The Hiring Fairs by Dónal Campbell
Taken from Inishowen Independent 30th October 2007

The women all spoke Irish. After Mass on Sundays they gathered outside the chapel door and traded news, gossip and banter in their native tongue. This was south Inishowen - Burt - in the 1940s and 50s. Not the place you'd expect to find a dozen Irish speakers or more, but there they where ... courtesy of the Hiring Fairs.

Some had arrived in Burt when Ireland was still under British rule. Some arrived in the mid-1920s and 1930s when independence was won but times were hard. All had arrived as children via the Letterkenny Hiring Fair; all had worked for the big farmers who owned the 'Big Houses' and rich fertile land in this northern extremity of the Lagan Valley; and all had stayed, eventually marrying into local families and settling into a place they had once arrived as wide-eyed strangers.

The Hiring Fair in Letterkenny attracted hundreds of farmers and landowners from all over Donegal, on the outlook for young seasonal workers they knew they could pay much less than full-time labourer. It was poverty which forced parents to hire out their children in an effort to make ends meet. They sent their youngsters to the Hiring Fair hoping for a job with fair pay and decent conditions - more in hope than expectation.

It was a traumatic, heartbreaking time for children and parents alike as they parted knowing they wouldn't - in many cases be reunited for six moths. Various accounts exist of the hiring process. Patrick McGill, who later became a well known writer, recalled being hired: "We stood together like sheep in the market place. A man with a heavy stomach came up to me and asked how much I wanted for six months work, I replied £6. 'Shoulders too narrow for that money,' he said and moved on."

Paddy The Cope Gallagher was another who wrote of his experience at the Hiring Fair, albeit earlier- around 1881. Just 10 years old, he was made to walk up and down by a prospective employer for judgement. He was finally hired because his "neck was good". Although Gallagher asked £10 for the six months labour he received a meagre £3.

All those hired went through the ritual of being examined and questioned about their ability to milk cows, thresh or carry out other farm and household chores. The importance of being an early riser was emphasised. Weak or sickly individuals were simply passed by or ignored as they stood hopefully in line. And so, to places like Burt they came in their droves. Among them Nancy Duggan from Meenaclady; Madge Patton and her sister Rosie from Meenderry; Maggie and Bridget Curran from Meenaclady; Bridget Ferry from Derrybeg; Maggie McFadden from Brinaleck; Maggie Catterson from Meenlaragh.....

Fifteen years ago, this winter interviewed Maggie McLaughlin nee Patton then in her late eighties, about her experience of being hired: "I was first hired at the age of fifteen and a half to a farmer here in Burt. My sister Rosie and myself were hired from Letterkenny and although the parting from my family was sad it was softened a wee bit by the fact that Rosie and myself were hired by the same farmer. At least we had each other for company." Life was hard. "I had to milk ten cows every morning at 6am as the milk had to be ready to go to Derry for sale later on. That was an early start every morning, I can tell you."

Madge worked a six day week but would have chores even on a Sunday. "After chapel on Sunday we were free to do as we pleased. We went to hurley or football matches locally and wrote home to keep in touch with what was happening in Meenderry." She recalled that it was great to meet up with the other girls from the 'Back Country' to talk and exchange gossip in their native Irish.

Treatment of hired hands varied. Madge McLaughlin was treated fairly with good food and accommodation - others weren't so lucky. Many slept in attics or occupied a tiny room in the Big House, others were relegated to outhouses and barns - especially boys. Misdemeanors were punished harshly as Sean Beattie's great-uncle, Packie, discovered. "He was working for a house in the next townland. He stole a can of milk and was dismissed. In the end he went off to America."

While Beattie agrees with the thesis that the majority of houses treated those hired reasonably well, he points out that the whole process had "an undercurrent of exploitation - something that has never really been researched, perhaps because there is a degree of shame attached to the whole thing."

He continues: "'Well-looked after' merely means the provision of a bed, food and the absence of abuse. What was expected in return was an 18 hour day, often times from a child. Children as young as seven, eight, nine and ten years-of-age were simply regarded as workers. In fairness, it was a different cultural perspective than we have now. "The period wasn't without its humour, albeit black humour in the midst of hardship. One youngster hired into a Big House was fed a constant diet of rabbit. Eventually the boy became sick and had to visit the doctor. Asked about his eating habits the youngster replied that he ate nothing but rabbit; to which the doctor replies. "It's not a doctor you need son, it's a ferret!"

A similar story concerned a youngster fed a constant diet of turnips. One day he was served meat which he consumed by the plateful. Observing him the farmer remarked sarcastically! "That cow will be roaring in you tonight boy." The retort came through a mouth stuffed with beef - "If it does it won't be for the want of turnips anyway!

While places like Burt and Newtown were awash with youngsters from West Donegal, working in or around the Big Houses, the practice of hiring was largely alien to south Inishowen children. According to Sean Beattie, the needle and thread was their salvation. "Sewing was another source of income in Inishowen. There was a massive shirt industry in Derry with out-stations scattered around Inishowen and that certainly had a positive impact on family incomes, sparing local children the ordeal of being hired out."

By 1942 it was finally all over. One or two people turned up at the Letterkenny Hiring Fair that year. While the Hiring Fairs had continued to prosper throughout the 1930s, the beginning of the end occurred in 1926 when the Free State government passed the School Attendance Act. Enforced by the guards, the hiring of very young children finally ceased.

There was other reasons too. Unemployment payments began in the '30s. Emigration was rife. Sadly, many youngsters who knew nothing but the hiring process continued their adult life in the same mindset. "Its became a stepping-stone even for Inishowen children who were hired locally." says Sean Beattie. Many went from being employed locally onto the bigger farms in the Lagan Valley. The next step was Scotland and then America. Faraway fields looked green."

Madge McLaughlin died in 1995. She was one of the last of her kind in Burt. She was predeceased in 1993 by Nancy Duggan who was also hired in Burt. Nancy's married name was Campbell. She was, I'm proud to say, my grandmother.

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