A scene from Killaloe pier, Autumn 1852

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Sduddy
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A scene from Killaloe pier, Autumn 1852

Post by Sduddy » Fri Feb 09, 2018 2:29 pm

Some Clare people emigrating in the middle of the 19th century went by steamer from Killaloe northwards through Lough Derg to Athlone. I imagine they then went on the train to Dublin. And then on to Liverpool. John Forbes, who wrote a travel book on Ireland in Autumn 1852 (http://www.askaboutireland.ie/aai-files ... S_VOL1.pdf ), would seem to have been determined to avoid Co. Clare as much as possible – he goes from Limerick to Galway, first by coach to Killaloe, then by steamer to Athlone and then by train westwards to Galway. But he stops and takes time to send us this picture from the pier in Killaloe (page 201):

There is a curious old bridge of a great many arches (nineteen, I think,) crossing the river at the town [of Killaloe], and which forms a beautiful object in the landscape as we look down the river from the pier where the steamer stops, which is about a mile above it. Indeed, views in all directions from this spot, - of the town, the river, and the surrounding hills, are very fine, though the want of wood gives rather a character of coldness and sternness to the whole.
We found the steamer waiting for us, and the little pier thickly crowded with people waiting to go on board or to see their friend on board. The deck was, indeed, so crowded, that it was not an easy matter to get from one part of it to another: and the crowding and confusion were still further increased by the whole of the fore part of the vessel being occupied by cattle.
It was soon seen that a party of emigrants had come or were coming on board and were now taking leave of their friends with every token of the most passionate distress. With that utter unconsciousness and disregard of being the observed of all observers, which characterizes authentic sorrow, these warm-hearted and simple-minded people demeaned themselves entirely as if they had been shrouded in all the privacy of home, clinging to and kissing and embracing each other with the utmost ardour, calling out aloud, in broken tones, the endeared names of brother, sister, mother, sobbing and crying as if the very heart would burst, while the unheeded tears ran down from the red and swollen eyes literally in streams…. There were about twenty of these emigrants, all destined, in the first place, to Liverpool by way of Dublin. The majority of them were going to the United States, but several, particularly the young women, were bound for Australia. Every one was going out on funds supplied by their friends who had preceded them to the land of their exile …

Almost immediately after leaving Killaloe pier, the steamer enters on Lough Dearg, the largest [lake] in the whole tract of the Shannon, and one of the finest in Ireland … We arrived at Athlone about four o’clock, having been steaming up this magnificent river for seven hours … our fuel being only turf. An immense quantity of this must have been consumed, as, when we started, not only was the hold filled with it, but the deck was cumbered with it up to the top of the paddle-boxes; and when we reached Athlone it was nearly all gone. (end of quote)

Here is Killaloe in the (beautiful) 1842 map, showing the pier a mile above the town: http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V2,570207,673077,10,7

Sheila

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