Monaghan County Council appeals for memories and photographs of the county’s hen-women for a new history project — and invites the public to a talk at the Peace Campus, Monaghan Town on 28 November.
Monaghan County Council is asking families across the county to share their memories and photographs of the women who kept hens and sold eggs between 1910 and 1950, for a new research project funded under the Council’s Commemorations History Bursary 2026.
Egg Money: Women, Poultry and Independence in County Monaghan, 1910–1950 is being researched by historian Dr Michelle McGoff-McCann, author of two books on the county’s history, who was awarded this year’s bursary. The project will produce a written history, a register of the county’s named poultry women, and a collection of recorded memories and photographs that will be held at Monaghan County Libraries.
Anyone with a memory, a photograph or a name to share can email the project at eggmoneyinmonaghan@gmail.com. Dr McGoff-McCann will also give a free public talk on the project at 1.30pm on Saturday 28 November at Monaghan Branch Library, Peace Campus.
For most farm families in Monaghan in the first half of the last century, eggs were the one product that belonged to the woman of the house. The “egg money” — earned in the yard, sold to the egg man, the egg station or the market town — paid for boots, schoolbooks and the messages, and it was earned, held and spent by women. It kept households going through the Great War, partition and the Emergency. Yet it has almost vanished from the written history of the county.
Dr McGoff-McCann’s research has already begun to recover that history from the county’s newspapers. She has traced more than twenty poultry instructresses employed by the Monaghan County Committee of Agriculture — among them Miss Doyle, who served the county’s poultry keepers for forty-six years, and Miss Flood, who represented Ireland at the World’s Poultry Congress in London in 1930 — together with some 800 named women who ran the Department of Agriculture’s egg, turkey and goose distribution stations from their own farmyards. The story also runs along the border: after the customs frontier was drawn in 1923, Monaghan’s egg trade was cut in two, and the newspapers and court reports record eggs and fowl crossing the line by cart, bicycle, bus and pram.
“Every Monaghan person over a certain age knows exactly what egg money was, and almost none of it has been written down,” said Dr McGoff-McCann. “This was serious knowledge — breeds, feeding, hatching, grading, marketing — passed from woman to woman and taught in classes across the county. I want to record it from the people who remember it before it is gone. No story is too small: a granny who kept hens, the egg man calling, the instructress’s classes, eggs going over the border. If your family has a memory or a photograph, we would love to hear from you.”
Deirdriú McQuaid, County Librarian and Head of Cultural Services, said: “The Commemorations History Bursary was established to bring to light the stories of ordinary Monaghan people that would otherwise be lost. Egg Money does exactly that: it puts the women of the county’s farmyards at the centre of its economic history. We would encourage everyone with a memory or a photograph to get in touch and share your stories.”
What the project is looking for
- Memories — of mothers, grandmothers and aunts who kept hens; what the egg money was spent on; the egg man calling; the egg distribution stations; poultry shows and prizes; the instructress’s classes; hatching, rearing and the work of it.
- The border — stories of eggs and fowl crossing the customs frontier after 1923: the smuggling, the customs posts and the price difference on either side.
- Photographs — of women with their hens, farmyards, egg baskets, egg carts, stations, classes or shows, from any decade up to the 1950s. Originals will be photographed at high resolution and returned to their owners.
- Names — if a woman in your family was a poultry instructress, ran an egg station, or won prizes at the county shows, the project would like to add her to the register of Monaghan’s poultry women.
The project aims to record around fifteen interviews. Stories can be recorded as oral history, written down, or shared anonymously — the choice is yours. A simple consent form will explain the process and how the material may be used. Printed transcripts and project records will be deposited with Monaghan County Libraries, and digital copies with the Digital Repository of Ireland, so that the memories gathered now are preserved for researchers, students and the public in the future. Dr McGoff-McCann will be in the county in October to meet people in person and can also talk by phone or video call.
Public talk — Saturday 28 November 2026
Dr McGoff-McCann will give a public talk, “Egg Money: the hen-women of Monaghan and the border” at 1.30pm on Saturday 28 November 2026 at the Peace Campus, Monaghan, as part of the Saturday Afternoon Series on ‘Trading on the border: transport, industry and commerce in Monaghan a century ago’ organised by Monaghan County Museum and Monaghan County Libraries. Admission is free. Everyone is welcome. The talk will also be an opportunity for people to bring along photographs and share their stories. A second talk elsewhere in the county will be announced in early 2027.
How to get in touch
Anyone with a memory, a photograph or a name to share can contact the project directly at eggmoneyinmonaghan@gmail.com.