The Future of Roscommon Mart

In 2009 Roscommon Mart celebrated its 50th anniversary. It is owned by 490 shareholders of whom the vast majority is farmers and has been a hub of farming life in Roscommon since its inception, with a great record of retaining staff.
Marts have played a vital role in the farming community since the demise of the “fair days” in the 40’s & 50’s. From people dealing on the side of the road for cattle, horses, sheep or pigs the process developed into a business and social event in purpose built facilities where the auctioneer played an increasingly important role.

A report for Teagasc in 2002 discussed the role marts now play in Irish towns. The report states that in the 1990s the cumulative turnover of the country’s markets decreased by 26% whilst operating expenses increased by 25%. Many farmers are now foregoing the trading process and animals are being transferred directly from calf to slaughter with on-farm sales becoming more common also.

Undoubtedly the mart is an important entity in the development of a town such as Roscommon and in a way a unique urban feature– but today many believe it makes more sense to locate marts at the edge of towns. The Teagasc report speaks of the need to rationalize the industry and of how diversification is a sustainable approach for marts into the future – something that will be easier for larger marts to introduce. For example in Leiden, Holland the market premises are used 300 days of the year with most of the business profits actually coming from non-livestock events.

In, recent years the Roscommon Mart acknowledged some of the pressures faced by marts in Irish towns when they sold some land in the adjoining field to Tesco. Today the mart building occupies a central position located at the junction of the new retail sector developing at the Circular Road and the Main Street of the town. Two years ago the mart owners purchased land at Emmoo, Kilteevan less than 2 miles from the present location and have successfully submitted planning application to relocate there and build a two storey livestock mart with gross area of 12,959 sq meters. The application proposes livestock pens, sales arenas, farmers market, vetinary and farm supplies barber shop and canteen.

The location of the mart is pivotal in the organisation of the fabric of Roscommon town and over the years has been a vibrant place of exchange. What would be an appropriate and useful future reuse of this space upon the relocation of the mart?



1. Hennebry T. et al (2002) The Strategic Development of Irish Livestock Marts Teagasc available at http://www.teagasc.ie/research/reports/ruraldevelopment/4921/eopr-4921.asp
2. Lee James, Livestock Marts - The Future available at http://www.realestatealliance.ie/rent/rent-farms/related-topics/livestock-marts-the-future
3.Scott Pauline, Roscommon Mart – 1959-2009 Roscommon People 17 July 2009

view at rear of mart adjacent to Tesco supermarket and car park

map showing current mart location in town and new site at Emmoo, Kilteevan

Exploration of Boundary (1) - Roscommon

county and provincial

road and rail

secondary roads

parish boundary

townland

electoral divisions

aural sketchbook ?

London Metropolitan University - Field studies summer school 2010

exploring architecture and the city through listening and recorded sound

This workshop, carried out over the summer and led by Marc Behrens, Justin Bennett and Jack Levack Drever, explores methods of recording sound and ways in which sound can be used as a tool by architects in exploring place and community.

Through this link you can have a listen to the work carried out and also get links onto Behren's, Bennett's and Levack Drever's own websites.

Turn up your speakers !

Exchange / What Was That You Said? - Trim

Walking up Emmet Street on Sunday afternoon I noticed a black garment lying on the ground. It was decorated with studs and yellow feathers. Two young men were standing guard over the garment, and I enquired as to what was going on. They told me that the Chinese restaurant outside which they were standing was being "cleansed", and a blessing was being offered in the hope of bringing prosperity and good fortune to the restaurant for the year to come. This blessing would involve a line dance, which brought to mind denim and stetsons. Not very Chinese, I thought. Within moments, this duo were joined by 16 people dressed in similar attire, and a street band was formed. Two members climbed under the garment, creating a lion. Other members conducted and performed percussion using drums, gongs and clash cymbals, to which the lion danced. Ah I see... LION dance.

Lion Dance / Cleansing - Marigold Restaurant & Takeaway from Rob Tobin on Vimeo.

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Lion Dance / Cleansing - Marigold Restaurant & Takeaway from Rob Tobin on Vimeo.

The lion approached the doors of the restaurant and takeaway, crossing the threshold and continuing its dance inside before leaving, and "eating" a head of lettuce dangling from a first floor window. The performance lasted about 10-15 minutes, and many passers-by stopped to watch the performance in awe. Afterwards, I enquired further about the process of cleansing the restaurant and the nature of the organisation. I learned that they are from a Kung Fu academy based 25kms away, near Slane. Their repertoire includes kung fu, tai chi, meditation and dragon & lion dances.

The inland waterways association of Ireland

This link may be of interest to Blathmhac among others.

Task 8 - Collage Town

Taking the town apart and putting it back together again was an enjoyable experience. I decided to study old maps and photographs as a way of dissecting information about both towns and representing my information in two A1 size collages with as much relevant and interesting information as I could find.

For Longford, the Royal Irish Academy’s Historic Towns Atlas was invaluable, providing so many interesting maps and photographs combined into one. In particular, the information from first and second edition Ordnance Survey maps and the places and functions described on these maps was enlightening. One map shows the names of all of the alleys off Main Street and another shows the developments associated with the river and Great Water Street. Also a map showing the growth of the town in different periods and the prominence of the cathedral in old photos is worth noting.

In Castlebar, several publications in Mayo County Library proved to be huge sources of information containing many interesting writings and old maps. Some unusual maps include long maps of roadways from Castlebar to Dublin and to Westport, a map of townlands within the environs and recent tourist style maps containing useful information about public buildings and sights in the town. The website www.castlebar.ie and the Lawrence photo collection were useful for finding photographs.

Both towns share a varied history with a variety of uses for the same building over the period of about two hundred years. A huge level of growth and expansion is evident in both towns as maps progress. Also worth noting is the style and hierarchy of inclusion when producing these maps over time.

Longford Collage

Castlebar Collage

Task 7 - Exchange

In both towns, the exchange that occurred happened by chance. I didn’t really know it was an exchange until it was actually happening, so I scrambled to record the conversations that were taking place and edit the contents to present.

In Longford, I went for lunch in the Aubergine restaurant on Main Street with Rob, Bláthmhac and two other architecture students who are from the town. Our discussion obviously turned to Longford and what it needed, what was liked about the town and how it was formed.

In Castlebar, I went to visit two old work colleagues in Murtagh Jewellers on Hopkins Road, and asked them a few quick questions about the town, and they came up with some good ideas which I wrote down. We talked about the best and worst thing about living there and what the area lacked.

Presented are the edited text versions of the conversation that took place, while still trying to capture the light heartedness and general lively discussion about the selected towns. Pride of place and some thoughtful responses were evident in the conversations.

Longford Chats

So what does Longford need do you think?

Population, people!!

Ya, it needs some more people living here.

Are you writing this down?

Ya this is my exchange I think for number 7

(laughing)

So no more shops then?

A shopping centre?

There’s a nice big empty one up there.

Ha, we saw it earlier all right, we hopped the wall and got in, and we were there taking photos and the alarm went off and told us to clear off cause we were trespassing!

(laughing)

We got a recording of it though haha, so eh, do you have any idea how the town was founded?

It was a market town, eh and then the military came.

The canal too, it’s been rejoined.

...

So do you like anything about Longford?

The food, definitely the food, we had a great lunch when we came and the second lunch was even better.

(laughing)

Castlebar Chats

So the first question is what does Castlebar need do you think?

A prison. No, no don’t write that haha...

It needs talent, definitely, there’s only loads of mingers

(laughing)

...

What’s the best thing about the town?

It’s only an hour from Galway, I’m only joking haha... don’t write that either...

It needs a pub here on Hopkins Road, a pub that does bar food or a restaurant or something, and toilets

It needs public toilets.

What do you think is the best thing?

The worst is that everything is pay and display

Ya there’s no free parking.

Knowing Brian Guthrie is the best.

Brian Guthrie?

The traffic warden.

Ya, him, or the woman they do have on a Saturday

So you can get off getting a ticket for it...

(laughing)

Task 6 - A critical Eye

In both towns that I studied I chose photography as a means of defining architectural character. I started by looking at buildings and spaces of architectural significance in both towns. I then chose themes including bridges, materials, facades, surfaces, embellishments, triangular shaped forms and open public spaces as a means of comparing the character.

In the end I chose facades and the relationship of the built edge of public buildings with the ground. I felt that in both towns, the variety that exists is of note and helps define the character of the place. There isn’t one particular style, use of material, scale, relationship with neighbouring buildings or proportion in the buildings of these market towns, which adds to the architectural character for all.

Maps showing photographed buildings' locations and route taken while exploring both towns, Longford and Castlebar

Longford Photos

Castlebar Photos

Task 5 - How do I get there?

Stanley Brouwn - This Way Brouwn Sketch

Richard Long - Mahalak, River Course, Five Paths

For this task, we had to pick a point in the centre of the town in

question and ask people to draw a map to a location on the edge of the town.

For both Longford and Castlebar, I picked the largest and busiest retail centre in the town, which was Tesco, reflecting the theme of market on a Saturday afternoon. I asked locals to draw me a map to the train station, which created a boundary or edge in both cases.

In Longford, fast food outlets, supermarkets and the cathedral featured as prominent landmarks. There were a number of different routes, both in cars and for pedestrian traffic in comparison to Castlebar, which was all car driven. The routes generally deviated from each other only in small way

s, a

s the distance from point to point isn’t huge. One map introdu

ced three dimensional elements and all maps were drawn landscape.

In Castlebar, there was a huge variety in the route that was taken. Roundabouts, street and destination names and directional arrows fea

tured prominently in comparison to Longford. The Green or Mall, which is a public open space, was mentioned in a few drawings. As part of the Castlebar series, I drew th

e last map myself, and was the only person to draw portrait and to include a north pointer.

The exercise was interesting in that the people I met with showed various levels of enthusiasm. People I knew and younger people were the most interested and would spend longer drawing. Very few maps showed an accurate cartographic representation. It was also interesting to note the approaches a

nd different starting positions on the page of the various people.

Longford and Castlebar routes shown on current O.S. Maps

Longford Sketches

Castlebar Sketches