Michael English was born on June 10, 1888, in Bonnettstown, Kilkenny, into a world where horses still dominated the fields and the steam engine was a marvel of industrial progress. His early life was shaped by the lasting effects of the Land War, a time when tensions between landlords and tenants were palpable across Ireland. Michael’s family lived modestly, his father working as a Coachman for the wealthy Smithwick family on their estate in Kilkenny. It was a quiet, rural life, until the world began to change.
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By the time Michael was a young man, the industrial age had started to creep into Ireland, offering new opportunities. In the 1901 Irish Census, Michael was listed as a “Scholar,” reflecting his early education at a time when reforms were improving access to schooling in rural areas. However, by 1911, he had already taken a step into the working world as a steam engine driver at a woodworks. This job reflected the growing industrial opportunities in small Irish cities like Kilkenny. But as the clouds of World War I loomed over Europe, greater changes were on the horizon.
OPPORTUNITY IN DUBLIN
In 1917, Michael’s life took a decisive turn. His brother, Patrick English, an insurance salesman in Dublin, selling Royal Liver penny policies to the families in Dublin and had connections to the staff at Whiting-Bull Tractors. As the war created urgent demand for increased food production, tractors began replacing horses in the fields. Whiting-Bull, a Canadian company that set up operations in Dublin to produce tractors for the war effort, was in need of skilled workers. With his experience as a steam engine driver, Michael was a perfect fit. He moved to Dublin, joining some of his siblings living on Lower Pembroke Street and took a job with Whiting-Bull at Percy Place, off Haddington Road.
WORKING FOR WHITING BULL
The company was selling tractors to big farmers and estates across Ireland, like the Headfort Estate in Kells, County Meath, where vast tracts of land needed to be ploughed quickly and efficiently. Michael was sent to the Headfort estate to train the farmers on these new machines, a task that would set him on a lifelong path in the world of farm machinery. It was there, in the countryside of Kells, that Michael met Mary Fitzsimons, a young woman working in the estate’s kitchen. Amidst the rumbling engines and the rolling green fields, they struck up a relationship.
In 1918, with the world still at war, Michael and Mary married. Their union came at a turbulent time for Ireland. The Easter Rising of 1916 had ignited nationalist sentiments and the country was on the brink of its own war for independence. Michael and Mary started their family as the War of Independence began in 1919, followed by the civil war that tore the country apart from 1922 to 1923. Through these upheavals, Michael’s work with tractors remained steady. The machines, first a luxury for the wealthy estates, were slowly becoming essential for farms of all sizes as mechanisation began to change the landscape of Irish agriculture.
MOVE TO FERGUSON
In the years that followed, Michael became deeply involved with the growing agricultural machinery industry, working for Harry Ferguson, the pioneering inventor whose Ferguson System revolutionised farming by creating an integrated system for tractor and implement use. With their showrooms in Lower Baggot Street, garage and storage yard at the rear and accessed down Mackies Place next to Michael’s house.
Michael worked for Massey-Harris, which later became Massey Ferguson.
He worked in the main garage and in his covered stable in Mackies Place fitting the wooden planks to the grey trailers to make them ready for sale. As tractors became more common in Ireland, Michael helped to instruct farmers in their use, ensuring that these machines were properly utilised to maximise farm output.
Also serving for many years as the company’s ploughing competition driver. He is shown with Mr B.E. Williams GM of Ferguson in the 1951 press photo.
Through his life, Michael witnessed profound changes. He lived through the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 and its eventual transformation into a republic in 1949. As a man who had been born into an Ireland dominated by agriculture and horses, he saw the country modernise in ways that would have seemed unimaginable in his youth.
By the time of his death in 1958, having worked for over 45 years, tractors and machines had taken over the fields and Ireland itself had become a very different place.
Michael English’s life was a testament to the transformation of both Irish society and the farming industry. From his humble beginnings in Kilkenny to his role in helping modernise agriculture, he played a part in the story of a country evolving from a colonial agrarian society to an independent nation embracing modernity. His story is not just that of one man but of the countless others who worked, innovated, and adapted during one of the most transformative periods in Irish history.
Story by Michael English-Colohan
Michael English-Colohan from Dublin, a Domestic appliance / TV audio and computer Sales Executive for 40 years and for 35 years an active motorcyclist, competitor and senior member of the Motor Cycle Union of Ireland, two years General Secretary for the sport in Ireland. Representing Ireland at motorcycle races in England and the Isle of Man TT races as a member on the Stewards panel overseeing the events.
Sources of Photo Information & Video Credits:
Whiting-Bull photograph – Keith Bryan
1917 Big Bull – Aultman Taylor – YouTube
Flickr – K Garret
Gas Engine Magazine
H. J. Pugh & Co.
Hulton Deutsch/Corbis/Getty Images
Picryl
Pintrest – Arthur Kavanagh
Road Locomotive Society
The Commercial Motor Archive
If you have an idea for a story, please email Kevin Reid [email protected]
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