Kinvara – the best barley – 1902

Freemans Journal October 2nd, 1902 p13 (abridged)

It may not be generally known that the largest barley markets in Ireland are carried on at Kinvarra. Throughout yesterday and today business in the barley market has been in progress. From four to five hundred carts of barley arrived yesterday and were disposed of, and about the same number today. Yesterday some hundred tons of the corn were taken by an agent at Ardrahan Railway Station for the Dublin distillers.

Mr W. H. Persse, of the Galway Distillery, who attended the market, accompanied by a large staff of men, loaded a ship with two hundred tons of barley at sixteen shillings a barrel. The loading of another vessel for the same gentleman is going on today and the carts of grain are coming in hundreds.

The barley markets were established in Kinvarra thirty years ago by the late Mr H.S. Persse, founder of the Galway Distillery, because the place is so centrally situated and the climate and soil of the district were found to be most favourable to the growth of barley. After various experiments, it was proved that Webb’s Kinver Chevalier barley gave the finest results and the grain grown in the district about Kinvarra is held to be the best in Ireland.