roads

roads, in Ireland as elsewhere, began with paths or tracks created by people treading continuously along the same route. These trackways gradually became highways, where there was frequent use by mounted or carriage traffic. Although lacking the Roman legacy of road building, Ireland, according to the annals, already had soundly constructed roads by the early Christian period. These linked palaces, monasteries, fords, harbours, towns, and villages. Five major roads or sligthi, wide enough to carry two passing carriages, radiated in straight lines from Tara. They were paved with large stones and, where they crossed boglands, had foundations of oak timber. The Slige Midluachra ran from Tara to Grianan and Gartan in Donegal, with branches to Armagh, Downpatrick, Dunseverick, Co. Antrim, and Derry. People living along the routes had an obligation to keep them clear of brushwood, water, and weeds.

Increased commerce between the towns built in the Viking era ensured that roads were maintained into the medieval period. From Norman times, English legislation on roads began to be applied in Ireland. Thus the Statute of Winchester was applied, requiring that ‘highways from one town to another shall be enlarged, so that there be neither dyke, tree or bush whereby man may lurk to do hurt, within two hundred feet either side’. In 1613, the Irish parliament applied the ‘statute’ or ‘six‐day’ labour system, under which the parish was responsible for the roads in its area. The men of the parish did required maintenance for six days, between Easter and Midsummer Day. From this point, Irish road making was independent of England and often superior. An act of 1765 gave grand juries power to levy money on baronies within the county for the repair of existing roads and bridges or the construction of new ones. The new roads had to be at least 21 feet wide, at least 14 feet of which was to be formed with stone or gravel. This reform was long overdue, as the parochial system was too localized, leading to a multiplicity of small roads and no standardized provision.

The new countywide system befitted a country which was now more prosperous and integrated, with many more road users drawn from an increasing population. The grand jury road system was to last, with modifications, to 1898. Turnpike trusts, which levied a toll on users to support road maintenance, were established by an act of 1729, but were never as extensive as in England. At first subject to abuse and often short of funds, by the 1820s they compared favourably with the other road providers. An 1856 commission, however, reported that their mileage was down from 1,500 to 325 miles through competition from the railways. The following year the remaining turnpike roads were handed over to the county surveyors, who by then were in charge of grand jury roads. In 1778, Taylor and Skinner's book of maps showed 8,000 miles of road in Ireland. The same year, Arthur Young commented, ‘everywhere I found beautiful roads without break or hindrance … in a few years there will not be a bad piece of road except turnpikes in all Ireland’. Irish roads were better also because they were not subject to the same volume of traffic as in England.

The introduction of mail coaches in 1790 gave the Post Office an interest in the state of Irish roads. An act of 1805 granted it the right to lay down standards for road design, gradients, and widths. In 1853 these functions passed to the Board of Works, which was also given powers of road construction. In 1853 the board, in turn, handed over its roads to the grand juries. The 1898 Local Government Act vested responsibility for the roads in the county and rural councils. This coincided with the arrival of the motor car, which necessitated higher standards of road building. Vehicle and driver taxation, brought in under an act of 1909, provided funds for additional construction and improvement of roads. This was needed as Irish roads had deteriorated, due to the diversion of business to the railways.

Since partition, transport policies, in both jurisdictions, have favoured road over rail. Roads have vastly improved, due to new engineering technology and materials like asphalt, bitumen, and tarmacadam and the arrival in the 1960s and 1970s of motorways. Nevertheless many are coming to believe that the costs, in terms of pollution and environmental blight, deaths, and injuries, have outweighed the benefits of unimpeded access to the roads by motor vehicles.

Bibliography

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

Peter Collins