Then & Now: Limerick's fairs and faction fighting

FACTION FIGHTING was a cause of horror to the respectable class and even after a lapse of a century and a half is still regarded suspiciously by people whose ancestors overcome each other through fair and market in many a hard fought battle.

In reality faction fighting was nothing more than a rough and dangerous form of sport. At the time it was no more crude than all-in wrestling or boxing and the number of people killed or crippled in any year was not that high. The numbers could be compared to road accidents the normal hazard of our time.

County Tipperary is given as where faction fighting originated during the first decade of the nineteenth century. Feuds and bad blood amongst people was given as a reason and it spread like wildfire. The Catholic priests tried to prevent the faction fighting as it was a degrading spectacle and it frustrated their efforts to lift the people and promote Christian charity and human dignity.

Ireland was governed from Dublin Castle at the time and the British tended to condone and even encourage it until the mid 1830s. They were happy to see the people fighting amongst themselves rather than against the civil and military forces of the government. The people preferred to settle their differences in this way rather than resort to the law. The arrival of Thomas Drummond as Under -Secretary at Dublin Castle in 1835 changed this and he banned many of the most notorious fairs and markets.

To the fighters themselves it was an expert game, a form of stick fencing, using an ordinary ash plant or blackthorn walking stick. The three foot long walking stick was chosen and prepared with care for the task. The fighter grasped it about one third of its length from the ferule end and the projecting foot or so of the stick served to protect his arm and elbow from his opponents blows, while the longer portion covered his head and body. Some were very expert and spent long hours practising every trick of stick fencing in mock fights with family and friends, or in real duels with selected opponents.

The story is told of a young man about to attend the fair of Ardagh, when his father , telling him to guard himself, twisted the young man's stick out of his hand with a quick twirl of his own. “There you are now boy! Didn't I tell you to close your thumb over your fingers? Up along the stick you should put your thumb, to give you power over it.” Often the expert fighter struck for the funny bone, thus temporarily paralysing his opponent's arm without injuring him, for a small tap was enough.

The main factions in the middle of county Limerick were the ''Three Year Olds'' and the ''Four Year Olds'', who are said to have got their names from a fight arising out of an argument over the age of a beast at the Fair of the Well in Ballyagran. In east Limerick there was the Coffey's and the Riaskawallas, and the Caravats and Shanavests, and near the Kerry border the Cooleens, Lawlors and the Black Mulvihills were the big factions.

There were numerous local factions, some of them identified with certain families or family names , such as the Collins, and the Mack's, or the Hartnetts and the Mc Iniry's. Two names are still recalled for their exploits, Seamus Mór Hartnet who squeezed water out of the head of a blackthorn that had been seasoning up the chimney for seven years. Connor Cregan who broke his stick at the fair of Newcastle West and rearmed himself by pulling the shaft out of a sidecar and breaking it to a suitable length over his knee.

The proceedings usually started with a challenge. One man a faction leader called out the other side. In some places he trailed his coat and his opponent took up the challenge by standing on it. In other places the custom was to carry two sticks and offer his choice to the opponent. But the usual custom in county Limerick and in most of the Munster counties was wheeling. The champion stood out and wheeled his stick over his head, shouting his own or his faction's war cry.

“Up the Blacks and who'll say a boo to a Mulvihill?'”

“Who'll stand against a Hartnett?”

“Here's a real Three Year Old!”

Seldom did the challenge pass unanswered and soon the fight became general. People unconcerned with the result left the street or the fairground without delay, and the contestants often fought for an hour or more before one faction was driven from the field or took refuge in houses or under carts, from which they might be driven by the delighted victors. Of course bystanders could join in if they felt like a bit of sport. Witness the case of the stalwart young man who was asked to which faction he belonged, and who replied courteously, ”Neither side, indeed, but I'd like a bit of a puck around, if you have no objection”.

As one old lady fondly remembering the days of her youth, put it- “It would be a cold-hearted woman that wouldn't come to help her man or boy and he in the thick of the fight”. The women did not handle sticks; their weapon was a stout woollen stocking with a stone weighing a pound or so in the toe of it. A man was at a disadvantage when faced by one of these Amazons, he might parry her blows, but on no account must he hit her. On the other hand, the women seldom interfered unless their men were being badly defeated. There were , of course casualties. Occasionally there were deaths, and a fight seldom passed without some serious injuries.

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Many customs and conventions were observed. There was fair fighting, man against man, and dirty fighting, where several men set upon one man, or where a bystander struck one of a pair engaged in single combat; such an interloper might get a good blow in return from his own champion, who would resent the implication of foul play. And the matter of loyalty followed a pattern. Each family and each townland had its own allegiance. A servant boy or a workman was supposed to side with his employer-curiously enough - a married man must support the faction of his wife's family where ever his former loyalty had lain.

The Fair of Stonehall was infamous for faction fighting and in 1824 seven people were reported killed. It was held in a field across from Kilcornan church. Shanagolden was another venue for savage fighting and in 1825 the two leaders Kennedy O'Brien and John Sheahan died from their injuries. The police arrested many others who were sentenced to transportation for life.

The great fighters are gone and their dust is lying in Kilfergus, Templeathea, Rathcahill, Rathnasaer, etc. They were men of their time and though it all seems very foolish to us now, they admired strength, skill and courage. We could do worse than they, and we certainly have no cause to be ashamed of them.