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| WILLIAM DARJAN, after E.Jones Parian Bust c.1860 |
£145 |
A white parian portrait bust depicting William Darjan after E. Jones, the reverse inscribed, circa 1860, 216mm
William Dargan (1799–1867), an engineer, often seen as the father of Irish railways, came from Killeshin, County Laois, Ireland. Born in 1799, he constructed Ireland's first railway from Dublin to Dún Laoghaire (then Kingstown) in 1833. He constructed over 800 miles (1, 300 km) of railway to important urban centres of Ireland. He was a member of the Royal Dublin Society and also helped establish the National Gallery of Ireland. He was also responsible for the Great Dublin Exhibition held at Leinster lawn in 1853. Dargan, the son of a farmer, was born in Killeshin in the county of Laois on 28 February 1799, and having received an English education was placed in a surveyor's office. The first important employment he obtained was under Thomas Telford in constructing the Holyhead road in 1820; when that work was finished he returned to Ireland and took small contracts on his own account, the most important of which was the road from Dublin to Howth. In 1831 he became the contractor for the construction of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, the first line to be built in Ireland. He next constructed the water communication between Lough Erne and Belfast, afterwards known as the Ulster Canal, a signal triumph of engineering and constructive ability. Other great works followed — the Dublin and Drogheda Railway, the Great Southern and Western Railway and the Midland Great Western Railway. By 1853 he had constructed over six hundred miles of railway, and he had then contracts for two hundred more. He paid the highest wages with the greatest punctuality, and his credit was unbounded. At one time he was the largest railway projector in Ireland and one of its greatest capitalists |
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