Tag Archives: ferguson

“If it ain’t red, leave it in the shed” the old tractor saying goes. And Joe Whelan Senior of Whelan’s Garage tractor dealership in Kilrush has gone one step further in elevating the humble Massey to legendary status at his newly opened Ferguson Family Museum. The tractor museum, which is dedicated to the life of Harry Ferguson, opened on March 18, the day after 80-year-old Joe was honoured as Grand Marshall of the local St Patrick’s Day Parade. The museum is part of the Museum of Irish Rural Life located on the Cooraclare Road in Kilrush, which is already firmly on the West Clare tourist map. The tractor museum has 14 fully restored vintage Ferguson tractors on display including the Ferguson Brown which was the first modern tractor from which all tractors are copied. There are also a number of grey models up to the 100 series, and reds like the Ferguson MF35 four-cylinder engine, the Massey 65 Mark 1 …

HE was famously known around Ennis as “the man with the tractor”. Yet there was a lot more to John O’Donoghue, a whole lot more. In the first instance, he was a son, a brother, an uncle, a neighbour and, above all else, a friend. A man who neither backed down nor backed off when put to the test, a man with an iron will when he had made his mind up and a person who lived every one of his 93 years without fear. To further enhance his many hidden qualities, he was a passionate GAA man, an engrossing political enthusiast and an outstanding conversationalist and raconteur. John was born in the townland of Drumcreen on the borders of Dysart and Kilnamona in June 1920. He was the second child of Jack and Mary O’Donoghue (née Kelly). His sister, Bridie, married in Crusheen and became the mother of the famous Tierney clan there. John inherited the family farm when …