Monday, August 24, 2009

Irish railways in the 19th and 21st centuries

 

DUBLIN-bound commuters have to cope for the next three months, or so, with service disruption caused by the collapse of a railway viaduct at Malahide last week. This 19th century edifice over the Broadmeadow Estuary will disrupt an estimated 50,000 commuter each day.

rail map The era of mass transport in Ireland based on railways began in 1834, more than a decade prior to The Great Famine and reached its peak in the mid 1920’s. The system was reduced to a shadow of its original scale by the early 1960’s when the total population of the country sunk to its lowest level in history.

Ireland’s first railway service between Dublin and Dún Laoghaire in 1834, eight years after the inauguration of the first rail route in England between Liverpool and Manchester. The terminus was located at what is now Salthill station until 1837 due to local opposition to the development of what is now Dún Laoghaire station.

2009 08 24 Dalkey station The population of what is now the Republic of Ireland, when the railways were inaugurated, was 6.5 million but this declined to 2.9 million in 1926 when the success of the railways system began to wane. Ireland’s population reached a low point in 1961 when it dropped to 2.8 million, before recovering over the past 15 years to its current level of 4.2 million.

2009 08 24 Dalkey DART When the railway enterprise commenced in 1834, 15% of the country’s population resided in the counties that now constitute the Dublin commuter belt – counties Dublin, Meath, Louth, Wicklow, Kildare and Carlow but, of course, there was no such thing as commuting then, nor had breakfast-roll-man existed! The Dublin commuter belt today contains 43% of the country’s population.  The building on the left is Dalkey Station, opened in the 1850’s.

It may surprise some that when the population was at its peak in 1841, the population of County Dublin was less than 374,000. County Dublin had a lower population then than:

  • Cork (854,000)
  • Tipperary (435,000)
  • Galway (440,198)
  • Mayo (388,887)
The decline and recovery in population numbers is summarised in this table:

 

Counties

1841

1926

1961

2009

Leinster

       

Carlow

86,228

34,476

33,342

50,349

Dublin

373,773

505,654

718,332

1,187,176

Kildare

114,488

58,028

64,420

186,335

Kilkenny

202,420

70,990

61,668

87,558

Laois

153,930

51,540

45,069

67,059

Longford

115,491

39,847

30,643

34,391

Louth

128,280

62,739

67,378

111,267

Meath

183,828

62,739

65,122

162,831

Offaly

146,857

52,592

51,533

70,868

Westmeath

141,300

56,818

52,861

79,346

Wexford

202,033

95,848

83,308

131,749

Wicklow

123,143

57,591

58,473

126,194

1,971,771

1,148,862

1,332,149

2,295,123

Munster

1841 1926 1961 2009

Clare

286,394

95,064

73,702

110,950

Cork

854,118

305,747

330,443

481,295

Kerry

293,880

149,171

116,458

139,835

Limerick

330,029

140,343

133,339

184,055

Tipperary

435,553

141,015

123,822

149,224

Waterford

196,187

78,562

71,439

107,961

2,396,161

909,902

849,203

1,173,320

Connaught

1841 1926 1961 2009

Galway

440,198

169,366

149,887

231,670

Leitrim

155,297

55,907

33,470

28,950

Mayo

388,887

172,690

123,330

123,839

Roscommon

253,591

83,556

59,217

58,768

Sligo

180,886

71,388

53,561

60,894

1,418,859

552,907

419,465

504,121

Ulster

1841 1926 1961 2009

Cavan

243,158

82,452

56,594

64,003

Donegal

296,448

152,508

113,842

147,264

Monaghan

200,442

65,131

47,088

55,997

740,048

300,091

217,524

267,264

OVERALL TOTAL

6,526,839

2,911,762

2,818,341

4,239,828

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The development of the leading railway companies reflected this:

  • 1839 Ulster Railway – 970 KM
  • 1844 Great Southern & Western Railway - 1,794 KM by 1901
  • 1844 Dundalk - Castleblayney
  • 1845 Midland Great Western Railway - 861 KM
  • 1848 Midland Railway Northern Counties – 262 KM
  • 1848 Belfast and County Down Railway
  • 1840 Cork, Blackrock and Passage Railway – 26 KM
  • 1851 Cork, Bandon and South Coast Railway - 150 KM
  • 1856 Dublin & South Easter Railway serving Wicklow and Wexford - 256 KM
  • 1859 Clones - Enniskillen
  • 1863 County Donegal narrow gauge railway – 178 KM
  • 1866 Cork and Macroom Direct Railway – 38 KM
  • 1883 Cavan and Leitrim light rail – 78 KM
  • 1886 Clonakilty Light Extension Railway – 14 KM
  • 1887 Cork and Muskerry Light Railway – 29 KM
  • 1887 West Clare Railway – 43KM
  • 1888 Dublin and Blessington Steam Tramway – 25 KM
  • 1888 Listowel and Ballybunion Railway – 16 KM
  • 1900 Dublin and Lucan Electric Railway – 11 KM

There were other independent railway routes between:

  • Schull and Skibbereen
  • Sligo-Leitrim
  • Timoleague and Courtmacsherry
  • Tralee and Dingle
  • Waterford and Tramore
  • Castleblayney, Keady and Armagh
  • Tralee and Fenit
  • Ballnrobe and Claremorris
  • Loughrea and Attymon

2009 08 24_0297 The system operated 5,500 kilometres of track in the 1920’s and apart from passenger traffic, they served a vital function in moving goods to ports for transhipment abroad. The building photographed on the left is Glenageary Station, where my own daily commute starts and ends – not always in sunshine!

The railway companies were merged into Great Southern Railways in 1925 and amalgamated into what was to become CIE in 1945.

modern rail map The modern railway system in the Republic of Ireland consists of approximately one-third of the peak capacity in terms of track length. The mainline service links Dublin with Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Tralee, Limerick, Galway, Sligo and Belfast. The former Dublin – Navan route is being redeveloped as are the city services in Dublin, Cork and Galway.

This is taking place against a population profile that is radically different than that of pre-Famine Ireland, as illustrated in the following table, measuring persons per square kilometre:

 

Counties

Area (km2)

Density 1841

Density 1961

Density 2009

Leinster

       

Carlow

896

96

37

56

Dublin

921

406

780

1,289

Kildare

1,693

68

38

110

Kilkenny

2,061

98

30

42

Laois

1,719

90

26

39

Longford

1,091

106

28

32

Louth

820

156

82

136

Meath

2,342

78

28

70

Offaly

1,999

73

26

35

Westmeath

1,838

77

29

43

Wexford

2,352

86

35

56

Wicklow

2,024

61

29

62

19,756

100

67

116

Munster

Area / Population density

 1841

1926

1961

2009

Clare

3,147

91

23

35

Cork

7,457

115

44

65

Kerry

4,746

62

25

29

Limerick

2,686

123

50

69

Tipperary

4,303

101

29

35

Waterford

1,837

107

39

59

24,176

99

35

49

Connaught

Area /population density

1841

1926

1961

2009

Galway

6,148

72

24

38

Leitrim

1,588

98

21

18

Mayo

5,585

70

22

22

Roscommon

2,547

100

23

23

Sligo

11,836

15

5

5

27,704

51

15

18

Ulster

Area / population density

1841

1926

1961

2009

Cavan

1,931

126

29

33

Donegal

4,841

61

24

30

Monaghan

1,294

155

36

43

8,066

92

27

33

Overall Total

79,702

82

35

53

Some of the magic of the old railways is kept alive by the West Clare Railway who have run the old locomotive over a stretch of the old route. The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland, based at  Whitehead, Co Antrim organise steam train trips from time to time.

1 comment:

  1. This is a truly facinating article/blog. I am from Clonakilty in West Cork. When I was about 5 years old, I was taken to the local train station. I remember this well. We travelled to Gaggon (also known as Clonakilty Junction) on a loud, rattling and thoroughly magical train. After returning to the station, the group of us - a small group of town folks - were photographed. I still have the picture which actually looks like it could be from the 1930s. The caption would read "Pictured on the occasion of the last train from Clonakilty...."

    Well done, Myles.

    ReplyDelete