Turkey plucking in the old days in Mayo
by Auld Stock
WHEN we write and talk about Castlebar bacon factory, we are inclined to pay little attention to the fact the company had a very large poultry section.
The manager of the section was a man named E.A. King who wrote an article on poultry matters in the Sunday Independent.
After Mr. King retired he was replaced by Joe Mitchell, brother of Ted Mitchell, Milebush.
Joe Mitchell later established his own poultry business in Spencer Street. He also ran a successful public house in Spencer Street which he purchased from Michael Geraghty.
This premises was owned by Fred Fogarty in the early 1900s and was known as the Commercial Hotel.
Thousands of turkeys were exported to England each Christmas from the bacon factory. Many local women were employed as turkey pluckers and were paid four old pence for each turkey they plucked.
Plucking was hard work and the worst part of the job was keeping attacks by turkey lice under control. However, the few pound the pluckers earned at Christmas was a welcome gift for parents with young families.
Little acts of kindness live on in our memories.
When my mother was involved in plucking in the bacon factory, she spotted a turkey which she felt was suitable for our Christmas dinner.
However, she didn’t have the money to buy the bird. Billy Brinklow, a work colleague, spotted this and told her, ‘Mrs. Mee, go ahead and buy the turkey and I will pay for it. You can repay me whenever you have the money.’
This was a thoughtful gesture by Billy Brinklow who was a young man at the time. Billy’s father Charlie was town foreman in Castlebar.
He had a specially built boat for cleaning the town river which he named ‘Staball’. I read where our local councillors are toying with the idea of purchasing a boat to clean the river, an excellent idea.
*A tree on the Green in Castlebar, which was damaged by lighting, is to be replaced after Christmas on the proposal of Councillor Deere.
In former times in Ireland, when a single tree was felled, it was replaced with three trees. This custom might be repeated when the tree on the Green is being replaced.