Drurys to take the helm at Cootehill Mart

Cootehill Mart is set to reopen next month under new ownership.

The Drury family signed a 10-year lease on the Station Road mart premises, and intend to hold their first sales event in March.

News of the closure of Station Road Mart on January 15, revealed in a brief statement by the outgoing directors - the O'Reillys - came as a surprise, and a blow to the town. Since 2013 the O'Reillys had built up a strong base of farmers for the mart which had lay idle for many years.

With a new lease being taken on the premises it seems livestock sales will open a new chapter with Geoffrey and Helen Drury and their son Steven at the helm.

“I'm delighted,” Steven told the Celt. “It is daunting, but I'm really looking forward to getting into it. I know it is a big undertaking, but I think it's exciting, it's something different. And it's good for everyone, especially in our own family who have been involved in the mart for 60 years at this stage.”

Geoffrey had worked as a drover in the mart previously when it opened under the Brady's back in 1981, and again when it reopened in 2013 under the O'Reillys.

“It's kind of a family tradition, my grandfather Archie Drury was the every first man ever to bring cattle into Cootehill Mart,” said Steven, proud of the Drurys' longstanding connection with the mart.

He said that the Bradys were very helpful in them getting this new enterprise underway.

Steven will retain his job with Galetech Energy, the renewable energy company behind the windfarms in Carrigallen, Newbliss, Mountain Lodge and elsewhere. He studied in agri-business in Galway, and has kept a hand in the family beef farm “a few mile out the road” in Canningstown.

“Geoffrey will be managing the mart,” says Steven. “It's something he knows inside out. He's been literally working in marts over 40 years at this stage. We have good people there who have always been there, and a lot of the old staff are coming back as well – so everyone knows their job. We're not starting off with 20 new people who don't know one end of a stick from the next.”

Cootehill Livestock Mart will operate their sheep sales on Tuesday evenings, hold their main cattle sale on Wednesdays and weanling sale on Friday evenings.