It’s not likely anyone in this country is going to find an old loy in an ancient barn loft, although someone in Ireland might. So, what is a loy? A hint is that it’s the Irish word for a spade, but a loy is quite different from the spade as we know it. The loy consisted of a long narrow curved iron blade, at the front end of which was welded a sharpened steel cutting edge. This was fastened to a sturdy wooden handle made of ash or oak, the lower end of which was heavy and wedge-shaped. At the right side was carved a wooden step so the loy could be forced into the soil with the foot. It was reckoned at the time that twelve men armed with loys could turn over one acre a day.
The loy was used primarily in the North Midlands of the Irish Republic, where the stony clay soil was heavy and wet with deep-rooted grass and lots of organic matter. The narrow blade cut through this tough soil relatively easily and the wedge-shaped bottom and sturdy handle gave the loy digger leverage to break loose, lift and invert the square sods.

From accounts of potato planting written during the 1930s and published by the Irish Folklore Commission we can reconstruct the procedure.
April is the favourable month for sowing potatoes. The farmer cleans the rushes off the field and stretches a scoring rope on the grass the length of the ridge required and scores along the rope with the loy about three inches deep and continues like this leaving three feet ten inches between each score.
Farmyard manure is brought to the field and left in little heaps. After the ground is scored the manure is spread between each score. Then the field is ready for digging.
The preparation of the seed is left to the woman of the house. She seats herself at the kitchen fire on a little stool. Beside her are three vessels, a creel (basket) in which the “splits” are put, a bucket full of potatoes, and a little barrel in which the “cuttlings” are thrown. A short sharp knife is used, around which a piece of cloth is tied to protect the hand from blisters. The potato is cut leaving an “eye” or two in every split to ensure growth for the new crop.
The setting of the potatoes is usually left to the women and girls of the family. The splits are brought to the field, sometimes on carts but generally on a man’s back, and they are emptied in a convenient place beside the prepared ridges. The setters wear “guggering” bags. This jute bag is tied round the waist like an apron. Having filled her bag with splits and armed with a steeveen (A pointed pole or staff with a rest for the foot) she mounts the ridge and starts work. Hopping with the right foot on the projecting piece of wood in the steeveen she makes a hole into which she throws a split. Three of these holes are made in the breadth of a ridge and a foot is usually left between each row of three.
Later in the day the process of “stopping” takes place. This is done by breaking mould into the holes with a graip (manure fork) and this work is usually done after school by boys and girls.
When the potatoes are planted the farmer “shovels” or “finishes”. “Shoveling” is done as follows. A home made harrow about three feet wide is harnessed to an ass which pulls it down the furrow breaking the sods into mould which is shoveled up on the ridge.
When the stalks are growing the farmer sprays them with blue stone (copper sulphate) to prevent a disease called “blight” which ruins the potato crop. The blue stone is tied in a bag and steeped in a tub of water during the night. Washing soda is melted and mixed with the blue stone and the mixture is put into a barrel. This mixture is put on the growing stalks with a heather besom (broom) or a spraying machine. Spraying is usually done on a good day because the rain would wash the blue stone away.
By the mid-twentieth century the use of the loy had all but disappeared, except perhaps in backyard gardens. Irish farmers have long been keen on ploughing contests and at one of these events in the 1980s an official of the Langford Ploughing Association watched an old man using a loy and decided to include a loy digging class in the next ploughing match. The idea caught on and in 1992, the Loy Association of Ireland was formed. Most all of the ploughing matches in the Republic of Ireland now feature a loy digging class and men and women, boys and girls, all compete in the different classes to see who can turn out the neatest plot.
A plot consists of one full ridge 46 inches wide, and a third row of sods 10.5 inches in width. The full ridge consists of two sod rows, each 10.5 inches wide, turned toward each other, leaving a center verge (grass strip) of 3 to 4 inches width. Furrow should be 3 to 4 inches deep. Length of plot varies; senior contestants must dig a plot 30 feet long, while the juniors dig 20 feet, and ladies plots are 10 feet in length.
To see photos of loy digging competitors hard at it go to: http://www.loyassociation.ie/gallery/gallery.php#pid=27