Drogheda's Markets & Fairs

Potato Market, Bolton Square, 19th century

This extract by Ann Crilly from the Old Drogheda Society Journal from 1977 concerns the towns' various markets and fairs that were part of the lifeblood of the town for centuries and still continue to this day.

"The market in Bolton Square and around the courthouse is the scene of very busy trading every Saturday morning in Drogheda. Almost everything from a needle to an anchor can be bought there now. Recently the Corporation raised the fees charged to stall holders as so many professional dealers were taking advantage of the selling space.

Long ago this market site was used almost exclusively by farmers bringing their field, garden and dairy produce in to sell to the town's housewives. The open area was called the Potato Market.

Cornmarket, Fair Street
All the wooden fronts would have been open arches

The buildings around the courthouse yard were originally built as a cornmarket. They were designed by Francis Johnston who also designed the G.P.O. in Dublin and Townley Hall a few miles west of Drogheda. These cornmarket buildings consisted of lean-to roofs supported by handsome pillars and they are now all incorporated into the municipal offices.

In the past part of these out buildings were used by a large number of farmer's wives for the sale of butter, eggs and poultry. Iron wrought tables, made in the Drogheda Foundry, were pu
t there to hold their baskets. These tables were erected during the Mayorship of Robert May, Fair Street, and his name was inscribed on the iron legs. Some of these can be seen in the Old Drogheda Society Museum in Millmount.

There used to be a Butter Market in John Street. One of the ancient town gates near here was called Butter Gate. A tax was collected here on butter brought into the town and this money went towards the upkeep of the Carmelite Monastery sited where the present Church of Ireland stands in Mary Street. Cornmarket Hill not far from there must have seen many dealings long ago in the produce of the cornfields.

The Meat Market in the centre of the town ran from West Street down to Dyer Street. There used to be gates at each end of this but they were removed a long time ago. There were six stalls at the West Street end, all selling meat. They are closed up now and put to other uses. One of them is used by Mr. J. Byrne, the Veterinary Surgeon, as an office. At the corner of the meat market and West Street, where Connolly's Shoe shop now stands, there was a butcher's shop once owned by Mr. P. Drew, also at one time Mayor of the town. The Byrne family who now own a butcher's shop next to Connolly's used to have a shop at the Dyer Street end of the Meat Market. There was a slaughter house about halfway down this lane.

The Fish Market was situated in a building at the Wellington Quay end of Dyer Street. This building was until fairly recently part of Donegan's sack factory. It is now owned by Messrs. Collins and used to store waste paper. Fish carts used to drive into this market and there were marble slab tables on which they could show their wares.

Most of the markets that I have dealt with so far were enclosed yards or buildings. However there were other commodities with which the vendors literally took over the squares and streets. The Haymarket was near the Fish Market in the square now used as a car park on Wellington Quay. There was a weighing scales provided here. Nearby was the Milk Market in Stockwell Street and further afield the Pig Market in Magdalene Street.

Another great colourful tradition in the town was the fair day. Two dates spring to mind of outstanding big fairs, the 12th May and the 29th October. The chief venues were not hard to find on the map; the Horse Fair, Fair Street and the Fair Green. But here again the whole town was used by the dealers who came from far and near, and the streets were full of livestock. The schools were closed on these days and the wise residents stayed indoors out of the way of galloping horses and droves of cattle and sheep.

The Horse Fair was held in the square at the west end of Fair Street and West Street. It is now partly a car park and mainly the northern approach to our new Bridge of Peace. Fair Street, now one of the prestige streets of the town, used to be called Horse Lane. There is, by the way another Horse Lane running from Trinity Street down to the river Boyne.

Horse Fair, Drogheda
courtesy Irish Historical Picture Society

The Fair Green was set up by the Corporation to help take the animals off the streets. Houses were demolished in what was known as Chesters Lane, west of the Horse Fair, and a wide open park was left in which fairs were held for many many years. Later carnivals were held in this space. Nowadays it is becoming built-up again and many business firms have their address there.

The Cattle Marts have long since taken over from the fairs, and I suppose the supermarkets are challenging the old markets throughout the country. But the Drogheda Market is more than holding its own. Rubbing shoulders with shopping centres and discount stores it is still the mecca every Saturday morning for busy shoppers looking for a bargain."  

As a side note, Bassett's Guide and Directory of 1886 offers a lively portrait of Drogheda on a market day: "Where the public thoroughfares are utilized on market day, a more enliving picture it would difficult to conceive than that which is presented. Geese are turned loose, and in flocks crowd the open spaces. The streets are possessed for the time being by vendors of every kind from the modest manufacturer of toy windmills to the hoarse reciter of ballad poetry. The most amusing of itinerant salesmen on such occasions are the peddlers of old and new clothing. Mounted on one-horse spring-vans, they make a very laughable pretense of imitating the eloquence and gestures of the great auctioneers, often selling for two-pence, articles which they had declared to be "dirt cheap" at a shilling each."

The Drogheda Cattle Mart, beginning in 1955 and finally closed in 1999, was situated on a site between Magdalene Street and the Green Lanes and readers will remember Branigans pub beside the site, one of the many public houses serving the dealers and citizens in the area. The area has since been redeveloped into a retail and apartment complex.

The market in Bolton Square is still indeed holding it's own on a Saturday morning with all kinds of produce and products to be found. The town has also added a few new fairs to its list; on a Friday, stalls pop up down West Street selling farm produce, home baked goods and locally-made crafts. The first weekend of every month is also the date of the Old Schoolhouse Market, an artisan food and craft fair held in the old Methodist Hall and schoolhouse in Laurence St. It offers a wide range of artisan food products as well as handcrafted home furnishings, toys and jewellery to lifestyle and natural skincare products.

More information on the Old Schoolhouse Market can be found on their facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/TheOldSchoolhouseMarket

The Era of the Horse: The Big Fair Day

Our Community Historian Brendan Matthews relates the history of the famous Horse Fair held in Drogheda on 12th May:

The great May Fair of Drogheda, held around 12th May, was an annual event for centuries that was held in the Boyneside town. In the days leading up the fair people would flock to Drogheda from all over the country and from abroad; farmers, labourers, horse dealers, merchants, gentlemen, tricksters, travellers, tinkers, hawkers, musicians, knights of the road, pedlars, etc. would be seen on all roads leading to the town and disembarking from an array of boats and ships along the quay.

The horse stables at the rear of Keapock`s and Symcock`s hotels in West Street would be full to capacity with livestock while the hotel rooms and Inns throughout the town would also be overcrowded, such was the fame of the Great May Fair. Fine horses would be seen galloping at a breakneck speed along West Street to show off their quality, while the parade ring to exhibit and examine the animals was positioned in the vicinity of the West Gate.

Georges St. Fair St. and the Fair Green areas would also be thronged with folk buying and selling sheep, pigs, cattle, fowl and horses, while the hawkers, tinkers, musicians, singers, storytellers, etc., would be seen at various locations from Chesters Lane (Fair Green) to the West Gate to the Tholsel.

During the 19th century and after the introduction of the Irish Constabulary Police Barracks to Drogheda in 1837 the great May fair began to be more disciplined and organised; however drink and fighting was still prevalent and arrests were frequent among the thousands that attended the fair. Great horses were sold at the May fair and there are many references to the fact that buyers came from all over Ireland and from abroad to purchase these animals for the English and French armies, the landed gentry buying for their coaches, horse trainers buying for potential racing champions, the farmer and his labourer buying for their strength and ability to work the land and the gentlemen to purchase the purebred stock.

Another side event of the occasion was the hiring of men, women and children to work on the land and as domesticated servants, which was carried on outside the tholsel. Young milking maids would stand around with a milking stool in their hand to indicate the type of employment they sought, herdsmen stood with a wisp of straw in their mouths, shepherds would hold a crook or a piece of wool, servants would hold mops and so on.

The hirers would then walk up and down viewing the height, weight, appearance, age, ability, etc., of the people for hire and then a deal would be struck up between hirer and employee, which was usually a oneyear contract of employment with the benefits of some monetary wage along with bed and board. In one incident, back in May of 1870, a young lad by the name of Edward Arnold was hired by a farmer from the Twenties area of Drogheda at the tholsel during the fair to work at the milking of cows and to attend to the forthcoming harvest.

A deal was struck between the two whereby the lad was to be hired for the following year with a payment of £5 and ten shillings plus food. However, after only two months the young lad packed in his employment which enraged the farmer because the reaping of the harvest was upon them and so as a result the farmer took a court case against the boy for breach of contract.

The court case went ahead at the tholsel in September of 1870 and during the hearing the young lad told the court that he left because of the small amount of food that was given to him which included bread and water, some herrings and some Indian stirabout at night for his supper. He also told the court that he would go back to his employment if the farmer agreed to improve his food. The court made the decision that the boy should return to his place of employment and that two months' pay should also be deducted from his wages and that if he failed to return they would have no option but to commit him to the jail at Scarlett Street. The Great Drogheda Horse Fair of yesteryear and not a sight nor sound of any tourist board or 'sub-committee'!