Postcards from Portrush: Donkeys (II) on the West Strand

David Martin

Aug 1

The lane at the back of Croc na mac was for the donkey procession, from their overnight grazing at Parker Avenue field, to breakfast and saddling up at Mr. & Mrs. Edgar's back yard, and to the beaches, with their daughter Fern and a troop of youngsters earning summer job pocket money.

I've described this bit in the first blog, here's the link Postcards from Portrush: Donkeys on the East Strand - it is worth reading that first, if you haven't already.

I remember Fern's daughter Joanne as just a toddler, helping out as toddlers do. Joanne writes, 'The beach donkeys and ponies were a big part of my life growing up. It was up early and over to my Granny and Papa's house at 36 Croc-na-mac to pick up bridles and then over to the donkey field to get our charges - Vicki K, 'Jessie Edgar's pony field was across from my granny's in Parker Avenue' - then a swift canter back over the football pitch and in to Mrs McConaghy's back garden, a few houses along, to give the animals a spruce up while they enjoyed their breakfast nosebags...'

Then, after their breakfast, every summer morning would be the parade of a dozen donkeys and ponies out along the back lane, on their way to the beaches.

Sheila K: 'Oh David, I remember the donkeys and ponies down the back lane and of always having a sugar lump or two to feed them if we knew we were going that way … or pulling up handfuls of grass from the verge if we had no other offerings.
'And I remember too, two elderly spinster sisters (the Misses Cochrane) who lived in Rodney Street and swore that Edgar's animals' manure was the reason that their roses and their rhubarb did so well. The smaller sister used to gather up any 'droppings' left as the donkeys and ponies went to/from the beach with a short-handled coal shovel, put them in a galvanised bucket and head home as if she had just been panning for gold and had bagged a bucketful of nuggets!'

Joanne, 'We split up to either the 'Big Beach' or the 'Wee Beach'. I remember the donkeys on the East strand more, but Joanne reminds me that there were animals on the west strand too. I see Council adverts of the 1950s of licencing eight ponies or donkeys on the East strand and four on the West strand, the 'wee beach'.

Joanne continues, 'If it was the big beach then Shimo, Ken Bolton's beautiful wee collie, was waiting to spend the day with us. We scaled the Bolton's gate at Strandmore - it seemed an insurmountable height when I was small - to get buckets of water for them, while someone ran to the grocery to collect the carrot tops that the grocer kept for the donkeys, something they loved.'

'If it was the wee beach then the tap outside the Teas and Ices cafe was much handier! And there was Maggie and Linda at the deckchairs to say hello to and the craic was good.'
Katy Diamond writes, 'I always remembered the West Strand donkeys run by Claire and Ann MacIntyre ', and in the 1974 Belfast Telegraph seaside article pide of place there is Claire wth two donkeys, and there is Ray Mason at Portrush Pottery, and Joy May of May's Fashions.

Vicki K writes, 'I definitely think horsey-ness is in our McIntyre blood, as Claire's daughter Olivia had pony and I also have a horse now. Tracey has 2 donkeys.' And Joanne's family too, a long love for the aniumals. What an historic photo, below, just received from Janne, never been seen before! 'My grandfather's riding school - it was where the Maxol station is now. A riding school, and as well my great-grandfather also did beach donkeys.''

And the photo below, Joanne: 'Oh this is one of my favourite photographs! Papa and Granny on Trixie and Jock, taken in 1948, the year they got married.'

I guess that every kid visiting Portrush got a ride on the donkey, and I guess dozens of young teenagers earned a little pocket money helping the Edgar's with the animals. Brian Sweeney: 'I remember it well. I used to lead one of the donkeys, and they would stand on your foot if you were not careful!' The pay was not a path to riches though. Vicki K: 'I used to love the stories that my aunt Claire and Ann told about working with the beach ponies, of a horse called Tara, and how little they got paid a shilling, an amount equivalent to like 50p a week!'

Sheila: I remember as a child wanting to work with the donkeys at the beach because you got to ride them there and back … until I realised that the work involved an awful lot of just standing about holding reins all day '.

George Davies: ''We did this more for the joy of riding the donkeys down to the beach and home again at night! I still remember riding a pony home and going past the gas works when a loud whistle scared the pony and he took off! The guy on a bike managed to stop it before the crossroads, going on to the Ballywillan road!'

Joanne continues, 'I can't remember much about our customers because, like all the leaders, all we cared about was our animals. I can remember Rosie, Clancy, Mitzi, Meg and Duchess the donkeys, and Tara, Candy, Goldie, Tanya, Sandy, Jet, Dusty and Rue the ponies. There were others, but those are the ones that stood out for me, and I could tell you about each of them to this day - Tara's patience, Jet's cheekiness, about the wonder's of my first ever canter on Dusty, about how Rosie loved her ears scratched inside and how she refused to go to the wee beach because it wasn't 'her' beach, about how Sandy was a nightmare to catch ...... I could go on and on. To this day, many of the leaders I meet out and about, like the Una in the photo above, say it was the best job they ever had!!'

Mr. and Mrs. Edgar were the same generation as my mum and dad, getting married the same year and moving into Croc na mac, 'honeymooners row'. I guess they were heading towards retirement in the 1980s, and I guess animal poo on the beach became seen as un-cool and a health risk. I think donkey rides as an attraction at Portrush faded away in the early 1980s. The last newspaper photo of donkeys that I see, below, is of August 1981, with some familiar names in the article.

Joanne reckons that her Papa had them until mid 1980s. If you have photos & info of the donkeys and ponies, especially of the 1980s that you'd like to share, please do send, to add to the social record.

Sheila K: 'Oh Davd, even the ponies and donkeys get elevated to celebrity status via your memoirs and attention-grabbing writings!' What shines through to me is the care and affection for the donkeys and ponies, and that each had their own character and personality. Below, Joanne: 'Mum and a pony called Cheetah - Mum says that she insisted on having a snooze every day at lunchtime lol'.

There was a fantastic historic photograph of the riding school in her family, and Joanne finishes, 'I'm proud to be my grandparents' granddaughter and to have played a tiny part in the happy memories of so many people. Oh, and while none of the originals are around, there are still two donkeys in the family - I just can't imagine a life without donks in it!!!'

==========================
With thanks to Joanne Gibson for the story and family photographs, Sheila Brown for the postcard images, the contributuions from Vicki K and all.
Newspaper articles from https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

Postcards from Portrush' series:
(I) the Story of Eglinton St.
(II) the West Strand & Harbour
(III) Harbour Tales
(IV) the Recreation Grounds, renewed
(V) Landsdowne, 'Counties & The White House
(VI) Diving at the Blue Pool
(VII) Donkeys on the East strand
(VIII) Donkeys on the West strand