Barley – The Burren and Beyond

Duras Mills, Kinvara – 1898

Posted on July 31, 2015 by The Burren and Beyond

Tuam Herald 24th December, 1898 p.4

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) Photo: Cliff Wikimedia Commons — Barley (Hordeum vulgare)
Photo: Cliff
Wikimedia Commons

John O’Dea, the proprietor of Duras Mills, Kinvara, was awarded second prize, Co. Galway Section by the Distillers Committee of the Royal Dublin Society’s Show, for the barley exhibited by him at the late show at Ballsbridge. The sample exhibited was taken out of a large quantity grown on Mr. O’Dea’s farm at Duras, and purchased at the Kinvara market by Messrs H.S. Persse, Ltd, Nuns Island Distillery, Galway. It speaks well for Mr O’Dea’s enterprise to be an exhibitor at the show and it is hoped his example will be followed by a good few of his neighbours entering for the Winter show, 1899. With a little more care and attention to the cultivation and saving of the crop there should be no difficulty in a Kinvara farm obtaining first prize, for the quality of the grain grown in the locality is second to none in Ireland.

Posts and podcasts

Kinvara – the best barley – 1902

Posted on April 11, 2015 by The Burren and Beyond

Kinvara Harbour Photo: BO'D — Kinvara Harbour Photo: BO’D

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.