Livestock Scales

"My Grandfather, James O'Neill, came to Carlow to manage a butcher shop for the Argentine "River Plate Meat Company" in Castle Street. After a few years the business closed but he opened his own shop at 12 Castle Street which was eventually taken over by my father and operated until the mid 1950s. The back yard doubled as an abattoir and the scales pictured was used to weigh the animal carcasses. My father told stories of travelling the local country side buying cattle directly from farmers for the shop. The family lived at 12 Castle Street until the late 1980s"