A loy is an early Irish

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 ...

with a long heavy handle made of ash, a narrow steel plate on the face and a single footrest. The word loy comes from the Irish 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 (Differences between American and British spellings, 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 draw ...

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 ash. 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 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 Un ...

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

Theatre

'' The Playboy of the Western World'' by Irish playwright John Millington Synge, 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 Coun ...

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 t ...

Ed Loy, whose name is an homage to Sam Spade, the fictional character of Dashiell Hammett'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