Unusual crops and farming in Ireland.

paul71 · 12-08-2015 7:59pm #1

While driving the kids home from Bettystown today I recalled a conversation I had with an Uncle years ago on the subject of of Tobacco growing in Julianstown and Duleek during world war 2 when imports were unsure. He told me that it was a practice that was revived from an earlier time when Navan had a small but triving tobacco growing and production industry.

I decided to look into it a little more and found this gem of a website.

http://www.navanhistory.ie/index.php?page=tobacco

I have on travels seen some exotic animals in strange places in Ireland, including Lama traffic jam the road west out of Ballyvaughen, Buffalo in Ashbourne and Ostriches in Maynooth but I had always assumed these exotics to be a recent thing in Ireland, it appears our abncestors were also quite adaptable and open to exotic ideas. I would love to know if anyone knows of similar old efforts, I would be delighted if someone could come up with a bannana plantation in our history

Arsemageddon · 12-08-2015 8:24pm

Red deer were deliberately introduced to Ireland by farmers during the Neolithic period (about 4000-2500 BCE). The video below gives an idea of how they would have been transported across the Irish Sea by boat-

Rabbits were introduced to Ireland after the Norman Invasion in the 12th century for use as food

jonniebgood1 · 12-08-2015 8:27pm

paul71 wrote: »

While driving the kids home from Bettystown today I recalled a conversation I had with an Uncle years ago on the subject of of Tobacco growing in Julianstown and Duleek during world war 2 when imports were unsure. He told me that it was a practice that was revived from an earlier time when Navan had a small but triving tobacco growing and production industry.

I decided to look into it a little more and found this gem of a website.

http://www.navanhistory.ie/index.php?page=tobacco
)

Good link. The era in the link is probably the best chance of unusual land produce. Up until the famine there was 2 million acres of potatoes grown- not a lot of room for other land use at that time. The de-population after the famine reduced the pressure on land use which allowed people vary what they used the land for with most common being increased animal cultivation and dairy.

paul71 · 12-08-2015 8:30pm

Thanks Arsemageddon, I knew about the rabbits and in fact caused a big arguement on the forestry forum once when I described them as an alien species in Ireland, but I was completely unaware of the introduction of red deer.

As a matter of interest would you know if there were ever Auroch in Ireland. I know of their presense in Britian in prehistoric times but never heard anything about them in Ireland.

riffmongous · 12-08-2015 8:47pm

There surely must have been a few attempts at vineyards in Ireland?

paul71 · 12-08-2015 8:58pm

riffmongous wrote: »

There surely must have been a few attempts at vineyards in Ireland?

Seems there is a recent successful one.

http://www.llewellynsorchard.ie/Lusca_Irish_Wine-recordid-7-z-products_overview.htm

I seem to recall something about Kylemore wine but that just something that popped into my head on reading your post, I will to dig into it a little to see if there is something behind the thought.

EDIT
Opps Kylemore wine has nothing to do with Kylemore Abbey, it was a range of wineglasses produced by Waterford crystal.

Arsemageddon · 12-08-2015 9:25pm

I don't think Aurochs remains have ever been found in Ireland (but I'm not 100% certain). They may have been here before the Ice Age, but the glaciers pretty much scooped away everything on the island's surface. Therefore, our only evidence for pre Ice Age animals is from remains found in caves.

By the by geneticists from Trinity sequenced Aurochs DNA a few years ago and found that modern European cattle originated in India rather than from domesticated European Aurochs.

Qualitymark · 20-08-2015 10:33am

This crowd http://www.newgrangegold.ie are farming a type of wild flax to make camelina oil, as well as rapeseed, which was exotic until recently.

laoch na mona · 20-08-2015 11:35pm

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

Good link. The era in the link is probably the best chance of unusual land produce. Up until the famine there was 2 million acres of potatoes grown- not a lot of room for other land use at that time. The de-population after the famine reduced the pressure on land use which allowed people vary what they used the land for with most common being increased animal cultivation and dairy.

potato production pre famine was part of the agricultural system of the day, potaos were used as a clearance crop to increase available tillage land and as a handy way to stop the filthy peasants eating profitable oats or other grains which were better used to feed livestock

it's interesting that potatoes first took hold in the dairying regions of munster as the consumption of potatoes by the cottier class meant there was more grain to feed cattle (at this time it was common enough for cottiers to be paid in kind with part of the harvest ). Once potatoes were introduced it was possibly for cottiers to produce enough to support a family on a very small area, thus no need to pay labourers in kind with cereals or for them to buy cereals

obviously the dependence of a large class of people on one crop eventually proved disastrous for that class but it did allow middling tenants to increase their holdings, which in turn led to increased numbers of cattle

Qualitymark · 20-08-2015 11:51pm

I read recently somewhere… where…? that one of the Cromwellian-era laws forbade Catholics growing grains, and therefore people had to switch to potatoes. Can't find the link now though.

laoch na mona · 21-08-2015 10:06am

sounds unlikely considering that cromwell landed in ireland in 1649, less then a hundred years after potatoes were discovered so its unlikely they were anything near the monoculture of the cottiers they became by the 1800s

Qualitymark · 21-08-2015 10:44am

laoch na mona wrote: »

sounds unlikely considering that cromwell landed in ireland in 1649, less then a hundred years after potatoes were discovered so its unlikely they were anything near the monoculture of the cottiers they became by the 1800s

The Irish were the first to try eating potatoes, unsurprisingly, since at the stage Ralegh brought them in, a manmade famine was raging across Munster, Connacht and Ulster. Elsewhere in Europe they were regarded as poisonous. The Irish took to them big time, their cattle having been slaughtered and their crops burned and harrowed out of the fields.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 22-08-2015 8:00pm

Qualitymark wrote: »

The Irish were the first to try eating potatoes, unsurprisingly, since at the stage Ralegh brought them in, a manmade famine was raging across Munster, Connacht and Ulster. Elsewhere in Europe they were regarded as poisonous. The Irish took to them big time, their cattle having been slaughtered and their crops burned and harrowed out of the fields.

Not true. They were eaten in England during the revolutionary wars, as well as in Spain, Italy and Holland in the 18th century. The Irish only considered than animal fodder until about 1800.

Qualitymark · 22-08-2015 11:10pm

Xiomara Victorious Network wrote: »

Not true. They were eaten in England during the revolutionary wars, as well as in Spain, Italy and Holland in the 18th century. The Irish only considered than animal fodder until about 1800.

Not according to this academic piece

http://arrow.dit.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=tfschafart

From its introduction in the 16th Century, the potato has held a central place in the Irish diet, and by extension, in the culture of Ireland (Choiseul, Doherty et al. 2008:3). Potato growing is very suited to the Irish climate and soils, although both excessive and insufficient rainfall at certain times of the growing season can pose disease risks, the biggest of which is potato blight Phytophthora infestans (Lafferty, Commins et al. 1999:77). The potato’s influence is to be seen in diverse spheres ranging from place names (Ballyporeen – the town of the little potato), folklore, literature, and poetry to the paintings of Paul Henry.

laoch na mona · 24-08-2015 3:45pm

they started to feature heavily in Irish peasant diets from the 1700's, become almost the sole part of the diet by the 1800s. As I said they appear to have been first ate in dairying regions, but it is true that at first they were thought to be poisonous, then like kale as animal feed, but it would have been impossible for potatoes to have gone from being not eaten to a monoculture in less then 200 or 300 years.

byhookorbycrook · 25-08-2015 9:52pm

There is a vinyard near Cappoquin and there used to be one at Longueville House outside Mallow.

byhookorbycrook · 25-08-2015 9:54pm

Bananas were grown in the glasshouse in Fota, I think, as were oranges.

paul71 · 25-08-2015 10:23pm

You win the prise! An Irish grown banana if I can find it.

Unusual crops and farming in Ireland.

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