WEXFORD COUNTY, Ireland – The Irish Agricultural Museum collection is on the grounds of the Johnstown Castle. The first castles on the estate were built in the 12th century by an Anglo-Norman family. While the castle and gardens are beautiful for collectors, it is the agricultural museum in the 1810 Regency era Farm Courtyard that will be the centerpiece they will want to see.

The Irish Agricultural Museum has been open for more than 40 years. It consists of 19 different exhibitions and includes items from tractors to country kitchens. There is also an interesting exhibit about the potato famine as well. Collectors will enjoy the large collection of beautifully restored tractors, carts, ploughs, threshing machines, stationary engines, lawn and garden items, and dairy equipment.

The cart collection was quite extensive and varied from a butcher’s spring cart to the cool Lincolnshire Scotch Cart. The placarding shared, “This horse-drawn cart became known as a Lincolnshire Scotch cart as it was introduced into Lincolnshire, England, by Scottish potato growers. They had migrated to the area in the 19th century in search of better land on which to grow their seed potatoes. The heavier type of cart they brought with them was modified to suit the soil conditions of the fenland…”

It makes sense that there would be Ferguson tractors and a nice explanation of Ferguson Brown Type A Tractor, along with several Fergusons on display. In the Ferguson display there was information about the Ferguson Football Club, a team set up by the Ferguson dealership in Lower Baggot Street, Dublin, in the 1950s A picture of the team and their jersey is on display.

Several unique Ferguson attachments like a Ferguson winch and ridger were also exhibited.

There was a Barrel Top Caravan built by William O’Connor, of New Ross in County Wexford, based on the design that was introduced during World War I by English gypsies who were fleeing conscription. There was a display with wording by Taoiseach Enda Kennym TD, acknowledging the Traveler Culture as “…an integral part of our society for over a millennium, with their own distinct identity, a people within our people.”

There is a wide variety of equipment on display like an Aveling & Porter steam roller from 1919 that the Marquis of Waterford purchased and used to maintain the private road, drive a timber saw, and run a threshing set. Visitors can view David Brown tractors, and a variety of items like the Boby’s Baker Winnower, and the Pierce Double-Action Haymaker.

There is also the rare Silverman Hay Harvesting machine which with two raking heads could “pick up one ‘cock’ of hay every minute.”

Another unique machine was the Root pulper by Bentall & Co. This machine was a large pulper machine that was used on large farms for chopping up root crops such as mangolds and turnips. The machine is circa 1930.

A Ransome thrashing machine is on display and shares a nice history of the company. The company was established in 1789 and later in 1989 was sold to Electrolux. In the 1990s, its lawnmower business was taken over by the U.S. firm Textron.

Besides the Ransome thresher, there are also engine driven corn threshers that were barn threshers made by the Philip Pierce & Co. of Wexford. They cover a wide variety of crops including a Johnstown Fruit sprayer, and a MacBride’s Patent thistle cutter.

Being Ireland, potatoes must be included. There is a Hallock Potato Harvester, and a Pierce 60 gallon, 5-row potato sprayer. There is a section describing the Great Irish Famine. The potato famine was triggered by an invisible fungal disease that affected the potato crop, which was the main food source for the people of Ireland.  During the Famine in the 1840s, of Ireland’s eight million people, one million died, and one million emigrated.

The Pierce ‘Victor’ oilcake breaker was a machine used at Oil and Cake mills to break up the ‘cake’ into smaller fragments to feed cattle. The Pierce company, a local Wexford company, had a lot of equipment like the Pierce four-sod seed plough used to plow the ground, then work in wheat seed. There are several plows on display.

With the National Ploughing Championship still a big deal in Ireland, a picture of Wm. Kehoe an 18-time Champion, is on exhibit as well.

There is a very cool Garrett and Sons 1870 corn drill made by Richard Garrett that was used from 1870 until 1971. It was operated by two men and two horses. Many pieces of equipment were used until somewhat recently like vthe horse-drawn egg roller, a forge-made implement that was used for breaking clods between drills prior to “earthing up”. It was used until 1960.

The Irish Agricultural Museum provides amazing farm history from the Emerald Isle. For more information, visit https://johnstowncastle.ie/irish-agri-museum/.