Driving a Tractor
A black-and-white photo of Mrs. Maureen Lawless driving a tractor on a farm in Swords in the 1950s.
© Swords Historical Society.Driving a Tractor
© Swords Historical Society.
© Swords Historical Society.
Driving a Tractor
A black-and-white photo of Mrs. Maureen Lawless driving a tractor on a farm in Swords in the 1950s.
© Swords Historical Society.Farming was a way of life for many families in Fingal up until the mid-twentieth century. Fingal was mainly a rural area, consisting of farms and small villages.
Newbridge Demesne Traditional Farm in Donabate gives visitors an idea of what it was like to live on a farm in Fingal in the past. It has been returned to its original eighteenth-century state, complete with farm animals and old implements. It is set in twenty-nine acres in the grounds of Newbridge House, which has one of the finest intact Georgian interiors in Ireland. The estate was originally owned by the Cobbe family.
Due to the decline in agriculture generally in Ireland, there are now fewer farms in the Fingal area. Much of the area consists of suburbs of Dublin City. In this section, we will learn about some aspects of living on a farm in Fingal in the first half of the twentieth century.