PICTURES: Auctioneer’s 50 years with GVM in Limerick honoured at mart

FOR the best part of 50 years auctioneer Danny Deady always got the best prices for cattle in the ring and that has continued even after he has retired.

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The committee of Dromcollogher Mart held a function and presentation for the popular Bruree man where six calves were auctioned for Milford Care Centre. They sold for €2,620, over a €1,000 more than their normal value.

Danny is well-known among the local farming community for selling at marts in Abbeyfeale, Dromcolloger, Kilmallock and Rathkeale for half a century. However, it all started for Mr Deady in 1975 when he was just 16 and working in a bar in Kilmallock.

“I left school after the Inter Cert and was working over in the 41 which was owned by my aunt. It is owned by Mike Houlihan now. The manager of Kilmallock Mart at the time was Tom Foley.

“He might be in on a Saturday night when it was busy and he might call five or six drinks. I never used the till. I just added it up in my head and charged him whatever. He came in one day and he said, ‘Danny, I notice you never use the till’.

“I said, ‘When we're busy, there's no point - I'm good at maths’. He said, ‘Any chance you would come up to the mart and do some clerking on a Monday?’ I just went up, did a bit of clerking and four or five years after that I started selling, around 1980,” recalled Danny.

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The late and great auctioneer Phil Purcell took him under his wing.

“Phil Purcell used to say to me, ‘Danny, if you can sell in the calf ring in Kilmallock, you can handle any ring in Ireland’,” said Danny.

He could handle it and went on to become a top class auctioneer. Danny is highly respected among the farming community for always doing his very best to get the best prices for farmers. “I was very lucky to fall into something that I loved doing,” he summed up.

Danny lists off names that influenced him and is very thankful to during his decades with GVM - the aforementioned Mr Foley and Mr Purcell, Tom Nelligan, John Flynn, the late Peter O’Dea and in more recent times Maurice Lyons. Danny wishes to thank each and everyone in GVM he worked with down the years.

He also thanked Dromcollogher Mart committee for the function, presentation, donation of calves for charity and the buyers who bid them up over the odds for Milford.