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| Title |
The start of the smuggling racket. |
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| Description |
Then we had in nineteen, at the beginning of the '30s, 1932 I think it was, we had, when the Eire Government decided to stop paying land annuities and the British Government put on, clamped down on all cattle coming across from the South of Ireland. That, of course, started the smuggling. There was quite a bit of smuggling around here. Yes, quite a bit of it, y'know and a lot of cattle went through Northern Ireland from across the Leitrim and Cavan way, and indeed as far down as Longford and Roscommon. It was a risky business and quite a few people got caught at it, but it did alter the pattern of marketing of cattle in the whole, in this Province, y'know. An awful lot of our breeding, our cows and that came from across the Border, so that in actual fact it has never really got back to the old pattern since. But they were stormy years from '32 until the war. I mean, in this part of the world, it was difficult to live. Times, y'know, there wasn't an awful lot of money around and people were quite happy to have a go if they could get away with it! It was difficult now, very very difficult, because it sort of created a new pattern in the whole country which really and truly to a large extent hasn't ceased since, y'know?
Ref: 91-17-96.
Interviewer: Sandra Matchett, Fermanagh County Museum.
© Fermanagh County Museum. |
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William Swan |
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| Sound |
91-17-96.mp3
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