Construction of Rail passage

Construction work commenced on 15 June 1847 when the wife of Sir Thomas Deane ceremoniously raised the first sod at Dundanion castle, Blackrock. On the following day 50 labourers commenced excavation work on the railway route near Blackrock. At that time Cork city was crowded with country people fleeing from famine and starvation in other areas. Most were in desperate need of work and many were eking out an existence by begging or working on relief schemes. During the first week of excavations on the railway project, huge numbers of idle and starving laborers converged on the area and demanded work on the scheme. They intimidated those at work and forced many to leave the site. Order was eventually restored with assistance from the military and following a slight delay full time work commenced on the excavation and construction work with crews employed at the city end, at Blackrock and near Passage in a variety of excavation and construction jobs.

By May 1848 the city embankment neared completion and the Blackrock embankment was formed to a length of 550 yards with material excavated from the Dundanion cutting on which 150 men were working. Some 50 masons worked on the cutting to the Douglas bridge and 150 men were transferring material from the Douglas cutting to the nearby channel embankment. The project claimed a number of lives. One man was killed by a wagon near Rochestown; two others were killed when a bank collapsed at Dundanion and in a similar accident near Passage, another worker lost his life.

Two thirds of the workings as far as the outskirts of Passage were completed by November 1849. The Hop Island to Horsehead embankment required a huge amount of filling most of which was moved from the side of the adjacent roadway. A bridge, which was formerly used for drawing seaweed from the strand, can still be seen at the side of this road. The section of the rail embankment from Horsehead to the Passage terminus, which included a new quay wall, and the construction of two iron-topped bridges was also nearly completed.