteacher. I lived ‘in’ then. I run the house; done the cookin’, washin’, ironin’; done the churnin’, made the butter. I baked every day – soda bread and wheaten bread. There were no dainties. I’d to work in the fields as well. If you had an hour to spare you’d to go out an’ take your turn. I never pulled flax. I spread it. I lifted it, but I never pulled it. I did everything else. I built rucks of hay. I built stacks of corn, milked cows an’ fed them, fed horses, calves, reared turkeys an’ chicks an’ all them things. I did a man’s work. When I went to Sinclairs I got two pounds and ten shillings a month. That was good wages, because I had the run of the house an’ responsibility. But my stamp [National Insurance] had to be taken out of that.’ In the early 1700s Stewartstown had three fairs and the fairs were held regularly on the second Wednesday of every month. Sometimes there were two fairs in the month e.g. in 1895 there were two in each of January, February and October.       The only other fair in the County Tyrone of long ago was that held at Washing Bay on the south-west shore of Lough Neagh. It was held purely for pleasure occurring on the Sunday before and the Sunday after Mid-summer day. Since the lough was invested with a magical origin it is not surprising that healing powers were attributed to its waters. Invalids, especially those with skin sores, bathed and became whole. Even cripples declared themselves restored to health and strength. It seems likely that ‘washing’ in its waters gave rise to its name and the fairs were a later addition. On fair days stalls were erected for the sale of sweetmeats and other dainties. In one respect, however, it was no different from other fairs of the time. The main occupations were said to be ‘dancing, drinking and broken heads’! 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 | Part 10 | Part 11

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