Kiera's Story

Louisburgh is a small town on the south shore of Co. Mayo, in the west of Ireland. Standing on the banks of the Bunowen River, Louisburgh has a relative short but varied history. Louisburgh was founded in 1795 by Lord Altamount-John Browne-, Louisburgh was planned and built the way it exists to this day, a four street system with a central crossroads known locally as “the square”.

Fair Day

Louisburgh was once an energetic town with lots of businesses such as grocery stores, two tailors, a dressmaker, a court and a dance hall. The dance hall was situated in Mullagh, Louisburgh, Co. Mayo; where I live myself. People from all over the country would travel for miles and miles to come to this particular dance hall.

Every year in October a fair day would take place. October was the time of year when you would sell last year’s offspring and unwanted or uneeded harvested crops.

On the 8th of December there would be a pig’s fair. At the pig’s fair the farmers would do the same as the October fair. However they would only ever sell piglets and pigs that were unwanted.

I visited my elderly neighbour to ask her about the fair and she quoted “ it would be a bit of craic with the odd row over the price of what the pig would be worth.”

Writer: Kiera Maloney

Teller: Margaret McDonnagh

The original hand written story is available below