Last Saturday, May 25th, was the 180th anniversary of the completion of the Dublin to Drogheda railway line.
The first railway to be built in Ireland was from Westland Row (now Pearse), Dublin to Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) which opened in December 1834.
It was 9.6km in length and cost £340,200 to build which is equal to approximately £60m today or £6.25m per km, and was built and operated by private enterprise.
The following year Mr Thomas Brodigan of Piltown House, proposed the much more ambitious project of building a railway from Dublin to Drogheda, a distance of 51 kilometres.
In 1836, after huge opposition from a group that wanted it to run inland from Dublin to Navan, and with the help of none other than Daniel O’Connell, permission was granted, Mr. John McNeill was appointed engineer, and in February 1840 work on the project commenced.
The railway was completed in 1844 at a cost, in today’s money, of €118.6m or €2.32m per km and opened for business 180 years ago on 25th May 1844.
According to a report of the time in the “Handbook to the Dublin and Drogheda Railway” a sumptuous party was held in Raheny Castle to celebrate the completion of the project:
“On Thursday, the 23rd May, another experimental trip was made by the Shareholders and their Friends. On the return of the train from Drogheda upwards of six hundred persons partook of a sumptuous entertainment at Raheny.”
Well done Thomas Brodigan!
