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Industrialisation/Mechanisation of Irish Dairy Farming

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  • 23-03-2013 9:07pm
    #1
    IrishMark
    Registered Users Posts: 65 ✭✭


    Anybody know roughly Irish dairy farming was mechanised/industrialised?

    I found this online:

    Most towns had been electrified by the 1930s (Dublin had electricity from the 1880s). The infant Free State had pushed through, against stiff opposition, the Shannon Hydroelectric scheme, the largest in the world.


    Noted Dr Séamas Mac Philib of the National Museum of Ireland: “Few technological innovations had as much impact on the Irish countryside as rural electrification. It removed a lot of the drudge from home and farm life. Pumps could be electrified and dairying revolutionised. Rural industry could now develop with much better prospects of survival.

    From: http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/let-there-be-light-1.1329974?page=2

    Does anybody, possibly, know as an alternative to being able to answer the above question, where MacPhilib originally says this?

    Also, does MacPhilib date this to 1880 or 1930 as context above seems unclear.

    It seems the type of thing Foster might date to 19th/early 20th century; does anybody know if he does?

    Basically, any information at all would be appreciated.

    Thanks,
    Mark


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    #2
    gobnaitolunacy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,073 ✭✭✭gobnaitolunacy


    Depends what area you're talking about. Milking by hand was done well into the 1950's and 60's in many places.

    Full rural electrification (with exception of some offshore islands) wasn't completed until 1973.


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    #3
    IrishMark
    Registered Users Posts: 65 ✭✭IrishMark


    gobnaitolunacy wrote: »
    Depends what area you're talking about. Milking by hand was done well into the 1950's and 60's in many places.

    Full rural electrification (with exception of some offshore islands) wasn't completed until 1973.


    Thanks. I'm talking mainly about Dublin or thereabouts. I know it had been more or less electrified by the end of the nineteenth century, but am not so sure about the dairy industry. Did the mechanisms even exist at this time for it to be mechanised so early?


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    #4
    Casinoking
    Registered Users Posts: 474 ✭✭Casinoking


    Electrification didn't reach my home farm in what was rural Dublin at the time (Shankill) until 1950. I would imagine that the dairy industry at farm level wasn't mechanised to any great degree until well into the 60's. I know my father-in-law in Tipperary didn't have a milking machine until 1966 or '67 or a tractor until 1968.


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    #5
    jonniebgood1
    Registered Users Posts: 3,577 ✭✭✭jonniebgood1


    We had a look at the bigger scale developments in Dairy productions previously> Link to thread here
    Some of the links in it may be helpful.


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