Willie Neilan, the auctioneer at the Mid Kerry Co-Op Mart has retired after 40 years of working at the mart.
Neilan, who has worked as an auctioneer for a total of 50 years, told Agriland that “the time has come, the race is run” for his time working at the mart.
While he began auctioneering at Mid Kerry Co-Op Mart in 1984, Neilan is a native of Co. Roscommon.
His father was a solicitor but Neilan said his hobby was farming, which he explained is how he “got into” auctioneering himself, as he used to buy cattle for his father when he was 14 years of age.
The Co. Roscommon native said he started auctioneering in Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo, and from then he went on to work at most of the marts in Mayo, Galway and Clare.
Neilan recalled when Roscommon Mart opened when he was 11 years old, and that the mart had to “bring in a man from England to do the auctioneering”.
Neilan married his wife, Triona, who is originally from Killarney, in 1973, around the time he began auctioneering.
Neilan then worked at nearly all of the marts in Kerry, including Kenmare for a period of nearly eight years when it first opened, Dingle, Tralee, Gortatlea, and Castleisland.
However, he said the only mart in Kerry he didn’t work at was Listowel, but when asked by Agriland if he would consider a role there in the future, Neilan said: “Maybe I’ll apply for a job there yet.”
In 1984 Neilan was working at the mart in Kilfenora in Co. Clare at the time, but was then offered the job in Milltown in Co. Kerry.
During his 40 years working at the Mid Kerry Co-Op Mart in Milltown, the most significant periods of change for Neilan at the mart were the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001, and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Foot and mouth closed the mart for six months, and Neilan called this period a “scary time,” particularly with how it spread through England.
With the arrival of Covid-19 to the country in March 2020, Neilan said he “got a kick out of being able to sell cattle and sheep online”.
“You had to learn fast. I thought the farmers took to it great too. When you have to, you do. It was a big change for everyone.”
Neilan reflected on this years sheep trade, and spoke on how the Mid Kerry Co-Op Mart has witnessed a vast improvement in prices.
“It’s unreal. I sold the first two spring lambs for a man for €205 each, and he said to me ‘Willie, I would had to sell four lambs for that last year’.
“They were tough selling last September and October, but since Christmas they got dearer every week,” he added.
Neilan said he is “very proud” of the manager at Mid Kerry Co-Op Mart, Linda Daly, who started working at the mart office from a young age.
Set to replace Neilan is Brendan O’Connor, a local farmer and a man who has worked at the mart “all his life,” according to the outgoing auctioneer.
O’Connor began to offer some relief for Neilan at sales over the last number of years.
When asked by Agriland if he plans on any visits to the mart in the near future, Neilan said: ” Well I live in Killarney, it’s only out the road. I’ll be passing, I’ll call into see them alright.”
However, he won’t be bidding at these sales as he said “not at 75 years of age. It’s a young mans game now. I need to be looked after now”.