A noteworthy characteristic of an Irish fair has been that its size did not necessarily bear any relation whatsoever to the size or importance of the place in which it was held. Some quite large towns have never at any time had either fairs or markets. The most outstanding examples in County Antrim would be such townships as Portrush or Whitehead. M. Bell, The OuldLammas Fair, Ballycastle (1966), p.8. As for Cushendall the Parliamentary Gazetter of Ireland (1846), p. 559 thus refers to the village: “ it is one of the most neatly edificed and pleasantly situated in the north of Ireland and possesses at once in its accommodation, its interior appearance and above all in its romantic, varied and imposing environs, a character worthy of its position as a favourite halting place on the grand route to the Giant’s Causeway.”
In the light of this description, written almost a century and a half ago, it is not surprising to find Cushendall and neighbourhood now listed as a conservation area. Its fairs were eight in number and all of them were held on dates associated in one way or other with the Christian dispensation. They were as follows — 14th February (St. Valentine); 17th March (St. Patrick); 14th May (eve of St. Dachonna, the devout monastic bishop of Connor, died 15th May, A.D. 726); 29th June (S.S. Peter and Paul); 14th August (eve of the Assumption of Our Lady); 29th September (S.S. Michael and All Angels); 14th November (eve of St. Britius) and 23rd December (eve of the vigil of the Nativity of Our Lord). The religious significance of these dates is not surprising when it is borne in mind that the site of the ancient church in the townland of Ardicoan in the Grange of Innispollan is occupied by the modern Cushendun chapel (St. Mary, Star of the Sea); “It is the only site of an ancient church in the diocese which is occupied by a modern Catholic church”. J. O’Laverty, Down and Connor, Vol. IV (1887), pp. 529,532.
Rev. Richard Stewart Dobbs, B. A., curate of Layd and Ardclinis in the Statistical or Parochial Survey of Ireland (1817), Parishes of Layd and Ardclinis, states that Cushendall cannot support a weekly market, the fairs at present (1817) answer every purpose. However this might have been, by 1846 the village had a weekly market for yarn. Dobbs goes on to state that “these fairs (in Cushendall) were attended for amusement rather than business and though sometimes broken heads were their consequence, it could not be said that they often led to a result so common in many other parts of Ireland”. Emeritus Professor E. E. Evans in his Irish Folk Ways( 1961) in a reference to fairs generally, states that they were formerly organised in a recognised sequence of goods and livestock, terminating in sports and horse-racing and not infrequently in bloodshed, (p. 255).
Young women generally carried their white stockings and dress in their hands when going to Cushendall fairs. As they approached the village they stopped at the nearest stream or well to wash and dress. The same procedure was followed in the case of Ballycastle fairs. “The old water supply of Ballycastle lacked some of the modern standards of convenience and sanitation. At ‘the head of the town’ on the road more or less opposite the entrance to what is now the Dalriada Hospital there was a fountain, or piped water supply from which people obtained water for domestic purposes. Here horses were ‘watered’ and potatoes washed; the place was called “The Spout”. On Fair Days when the country girls came to attend the fairs dressed in their Sunday best, they used to walk barefoot as far as “The Spout” and then wash their feet and put on their shoes and stockings which they had carried with them.” (I.P. Barnes (b. 1847. d. 1921) Collection of MS. Papers on Old Ballycastle in my possession. H. A. Boyd.) It would appear that these ablutions were quite characteristic of the time in the area and beyond. The late Mr. Jimmy Irvine, of Lemnalary House, Carnlough, pointed out to me a place on a stream close to that house where this washing process was carried out prior to entry to the village by way of the laneway leading to the Largy Road.
The Fair Hill in Cushendall was rectangular in shape and was situated in the town land of the same name just above the village High Street and on the right hand side of the road that leads to the hamlet of Knocknacarry. See Ordnance Survey 6” map (1834), Co. Antrim, sheets 15 and 20. As for the Pound at Cushendall for the impounding of stray cattle it is also marked on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map, Co. Antrim, sheets 14 and 15; it is represented thereon as a rather small area in the townland of Ballylougher on the left hand side of the road leading from Crookanavick to Cushendall by way of Mount Edwards and directly opposite the ruins of Red Bay Castle “not much of which is still standing, but its fragmentary walls are nonetheless evocative”.
The circumstances that Cushendall was without a market — apart from that of yarn — inevitably meant that farmers and the like were constrained to adopt procedures thus described by Dobbs in 1817:—
“Cushendall lies about one mile north of the Waterfoot Bridge. If, before he enters the town or village of Cushendall (by way of Crookanavick and Mount Edwards, the traveller turns to the left (in the townland of Kilnadore), he finds himself in the direction of Ballymena, the road to which is carried up the mountains by the north side of Lurigedin; it joins the road of Glenariff to Ballymena about five (Irish) miles from Cushendall. At this place there is a mountain herd’s house where a traveller can get a glass of spirits and where lives have been saved instead of licence being paid. The parish (Layd) has given two pounds to encourage the man for affording occasional relief in winter storms to those attending Ballymena markets.”
It is clear from elsewhere in Dobbs’ account of the area that a glass of spirits constituted a form of beverage of which he himself had a particular fondness. “Instead of licence being paid” seems to suggest that the curate of Layd was making a virtue of necessity in the form of the herd’s house and the “shebeenish” facilities which it afforded!
It was not until 23rd October 1876 that at a meeting of the leading men in Cushendall and neighbourhood in the large public school room in the main street of the village that consideration was given to the best means of establishing a weekly market in the village. Mr. John Wilson, manager of the recently established branch of the Northern Banking Co. (now the Northern Bank Ltd.) in Cushendall in 1873 presided on the occasion. In a few words he impressed upon those present the importance of the establishment of a weekly market. He also announced to the meeting that Mr. John Turnly, B.A., T.C.D., J.P. D.L. (b. 1819. d. 1909), grandfather of Mr. John Francis Cecil Turnly, (b. March 1935. d. June 1980) of Drumnasole, Garron Point, had in that year — 1876 — kindly granted the market house free for the first year—an announcement which was received with applause. A Committee was appointed to carry out details. Mr. James Kenny consented to act as honorary secretary and it was resolved to ascertain what facilities could be obtained for the speedy transit of goods to the Belfast, English and Scottish markets. This was made all the easier by the opening on 8th October — a fortnight after the meeting — of the Ballymena and Cushendall Railway with its goods terminus at Retreat. E. M. Patterson, The Ballymena Lines (1968), p. 36. There was a gentleman’s seat at Retreat belonging to a Mr. Evans in 1778. Ulster Architectural Society, Glens of Antrim, p. 38.
Cushendall Market House and Court House was built circa 1836. It is described by Lewis in 1837 as ‘a convenient building’, but not mentioned by Chaytor or Boyle, nor shown either on the original Ordnance maps, nor on the revision of 1857. It is, however, mentioned in the Griffith valuation of 1859. Puzzling as this is, the style of the building, taken with the mention in Lewis, leads one to think that here perhaps (as occasionally elsewhere) the Ordnance Surveyors sinned by omission. It is a sensible and dignified two-storey five-bay building of well-dressed reddish sandstone. The lower storey comprises a wide central segmental-headed market arch and two flanking round headed doorways; above are five window-openings, now blocked with corrugated iron. There is a single-storey addendum of the same stone, designed as a weigh-house and known as ‘the pork store’. The group is set back behind its market yard at the turn of the main street, its back wall set on the river bank. Now neglected and under threat of demolition; it has been — and easily could still be — both of ornament and utility to the village. Ulster Architectural Society, Glens of Antrim, p. 38.
Since the above was written the Market House has been taken down and re-erected at the Ulster Folk Museum at Cultra.
As for markets and Fairs in Ballycastle it would be unwise to assume that they are of more ancient origin than those of Cushendall. It must be borne in mind that there were persistent efforts on the part of the Irish and not least in a distinctively Gaelic enclave such as the Middle Glens to maintain their ancient rights and customs of public assembly. The continuation of that feature was undoubtedly greatly compromised by the opening up of the area as a consequence of the construction of the Antrim Coast Road. Broadly speaking, fairs in predominantly Roman Catholic locatities were usually held on or near religious festivals; it is not therefore surprising that such was the case in Cushendall. Was not Glendun in 1817 only accessible on foot or on horseback? R. S. Dobbs, Statistical Survey of Ireland (Parishes of Layd and Ardclinis).
Ballycastle fairs probably date from about the year 1500; this was indeed a landmark in the history of what was then a mere hamlet in as much as it witnessed the construction of two notable buildings — Dunananie Castle and Bonamargy Friary. Preliminary Survey of the Ancient Monuments of Northern Ireland (1940),pp .7 and 11. Rev. George Hill suggests that Dunananie was built by Alexander McDonnell of Islay and Cantyre (b. 1480. d. 1540) about the year 1500; after being outlawed by James I of Scotland (1488—1513) he sought refuge in this portion of his Irish estate. Macdonnells of Antrim, p. 38. Alexander’s son, Sorley Boy was traditionally born (1505) and certainly died (1589) at Dunananie and it was his son Sir Randall (afterwards first Earl of Antrim) who in 1606 obtained by charter the right to hold a Tuesday market at Dunananie. “The markets and fairs” says O’Laverty “were held in the fields to the south of the old fortress, but all have been transferred to Ballycastle”. Down and Connor, Vol. IV, p. 401.
At that time the upper area of the hamlet as distinct from the lower or Quay area, was characterised by a wide street, now the somewhat narrower Castle Street and the square or ‘diamond’ as it is called in the north of Ireland. It was in the ‘diamond’ area that the fairs and other gatherings could be dominated and controlled from a castle which overlooked it. E. E. Evans, Irish Folk Ways (1957), p. 255. This castle was erected by Sir Randal in the early years of the seventeenth century; it was a building of substantial proportions and built in the Scottish baronial style. Its situation commanded extensive views of Fair Head and part of the Cantyre peninsula. With the passage of time and the circumstance that the building remained unoccupied, it became a dangerous ruin; it was demolished in 1857. The remains of a brick fireplace, probably belonging to the castle out-offices from its situation as part of what is now the north boundary wall of Ballycastle church grounds, may still be seen.
The settlement around the castle, even as late as 1659, contained thirty-six Irish and seven English, or forty-three families in all; one was Lieutenant Daniel McNeile, gentleman, grandson of Hugh McNeile to whom Sir Randal McDonnell granted the constableship of Dunananie in 1612, together with the keeping of the market towns or villages of Dunananie and Ballycastle. A Census of Ireland 1659, p. 18, folio 41, edited by Seamus Pender, M.A. (1959). The dates of the six annual fairs in Ballycastle were Easter Tuesday, last Tuesday of May (half yearly hiring fair), last Tuesday of July (sometimes referred to as ‘the wee Lammas fair or gooseberry fair’), the last Tuesday of August (the Lammas fair with its erstwhile associations with the island of Islay — a theme that in itself could form an article in the Glynns), the last Tuesday of October (the apple fair) and the last Tuesday of November (the half yearly hiring fair). Note that the names of some of the Ballycastle fairs seem to set more store by “the kindly fruits of the earth” rather than by the religious significance of the fairs in Cushendall! Lewis in his Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, Vol. I, p. 127 states that the November fair was for “the sale of ‘Raghery’ ponies, horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, linen, yarn and pedlary but this seems to be an obvious error on his part and should read —the August Lammas fair. In the course of last century a monthly fair on the second Tuesday was established in Ballycastle.
As a mere youngster I distinctly remember — at least seventy-five years ago — seeing able bodied young men and women dressed in what has already been described above as “their Sunday best” standing patiently in Ballycastle Diamond of a hiring fair day waiting to be “hired” by some of the farming community for the usual six month period — or it could result in a longer (or if proved unsuitable) shorter period. That they were thus attired was due to the circumstance that they had been reared as inmates of Ballycastle Workhouse and so were supplied by the workhouse authorities with this new apparel. If some were still there by the end of the fair, it was for the very good reason that as an authority of respectable antiquity expresses it “because no man hath hired us”. Autres temps, autres moeurs, indeed!
A relic of the past is that Ballycastle, like Cushendall — and for that matter many another fair and market township — had its “Pound” (or Fair Green as it is referred to on the six inch first Ordnance Survey map of Co. Antrim (1834), sheet 8.). It was situated in close proximity to a hilly lane beyond what is now called Fairhill Street; part of the surrounding wall of this “Pound” is still in situ.
Ballycastle market yard in Market Street originally occupied a fairly extensive area and as such bore witness to the very considerable size of the weekly markets before government marketing schemes and purchasing boards became the order of what for the most part was the farming community; the area of the yard has been somewhat reduced by the inclusion within its bounds of the Fire Station and it no longer serves its marketing functions. Originally it had two quite impressively dressed stone gateways, each dated in cut stone “1858” the year of its erection. One of these gateways was taken down to make way for the Fire Station. The market yard boundary wall is said to have been built with the stone from the old castle already referred to. The Northern Banking Company Ltd., — Ireland’s oldest Joint Stock Bank — as in Cushendall was not slow to take advantage of the erection of the Market Yard in Ballycastle in 1858; it had opened its branch in the town in 1863 in what is now 28 Ann Street, but subsequently moved to the vicinity of the Market Yard, presumably for the convenience of the farming community. It later returned to the present — and almost the same — location at 24 Ann Street, where it was first established; in any event the market precinct had in the meantime lost the significant position it once possessed.
“The lost fairs of Ireland deserve a study such as is being made of the lost villages of England, but the chief sources for such a study in the absence of records must be in field work and the fast-fading memories of the countryside”. E. E. Evans, Irish Folk Ways, p. 255. Nevertheless old traditions and customs die hard. Even to-day a Tuesday in Ballycastle is still a significant business and commercial occasion, despite the eclipse of its market or fair as both were once understood. Apart from the well known August Lammas Fair, the last Tuesday in October still finds Ballycastle Diamond well occupied with lorries of fruit from the Armagh apple country. It would be no over statement to say that for several centuries, with the possible exceptions of such recognised annual public holidays that may occur on that day of the week — and even some of them — find themselves taking but second place in importance to a Tuesday in Ballycastle!
Now that the Antrim estate papers have been deposited in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, it could well be that information not previously forthcoming concerning the Charter of 1606 and relating to Ballycastle markets and fairs may be available for consultation. Of the four Court Leet Books of the Baronies that, in whole or in part constituted the vast Antrim estates only those appertaining to the baronies of Glenarm and Dunluce — the latter in part published and edited by the late Mr. J. B. Hamilton, B. A., Solicitor, Ballymoney — are known to be extant; those appertaining to the Baronies of Carey and Kilconway (Oldstone) are not so far forthcoming. Could it be that they might be in the recent Antrim acquisition of estate and other papers?
If these Court Books become available they could shed a vast amount of light on fairs and markets in the localities referred to and could conceivably form the subject of one or more articles in the Glynns much greater in depth and details than what—for lack of them—is contained in this very imperfect and superficial, but extremely fascinating, sociological study.