Michael Kelly (Sean) Lack Cross

The Kelly family from Lack Cross merit recognition as the most enterprising family to attend Lack School in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Michael registered at Lack School in 1888. Having worked the family farm for many years, the opportunity to diversify arose in about 1925 when he responded to an advertisement from Alfa Laval, the Swedish manufacturer of milking equipment. They were seeking a representative to sell their products in County Clare.

Their main product was the milk separator, which was an efficient means of removing cream from milk, replacing the old inefficient skimming method. It increased butter output and farmers’ income.

Armed with brief experience selling Lister milking machines as an assistant to Mr Casey in Kildysart, and proficiency at sales talk, singing, dancing and storytelling, Michael Kelly was successful in his application. Over the next 10 years he became a household name throughout County Clare, from Kilbaha to Killaloe, selling mainly milk separators and also churns and steam boilers. For much of this period his sole means of transport was the bicycle, while his duties included the sale, delivery and installation of the machines. In his final years he acquired a van. The building of the creameries marked the end of the milk separator and Michael Kelly’s position with Alfa Laval.
New ventures involving his family were to follow:

• Housing contract,1941−1942: The Kelly family were awarded the contract for the building of a house for Jack Murphy nearby. The contract price was £280. For the record, the stone was taken from the ruin of the workhouse in Kildysart. The stone mason was Michael Moloney from Kilmihil,whose price for the stone work was £13. He lodged with his brother-in-law Stephen Clancy at Tonlegee for the duration of the job. New slate was provided at a cost of £28
• Purchase of thrashing machine in 1944: Michael Kelly purchased a horse drawn thrasher in 1944 but soon upgraded to one operated by a tractor and purchased a Fordson. His sons Miko and Joe thrashed the corn from Newmarket-on-Fergus to Labasheda for many years
• Erection of lime kiln in 1947: The Kelly family constructed a lime kiln alongside their home in 1947. It received little use as the process of burning lime was soon superseded by ground limestone

Michael died in January 1975. Tribute must be paid to his wife, Margaret Kelly, who ran the farm, a shop and reared a family of 9 children during the period when Michael was working away from home.

The talent in business and in sales in particular was not restricted to Michael. His brother Jack (Lack School, 1885) became a very successful salesman, selling insurance in Chicago, USA, in the period to the Depression in 1929.