Some 100 craftspeople lined the streets of Ballina yesterday, to sell their wares at this year's Heritage Day, writes MARESE McDONAGH.
IN THE festival office on Garden Street, Ballina, Co Mayo, a cheer went up when a steward reported that there was a 3km tailback on the Sligo Road.
Benny Walkin, last year’s chairman of the Ballina Salmon Festival, rubbed his hands in glee and recalled that as far back as 1964, when his father helped to start the event, they knew how to draw a crowd.
“He promised that there would be free salmon and free Guinness for everyone who came. They expected 500 on the opening day but they got 5,000,” Walkin says.
On the Market Square yesterday, they were charging €5 for “salmon of knowledge” rolls (with carmelised onions and a drizzle of maple syrup) and we didn’t hear of any Ballina publican who was giving away the hard stuff. But the event still drew a crowd that by mid-afternoon had swelled to 35,000 or 40,000, depending on whom you spoke to.
It seemed that on Tuesday night the entire population of Ballina (10,000 or so) had put out the Child of Prague, a traditional way of ensuring good weather for weddings or other important occasions. And in Ballina they don’t come any more important than Heritage Day, the highlight of the salmon festival, where crafts people and artisans from all over the country line the streets, providing visitors with everything from traditional Irish stew to home-made willow baskets, freshly churned butter and hand-crafted cart wheels.
The committee are a little sniffy about “hawkers” out to make a bob on the backs of the 100 or so authentic craftspeople manning stalls in the town. “We caught one guy selling pyjamas last year but we shifted him pretty quickly,” says Maria Greham, one of the organisers. The real deal were in big demand as they gave fascinated onlookers an insight into how locally produced materials were once widely used to create works of art as well as practical goods.
Beth Moran sits at her spinning wheel in the middle of Tone Street, suitably attired in white lace, her long hair pinned back in plaits. She left her home on Clare Island at 7.15am to make it to the festival.
Twenty-eight years ago, as a young American photographer from an industrial town in Massachusetts travelling in Ireland, she decided to hop over to the island for a look. She has lived there ever since. “There was no running water and no electricity so I had to give up the photography and look for another creative outlook,” she jokes.
Spinning and weaving were the trades she learned. Her husband, an islander, keeps sheep, so between them they run a sustainable industry from the island, availing of broadband to keep the show on the road, a far cry from the life she led before electricity arrived in 1981.
A common theme among those who were drawing the crowds in Ballina yesterday was how the recession has helped revive interest in older trades and customs. Across the street from Moran’s spinning wheel, Paddy Egan (81) from Ballymote, Co Sligo displayed some frighteningly sharp tools he uses to make cart wheels.
“It would probably take me a fortnight to make a pair of wheels,” says Egan, who accepts that not everyone would have the time or patience required. Egan uses elm, oak, ash and equipment passed on from his father and grandfather.
“You’d be surprised at the number of people who have traps and who wants carts.”
Mayo man Pat Shevlin uses sally rods to make baskets. Impertinent questions about whether one can make a living from the willow trade was met with the retort “are you a pensions officer”, but he did divulge that if you had to survive on it “you’d be getting the suitcase out”.
Shevlin learned the trade from his father and grandfather and while business is brisk at fairs and festivals such as Ballina, “and you get an odd one coming to the house for one”, he doesn’t expect to make his fortune from baskets.
Christy McHale from Belmullet happily reports that the tourists were going mad for the straw hats he was making – traditional head attire for straw boys – and he revealed that much of his handiwork has gone to New York.
Not all the stories are uplifting. Brian Rogers from Dromore West, Co Sligo is a thatcher who is currently doing a roof on the shores of Lough Gill.
The reeds he is using were produced 75km from Chernobyl, and the hazel scallops came from Poland, as did the rye straw. According to Rogers, the only politician who had a clue about these things was Charlie Haughey.
With all due respect to famous tree stumps, the people of Ballina won’t waver in their devotion to the Child of Prague. There were some showers of rain but there was mostly sunshine on the streets of the town yesterday, and while many of the local women were sweltering in long velvet dresses, courtesy of Ballina Heritage Costume Company, they weren’t complaining.
Ballina Salmon Festival continues until Sunday
