engineering

engineering. In the late 18th century the extension of arable farming encouraged the growth of foundries and engineering works making plough parts, harrows, and a range of other equipment, as well as ironwork for flour mills, breweries, and distilleries (all of which used grain as their major raw material). The employment of English and Scottish millwrights in Ireland contributed to a high level of technical diffusion from the British engineering industry, so that by the 1830s it had become more convenient and cheaper to hire Irish foundry and engineering works to cast and fit up millwork.

A degree of regional specialization emerged; Wexford's early prominence as an agricultural machine manufacturing centre was a result of its location in one of the major tillage regions. Dublin, at the hub of the railway network, dominated railway engineering and ironwork for public works. Most of the major rail companies located their engineering and maintenance works in Dublin; the works of the Great Southern and Western railway at Inchicore (established in 1852) was by far the largest. Belfast's engineering sector was initially influenced by the demand created by linen bleaching and finishing. As linen spinning became mechanized a number of firms moved into supplying spinning and preparatory machinery and the number of engineering and foundry works in the city increased form four in 1825 to twelve in 1851. The extent of demand enabled a few Belfast firms to produce steam engines on a regular basis (notably Victor Coates and Rowan). During the second half of the 19th century, as Belfast built up a large trade exporting flax spinning machinery, a number of large firms engaged in machine building emerged, like Combe & Barbour (established in 1845), Mackie's, and Reynolds's. The other industries in and around the city also created a sustained demand for foundry and engineering work, differentiating the engineering sector in the north‐east from the remainder of the country.

Bibliography

Cairns, J. , ‘Inchicore Works’, Railway Magazine, 43 (1913)
McCutcheon, W. , The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland (1984)

Andrew Bielenberg