Plenty to chew over at this salty, auld affair

There was no shortage of Yellow Man, Dulse, music or mad men at the Auld Lammas Fair

IF YOU suddenly find you want a Betty Boop cocktail tray, a pair of Day-Glo overalls (all sizes), a dog bed or an airsoft gun, then the Auld Lammas Fair in Ballycastle, Co Antrim is the place to come.

For two days in August every year, the small seaside town is given over to a special kind of merry-making: a curious amalgam of modern and ancient, urban and rural.

Elderly residents perch on windowsills, meditatively licking ice creams. Crowds drift between the stalls piled high with Yellow Man – the traditional Lammas toffee concoction, as lurid as those Day-Glo overalls: the recipe is a secret, but there must be a few E numbers in there – and packets of dulse, an edible purple seaweed. Chewy, whiffy and faintly salty, dulse is definitely an acquired taste, but the butcher’s shop on Quay Road is doing a roaring trade in pork and dulse sausages.

Down on Fairhill Street, the air is full of the sweet, dusty scent of horses, as the horse-traders get down to business, and young lads from the town have a go at the hoopla stall. Kevin (aged 11) is in luck, and his prize is a goldfish in a plastic bag. What will his mum say when he arrives home with a new pet? “I’m not sure if she’ll be very pleased,” he confesses.

Heather Davison and her children Jennifer, Victoria and Ryan have come up from Larne, Co Antrim for the day, and are already laden with purchases. Heather has been stocking up on discount socks and sweaters, while Victoria is very pleased with her personalised name-bracelet. “We were last here 12 years ago, and there was a bomb scare,” says Heather. “It’s great to see the town so full and happy today.”

Not everyone agrees that the fair has preserved its true character. One local stallholder, who doesn’t want to be named, complains that while the rates for stallholders are “extortionate”, the number of fair-goers is down, and that he’s making a third less profit than in previous years. With an influx of stallholders coming in from outside the town, he feels that the ethos of the fair is changing for the worse: “It’s just like every other market now.”

Colourful eccentricity has long been a part of the Lammas Fair, and political impressionist John "Spittin" McBlain is getting into the spirit of things as he sells his collection of CDs and DVDs, with titles such as Big Ian Goes to Dublinand Christmas with Adams. Resplendent in dog collar and a flamboyant orange sash, he instantly shifts into an uncannily accurate Dr Paisley impression, complete with wheeze and thunder, when asked his opinion of the fair. "The Irish Times from Dublin? No comment madam!"

There's a curious jumble of music on the streets: a beautiful young Asian woman plays Fritz Kreisler's Praeludium and Allegroon her violin, while on the other side of the road, three kids on tin whistle and bodhráns giver her a run for her money.

A crowd gathers around Native American Nawi Oldova, decked out in headdress and full tasselled suede regalia, as he performs on the panpipes. But the real stars are the larger-than- life country and western musicians, such as Fiddlin’ Tom Collins (50 years on the road, and he has the beard to prove it) and Conor McKay “the Singing Brickie”, all belting out their hits.

"It's all about the camaraderie, there's no rivalry between us," says Farmer Dan, otherwise known as Barry Doyle, from Co Down, as he takes a break from crooning A nd I Got My Education Out Behind the Barn and Baggy Britches Brown. "It's great to catch up and meet the same people again year after year."

Who's the oldest of them all?

The Auld Lammas Fair claims it is the oldest traditional market fair in Ireland, with its starting point placed at either 1606 or 1612.

But Kerry's Puck Fair may just have the edge on Lammas. Although there is no written record stating when the Puck Fair started, it's claimed the fair can be traced back to a charter from 1603 by King James I granting legal status to the existing fair in Killorglin.

Meanwhile, the Fair of Muff, in Co Mayo, also received a licence from King James I, in 1608, but its origins may be traced as far back as the 12th century.