Sir,—In his excellent ‘On This Day’ round-up in HI 33.6, Nov./Dec. 2025 issue, Aodhán Crealey recalls the opening of Ireland’s first railway, running between Westland Row and Kingstown, on 17 November 1834. He refers to the contractor as ‘the celebrated Carlow-born William Dargan’. If Dargan was a Carlow native, why then did Irish Rail unveil a plaque at Portlaoise railway station in 2017 to mark the 150th anniversary of his death, which clearly states that Dargan was indeed a Laoisman? It is indisputable that Dargan lived his childhood years with his family on a farm leased by his father from Lord Portarlington in south-east Laois. He went to school in nearby Graiguecullen, and his father, mother, some of his siblings as well as his grandmother are buried in Killeshin, all situated in County Laois.
Aodhán may be forgiven for labelling Dargan as a Carlowman because that’s the impression given in Dargan’s Dictionary of Irish Biography entry by Fergus Mulligan, who repeats the claim of his 2013 biography, William Dargan—An Honourable Life 1799–1867. Even the plaque that Mulligan unveiled for the Carlow Historical and Archaeological Society at Carlow railway station in 1993 acknowledges that Dargan was born ‘near Carlow town’, which is a statement of fact. While Carlow people can be very proud of their beautiful county and its history, it would be difficult to find any native of Graiguecullen, Killeshin or in the hinterland who would wave anything other than the Laois flag. In any case, I am sure that the great man himself was not as much preoccupied with county loyalties as his latest biographer would lead us to believe.—Yours etc.,
TEDDY FENNELLY
President, Laois Heritage Society