On 15 September 1853, The Anglo-Celt published an account of the day that the Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR) officially began the job of building Cavan’s first railway. A few months earlier, the Midland Great Western Railway had obtained a parliamentary act, which allowed them to make a railway line from Cavan town to Inny Junction. The Inny junction would then connect the line to Mullingar. The project was launched with great gusto as each dignitary had a go at picking up the spade and turning a few sods. Many had gathered to see the hot-shot engineer of Ireland’s Railways, William Dargan. If Britain could have Isambard Kingdom Brunel, then we would have the great William Dargan. In the nineteenth Century, successful engineers were treated as celebrities. On one occasion, Queen Victoria offered him a knighthood when she came to tea at Dargan’s home in Dublin. A modest man, he told her that he did not want it. I would like to say thank you to Sean Lynch for drawing my attention to this week’s topic.
Star of the hour
The day chosen for the big event was Market Day. The Anglo-Celt’s reporter thought that the day was inconvenient because people were busy attending to their own business. The roads leading to Cavan town were described as being ‘thronged with footmen, and equestrians, and the more public ones were from noonday alive with the busy music of jaunting-cars, gigs, dog-carts, carriages, and other turns-out (sic.), all … though differing widely from each other in the style of their construction and the station of those, whose conveyance they were … now tending to the same immediate term … the hill of Drumlaney.’ The hill, a low ridge, was located along the road between Drumheel and Kilmore. This place was chosen for the MGWR to conduct their their sod-turning ceremony.
Around two o’clock, the event kicked off when Lord Farnham appeared on the road leading to Drumlaney hill. Loud cheers greeted his arrival. A wave of excitement flowed through the crowd as they jostled to catch a glimpse of Dargan. Alas, nobody could see him anywhere. Every so often, a shout was heard, ‘he is coming’, but again, and again their expectation was met with disappointment. An hour had past. Then shortly after three o’clock, Dargan was standing on the hill. Everybody was amazed as to how he got there, as no one had seen him arrive. Not as much as a shout was heard. People made their way to the front of the crowd to catch a glimpse of their hero.
Speeches
Lord Farnham was the first person to grab hold of the spade. He dug ‘a small sod of earth’ and threw it into a wheel-barrow. He proceeded to push the wheel-barrow backwards and forwards along a plank of wood before emptying its contents onto the ground. After he had finished his ceremonial duty, Lord Farnham addressed the people. He told them that the railway would be ‘the precursor of brighter hopes and higher destinies to this county of Cavan.’ He emphasised that, ‘it was a work in which all could and would unite, pulling together in a strong and steady endeavour to ameliorate the condition of the poor, and to form in the more wealthy habits of energy and activity, and enterprise … a work great in itself, but vastly greater in its consequences to our commerce and agricultural wealth.’ The audience cheered loudly.
The Rev. Francis Saunderson came forward and spoke. He told the people that he had spent ‘many a day on Committee in London’ sitting beside John Ennis, Chairman of the MGWR Board of Directors, and that at times it seemed that all hope of obtaining a railway was lost. The railway would bring ‘high wages to the labouring classes in Cavan’, he asserted. The straight-talking Reverend explained, ‘you will have plenty of work to do, and be thus prevented from going about from place to place, hatching mischief and treason’. He then added, ‘you will be busy all day, and when night comes, you will retire to your beds, that you may sleep off your fatigues, and be ready to commence your work with renovated energy.’ He stated that idleness was the mother of all mischief. A number of people gave a sigh of disapproval. Saunderson then talked about William Dargan, saying, ‘I do not know what to call him; he is a most wonderful man; he does work cheaply.’
John Ennis the MGWR Chairman came forward and said to the crowd, ‘I stand for the first time in my life on one of the green hills of Cavan, I feel an interest in the present line that I do not remember to have experienced in any other of the many cases.’ The throng began to shout, ‘Dargan, let us hear Dargan.’ As he walked forward, Dargan was greeted by three loud cheers. His address was brief. ‘I am not going to make a speech for you,’ he said, ‘as you all know that I am a man of work, not of talk. I cannot, however, abstain from thanking you for the kind manner in which you received me on my first appearance amongst you.’ Dargan then went away. The group which consisted of 8,000 to 10,000 men, women and children began to make their way home. Three years later, Cavan Railway station (now Anglo-Celt offices) would open it doors to people, goods and livestock. More information about the famous Irish engineer William Dargan, can be read in William Dargan: An Honourable Life (1799-1867), by Fergus Mulligan.
