The Straffan Rail crash of 1853
At 6:20 pm on 5 October 1853 the piston rod on a locomotive snapped, stranding the newly
operating noon express train from Cork at a place 974 yards south of Straffan Station, towards
Baronrath at dusk and in a dense fog. The engine was No 14 build by Sharpe Brothers of
Manchester and purchased by the GSWR in 1848. The stationary train’s rear lights were not
on. Croker Barrington, solicitor to the Southern and Western railway was onboard the
stranded train and he sent a man down the track with a red light to warn the approaching
train which he knew to be 20 minutes behind them. He left is wife on the train.
The goods train ploughed into the back of the stationary passenger train a quarter of a mile
south of Straffan Station in County Kildare just 20 minutes later. It went through the first class
carriage at the back of the train, overturned the second class carriage, and sheared the roof off
another carriage. It drove the rest of the train a quarter of a mile the other side of Straffan
Station leaving devastation in its wake.
Local people came to their aid but were later accused of pilfering from the dead and injured
which proved to be a nonsense. Hon Edward Lawless also came to help and removed two
children to his house who were buried under their dead parents, he also took a third child
whose mother and cousin had been killed and whose father was seriously injured. Local
doctors and surgeons arrived with bandages and splints and set about treating burns,
acerations and setting broken limbs. Anna Barrington was buried under the twisted rubble
and her husband Croker dug her out, she suffered lacerations and nearly died from suffocation.
The dead were named as :
Jesse Hall son of Robert Hall from County Littlerath,
Daniel and Anastasia McSwiney of Kenmare
T W Jelly of Straboe
John Egan of Parsonstown
Emma Pack of Parsonstown
Kate Hamilton Haimes, (the wife of a mill owner from Mallow, originally identified from a
prayer book with her maiden name, Kate Smith)
Christopher McNally, a solicitor from Dublin
Claire Kirwan of 82 Lwr Abbey Street in Dublin
Margaret Leathley of 62 Eccles Street in Dublin
Joseph Sherwood a servant boy of the household of Dr Richard Stokes who were returning
from a holiday in Kenmare
Cherry Agnes Knapp from London
Margaret Palmer, a cousin of Mrs Knapp
William Bateman a solicitor from Cork
Mrs John Smith of Castletownroche
Catherine Blacker wife of Latham Blacker
The inquest was held in Barry’s hotel near Straffan on 10 Oct but was adjourned due to a
belief that one of the jurors was not of age and not a land owner. It transpired that the
coroners court did not require a juror to be either and that the underage juror was in fact of
full age and the inquest was resumed in Naas court house the following day. The inquiry
found that no warning was given by either red light or detonators. The stoker, John
O’Hara, the engine driver and James Gass, were arrested and brought to the inquest in
handcuffs by warrant of the Coroner's Court. The Guard who had put out the red lamp was
also arrested. On 17 Oct 1853 the jury of the Coroners Court of Inquiry exonerated the GSWR
of all blame. They found the cause of the accident was the negligence of Gass and O'Hara and
they were found guilty of manslaughter and were sent for trial, Patrick Berry was released. A
report on the accident by Lieut H W Tyler, RN was commissioned by the government. He did
not concur with the findings of the inquiry, instead he apportioned no blame to the driver or
stoker, who would have been unable to stop the train in time.
Gass and O'Hara were tried for manslaughter in March 1854 at Naas and both were acquitted.
William Allingham famous for his poem Faerie Folk (up the airy mountains) wrote the following
poem as a memorial.
The magic car of modern skill,
Nor hour nor distance heeds;
With heat and roar and whistle shrill,
On through the dusk it speeds.
Our friends in Dublin city gay,
Expectant name our names;
"The fog is out to-night," they say,
And stir the kindly flames.
Oh! chiller than October's touch
Is freezing many a smile!
Terror and mortal torments clutch
What love expects the while.
Love's self, however true and warm,
Might fail to recognise
The dear, the well-remember'd form,
If set before its eyes
'Mong twisted metal, splinter'd wood,
Half buried in the ground,
'Mong heaps of limbs crush'd up in blood,
Must wife, child, friend he found.
No hostile cannonade, or mine,
Perform'd the cruel wrong;
Through peaceful fields they sped to join
The city's sprightly throng.
— William Allingham, (included in Day and Night Songs, 1854).
© June Bow & Karen Poff – January 2021
At 6:20 pm on 5 October 1853 the piston rod on a locomotive snapped, stranding the newly
operating noon express train from Cork at a place 974 yards south of Straffan Station, towards
Baronrath at dusk and in a dense fog. The engine was No 14 build by Sharpe Brothers of
Manchester and purchased by the GSWR in 1848. The stationary train’s rear lights were not
on. Croker Barrington, solicitor to the Southern and Western railway was onboard the
stranded train and he sent a man down the track with a red light to warn the approaching
train which he knew to be 20 minutes behind them. He left is wife on the train.
The goods train ploughed into the back of the stationary passenger train a quarter of a mile
south of Straffan Station in County Kildare just 20 minutes later. It went through the first class
carriage at the back of the train, overturned the second class carriage, and sheared the roof off
another carriage. It drove the rest of the train a quarter of a mile the other side of Straffan
Station leaving devastation in its wake.
Local people came to their aid but were later accused of pilfering from the dead and injured
which proved to be a nonsense. Hon Edward Lawless also came to help and removed two
children to his house who were buried under their dead parents, he also took a third child
whose mother and cousin had been killed and whose father was seriously injured. Local
doctors and surgeons arrived with bandages and splints and set about treating burns,
acerations and setting broken limbs. Anna Barrington was buried under the twisted rubble
and her husband Croker dug her out, she suffered lacerations and nearly died from suffocation.
The dead were named as :
Jesse Hall son of Robert Hall from County Littlerath,
Daniel and Anastasia McSwiney of Kenmare
T W Jelly of Straboe
John Egan of Parsonstown
Emma Pack of Parsonstown
Kate Hamilton Haimes, (the wife of a mill owner from Mallow, originally identified from a
prayer book with her maiden name, Kate Smith)
Christopher McNally, a solicitor from Dublin
Claire Kirwan of 82 Lwr Abbey Street in Dublin
Margaret Leathley of 62 Eccles Street in Dublin
Joseph Sherwood a servant boy of the household of Dr Richard Stokes who were returning
from a holiday in Kenmare
Cherry Agnes Knapp from London
Margaret Palmer, a cousin of Mrs Knapp
William Bateman a solicitor from Cork
Mrs John Smith of Castletownroche
Catherine Blacker wife of Latham Blacker
The inquest was held in Barry’s hotel near Straffan on 10 Oct but was adjourned due to a
belief that one of the jurors was not of age and not a land owner. It transpired that the
coroners court did not require a juror to be either and that the underage juror was in fact of
full age and the inquest was resumed in Naas court house the following day. The inquiry
found that no warning was given by either red light or detonators. The stoker, John
O’Hara, the engine driver and James Gass, were arrested and brought to the inquest in
handcuffs by warrant of the Coroner's Court. The Guard who had put out the red lamp was
also arrested. On 17 Oct 1853 the jury of the Coroners Court of Inquiry exonerated the GSWR
of all blame. They found the cause of the accident was the negligence of Gass and O'Hara and
they were found guilty of manslaughter and were sent for trial, Patrick Berry was released. A
report on the accident by Lieut H W Tyler, RN was commissioned by the government. He did
not concur with the findings of the inquiry, instead he apportioned no blame to the driver or
stoker, who would have been unable to stop the train in time.
Gass and O'Hara were tried for manslaughter in March 1854 at Naas and both were acquitted.
William Allingham famous for his poem Faerie Folk (up the airy mountains) wrote the following
poem as a memorial.
The magic car of modern skill,
Nor hour nor distance heeds;
With heat and roar and whistle shrill,
On through the dusk it speeds.
Our friends in Dublin city gay,
Expectant name our names;
"The fog is out to-night," they say,
And stir the kindly flames.
Oh! chiller than October's touch
Is freezing many a smile!
Terror and mortal torments clutch
What love expects the while.
Love's self, however true and warm,
Might fail to recognise
The dear, the well-remember'd form,
If set before its eyes
'Mong twisted metal, splinter'd wood,
Half buried in the ground,
'Mong heaps of limbs crush'd up in blood,
Must wife, child, friend he found.
No hostile cannonade, or mine,
Perform'd the cruel wrong;
Through peaceful fields they sped to join
The city's sprightly throng.
— William Allingham, (included in Day and Night Songs, 1854).
© June Bow & Karen Poff – January 2021