railway

railway transport began in Ireland with the opening of the Dublin and Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) railway on 17 December 1834. This first line provided a link between the capital and the ferry to Holyhead, which in turn was connected to London by road. Its contractor, William Dargan, became the ‘Father of the Irish Railways’. He was involved in the financing and building of most lines up to his death in 1867. Although the Dublin and Kingstown line was a success, investors were slow to put their money into railways, because there was not the same need for cheap, efficient transport as in industrial Britain. In the industrial north‐east, however, manufacturers set up the Ulster Railway Company, which launched the second Irish line, Belfast–Lisburn–Portadown, in 1842, and the pace of railway building greatly increased thereafter. During the 1840s, Ireland experienced something of the railway mania then sweeping Britain. From a figure of just over 31 miles in 1842, lines already open or under construction totalled 700 miles in 1850. Investment from 1831 to 1852 amounted to £12.5 million. Government loans were made available under both Peel and his Whig successor Lord John Russell.

Although never carrying the huge volume of traffic of British railways, Irish companies flourished because of the comparatively low cost of land and labour. The lines out of Dublin and Belfast were lengthened. Drogheda was reached in 1844. Armagh came on line with the Ulster railway in 1848. By 1850 Belfast was connected to Holywood, Comber, Newtownards, Carrickfergus, and Ballymena. A line from Derry, down the Foyle valley, opened up west Ulster. The Great Southern and Western Dublin—Cork rail link opened in 1849. Cork was also linked to Bandon. The Dublin–Galway line opened in 1851. The Dublin–Belfast link was completed with the building of the Boyne viaduct, at Drogheda, in 1855. There were also many local narrow gauge railways.

By the 1850s most of Ireland's railway network was thus in place. The ramifications for the economy and society were unprecedented. Bridges, viaducts, and track excavations impacted dramatically on the landscape. Travel was greatly speeded up. For instance the Belfast to Dublin train, in 1857, took 5 hours 20 minutes, half the time of the stage coach. Even the poor could travel on the admittedly spartan third class. Savings of time and money were even greater for goods haulage. Commodities became ever more plentiful and cheaper, particularly in rural Ireland. Railways allowed Irish agriculture easier access to the huge English market. However, the much stronger English manufacturing sector could now flood the Irish market, in the process sending many Irish concerns to the wall. Railway employment accounted for a considerable proportion of the national wage packet. Social changes included standardization of time, the spread of national daily newspapers, and the growth of seaside resorts. A whole new class, the commuter, could now live in purpose‐built city suburbs. Grand railway stations and hotels underlined the importance and the wealth of the railways. This ‘golden age’ lasted to the end of the First World War.

By 1919, there was a total of 3,442 miles of rail. But a process of decline was already under way, due to competition from motor transport, which in a predominantly rural and thinly populated society was more convenient for passengers and goods. Also damaging was the commitment of both governments, after partition, to the promotion of road over rail. The decline continued despite rationalization in 1925, when 26 companies merged to become the Great Southern Railway Company. After the Second World War, nationalized integrated road and rail networks (Córas Iompar Éireann and the Ulster Transport Authority) were set up. Despite a shift to diesel, the railways continued to lose out to the roads. The axe fell in both jurisdictions, though more ruthlessly in the north. By 1977, the total rail mileage had declined to 1,550. Recent collaboration between Iarnród Éireann and Northern Ireland Rail, underpinned by European money, has led to an upgrading of rail services between Belfast and Dublin. Also, with the environmental cost of the move to road from rail at last being recognized, the future for rail now seems more secure.

Bibliography

Nolan, Kevin B. (ed.), Travel and Transport in Ireland (2nd edn., 1993)