Irish Agri Auctions, a newly formed firm, held its first ever auction on Friday last 19 March. The new group is the brainchild of four auctioneers, Eoin Lawlor, Rory Doyle, Jerry Horan and Tristan Kingston. The four work in the livestock and property sectors and are dispersed across counties Cork, Laois, Kildare and Tipperary.

We spoke to Eoin Lawlor, one of the four young auctioneers involved. He explained: “The idea has been on the cards for a long time. We have been talking about the concept and planning this auction for almost 12 months now. We saw an opening in the market and wanted to offer people an all-Ireland approach to machinery auctions, something a little different. We have four yards scattered throughout the country where people can safely drop off machinery and equipment. We have the capacity to organise transport from one depot to another, bringing items closer for buyers to collect if necessary”.

In line with the current times, the firm’s first auction took place online, on the MartEye platform. Kicking off at 6pm, a total of 230 lots were offered on the evening with a clearance rate of 76.2% being achieved. The company told the Irish Farmers Journal that 250 registered bidders signed up, with viewer numbers peaking at an astounding 12,800 people. Commission was charged at a rate of 10% for items sold up to €1,000 and 5% for items sold above €1,000.

“We are very happy with how our first auction went. We are now starting to take entries for our next two auctions – the first on 2 April which will feature the same format as the first auction and the second on 30 April which will be a collaboration with Ballybay Mart in Monaghan,” Lawlor concluded.