L.6. 3 < m \J . 3 - 53 PP NUI MAYNOOTH OlltcisiE na r.£ir55n,i m & ft uac THE LETTERKENNY & BURTONPORT EXTENSION RAILWAY 1903-47: ITS SOCIAL CONTEXT AND ENVIRONMENT by FRANK SW EENEY THESES FOR THE DEGREE OF PH. D. DEPARTMENT OF MODERN HISTORY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND MAYNOOTH HEAD OF DEPARTMENT: Professor R. V. Comerford Supervisor of research: Professor R.V. Comerford October 2004 Volume 2 VOLUME 2 Chapter 7 In the shadow of the great war 1 Chapter 8 The War of Independence 60 Chapter 9 The Civil War 110 Chapter 10 Struggling under native rule 161 Chapter 11 Fighting decline and closure 222 Epilogue 281 Bibliography 286 Appendices 301 iv ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME 2 Fig. 41 Special trains to and from the Letterkenny Hiring Fair 10 Fig. 42 School attendance in Gweedore and Cloughaneely 1918 12 Fig. 43 New fares Derry-Burtonport 1916 17 Fig. 44 Delays on Burtonport Extension 42 Fig. 45 Indictable offences committed in July 1920 in Co. Donegal 77 Fig. 46 Proposed wages and grades 114 Fig. 47 Irregular strongholds in Donegal 1922 127 Fig. 48 First count in Donegal General Election 1923 163 Fig. 49 Population trends 1911-1926 193 Fig. 50 Comparison of votes between 1923 and 1927 elections 204 Fig. 51 L&LSR receipts and expenses plus governments grants in 1920s 219 Fig. 52 New L&LSR timetable introduced in 1922 220 Fig. 53 Special trains to Dr McNeely’s consecration 1923 221 Fig. 54 Bus routes in the Rosses 1931 230 Fig. 55 Persons paid unemployment assistance 247 Fig. 56 Unemployment trends 1934-5, County Donegal 247 Fig. 57 Unemployment recipients in northwest 19354 and 1935 248 Fig. 58 The L&LSR bus network in Donegal from 1939 onwards 263 Fig. 59 Exports of turf from northwest Donegal 267 Fig. 60 Population trends 1911-1946 274 APPENDICES 1 Mileposts, gatehouses and stations 301 2 Accident log of Burtonport Extension 1919-1935 303 3 Goods carried in 1913 308 4 Merchandise carried in 1921 on all L&LSR lines 309 5 Passengers carried 1903-16 310 6 Itemised costing of the L&BER 314 7 Two sample accounts from Duffy’s shop, 1888 318 8 Creeslough Station 329 v i CHAPTER 7. IN THE SHADOW OF THE GREAT WAR The declaration of war between Britain and Germany in August 1914 was to profoundly affect the whole L&LSR network and the Burtonport Extension in particular. First, the British Admiralty took over the Derry shipyards and recruited fitters, boilermen, mechanics, tradesmen, skilled workers of many sorts, as well as good labourers, into its workforce. The railways feeding into Derry city provided a natural recruiting pool for the shipyard but the L&LSR suffered more than most because it had a history of low wages, long hours and poor conditions under the stewardship of John McFarland. Secondly, the war soon changed the working conditions of many railway employees. By early 1915 Irish railwaymen were ‘seething with discontent’.1 All railways in Britain had been taken over by the War Office for war purposes in 1914 and a war bonus amounting to three shillings per week was paid to all British railway employees from that time. However, the Irish railways were not touched by this legislation but Irish railwaymen demanded payment of the war bonus, nevertheless, as it had been policy to attempt to maintain parity between Irish and British railway workers. The Irish railway companies refused to meet the workers or discuss the question of a war bonus and this led to much ill-feeling. With the naval base at Lough Swilly and the shipyards and munitions works in Derry the L&LSR workers believed that they were making a substantial contribution to the war effort because the military used the L&LSR Buncrana railway as the principal method of communication and carriage between these two bases. The National Union of Railwaymen sent representatives to Ireland to try and persuade the railway 1 DJ, 26 M ar. 1915, p. 5. 1 companies to negotiate but without success. Meetings were held at centres throughout the country, including Derry, and with threats and talk of striking and disruption, many railway employees in that city headed for the shipyards where life was easier and pay and conditions were much better. This flight of labour denuded the railways and the Burtonport Extension, in particular, because it was always difficult to find personnel to stay in such a remote outpost as was evident in 1912 when the most severe punishment that could be meted out to driver Deeney was that he be ‘punished by being permanently transferred to Burtonport’.3 In November 1915, when Hugh Law, M.P., once again, raised the poor performance of the Burtonport Extension in parliament the L&LSR replied that its engines were not up to the task because nearly all its mechanical engineers had gone to the munitions’ works or to the shipyards.4 Another consequence of the war was that the price of many materials rose very sharply. Coal had been rising in price since 1911, due, particularly, to the militancy of the coalminers in Britain who were determined that high coal prices would form the basis for continued high wages. With the declaration of war, transport ships and coal carriers became expensive to hire and difficult to obtain with the result that coal prices rose to three shillings a bag in Derry City and the L&LSR could only get 500 tons of inferior coal for its locomotives in times of severe distress.5 The city of Derry witnessed ‘extraordinary prices’ with demands from the Derry Railwaymen’s Union for the government to take over the distribution of goods to the needy and to control prices when its coal stocks were reduced to a few days’ supply.6 Hugh Law told parliament that even in northwest Donegal the necessities of life 2 DJ, 29 Mar. 1915, p. 8. 3 Patterson, The Londonderry & Lough Swilly Railway, p. 74. 4 DJ, 24 Nov. 1915, p. 7. 5 DJ, 17 Feb. 1915, p. 6. 6 DJ, 10 Feb. 1915, p. 4. 2 n were costing 20 per cent more than formerly. With many of the heavy industries in Britain switching to the production of war material spare parts for trains became very expensive and difficult to obtain. When engines on the L&LSR lines broke down during the war years they were often pushed into sidings and left there with the grass growing around them.8 The war also had serious consequences for the fishing industry of northwest Donegal. It was estimated that 7,000 people were engaged, either directly or indirectly, in the industry prior to the declaration of war.9 The Scottish and English steam drifters and large motor vessels had control of the industry but thousands of locals occupied all the labouring or subsidiary positions in the industry by 1914. The fast Scottish steam drifters were first to reach the shoals of herring which they scooped up and carried back at high speed to Burtonport, Kincasslagh, Downings or Buncrana where they got the first and best prices from the agents for their catches which were then loaded on the trains and sent off immediately to the cities in Britain. The locals were mainly confined to open sailing boats of Zulu lugger rig or open Greeencastle yawls which were the most common boats in northwest Donegal because they could be hauled up on the beaches for safety in the many areas where there were no piers or developed harbours.10 The cost of these boats was relatively small and they were favoured by the locals because they could retain most of their earnings. However, these were no matches for the Scottish or English fleets. When the locals zigzagged their sailing yawls in an effort to gain advantage of the winds to reach the fishing shoals and then repeated the operation on their return to harbour, they were usually many hours late for the markets or, more commonly, had to make land where there were few markets 7 DJ, 22 Feb. 1915, p. 6. Hugh Law, M.P. 8 Patterson, The Londonderry & Lough Swilly Railway, p. 152. 9 DJ, 8 Jan. 1915, p. 8. 10 DJ, 10 May 1915, p. 6. 3 or none at all.11 They were then condemned to sell their fish in the locality by horse and cart for whatever price could be got. The disparity in the average weekly earnings of the various fishermen ranged from 14^. Id. to £3 Is. 5d. but the drifters and motor vessels completely dominated• the trade. 12Many local fishermen wanted to abandon the sailing boats and go for powerboats but they were tied into ‘loan’ or ‘share’ arrangements with the Congested Districts Board or with local businessmen who had mimicked the Congested Districts Board and had bought boats which they then leased out to local men who were later unable to get out of such agreements. Anyway, for motor vessels to be successful they would need to fish for ten months of the year and the problem in northwest Donegal was that many who were engaged in fishing were predominantly farmers who had only recently become aware of the riches of the sea but were not yet ready to abandon their few acres of land to depend fully on fishing for a livelihood.13 In late 1914 the admiralty laid mines along the northwest Donegal coast and forbade fishing in the area from Tory Island to Malin Head. Furthermore, they took over all the steam drifters for war purposes, including those of the Congested Districts Board, thereby denuding the Donegal coast of more than 200 of such elegant and powerful boats.14 The Scottish drifters departed from Donegal and with them went the heart and soul of the industry.