The Straffan Rail Disaster occurred on 5 October 1853, when a goods train ran into the back of a stationary passenger train south of
Straffan
Straffan (variously ''Teach Srafáin'', ''Strafáin'' or ''An Cluanini'' in Irish) is a village in County Kildare, Ireland, situated on the banks of the River Liffey, 25 km upstream of the Irish capital Dublin. As of the 2016 census, the v ...
station in
County Kildare
County Kildare ( ga, Contae Chill Dara) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county, ...
.
Background
The
Great Southern and Western Railway
The Great Southern and Western Railway (GS&WR) was an Irish gauge () railway company in Ireland from 1844 until 1924. The GS&WR grew by building lines and making a series of takeovers, until in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was the ...
line from
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
to
Cork
Cork or CORK may refer to:
Materials
* Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product
** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container
***Wine cork
Places Ireland
* Cork (city)
** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...
had only been in operation six years when 18 people died in what is still Ireland's third-worst railway tragedy, having only been surpassed by the
Armagh rail disaster
The Armagh rail disaster happened on 12 June 1889 near Armagh, County Armagh, in Ireland, when a crowded Sunday school excursion train had to negotiate a steep incline; the steam locomotive was unable to complete the climb and the train stall ...
of 1889 (80 killed) and the
Ballymacarrett rail crash
The Ballymacarrett rail crash occurred on 10 January 1945 at 7:50am in the Ballymacarrett area of Belfast, County Down, Northern Ireland on the Belfast to Bangor Line of the Belfast and County Down Railway, when a train led by a heavy autotrain ...
of 1945 (23 killed).
Events
At 6:20 pm on 5 October 1853, the piston rod on a locomotive snapped, stranding the newly introduced noon express train from Cork south of Straffan Station, towards
Baronrath, in a dense fog and gathering twilight. There were a total of 45 passengers in the two first- and three second-class carriages.
Edward Croker Barrington, a solicitor for the company, who was a passenger on the train, directed the
fireman
A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...
, John O'Hara, to signal a warning to a 20-wagon goods train which had been passed in
Portarlington and was approaching from behind, so that it might push the train into Dublin. O'Hara was gone 15 minutes when the goods train was seen approaching and, reassured, some of the passengers got back on their train. However, the goods train crashed into the stationary carriages at full speed, smashing through the first-class carriage at the back of the train, overturning the second-class carriage, shearing the roof off another carriage, and driving the rest the other side of Straffan Station, reduced to "a heap of ruins".
William Hutchinson from Clownings was one of the first on the scene, having gone to the railway line investigate the stalled train. Dr Geoghegan tended the injured, and Edward Kennedy, who was hunting nearby, helped summon aid. The injured were kept in the station house, and three orphaned children were brought to
Lyons House.
Inquest and enquiry
The inquest was performed initially at Straffan station house and adjourned to Barry's Hotel at
Thirteenth Lock. The victims came from Cork, Mallow, Kenmare, Birr, Laois, Kildare and Dublin, and included Jesse Hall from County Kildare, Daniel and Anastasia McSwiney of Kenmare, TW Jelly of Straboe, John Egan of Birr, Emma Pack of Birr, Kate Hamilton Haimes, (the wife of a mill owner from Mallow, originally identified from a note in her pocket by her maiden name, Kate Smith), Christopher McNally, a solicitor of Dublin, Claire Kirwan from 82 Lwr Abbey St in Dublin, Margaret Leathley from 62 Eccles St in Dublin, Joseph Sherwood a servant boy of the household of Richard Stokes, Cherry Agnes Knapp from London, Margaret Palmer, a cousin of Mrs Knapp, William Bateman a solicitor from Cork, Mrs Latham Blacker from London and four children. A total of £27,000 compensation was paid to victims, the equivalent of €2.37m today.
The unionist ''
Dublin Evening Mail
The ''Dublin Evening Mail'' (renamed the ''Evening Mail'' in 1928) was between 1823 and 1962 one of Dublin's evening newspapers.
Origins
Launched in 1823, it proved to be the longest lasting evening paper in Ireland. The paper was an instant suc ...
'' alleged that the bodies of the dead and the dying were plundered by local people, an allegation disproved by the inquest and condemned by the rival ''
Freeman's Journal
The ''Freeman's Journal'', which was published continuously in Dublin from 1763 to 1924, was in the nineteenth century Ireland's leading nationalist newspaper.
Patriot journal
It was founded in 1763 by Charles Lucas and was identified with radi ...
'': "The people did not plunder the dead and dying but, on the contrary, assisted with the greatest alacrity and to the utmost of their power." The only criticism at the inquest was of a carter named Connor, from Celbridge, who refused to carry the wounded until he was given
half a crown.
The inquiry found that no warning was given by either red light or
detonators. The fireman, John O'Hara, the engine driver, James Gass, and the guard of the luggage train, James Prey, were arrested.
Commenting on the accident, an editorial in ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' of London called for clockwork
event recorders to be carried in locked boxes on all trains in the United Kingdom.
Folklore: The Ghost Story
According to ''
Ireland's Own
''Ireland's Own'' is a family magazine published weekly in Ireland. For many, it is a national treasure. It was launched on 26 November 1902 by John M. Walshe of People Newspapers, and originally cost just penny, 1d. 'Tis a lovely, gentle, gent ...
'', the
Wexford
Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 N ...
weekly magazine which reports the supernatural, the site of the crash has been haunted by a man with a red lamp ever since.
Allingham Poem
References
Sources
*
Eoghan Corry
Eoghan Corry ( ga, Eoghan Ó Cómhraí; born 19 January 1961) is an Irish journalist and author. He is the lead commentator on travel for media in Ireland, having edited travel sections in national newspapers and travel publications since the 19 ...
and Jim Tancred: ''The Annals of
Ardclough
Ardclough, officially Ardclogh (; ), is a village and community in the parish of Kill, County Kildare, Ireland. It is two miles (3 km) off the N7 national primary road. It is the burial place and probable birthplace of Arthur Guinness, w ...
'' (2004).
{{Railway accidents in the United Kingdom, 1815–1899, state=collapsed
Railway accidents in 1853
Train collisions in the Republic of Ireland
Railway accidents involving fog
Transport in County Kildare
History of County Kildare
1853 in Ireland
Accidents and incidents involving Great Southern and Western Railway
October 1853 events
Train collisions in the United Kingdom
1853 disasters in the United Kingdom