Sunday 23rd October - Moat PS on TV

Mahon's Way 

Sunday 23rd October at 6pm

Lisnaskea, Co Fermanagh

In this episode Joe Mahon joins the throngs heading for the Fair Day re-enactment in the Fermanagh market town of Lisnaskea. The threat of a bit of rain did nothing to dampen the spirits of the children of three local primary schools who entertained the crowds with singing and dancing and playing music, all dressed up to represent past generations of barterers and traders, and some of them had little to learn about fleecing innocent passers-by out of their hard-earned pennies. Mind you, it all went into the school coffers!

Of course, there were some genuine adults there as well, demonstrating a whole range of crafts and skills and rural pastimes, including basket-weaving, butter-churning, straw-rope twisting, not to mention a bit of wizardry on some ingenious antique circular sock-knitting machines.

“The Maguires certainly knew how to party!” local historian Vicky Herbert tells Joe, as she describes the ancient ceremony whereby the Lords of Fermanagh crowned their new chieftain. Lisnaskea is where the ancestral inauguration site of the Maguire clan was located and it was no accident that, in the early years of the Plantation of Ulster, Sir James Balfour chose this location on which to build his castle in 1618. 400 years later, despite having had to withstand many an assault over the centuries, much of the castle remains standing and Linda Swindle, a member of the Lisnaskea Historical Society, shows Joe me some of its features.

In between the castle tour and the fair day, Joe takes time out to call at Carrowhony Pet Farm, where children of all ages are invited to have an interactive experience with over 200 native and exotic species of birds and animals. Joe helps the owner, Veronica Greenaway, to feed lunch to an extremely handsome Kunekune pig called Sebastian, and to give a shower to a very grateful emu!