William Dargan

William Dargan MRDS (28 February 1799 – 7 February 1867) was arguably the most important Irish engineer of the 19th century and certainly the most important figure in railway construction. Dargan designed and built Ireland's first railway line from Dublin to Dún Laoghaire in 1833. He is also noted for the fact that he played a leading role in the Great Exhibition which occurred in Ireland in the aftermath of the Famine, and that Queen Victoria visited him during a royal visit to Ireland. When he died in 1867 the following tribute was made in the Anglo Celt newspaper to this engineering genius:

In the death of William Dargan Ireland has sustained a loss which she will not readily recover. Of all those who, in lite days, struggled to serve her, he was the most practical, and, therefore, amongst the most successful. He carved his Way to fame and fortune , but never remained satisfied with the goal he attained, so long as there was a national want to be supplied. His large heart embraced in its generous expansion every corner of the land he loved so well, and there are few districts in Ireland that have not some memorable associations connected with, his name. His whole career illustrates the efficacy of self-reliance , and exalts the virtues of disinterestedness and patriotism. William Dargan commenced life without a friend. His ability, his perseverance, and his industry won for him a position which neither patronage, rank, nor wealth could give him. Ho was trusted by the public—he was honoured with their confidence—he was rewarded with their boundless admiration. No man in his day received so many tributes of public esteem; no man better deceived them or so little regarded them. He pursued the even tenor of his way with supreme indifference to censure or praise, and followed the dictates of his generous and enterprising nature, without a thought of the judgment which a jealous world might pass upon his motives and actions. At the same time, it is but right to say that the popular notion of William Dargan is quite a mistaken one. He was generally regarded as a plain, blunt man, who carried out contracts with rugged fidelity, and who was fortunate in making rough calculations. This is a very erroneous estimate of a really great man. Dargan was more than a contractor. He was an engineer of great abilities, and most of the works which he  accomplished in Ireland were of his own conception, as well as his own execution. He was as bold in design as he was vigorous in labour. Lines of railway, over which engineers had squabbled and fought until the shareholders were all but pauperised, became feasible and proved prosperous the moment Dargan touched them. It was the same with every undertaking in which he engaged…The Queen, on her visit to Ireland, during the time of the first National Exhibition, offered William Dargan a baronetcy, and he refused the honour. Her Majesty repeated the offer' under circumstances in which a weak man would have yielded, and a vain one would have been gratified. She visited Mr Dargan in his private residence, but he was obstinate in his humility; or rather he was proud in his greatness, for even in his own house he would not accept from the hands of Royalty a distinction which, however it might flatter the pride, of the weak, could add nothing to the greatness of the man who held the rare position of a national benefactor. Dargan prided in his origin, his exertions, his successes, and his triumphs. These he regarded as his titles to the esteem of his countrymen.

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