December 23, 2004
The Nag's Head
If a visitor to Ireland chose to drive through Ballinasloe in east Galway on the first weekend in October, they would encounter scenes straight out of The Quiet Man. Men in cloth caps sizing up fillies; young fellows riding bareback on horses of questionable parentage, etc. And later on, should that visitor choose to stay for a pint in the town, and perhaps make an ill-judged comment about Tuam, he might find himself in a faithful recreation of the scene where Victor McLaglen and John Wayne beat each other up and down the street. And, last but not least, big piles of steaming horse poo.[Not that I’m suggesting that the movie is anything other than a classic. Honest].
We live in an era when every town and village in the country is trying to think up a festival to attract tourists. Arts festivals seem to be a favourite. It’s amazing how many writers or poets will turn up somewhere if you promise (a) a free bar and (b) to actually listen to them. Ballinasloe has no need for such flim-flammery – it has been hosting one of Ireland’s longest-lived fairs almost continuously since the middle of the eighteenth century, when George I awarded a charter to the Trench family (Earl of Clancarty) to host two annual agricultural fairs.
Today, the October Fair in Ballinasloe attracts mainly horse dealers, but it wasn’t always like that. Frederick Trench obtained a patent for a sheep fair in the town in 1722 (it probably helped that he owned most of the place at the time) but it was as a cattle fair that it became nationally known. Samuel Lewis, that great chronicle of 19th century Ireland, noted that
the celebrated cattle market of Ballinasloe is the greatest cattle market in the Kingdom.
I like to think of Ballinasloe as a natural gateway to the west - even though there is a county of Connacht to its east (Roscommon), one hasn't really entered the west until Ballinasloe, built on the western side of the River Suck, a river that stretches north and fences off the "Leinster" side of Roscommon from it's Connacht side - to the south, it joins the Shannon, which effectively fences off the rest of the west. The connection with cattle stretches back to the beginning of history and legend in Ireland too. The great Irish saga An Táin Bó Cúailnge* tells the story of how Queen Maeve of Connacht led a great army to Ulster to steal the legendary Brown Bull of Cooley, the only rival to her own prize white bull, only to be denied by the warrior Cúchulainn. Legend has it that Mave's army rested near Ballinasloe on their way north.
There is a certain irony to Lewis's account of the Ballinasloe fair. He wrote those words in 1837, less than 10 years before tens of thousands of people in Ballinasloe and all points west would literally drop dead from hunger during the Great Famine. However, even by 1800, Ballinasloe was also becoming known as a horse fair. The Napoleonic Wars were in full swing, and the armies of Europe had many cavalry regiments. And the insatiable demand for reliable horses led both sides to the horse fair of Ballinasloe. In fact, Napoleon's horse at the Battle of Waterloo, Marengo, had been purchased at the fair. In case you're wondering, the Duke of Wellington's horse, called Copenhagen, had been bought in Cork (at the Cahirmee fair). Wellington, of course, once said (on being reminded of being born Irish) that being born in a stable didn't make one a horse - grumpy old sod. Actually, I think what really irked Arthur Wellesley was that people might think that, having being born in Meath, people might think of him as a Navan man. Can't say I blame him.
Back then, it was draught horses that were in demand - big, sturdy horses that wouldn't spook under fire and whose thunder of hooves would scare the daylights out of enemy infantry. Nowadays, it is mainly Connemara ponies (and assorted piebalds) that are on sale. And while plenty of horse dealers from around the country attend each year, it is the Travellers that constitute the biggest single group of buyers and sellers, and contribute the most colour to the weekend. Though you're more likely to see a Traveller driving around in a van or four-wheel drive, horses remain central to their culture, and no horse is bought or sold before being 'road-tested' at the fair. At the foot of St. John's Protestant church on the hill overlooking the green, there is a stretch of tarmac. Over the weekend, horses are raced up and down this stretch, either hitched to jaunting cars (like the one pictured above) or ridden bareback. The nags are driven at full pelt right up to the end of the track, before skidding to a halt and being wheeled about and urged on again. Beside the track, the crowd shrewdly evaluate the performance of each animal alongside the dozens of Travellers caravans are parked on the grass along the hill, between the church and the track. No sooner does an rider or driver pull his steed up to a halt before a small crowd surround him and the bargaining begins. Anyone not interested in the horses can always pay a vist to one the many fortune tellers parked around the green.
* The Cattle Raid of Cooley