Book on Ireland’s largest sheep farm a huge success at launch in West Mayo

A crowd of over 100 people turned out in Louisburgh Parish Hall on Friday, September 12 for the local launch of Sean Cadden’s eagerly awaited new book.

Seventy Years in the Wild West – The Rise and Fall of Ireland’s Largest Sheep Farm is a fascinating and detailed examination on the complex and dark story of Dhulough Farm.

Published by Mayo Books Press and written by renowned local historian and Teagasc agricultural advisor, Sean Cadden, this meticulously researched work uncovers the story of Ireland’s largest sheep farm, Dhulough Farm in southwest Mayo, and the tragic human cost of its creation.

The launch was performed by Ciarán Staunton of Louisburgh and the USA, whose great-grandfather Patrick Staunton was 13 when his family were evicted and their home levelled to the ground to clear the area for a sheep farm.

“In harrowing conditions, they were evicted onto the side of the road. The priority of the day was livestock over people,” he said at the launch. “This publication is a story of resilience and survival and determination. Our ancestors lived despite these odds and their priority was their children. This is more than a book. It is a profound historical document and I think it should be in every school in the country. It’s our history,” he added.

He introduced Sean Cadden then to an immediate standing ovation. The seeds of the book were sown over 60 years ago, when Cadden, then a young advisor, listened to elderly farmers around Louisburgh recall the devastating evictions that followed the Great Famine. Their memories told of families forced from their homes across 44 townlands by the Marquis of Sligo and the Earl of Lucan to make way for massive sheep enterprises under Captain William Houstoun and John Louden. Houstoun established the 45,000-acre Dhulough Farm, working with imported Scotch Blackface sheep, while Louden ran the neighbouring Killary Farm.

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“This could be described as the last plantation of Ireland,” writes Cadden. “The inhabitants did not have to move to Connacht; they were already there, but to a nearby overcrowded townland with bad land.”

Alongside this turbulent history, Cadden examines the Houstouns’ experimental farming methods, the building of Dhulough Lodge, and the writings of Matilda Houstoun, whose own memoir Twenty Years in the Wild West inspired the title of Cadden’s book. While Matilda acknowledged the ‘misery’ caused by their arrival, her words also reveal the contradictions of a family whose presence reshaped Mayo’s landscape and memory.

The book is also rich in genealogical records and rare photographs, offering families in the region a unique resource to trace their past. 

A Westport launch will take place on Thursday, September 25 at 8pm in the Plaza Hotel. Catherine Keena, Head of Countryside Management with Teagasc will perform the launch. The Castlebar launch will be part of the Wild Atlantic Words Festival on Thursday, October 9 at 7.30pm. 

Harry Hughes of Westport Historical Society will launch the book there.

Seventy Years in the Wild West: The Rise and Fall of Ireland’s Largest Sheep Farm, Southwest Mayo, 1851–1923 is available now from all good bookshops and online at www.mayobooks.ie.

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