Using a McMahon Spade to Dig Lazy Beds

A clip with a little about the McMahon spade (after the manufacturer McMahon Brothers of Clones; also sometimes called a coping spade or a two eared bent ridging spade) and a demonstration of using one to dig a lazy bed, otherwise known as scoring and coping. The McMahon spade is essentially a type of foot plow, being used for undercutting and flipping sod rather than digging. It belongs to a broader pattern of spade cultivation in the North Atlantic (and the Isles more specifically), along with the Irish loy and gabhal gob, Scottish cas-chrom and cas-dhìreach, and more distantly the Faroese haki. Although manufactured spades with bent blades intended for turning sod are known to have existed in Ireland since at least 1801, McMahon Brothers, who began around 1860 when John McMahon leased a site for a spade mill in Tonity Bog, Co. Fermanagh, were likely the most popular makers of such spades (among many different patterns, including the older loy pattern spade). In the 1920s, following the partition of Ireland, the McMahons moved their business to Drumard townland, Co. Monaghan where their mill operated until its closure in 1969.