Paul McSwiney and Co
of Cork
Ironfounders.
1823 Paul McSwiney, King Street Iron Works, has contract to supply bedsteads for the New Gaol. Also makes Pumps, hydraulics, Wrought Iron, Brass and machine lines.[1]
1824 Paul McSwiney was listed as as an ironfounder King Street in Pigot and Co.'s City of Dublin and Hibernian Provincial Directory. He established the King Street ironworks in 1816. By the mid 1850s the works were manufacturing iron girder bridges for the Great Southern & Western and Midland Great Western Railways. In the early 1860s the foundry was taken over by McSwiney's nephews H. and C. Smith. It continued to operate until the early years of the twentieth century.[2]
1855 NEW METAL BRIDGE on the GLANMIRE ROAD.
Amongst the many alterations and improvements which have been caused in the neighbourhood of the Glanmire road by the extension of the Great Southern and Western Railway from its present terminus at Blackpool to the Quay, not the least remarkable is a handsome iron bridge, executed in the extensive iron works of Messrs. Paul M'Swiney & Co. The bridge is called a lattice girder bridge, and crosses the south face of the tunnel at an elevation of about seventeen feet from the ground, connecting the new road made by the company, instead the old Glanmire road, which it was necessary for them to obtain in order to carry out their present works.
The bridge, which a handsome, light and graceful structure, consists of two main girders, composed of plate and angle iron, rivetted together at top and bottom, and connected by handsome lattice work of flat iron. The road way of the bridge is supported on cross girders of lattice work, which run through and rest on the main girders. The road way is 31 feet, the foot-paths are 8 feet each, which gives a total breadth of 50 feet for car and passage traffic. The weight which the bridge can sustain has not been, as yet, accurately tested; but when it is stated that the main girders at present support nearly 100 tons, the weight of the structure itself, little apprehension need be felt as to its capability to sustain any weight to which the traffic which it was intended to bear will subject it. It has been roughly calculated that it could without considerable deflection support a weight of one hundred tons, and probably it will never have to undergo pressure more than three or four tons, it will be seen that the most improbable contingency has been amply provided for. It may be stated that the roof of the extensive goods store of the Great Southern and Western Railway is supported by lattice girders of wrought iron, on the same principle, 40 feet span, similar in construction to that of the bridge, and executed in the same establishment. We may also state that the house of Messrs. M'Swiney and Co. are at present engaged making iron girder bridges, of different constructions, for the Limerick and Foynes, and Mullingar and Longford lines. It is highly gratifying to find that while the business of iron shipbuilding, owing mainly to the enterprise and energy of Mr. Pike, obtaining for Cork a name and a position amongst manufacturing and commercial ports, that the manufacture of iron for purposes of a more domestic charactcr, such as the construction of bridges, the erection of warehouses and other buildings of similar nature, is becoming, through the agency Messrs. M'Swiney and Co and other houses the city, a valuable and profitable branch of trade.'[3]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier - Saturday 20 December 1823
- ↑ Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720-1940
- ↑ Cork Examiner, 22 August 1855