In 1840, one man transformed travel in Britain and Ireland.
His name was George Bradshaw
and his railway guides inspired the Victorians to take to the tracks.
Stop by stop he told them where to travel,
what to see and where to stay.
Now, 170 years later, I'm making a series of journeys across the length
and breadth of these islands to see what of Bradshaw's world remains.
With a somewhat heavy heart, I'm now reaching the end of my rail
journeys through the Republic of Ireland.
My Bradshaw's guide has helped me to understand the
engineering, social and political changes of the 19th century,
as parts of Ireland became
increasingly restless under British rule.
'On this leg, I'll discover historic Irish jewellery
'with royal connections.'
I'm ready for my patient.
'Meet an ancient people's king.'
Congratulations, your Majesty. Thank you.
Happy and glorious, long to reign over us.
Oh, thank you, thank you.
'And get to grips with some aural history.'
# My own native land, far away. #
Using my Bradshaw's guide, I've followed tracks which opened up the
rich resources of the southern parts of Ireland to tourists and trade.
I've travelled north to look at Ireland's
heart in the 19th century, and I'm now turning west.
Today's leg begins in Athlone, County Westmeath,
heads west to Ballinasloe, and ends in the picturesque port city
and county town, Galway.
I'm travelling on what, in Victorian times,
was the great Southern & Western Railway,
one of two lines to serve my next stop, Athlone.
My Bradshaw's tells me,
"The Shannon river issues from Loch Ri, a little north
"of the town, the navigation of which has been improved by a canal
"from the lake, and a handsome stone bridge made in 1844."
The early Victorian engineers had clearly been busy,
and I shall be interested to see what's left of their work.
For centuries, the River Shannon, has influenced the military,
social and economic history of Ireland.
It flows north to south, splitting the country
east to west through 13 counties.
It's the longest river in all of Ireland and Britain.
It begins in County Cavan, and stretches 242 miles
down to the Atlantic Ocean via its estuary at Limerick.
The Shannon should have always been a major trading route, but wasn't.
However, in the 1840s Irish civil engineer Thomas Rhodes began
a £100,000 project in Athlone, the capital of the Irish Midlands,
to transform the river.
With a scheme which, in size and ambition, rivalled many in England
and included a new bridge, a dam, weirs and locks,
Thomas Rhodes made the river navigable
through the town's shallows.
Local historian, Dr Harman Murtagh knows more.
Good to see you. And you're very welcome to Athlone, Michael.
Thank you. Which way to begin the tour?
We just go up to the bridge, up this direction.
In purely engineering terms, how would you rate what Rhodes did?
The building of the weir, the building of the bridge.
Well, it was a magnificent achievement.
His waterworks, if I may call it that, are working still today.
He built them in the 1840s. Here we are in 2012.
There have been a few modifications, his swing bridge, he had
a swing arch in the bridge, that's been replaced by a concrete span.
The lock has been mechanised, although only in very recent times.
But otherwise, his waterworks work splendidly.
He was a magnificent engineer.
I have a feeling that I will understand better how all
this works if we were to take to the water. Is that possible?
It is possible, and it would be a very good idea to get a good
view of Rhodes's achievement.
What is it that I'm seeing here?
Well, you're seeing what we call the weir in Athlone,
the function of which is to lift the water level in the town
and allow for navigation through the town.
It's penetrated by sluice gates there,
which give some control on the mighty River Shannon,
although it's rather an uncontrollable beast at times.
And then boats can navigate through the dam or through the weir,
by means of the lock that's here on the left.
And that's a pretty big structure, the lock.
It's actually a massive structure, all in cut limestone, which is
the indigenous stone of this region, and the bottom of the lock is
shaped rather like the bottom of a boat, up to and including the
keel, which is cut into the stone as a drain down the centre of the lock.
And am I right in thinking that these limestone quays
are also part of these Victorian works?
Indeed they are, the banks would just be blue muck,
if it were not for the fact that Rhodes,
again using the indigenous limestone, built these magnificent quays.
They give the centre of Athlone its sort of classic appearance
and make the river side, you know, neat,
and a good place to tie up boats.
Back to Athlone station to continue my journey, along a line
opened in 1851 by the Midland Great Western Railway,
which became the primary route linking Ireland's capital,
Dublin, to my ultimate destination, Galway.
Which I've heard has
something of a reputation as a party town.
You look as if you're having fun. Is it a birthday or...? A hen party.
A hen party. A hen party? Who's the bride? None of you? None of us.
What fun. Where are you going? Galway.
And what you going to do there? Just go out for dinner,
meet some more friends.
Yeah? And what are you drinking at this stage?
Just some sparkling wine. Ah, lovely.
Hi, guys? How are you doing? I'm doing very well.
What is this? A wedding? Are you going to a wedding?
What is it?
We're heading off for a 60th birthday party. I swear to God.
Are you heading for Galway? Galway, yes.
Why does everyone party in Galway?
It's the best place to party. It's a good old spot.
Good craic, is it? That's it. Well, enjoy.
My next stop will be Ballinasloe, which Bradshaw's tells me is,
"On the borders of the county of Roscommon and Galway,
"and noted for its great sheep, cattle, and horse fair,
"which is held in October, and lasts for five days.
"60,000 sheep and 6,000 head of cattle are sold at these times."
And it's the consequences of this agrarian society in the 19th
century which I'd like to look at when I get off at Ballinasloe.
Victorian Ballinasloe is famous for two things,
its annual horse fair and for laying the seeds for Irish land reform.
A small elite of landowners rented to small holders but some often
evicted their tenant farmers with little or no financial compensation.
Seen as symptomatic of British rule,
the perceived injustices suffered by tenant farmers fuelled
burgeoning Irish nationalism and land reform movements.
I'm hoping that Dr Brian Casey, a local historian, can tell me
about Matt Harris who started such a movement here in Ballinasloe.
So what is the nature of the agitation for land reform?
In 1876, we see
the birth of the Ballinasloe Tenant Defence Association.
Matt Harris was a founder of that. It was about land reform.
Legislation needed to be brought in by the British Government
to strengthen, I suppose, the rights of farmers.
People like Harris would have got up and given speeches about the problems
with the land system in Ireland and how it had to be overthrown.
He had a great rhetorical zeal.
He was able to excite the crowd to the extent that
they got very impassioned and lively about it.
Stonemason Matt Harris,
who grew up on a small farm near Ballinasloe, formed the Tenant
Defence Association to fight what he described as the "land grabbers".
His radical politics caused him to be incarcerated
at Her Majesty's pleasure, and then won him
election to Westminster as MP for Galway East.
So Matt Harris lies buried in the town where
he founded the Tenants Defence Association.
Yes, Harris died in 1890 from stomach cancer.
He was in bad health for the last decade of his life.
The man died in poverty also.
He died in 1890,
and there was a testimonial before his death to help his family.
Even his political foes respected him.
One in particular made a substantial contribution
of about £10 to his last testimonial, because he admired his beliefs,
his sincerity, and the cause that he thought was right.
What is Matt Harris's place in Irish history?
Matt Harris played a very important role in Irish history.
7,000 landlords sold their estates to 600,000 tenant farmers
by the turn of the 20th century.
Now, without Matt Harris, this probably would not have happened.
As I leave Matt Harris's resting place, I'm reminded that
political change often requires spirited grassroots agitation
before the cause is accepted by Parliament as irresistible.
Ireland's world famous pubs have been providing food,
drink and hospitality to travellers and locals alike
since Norman times.
And that tradition continued during the 19th century.
Along with the church, the pub is a focal hub of Ireland's communities.
Matt Harris and the other heroes of the Troubles
and the Struggles are quite likely to be remembered
whenever two or three Irish people gather together over a pint of
the black stuff and, very probably, they'll be recalled in song.
'I'm meeting Johnny Johnston and his traditional Irish singing group.'
Hello. Welcome to the Dunlo Tavern, Michael.
Ah, thank you very much. Good man.
So what do you call these sing-songs that you do, these get-togethers?
This is a good, traditional Irish session.
And you get your mixture of your songs and your music.
What's the inspiration of the songs?
The inspiration comes from the people, and it comes from...
It's a social history.
The politics is in the books,
but the history of the people is in the song.
It's the history of east Galway people.
These are songs that are passed down from father to son,
and mother to daughter?
Absolutely, it was an oral tradition. Yes.
So it came down through folklore, singing sessions, kept alive.
Rather than keep them in the folklore commission offices,
we like to keep them vibrant and alive.
I've been talking today about Matt Harris, about the issue
of land reform and so on. Do you have any songs from that era?
We have, yes. Plenty of them, plenty of them.
Matt Harris, of course, was our local hero.
Wonderful individual of his time, and a leader, and there was a song
about a land issue that occurred
some miles down the road about a man called Murty Hynes.
Matt Harris, he gave a speech locally,
denouncing what Murty Hynes had done,
taking the land from somebody who had been evicted from it.
TD Sullivan, a prolific writer at the time, penned the song.
And it seemed like a simple song, but it caught
the imagination of the nation,
and it was sung across the country in the 1880s.
You've rediscovered it, and you've resurrected it? Absolutely, yeah.
Would you like to hear it? I certainly would.
OK, let's have it. Murty Hynes.
# Come all true sons of Erin
# I hope you will draw near
# It's a true and new narration I mean to let you hear
# It's for your education I pen these simple lines
# Concerning of the Land League
# Likewise of Murty Hynes. #
APPLAUSE
That's Murty.
You've tugged at the heartstrings,
and you've got people quite emotional now.
But what about something a bit more cheerful?
Well, the theme might be a little the same,
but there's a good tempo in it.
It'll be lively, OK? Great chorus.
Will you join us? You won't thank me if I do, but go on.
# With the setting of the sun
# When my long day's work was done
# I went out along the seashore for a walk
# Oh, when I been all alone
# I sat down upon a stone
# For to gaze on the scenes of New York
# Oh Erin gra mo chroi You're the dear old land to me
# You're the fairest that my eyes have ever seen
# And if ever I go home It's from you I never will roam
# My own native land far away. #
APPLAUSE
It's a good thing that we can drown our sorrows, isn't it?
There we are. All our wars were merry
and all our songs were sad, isn't that what they said?
Indeed, indeed.
What a lovely session, and I think this would be a nice place
for me to just while away a few hours.
Well done, enjoy the rest of it,
and you could be in a lock-in tonight here, y'know.
THEY LAUGH
Happy imprisonment!
Well done, well done. We'll look after you, Michael, great to see you.
With a long day in store tomorrow, I'll not stay for the lock-in
but it would seem churlish to refuse at least one more pint of the black stuff.
Rested and enthusiastic for the day ahead,
I'm on the final leg of my Irish adventure.
I'm now arriving at my last port of call in the Irish Republic -
Galway, which Bradshaw's tells me is a parliamentary borough,
sending two MPs to Westminster.
"A port in the west of Ireland, at the head of a fine bay."
When the railway station was inaugurated here
in August 1851, it opened the town to tourism.
And that trend has been reinforced recently,
with conferences, festivals and yacht races.
In 1124, the O'Connor clan built a fort
near the mouth of the Galway River.
A century later the Anglo-Normans invaded and built their own castle
and walls to protect the settlement that would become Galway.
Medieval Galway was a centre of trade.
Ships carried cargoes of fish, wool and leather
as far away as France and Spain, bringing back fruit, oil and wine.
End of the line, for the train and for me.
Now, Galway is one of Europe's fastest-growing cities,
with a reputation as a charming, must-see tourist destination.
'But my first task is to find out how the coming of the railways
'impacted on Galway's popularity, from archaeologist Michael Gibbons.'
Michael! Good to see you.
When the railway comes here in 1851, if I've got it right,
what does that do to tourism?
Well, it kickstarts massive, because now we have a whole new market.
We have a growing Victorian power, the Victorian pound, if you like,
and you have adventure tourism.
People are coming hunting and shooting,
and of course the carp here is absolutely fantastic fishing.
My Bradshaw's tells me that you could take a steamer to Cong,
where would you go from and to?
We're right on here, we're at the wood quay.
The old medieval harbour re-done in the 19th century to cater for
the new steamers that met the train to steam up the lake which is,
from here to Cong, about 26 miles.
Wonderful journey, moving in and out through different landscapes.
Mountains to the north of you and to the west.
Bogs covered the lake edge,
and then festooned with beautiful glacial islands, all the way up.
And studded with medieval castles as you progress north-westwards.
Wonderful journey.
Pushing my way through the throngs of revellers here today,
I get the impression that Galway has reinvented itself
in the 21st century.
It has, it's reinvented as a heartbeat of modern Gaelic,
hip, Irish, trendy culture, but still hugely welcoming city nonetheless.
Well, I hope that it welcomes those that are neither trendy nor hip!
Hello! Are you visiting Galway today? We are, thank you, yes.
Is Galway a place that attracts people? Oh, yes. Wonderful city.
Why?
It's got everything, it's a village city.
You've go the university, you've literally got everything,
it's the gateway to the West. Fabulous.
You don't ever feel intimidated here,
the atmosphere is very congenial, very easy.
It has a reputation for being young and vibrant, even a bit hip.
That's why we're here!
Basically, it's a university town.
You've got all the kids here, you've got the music,
you've got the vibe, there's always a buzz in the city.
It's fantastic, it's a nice place to walk around.
What's the best thing to do here?
I like chilling out round the restaurants, the bars,
taking it all in, watching people - you meet people from all over the world in Galway.
You've got a very lovely city - tell me why people why people should come and visit Galway.
Oh, it doesn't matter, even in the rain, we're all having fun.
There's a special atmosphere, there's the creative,
there's the university, there's the sea, we have everything here.
And tell me about the sea, why does that matter in Galway?
The sea is huge. Anybody reared beside the sea
loves to have the sea nearby, but in the past
the sea was a means of income,
it was a means of us having beautiful fresh fish,
now we look to the sea and waterways as a means of entertainment.
It's been a great pleasure to meet you. I'm delighted.
'Galway is even more attractive to visitors now than in Bradshaw's day
'but in the 19th century tourism was certainly not the city's main source of livelihood.'
Bradshaw's tells me that the Claddagh is a suburb where the fishermen
and their families live exclusively, their market being close
to an old tower and gate, and I think I'm in the right part of Galway to discover more
about this fascinating and proud local people.
One of the oldest fishing villages in Ireland,
the Claddagh lay on Galway Bay's water's edge.
Its people lived in harsh conditions,
in whitewashed thatched cottages, and fished the surrounding waters
in "hooker" boats.
The Claddagh may not now be broadly famed for fishing,
but a traditional Irish ring that bears their name
is known far and wide.
I'm told that jeweller and curator Jonathan Margetts is a local expert.
Well, Michael, welcome to the Claddagh Ring Museum
or if you like to call it, the Claddagh Museum.
What are the Claddagh?
Well, it is a very separate part of Galway.
They think the Claddagh village existed long before Galway was ever built
and consequently these people are very proud of the fact that they are Claddagh
and they wouldn't be long in telling you, if you asked them where they came from,
they'd say Galway, but from the Claddagh in Galway.
What are they wearing here?
They're wearing what's known as a Claddagh shawl,
these were usually brown with a pattern in them.
You'll see here in the foreground, this lady is wearing a black one,
this was usually worn by women whose husbands had died at sea,
for whatever reason, old age or whatever.
They tended to wear the black shawl
for the rest of their lives after their husband had died.
So any lady you see here with a patterned shawl,
their husbands would still be alive.
And this, I take it, is then how they lived?
Yes, you can see here the cottages were very small, all thatched,
and of course, the problem was no running water, no electricity,
no sanitary facilities at all,
but you'll also notice that the cottages are pretty well-kept,
they were all whitewashed and well maintained, so these people were very proud.
Even the conditions at the time, they were proud of that.
The Claddagh's cottages were demolished in the 1930s
and the people rehoused,
but the 300-year tradition of the Claddagh Ring lives on.
Now, what is the connection between the Claddagh and the ring?
The ring was predominantly worn by people from the Claddagh,
to a certain extent it was a large investment on their behalf.
People that weren't very wealthy at all,
they would put the money into one of the Claddagh rings, as such.
It was almost like money in the bank.
They knew at any stage, it was on their finger, it was secure
and if push came to shove, they could always sell the ring
and get their money back, as such.
What did the ring portray, normally?
The ring itself is two hands holding a cart, topped by a mitred crown
on the top. The motto of the ring itself is "Let love and friendship reign between these two people".
Legend has it that the Claddagh Ring was brought to Ireland in the 1700s
by fisherman Richard Joyce, who was captured at sea by pirates
and sold into slavery to a rich Moorish goldsmith
who trained him in his craft.
Pining for the girl he had left behind in Ireland,
he fashioned the first Claddagh Ring for his far-off love.
On his eventual return, Joyce's sweetheart had waited for him,
and, cementing the romance of the ring, they were soon married.
I see from your display cabinet that the Claddagh Ring has been presented
to some very eminent people.
That's right, we've given rings to John Wayne and Queen Victoria, actually.
I heard that she had also been given a Claddagh shawl,
I'm guessing that this would have been during her visit of 1861.
I think so.
So could I see a ring close up, please? You certainly can,
if you'd like to follow me to my workbench,
I'd be delighted to show you.
Just sit here.
I'm ready for my patient!
This is one of the rings that's just come out of the mould
and you can see what's remaining of the sprue,
now that obviously has to come off
because you couldn't sell it like that, so for that we use this file,
just rub forward - always forward, never back.
Go on, put some muscle into it. That's good, you're getting there.
And you think I have an easy living!
THEY LAUGH
So, that is looking much better but it will still need a polish,
I suppose. Yes, when you finally polish the ring,
what you get is the finished result which is really...
That is something else, isn't it?
Each ring is individual and people love them.
I'll bet Queen Victoria loved hers
and I bet it's still somewhere in the Buckingham Palace museum.
I think it's in the royal collection, as far as I know.
Bradshaw's tells me that the Claddagh are peaceable and clean,
but superstitious,
never going out to fish nor allowing others to go out
except on lucky days, and are governed by their own laws and customs
under a king or admiral, chosen annually.
Today must be an auspicious day, for a king approaches across the water.
Although the inclement west of Ireland weather is having its say,
this is a big day for the Claddagh.
Bless this boat and may Almighty God bless you.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Go in peace. Now go and catch something.
'The Claddagh are launching a traditional hooker fishing boat,
'the first to be built in Galway since 1922,
'and it's brought King of the Claddagh Michael Lynskey to the quayside.'
How did you become king?
Goes back hundreds of years, really, and lately it's been left dormant,
there's been no king at all,
so the Claddagh community - committee - decided
to bring back the old title again.
So they had an election down at the Claddagh hall and myself and another guy went in for it
and I got the most votes. Congratulations!
I've been following a guidebook which tells me that the Claddagh
are superstitious people who have to think carefully about which days
they go out fishing.
Yes, for instance, they'd never fish on a Friday.
They were suspicious, for instance, no women on board a Claddagh boat
whatsoever, or no animal either. They wouldn't have dogs or cats -
strictly men only.
How important is it that this hooker has been built here in Galway?
Oh, very important - I think it's going to bring back
an interest in the youth of the Claddagh.
Young lads will want to go sailing again because the sailing was gone
from the Claddagh, because all the boats were sold
so there was nothing to sail anyhow.
Congratulations, Your Majesty -
happy and glorious, long to reign over us!
Thank you!
Bye-bye, now.
From Killarney to Galway, this has been a rural journey.
The railways were laid across Ireland at the time of the Famine
and that hunger helps to explain why the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, detailed in my Bradshaw's, no longer exists.
Today, Ireland has moved on from 150 years of conflict.
That's confirmed by the welcome
that the Irish give to their British visitors.
You'll never receive a warmer one.
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd