Noel Mullins.The Origins of Irish Horse Fairs & Horse Sales: 3,000 Years of Selling Irish Horses. Dublin, Ireland: NDM Publications, 2008. 240 pages. 39 Irish Pounds. Available through http://www.noelmullins.com.

The Origins of Irish Horse Fairs & Horse Sales: 3,000 Years of Selling Horses by Noel Mullins

Noel Mullins has prepared a beautifully printed book with excellent, mostly color photographs taken by Mullins himself. Mullins, an Irish native, has written for many of the equine publications in Ireland and abroad. In 2008 Mullins was awarded a John H. Daniels Research Fellowship, offered by the National Sporting Library, and focused on the well-known Irish authors Edith Somerville and Martin Ross. After enjoying this book, the reviewer would have a difficult time imagining anyone better versed than Mullins in the varied dimensions of Irish horse breeds, traditions, and current practice. Mullins obviously has a passion, and his passion is the Irish horse world in its many facets, even going so far as to write a long dedication to his beloved Irish-bred Hunter, Walter, whom he owned and rode for fourteen years. Anyone who has ever had the heart-rending decision whether or not it is time to have a beloved animal put down is likely to immediately understand Mullins’ passion.

We have in this book forty photographs, Scenes from the fairs, which are alone worth the relatively modest price of the book. The author might have been better served, however, with a less wordy title conveying his general topic of the Irish horse in tradition and today.

The author in passing makes several interesting claims. For example, he argues that insurance brokers, bankers and commodity markets work from principles derived from Irish horse fairs. The horse fair roles of blocker and tangler intermediaries - - which will be defined later in the book - - served as prototypes for these businesses. Another fact that Mullins gives is that the term “horsepower” was first defined by James Watt. Watt’s definition is that one horsepower equals 33,000 foot pounds of work per minute as averaged by dray horses used to pull barges and trams.

Growing up in Ireland, the author well remembers how the horse fairs were eagerly anticipated in towns and villages. Besides the business involved, additional entertainments were provided for all ages: special dishes washed down with Guinness stout, festive foods, plus the primal joy of just “hanging out” at the fair. Thankfully, large horse-drawn roller brushes periodically cleaned the streets.

A variety of musicians as well as side shows and special contests added to the general merriment. One may come home poorer or richer depending on success in selling and trading. In either case, the whole experience was exhilarating and the next fair eagerly awaited. In fact, one didn’t have to wait for the next year because fairs were held all over Ireland, and many are still in existence.

Mullins gives a history of the horse practically from the beginning, but the breeds before the Ice Age naturally did not survive. He dates the domesticated horse to about 2,400 BC. Specialized horses were a relatively late development, most having been required to have a number of functions. The two best known Irish breeds are the Irish Draught horse and the Connemara Pony.

Those looking for an overview of the Irish horse will particularly enjoy the chapters on the several breeds, amongst which are found the Hobby - - about which he quotes extensively from the National Sporting Library’s own Alexander Mackay-Smith - - the aforementioned Draught horse, the Connemara Pony, the Irish Hunter/Irish Sport Horse, Irish Cob, the Clydesdale, the Shire, Kerry Bog Pony and Donkey with pictures of each. A few pages plus pictures are devoted to fair charters which go back to the time of Charles I.

Mullins next describes personalities and roles played at the fairs including dealer, drover, tangler, blocker, and halterman. Equally important for the well being of the animals are the roles of blacksmith and farrier as well as saddlers and harness makers. One of the most interesting features is Mullins’ description of what he calls the traveling community of those who exercise a nomadic existence by going from fair to fair, peddling their wares, animals, and other services.

In the next section Mullins describes the particulars of fifteen of the traditional horse fairs, though apparently there were once many more. Mullins moves on to three horse shows and horse fairs, the Royal Dublin Society Horse Show, the Balmoral Horse and Agricultural Show, and the Millstreet Horse Show. Finally Mullins concludes by discussing the relationship between the Irish government and the horse shows.

In summary, Mullins has offered a finely produced study which should be satisfying to the generalist and the specialist as well as those who delight in photographs of a particular segment of the beauty of Ireland. As they say across the pond, “ a jolly good read.”

- Pegram Johnson III

Summer 2009

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