The Tractor in Rural Ireland by James Reddiough

There are many things that we take for granted in the countryside now that we did not have in the past and the tractor is one of them. Before this the ass and cart and the horse and cart were the main items of burden and the work was done in the fields using them. People did a lot more walking in those times and there were no cars either.

Mother recalls that the tractor would not have come into her area of Mayo until 1957 and there was only one in the whole area, people were still using the horse drawn mowing machine at the time and they were ploughing using the horse and they brought he turf home with the donkey and cart so they were still at the same level as they had been a half century earlier.

Pat Melody of Currower Attymass was that man who had the tractor my mom does not recall which make it was but the Massey Ferguson was very popular and remained so for decades afterwards. Pat used to go out to people for a day’s wages especially when the grass would have to be cut for hay and of course he did all his own work also. Paddy Reilly of Shraigh Belmullet had a tractor in the 1950’s also so this must have been the time that they came into Mayo first. You had the David Brown, the Massey Ferguson and the Leyland and the Fordson Dexter.

It was the early sixties then but there would be change over the next few years and gradually as the seventies dawned there was a gradual growth in the number of people owning tractors and the cart was gone forever except as a museum piece. The Massey Ferguson 20 and the 135 were popular and the David Brown and the Zetor also. Men began to see a way of making money and they would bring cows to the mart and cut grass and also bring turf home for the farmers particularly the older ones who did not as yet have a tractor. This was especially so during the 1970’s and the early 1980’s but a change came about in 1985 and soon almost all the younger farmers who took over from the older owned their tractor and they were a common sight on the roads.

With the advent of the tractor came a faster way of life and no longer did people have time to chat with each other like the time where they had bicycles and the sturdy ass and cart. It was a regrettable but necessary step in the evolution of Irish rural life and that was the end of all things old forever

A survey of the papers particularly the Western People for the past decades shows the prices for tractors and also the number of dealers that were selling tractors at the time, the earliest reference to a Ferguson in the paper is in 1948 and this would have been the time when the tractor came into Mayo this writer would hazard a guess. Smiths of Castlebar was advertising tractors and deals of how to save up to £185 as early as 1960 and this was when the tractor was still in its infancy in the county. Tractor demonstrations were advertised for Balla using the Massey Ferguson in 1960 also and there was an ad for the Massey Fergusons in Swinford Motors in 1952 with Hire Purchase and Department of Agricultural Loans payment options also. Other dealers over the years included B. Walkin, Ballina, Ballina Farm Services, Castlebar Farm Services and Comers of Swinford too. You had Josie Bourke and Sons in Castlebar and M. Geraghty of BInghamstown in the Erris region. To add to the demonstrations you had the Mayo ploughing championships in 1967 in Crossmolina. In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s the tractor was on sale for between 1,600 and 1900 pounds.

Tractors are taken for granted now but they were a source of wonder when they first came in and they grew in popularity and number as did the number of dealers as the years passed. They made the work on the farm easier and were a sign of prosperity even if they brought a way of life that had existed for centuries to an end.