The Borris Fair

fits

I had to laugh at this article...

Playing the market at a packed Borris Fair

The mile-long Main Street - reputedly the longest in Ireland - was a meandering tableau vivant of Traveller life and resembled an impoverished Balkan village on market day. This was a world away from the street markets of Spanish fiestas or postcard-pretty Provencal "marchés" so beloved of Irish tourists, writes Michael Parsons.

The Borris Fair is a traditional market for farmers as opposed to a farmers' market. There wasn't a sun-blushed tomato, jar of organic quince and fig conserve or a sage and oregano sausage in sight.

Most of the merchandise was so tatty it wouldn't have passed muster in Ceausescu's Romania.

The pavements were heaped with shoddy footwear and clothing, hideous furniture, cheap toys and displays of trailer-trash ornaments - the perfect antidote to rampant, designer-label consumerism.

Traders had come to this south Carlow village - the quintessential one-horse town - from all over Ireland.

Most were Travellers and they've been gathering here for generations. They included the extended "settled" Doran family from Carlow, whose patriarch, Miley Doran, will be 85 later this year and is believed to be the oldest male Traveller in Ireland. He was having a grand old time.

The old people used to say you could buy everything from an anchor to a needle at the Borris Fair. But no one wants either anymore. The best customers used to be the "mountainy men" - small farmers and their wives who came down from the Blackstairs on the Feast of the Assumption - to buy and sell sheep and perhaps pick up a new set of delph or a pair of britches.

But small farmers these days are up at 5am and commuting to building sites in Dublin or Waterford. Shopping is done at weekends and holy days of obligation have gone with the wind. Yet the fair evokes fierce nostalgia and support and remains a fixture on the calendar of the rural southeast. Despite, or because of, the sheer tackiness, the crowds turned out in droves again yesterday.

The village was full of characters who looked as if they had come directly from the JM Synge casting agency.

Broth-of-a-boy Christy Mahon types with big grins, terrible teeth and Val Doonican jumpers bought and sold horses at the gates of the "Big House", a walled demesne and former seat of the high kings of Leinster.

"Pegeen Mike" women, who used to be flame-haired until they hit the peroxide bottle, cuddled their "babbies" and sold religious pictures and cheap bed linen.

Images of Pope Benedict made the odd appearance, but John Paul II still rules here.

The Travellers were gracious, good-humoured and unfailingly polite. Some complained about Mary White, the local TD and Green Party deputy leader who has been campaigning against "early arrivals" causing traffic problems during the lead-up to the fair. They noted, without surprise, that the pubs were closed and seemed inured to what a few called "discrimination".

Sally Flynn from Clondalkin, Dublin, who's been coming to Borris for years, said Mary White "doesn't want the Travelling people in town", and claimed "the pub owners gave all their customers a mobile phone number to get in the back door".

But White said she "had consulted widely with Traveller families" and thought yesterday was "the best-run fair in years".

Gardaí said the atmosphere was "peaceful" and there were no incidents reported by mid-afternoon.

tommycahir

:rolleyes:

Makes Carlow sound like something out of the 1930's where they were still waiting for running water to be installed.

The only thing that can be done when reading that is laugh.

fits

I'm still laughing... that article is hilarious.
Investigative journalism at its err... best...

Don1

Written by some nonce in his wonderful Dublin no doubt. Why people can't differentiate between tradition and backward is beyond me.
Yes the Travellers do take it over and ruin it though. Could be a decent effort were it not for the cheapness. Oh and the bareback horse riding and filth everywhere.
I can't blame people wanting it stopped.

fits

It is a major pain in the neck tbh.
The locals hate it..... it is a traveller festival.
Locals have absolutely nothing to do with the running of it.

Don1

I know. It could be something nice and as the American tourists who eat these things up would say "quaint" but it has been hijacked. I don't think even with an almighty push could it be restored to something even remotely worthy. Sad really. Like the Strawberry Festival in 'scorthy. Went for the laugh this year and it was about 90% travellers and roma's peddling cheap tat. Although with 'scorthy that's to be expected anyway.....

Wonder how long the Tullow Show will retain it's "charm"?!!

Villain

Well Tullow Show won't have any charm this year, its being called off due to the weather!

Scraggs

irish1 wrote:

Well Tullow Show won't have any charm this year, its being called off due to the weather!

WHAT?? are you serious? i do love a good Tullahshow

Villain

Yep the fields out on Coppagh are too wet and the forecast is bad for the weekend!

Don1

Jaysis. Never thought I'd see the day. I was gonna go out in combat boots and waterproofs to laugh at all the plebs trudging around in the muck wearing high heels and the likes. (have seen this soooo many times but it's still a right laugh!)

wheres me jumpa

It seems to get a write up in the papers every year....after the event!

lynch_3001

what ever happened to the monday market in the town hall car park? i hve to laugh at the article its obviously writen by some guy in an office in dublin, never seen a sheep in his life