A collection of more than 300,000 Irish railway staff records is now available online via Ancestry. The material in ‘Ireland, Railway Employment Records, 1870–1940’ is held by the Irish Railway Record Society (IRRS), and enables research into the lives of railway ancestors including footplatemen, inspectors, clerks, porters, signalmen and platelayers. Most of the records relate to railway employment in southern Ireland, although there are records of the Great Northern Railway in Northern Ireland in the collection too.
Ireland’s railway system began in 1834 and continued to develop into the early years of the 20th century, with various private companies expanding the network. Each firm kept its own records, so their content varies, and not all the records survive for every company. Records also vary in scope and content even within the same companies. Some records are single-line entries in department ledgers that only provide minimal information, such as name and wage. Others are much more comprehensive.
During the period of ‘railway mania’ hundreds of miles of track were laid in the 1840s, but the economic impact of events such as the Great Famine (1845–1852) drastically curtailed their development, and industry recovery was slow.
Changes to company structures occurred as a result of amalgamations or takeovers, so it is important for researchers to understand how these can affect which records to research. In 1876 the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) was formed, the result of the grouping of the Irish North Western Railway, the Ulster Railway and the Dublin and Drogheda Railway. Later, in 1901, the Great Southern and Western Railway purchased the Waterford, Limerick and Western Railway, and two years later in 1903 the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway was bought by the Midland Railway to become the Midland Railway (Northern Counties).
Following the 1921 Railways Act, the Midland Railway became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway of Great Britain in 1923. Ultimately in 1925 all of the railway companies within the Irish Free State grouped together to become the Great Southern Railways, but the cross-border lines and those lines wholly within Northern Ireland were unaffected.
In 1945 the Great Southern Railways was amalgamated with the Dublin United Transport Company to form Córas Iompair Éireann, which was the forerunner of the current rail network.
Although the railways existed from 1834, staff records really only exist between 1870 and the 1940s (you may find the odd record set in local archives). The digitised records in some cases include those working on tramways and omnibus or trucking companies operated by the railway companies.
The records also reflect a period of significant change in Ireland, including information on employment during the 1913 Dublin Lock-out, an industrial dispute involving some 20,000 workers, the 1916 Easter Rising and the First World War. During the Irish Civil War (1922–1923) many trains were ambushed, tracks destroyed, and employees captured or held at gunpoint. The records can provide a real insight into how your forebears were affected by these events.
The private companies served different areas, so it is crucial to identify where your relations both lived and worked to enable the correct company records to be researched. Each firm kept independent records, which often include more information about an employee’s work history, wages, promotions, merits, discipline, accidents, retirement and so on.
If your ancestor was employed during 1870–1940 then most records in this collection should provide the following information: their name; birthdate (sometimes just the year) and place of birth (many births will predate the start of civil registration in 1864, and these records may be the only source of such information); date and place of death, which may include workers who died in an accident while working away from home; occupation and status; stations or depots where they worked; salaries or wages, showing increments throughout their careers; dates of commencement of employment, plus any transfers and termination; and disciplinary actions and awards for good service etc. In many records additional information will be revealed, including sick leave and trade-union membership. Some staff records may also provide details from other personnel files.
The IRRS also holds other company records, photos, route maps and so on, and is based at Heuston Station, Dublin. See the society’s website for details.
