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Before the cattle marts took over the selling of livestock and farm produce, that important aspect  of farming took place on fair days. The main street or the square of the town would become a heaving mass of people, animals, carts and stalls. The marts offered a point for disease control, and traceability that eventually became the norm. But before that, to pass through a town on a fair day was to witness  rural Ireland in full flow. Fairs were busy, messy, and lively occasions, and  very much looked forward to by both the shop keeping  and farming communities. There was a May Fair, an August Fair and another around December 8. Not only were animals bought and sold, but friends met, couples exchanged glances; clothes and boots were bought, and glasses of porter sealed a deal.

December will be a hectic month for Tommy Tiernan as he undertakes a seven date tour across all corners of County Galway, performing his new show Out Of The Whirlwind. The show, he says, will be a mixture of “storytelling and improv”, but this is also likely to be the last run of ‘world tour of Galway’ styled shows Tommy will do.

Years and years ago, when I was a boy, when there were wolves in Wales, and birds the colour of red-flannel petticoats whisked past the harp-shaped hills, when we sang and wallowed all night and day in caves that smelt like Sunday afternoons in damp front farmhouse parlours, and we chased, with the jawbones of deacons, the English and the bears, before the motor car, before the wheel, before the duchess-faced horse, when we rode the daft and happy hills bareback, it snowed and it snowed.

In recognition of their popularity at last year’s concert, the Athlone Pipe Band will perform again at this year’s Samaritan Christmas Concert.

Parke Drama Group is to present its first production in the newly renovated Parke Community Hall next weekend.

“ONCE IN a while you hear voices that stop you in your tracks. The Lost Brothers are the real deal. They have the most beautiful harmonies around and...they have the songs to back it up.”

A surprising rescuer of the Tuke assisted emigration scheme from the west of Ireland came from the London government. After the first group of 1,315 people had sailed from Galway for America on April 28 1882, the Tukes’ emigration fund was practically exhausted. Yet the demand for places grew each day. Now more than 6,000 applications, mainly from the Clifden area, but also from Belmullet, Newport and Oughterard, poured into the Clifden union where James Hack Tuke had his office. While poverty and famine remained endemic in the west of Ireland, people with spirit must have felt that the day-to-day grind was never ending. The threat of another Great Famine was very real. They wanted a new life.

In recognition of their popularity at last year’s concert, the Athlone Pipe Band will perform again at this year’s Samaritan Christmas Concert.

Foxes and Chickens has been the top new Irish board game over the past two years. Since the launch in 2012 it has sold in its thousands, both in Ireland and abroad, and has even been sent as presents as far as America, Canada, and Australia.

Athlone Little Theatre starts its run of the popular John Murphy play The Country Boy this Sunday. The play has been staged in various venues throughout the Midlands over the last couple of weeks and has received a rapturous reception. Standing ovations have been received in every venue.