"McMahon Spade"

[Tonity Bog, Roslea, Co. Fermanagh]

Length: 1.33m
Width: 0.13m

This spade was made by McMahon's spade and shovel manufacturers, and was bought at Dowler's shop, Lisnaskea. John McMahon founded the original spade mill on the townland of Tonity Bog, near Roslea, around 1860. The McMahon's moved the business across the border to County Monaghan in the 1920s, following the partition of Ireland, where it continued until 1969. McMahon's produced more than a hundred different designs of spade for farmers in south west Ulster and north Connacht, but they became popularly referred to as simply 'the McMahon'.

Presented to the Museum by Mr Pat Cassidy, Lisnaskea

FCM_1981_226