North Atlantic Skyline - - Photographs from the west of Ireland (Galway, Mayo, Clare, Limerick, Roscommon and even Leitrim)

Freeway

N6 Phase 1 motorway under construction at Tyrellspass, Co. Westmeath. Photo taken in the rain yesterday.

In the summer of 1597, a small band of Irish troops under the command of a Captain Tyrell ambushed a force of English troops in the Irish midlands along the main route between Dublin and the west of Ireland. Tyrell was part of Hugh O'Neill's (ultimately doomed) rebellion against the rule of Elizabeth. Tyrell's mission was to intercept troops bound for O'Neill's Ulster stronghold. He completed his mission with grim efficiency. The English troop, more than twice as many in number, learned of his presence and set out to attack. But Tyrell has set his trap well, and only a single English soldier (one of a thousand) survived the battle. Though his cause failed (when O'Neill surrendered his title, he did so without realizing that Elizabeth had died the previous day) , Tyrell lived a long and prosperous life, leading to mutterings about his fealty to the Irish cause. Who could blame him - O'Neill and the other Irish Earls had fled to Europe. To live and prosper in Ireland meant making one's peace with the neighbours across the water.

The pass where Tyrell put a thousand men to the sword still bears his name (Tyrellspass, Co. Westmeath), and his castle still stands, on the side of the Dublin to Galway road. The road has existed before man ever left a footprint on Irish soil - the retreating glaciers of the last Ice Age spawned underground rivers of meltwater and, long after the ice had disappeared, those riverbeds became raised gravel banks known as eskers. In the vast wet peatlands of the Irish midlands, the eskers, spanning the width of the country, became the natural road network for the country. Cuchulainn, Brian Boru and any other Irish figure of legend that you can think of travelled the esker Riada - the name given to the best known series of gravel deposits that link east and west, which crosses the Shannon at Clonmacnoise. In fact, you can draw a line of monasteries along or near the line of the ancient road - a series of 'service stations' of the spiritual kind.

Now, a new motorway is inching it's way west. The construction of the N6 motorway, which will connect the N4 (from Kinnegad) to Athlone, is underway. Ultimately it will link Galway to Dublin when all phases are complete. And, unlike the current Dublin to Galway road, the new motorway will stick closely to the Esker's path. It's likely that much of the gravel and sand required to build it will be supplied from some of the many quarries fed by Esker Riada. So the most ancient of Irish roads will also be the most modern. The journey continues.

Grand Canal Harbour, Kilbeggan, Co.Westmeath. Photo taken yesterday.

A few miles away lies the remains of the another great transport network, laid down two centuries ago. My father remembers the odd barge chugging into this harbour, but by then, it's commercial use was dead. In fact, even the railroads that had killed off the canal business was in the doldrums by the end of the Second World War. As a gasun during the hard winter of 1947, he remembers venturing out on the frozen surface of the canal harbour basin to do a bit of skating (more like skidding) with his mates. Given that they ran the risk of plunging into 6 foot of freezing water, and none of them could swim, my father readily admits that it wasn't the smartest thing he ever did. Kids, eh?

Posted by Monasette at May 23, 2005 11:09 PM