On ass husbandry and Arthur, a black and white ass foal... For Sunday Miscellany on RTÉ Radio 1, listen to Identity Crisis, by Anne Marie Kennedy above.
It's far from literary lunches and arts festivals I was reared, on a small farm about 40 miles from here in North Galway. We had milk cows, and asses. Our asses didn’t have names, they had terms. The mare ass, the ass foal and the daddy or the jack as he was known. Cows might get names, associated with their origins or physical markings the Skehana heifer, the Ballymac cow the black whitehead, the Belgian blue or the red shorthorn.
I don’t keep cattle now, but I have maintained the tradition of ass husbandry, keeping three or more ladies at a time...
Listen to more from Sunday Miscellany here.
