A loy is an early

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

spade A spade is a tool primarily for digging consisting of a long handle and blade, typically with the blade narrower and flatter than the common shovel. Early spades were made of riven wood or of animal bones (often shoulder blades). After the a ...

with a long heavy handle made of

ash Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non-gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...

, a narrow steel plate on the face and a single footrest. The word loy comes from the

word ''láí'' (

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic ( sga, Goídelc, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ga, Sean-Ghaeilge; gd, Seann-Ghàidhlig; gv, Shenn Yernish or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive writte ...

''láige'',

Proto-Celtic Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly reconstructed through the comparative method. Proto-Celt ...

*''laginā''), which means "spade". It was used for manual

ploughing A plough or plow ( US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or ...

prior to and during the Great Famine.

Construction

The loy is a narrow spade with a blade about 14 inches long by 3 inches wide and bent with a handle 5 to 6 feet long. The handle is normally made of

. The blade has a single step for use with the right or left foot.

Ridging using the loy

The loy was traditionally used for

cultivating Tillage is the agricultural preparation of soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shoveling, picking, mattock work, hoeing, ...

the

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Uni ...

. In the 19th century, these were grown in a potato ridge, sometimes known as a

lazy bed Lazy bed ( ga, ainneor or , gd, feannagan ) is a traditional method of arable cultivation. Rather like cord rig cultivation, parallel banks of ridge and furrow are dug by spade although lazy beds have banks that are bigger, up to in width, ...

. Sods were turned from either side to form the ridge. This was sometimes called copin the sods, and the sods forming the sides of the ridge were called cope sods. A sod of earth about 2 feet (60 cm) wide on each side of the intended ridge was lifted by the loy and turned over so that the grassy sides were together.

Manure Manure is organic matter that is used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Most manure consists of animal feces; other sources include compost and green manure. Manures contribute to the Soil fertility, fertility of soil by adding organic ma ...

was spread on the ridge part first. Narrow ridges were most often made with sets of around twelve sods. Loy ploughing took place on very small farms or on very hilly ground, where horses could not work or where farmers could not afford them and were used up until the 1960s in poorer land. This suited the moist climate of Ireland as the trenches formed by turning in the sods provided drainage. It also allowed the growing of potatoes in bogs as well as on mountain slopes where no other cultivation could take place.

Other uses

As well as ploughing and ridgemaking, the loy was also used for lifting potatoes and digging

turf Sod, also known as turf, is the upper layer of soil with the grass growing on it that is often harvested into rolls. In Australian and British English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', and the word "sod" is limited mainly to agricult ...

. Loy digging is still a popular pastime in Ireland with a national Loy Digging Association. Loy digging is an integral part of the

National Ploughing Championships The National Ploughing Championships ( ga, Comórtas Náisiúnta Treabhdóireachta) or NPC, previously known as The National Ploughing Championships Machinery & Livestock Exhibition, is an outdoor agricultural show in Ireland incorporating a ...

The loy in culture

Theatre

The Playboy of the Western World ''The Playboy of the Western World'' is a three-act play written by Irish playwright John Millington Synge and first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on 26 January 1907. It is set in Michael James Flaherty's public house in County Mayo (o ...

'' by Irish playwright

John Millington Synge Edmund John Millington Synge (; 16 April 1871 – 24 March 1909) was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, collector of folklore, and a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival. His best known play '' The Playboy of the Western World'' was poorly ...

, set in a public house in

County Mayo County Mayo (; ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, meaning "Plain of the yew trees") is a county in Ireland. In the West of Ireland, in the province of Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Counci ...

during the early 1900s, tells the story of Christy Mahon, a young man running away from his farm. Mahon claims he killed his father by driving a loy into his head.

Literature

Irish writer Declan Hughes' novels center around the

detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...

Ed Loy, whose name is an homage to

Sam Spade Sam Spade is a fictional character and the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel '' The Maltese Falcon''. Spade also appeared in four lesser-known short stories by Hammett. ''The Maltese Falcon'', first published as a serial in the pulp ...

, the fictional character of

Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...

's '' The Maltese Falcon''.

References

External links

A demonstration of loy digging
{{Garden tools 19th century in Ireland History of agriculture Mechanical hand tools Farming tools Potatoes