IRISH HIRING FAIR.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13665, 6 August 1908, Page 3

IRISH HIRING FAIR.

GREAT FAMIL GATHERING-PLACE. GREAT FAMILY GATHERING-PLACE. What an extraordinary, survival is the Irish hiring fair, that Strange half-yearly gahering of men and -women, boys and girls, nowhere .granger (writes a visitor) than in this remote, quaint town in the heart of County Donegal, with' its impressive Roman Catholic cathedral. No .exact counterpart w o.f .- it c js to.be found elsewhere in the United Kingdom. The hiring fair has long since dropped out of the social economy of England, only to be faintly recalled—in" an idealised form—in Planechette's opera, "Les Cloches de Corn-' ville." Even in the South of Ireland, it is unknown. Only in parts of Tyrone, Donegal and JDerry does the old-time system of engaging farm servants prevail. The first impression of the scene in the large market square of the ', town unquestionably suggests rather a holiday idea. For the crowdr wear gala attire. Not so picturesque or characteristic' as it once was in the holiday garb of the Irish; peasant. Many typical dresses were to be seen in this most typical of; the remaining hiring fairs;, but these were invariably worn by the old folk. Among the young the knee breeches of the male adults, and the blue and kerchief and Paisley shoulder shawl of the women are, to a large extent, taboo. Instead, we have comely, rosycheeked girls who would make pretty pictures in the short red petticoat and light blouse of their working days, when their luxuriant hair falls loosely about their shoulders, arraying themselves, in badly cut costumes and great straw hats laden with yards of tawdry chiffon and bunches , of wonderful artificial flowers—the whole surmounting scarcely-concealed wire hair frames. As for the boys,"even the,very youngest eschew knickerbockers and jacket, preferring to appear like little men who have forgotten to grow, in their long trousers of brown corduroy and COAT AND VEST OF HOMESPUN. of cottage manufacture. What is the purpose of this great gathering of Irish peasants and farmers? Here, again, one is met by the holiday idea. The hiring: - fair in some of its'aspects is the meetingtime, the only meeting time, it may be, of hundreds of families in the humblest walks of life. Here are congregated on the first Friday after. May 12 in each year, and on a Friday in November, the labourers of all ages from many miles around.' In' fact, t<he distances which farmers come to engage servants in Lettterkenny Fair, and which the servants return at the end of the term of employment—usually half a. year—can scarcely be credited. Here the father and mother meet, their family, drawn on this day from different parts of two or three counties, and negotiate the conditions on which they are re-engaged, it may be in the districts from which they came, but at a higher wage, or in an altogether different direction, of country. Even, however, when the young people have made up their minds, with their parents' consent, conveyed by letter some days before the fair, ito "stay ■on," as the phrase coes, they will make a, point of ATTENDING THE FAIR OR "GALLOP." as it is variously called. Thus the holiday aspect must predominate. But think what a large amount of business is transacted in the four or five hours during which the fair is in its fullest activity. Here is the registry office for extensive areas of three counties, a registry office in which no fees are paid, a registry office, in short, without a registrar or. a register, and without a staff. Hundreds of contracts are being -simultaneously concluded in various corners of the busy square or in the main street, into which hirers and hired have overflowed before the fair is an hour open. There is no writing, and there are no witnesses, save, perhaps, the curious onlooker, who becomes the impromptu arbitrator in the , dispute as to whether or not " wee Pat" I is to-get a. pair of boots along with his washing done, and £6 for he term—and even the name and address of this iimpirc, as often as not is unknown to either party to' the bargain. It is a, strange," mysterious,- happy-go-lucky system, this Northern Irish one, and its, basis of simple faith on both sides is

seldom found unstable. But the boy or girl, who, after parsing tlie finst riignt in rus or her new surroundings, linos uncongenial, or pcradvi-ntuie hears Irony* a ftiion' servant that the' place 'is ' a "hard" one, has the right, or assumes it, to repack up the little bundle ot spare c.othing in the red handkerchief or tlourbag from which it was removed tne evening before and clearing 'oui in the earned hours of daylight before. THE HOUSEHOLD IS ASTIR. In such cases the contract is deemed to have been revoked by consent, and prosecutionis scarcely follow, save when desertion lakes place later in the term. The boy or girl make their way home across the mountains, even should the home be fifty mile* away, and the farmer seeks an other servant in the supplemental fair, apparently with the object of meeting cases of tbe kind. The hiring age begins as early as nine years: To-day, I saw in the market, scores "of little boys and not a. few little girls who cannot have been many months older than ten. "It - was no unusual spectacle to see a father and mother standing surrounded by their children of both sexes, aged from 9 or 10 to 15 or 17, the parents intent upon getting the high-. est wages possible for the services of their offspring, and the children waiting with interest to know- to what part of thecountry they were to be drafted..The family of the peasant labourer of Donegal is, generally speaking ,a large one; it not infrequently runs to eight or nine children. I asked m "mber of the local District Council whether parents.-were not often kept by their children. The reply was sufficiently illuminating to be quoted—"Of course they are; what else can the parents do. They occupy a little patch of rocky land away at Gweedore or Burton Port". How can they live without the help .of the children? No,, it. is not a question of rent. .The rent they pay is only a trifle. But the holding would not support a family if there was no rent at all, and there is no labour wanted in the immediate district. So out, the children go to tjhe farmers as soon as they are able to herd a couple 'of row,?. Fine, sturdy children were even the youngest of ihose offered for hire, and the boys especially had a look of self-reliance and manliness that seemed to indicate that this was not their first hiring, young as they were. And their, firmness in striking a bargain, even without the assistance of their parents (who were always with them). I saw some, children cross-examining quite elderly farmers regardng the conditions of the ' home, at ; what hour the master expected his boy to be abroad in the fields in the morning, how many days in the week did he give beef at dinner, was there a Saturday half-holiday, and the like. From the girls there was an almost invariable demand .for a Sunday off eveTy second week. The wages of these children' are generally retained-by the farmer and l paid to the parents, this usually being a matter of -distinct stipulation when, the -hiring takes place. Frequently ; a boy's father a couple of days before the fair will make a tour rourid/4-he farms where mem-"

bers of the family are employed and collect the wages tor the past term, wjth -•perhaps deductions for the price of a pair of boots or the cutting down of an old coat for one of ihe youngsters. What opportunity is offered to these boys and girls to receive anything in' the shape of an education. But it was explained, to me that- in the case of the youngest children the hiring was only for the May to Xovember term, when herds are needed to keep the cattle from straying over defeci--fences, leaving the children free to attend school during the winter. When watching the throng to-day it, occurred to me to endeavour to ascertain' approximately what percentage of those whom I saw in process of hiring would die to Ireland. Nobody was inclined to put the percentage higher than 20. What takes place is that before the labourers reach adult state they havd heard stories of the great wealth awaiting the worker in America. Letters from friends and relatives across the ocean are written in a uniform; cheerful tone, and gradually a yearning arises to go to the ■ land where so many of their friends have gone. For the females there are the attractions of domestic; service in the towns, and eventually, perhaps, in America. So the, tide of emigration goes on. It is ndw : the afternoon of what.had b?en a gloriously sunny May day. The midday trains have borne off about halfVof the number,, of those composing the scenes of. animation witnessed in the streets during the earlier hours. The parents start off westward, to Gweedore or Annagry, and the young labourers go with their new masters and mistresses into the Laggan district, between Letterkenny and Londonderry. Later in the evening still more heavily freighted trains will depart, and later still Letterkenny will celebrate the winding up of a hiririg-fair day with spirit, perhaps plenty of it. The construction of what are known as the Balfour light railways throughout Donegal has greatly assisted the peasant class in seeking employment. More especially so in the case of the Burtonport extension, the most recent of the Balfour group. Before the days of the "light railways it was not uncommon for labourers and young persons to trudge forty miles for a hiring fair, the walk occupying two or three days. An old man living at Burtonport reaped quite a harvest with a donkey and cart by transporting the bundles of the peasants to Lettterkenny at 6d apiece. Now, with very low fares on the railway, communication is 'easy.