Back to the future as shoppers return to markets

Date Published: 03-Sep-2009

IT’S a sign of the times that people are getting fussier about where their food is sourced and that there’s more and more interest in people growing their own.

And though more people are indeed planting more vegetables than flowers in their back garden, the surge in the ‘grow your own’ appears to have given country markets a new outlet.

Just a year after the success of the Moycullen weekly market on Friday afternoons, Spiddal has just launched its own weekly market offering on Thursday afternoons.

A few weeks ago Gaeltacht Minister, Eamonn Ó Cuiv had been asked to officiate at the opening but he couldn’t make it – which meant that I was asked to cut the tape and say a few words ‘as Gaeilge’ so that they could carry on focusing on expanding the market.

Unfortunately, the weather was atrocious on Thursday morning and it kept many away, both customers and stall holders alike. At least seven of the regular stalls were missing because of blustery winds.

Lee Casey, who ran a fruit and veg shop in the village for years until she decided to stay at home to rear her young family, was disappointed but those forty or so who braved the high winds didn’t seem to mind as they enjoyed the ambience and even helped themselves to free cups of tea and coffee in the sun room of the Thornton family house, who have turned over their yard to the weekly market.

Indeed the very…