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Unread 25-02-2008, 11:01   #18
comcor
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Cork-Dublin, Cork Commuter and occasionally DART and Dublin-Wexford
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So it turns out to have been a problem since 1864...

Quote:
Is this Ireland’s oldest infrastructural problem?

By Conor Ryan
“YOU may talk of Columbus’s sailing across the Atlantical sea.


“But he never tried to go railing from Ennis as far as Kilkee.”

So sang Percy French when scorning delays on the old west Clare railway.

Now, a century later, a mini Atlantical sea has put a month-long stop on the line from Ennis to Limerick.

Iarnród Éireann expects its 600 daily customers will have to rely on buses for at least another three weeks.




But back in 1864, when French was 10 years old, the same flooding problem closed the line and was due to be resolved by channelling the problem basin near Newmarket on Fergus.

A drainage scheme was mapped and a public-private funding package arranged.

Unsurprisingly, the plan was derailed, and now, 144 years later, the rains came again and a new generation of engineers are trying to reach a similar solution.

“It is a limestone area which is landlocked so there is nowhere for the water to go. When it rains a lot it fills up. It seems the underground channels get blocked and the water levels rise,” said Canon Reuben Butler of Newmarket on Fergus.

Last week he told the local archaeological society about the first public meeting to discuss the cyclical floods — in Ennis Courthouse on Thursday June 16, 1864 (10 years after the line opened). On that day Lord Dunboyne, of Quin Castle, outlined a £100 proposal to keep the train tracks flood-free.

“To drain the lands at Lisduff, I propose a drain of six feet deep and two feet wide. The water sinks underground in the townland of Ballycar and rises in Newmarket and for this, the most expensive portion of the district, I propose to cut a tunnel 8x6 feet high.

“The remainder of the works are of the ordinary character and merely consist of deepening the drains... and will not be an expensive operation,” he said.

At Ballycar Station he suggested the railway company deepen its drainage channel. He said this would be worth it “owing to the benefit the Limerick-Ennis railway will derive from being free from water”.

Immediately, powerful local landowners pledged £70, and £50 was to come from the Board of Works. Lord Dunboyne promised the value of the land would increase — but two men dissented.

Hugh Hickman, the owner of Fenloe Lake, said it “would be rather injurious” to the scenery and would drain the lake. Michael Riedy said it would weaken the flow to his mill.

Despite these complaints the plan won majority support but was never acted upon. Lord Dunboyne lacked the Board of Works approval. A century and a half later, the board’s modern day equivalent the Office of Public Works examined the flood basin.

Last week Irish Rail said it hoped the OPW can find a long-term solution as it is reopening the old Galway to Limerick line shortly.

OPW spokesman George Moir said engineers were working on the problem: “Our engineer said it is caused by a swallow hole and after heavy rain this year the water is not running off as normal. He will be back with recommendations.”

Lord Dunboyne may have saved the OPW the hassle. His assessment is contained in reports in the Clare Journal (June 20, 1864) and the Limerick Chronicle (June 21, 1864), kindly made available by the local studies’ sections of the Limerick City and Clare County libraries.

Flooding remedy: Five-and-a-half tonnes of spuds

Question: What would it have cost to fix the flooding problem blighting the Ennis to Limerick line?

Answer: The same price as five and a half tonnes of fine new potatoes on the week the drainage plan was first discussed in 1864.

It would be a mathematical nightmare to convert the price into today’s values, but it can be put in perspective.

Engineer John McMahon told the Ennis Courthouse meeting that £100 would get the drainage project started. At the time, men earned £15-2s-0d a year.

Alongside the Clare Journal’s report on the meeting, a note said a pound of “very fine new potatoes” was got for 2p in Limerick — 0.008% the budget for the work. Today, the same weight of spuds in Thomondgate, Limerick, cost €0.22 and farmers can get a wholesale price of €1,650 for the 5.5 tonne of potatoes, which would have covered the 1864 project.

However, in 1864, the gap between rich and poor was vast. Sociologist Karl Marx studied the bank balances among Ireland’s elite. That year 387 people in Ireland earned more than the £1,006 it would have cost to purchase the 989 acres in Newmarket on Fergus affected by the flooding. According to the plan’s author, Lord Dunboyne, land values would have gone up by 15% for every acre affected. Today, the same area of 18sq/km is under water with no solution in sight and nearby agricultural land is selling for €25,000 per acre.
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