One of the new super-duper-ultra-modern Dublin Bus EW class, a Wrights Streetdeck Electroliner BEV (battery/electric vehicle) stopped briefly on Rathmines Bridge at Portobello House the other day whilst operating route 15B towards the city centre. The water in the canal was sparkling and the lock area pristine, busy with people enjoying some rare Irish summer sunshine.
It is doubtful if anyone enjoying the weather would have been aware of the tragedy that befell the passengers of another bus that had stopped in the very same spot, on the very same bridge, some 163 years earlier. For at 9:30 pm on Saturday 6th April 1861, the first major fatal bus accident in Dublin occurred when horses pulling an omnibus of the Favourite Omnibus Company heading into the city reared up, causing the carriage to reverse over the unfenced canal campshire and into the flooded lock.
Within minutes, the streets leading to the scene of the disaster became blocked with crowds, and all the approaches to Portobello bridge were soon blocked. As the Freeman’s Journal reported the following day: The catastrophe was as instantaneous as it was terrible. Midst the darkness rendered melancholy visible by the sickly flickerings of the lamps on the bridge, crowds pressed excitedly forward to get a view of the Omnibus in which were engulphed the lifeless bodies of six persons. The din and confusion which prevailed was great, its effect was much aggravated by the desperate struggling of the horses as they rose and fell, snorting, neighing, and plunging in their death agonies. Impetuously, desperately they fought, and vainly strived to sink their iron-shod hoofs in the slimy walls of the lock, but the sullen water kept rolling over those who but a few minutes before were full of hope and life; and who, no doubt, were expected at their firesides at that particular moment.
The Favourite’s depot was based off Camden Street, and it was one of five horse bus companies operating in the city. It was owned by a Mr. Wilson who also had bus interests in London. The horsebus, Favourite No. 7, was due at Nelson’s Pillar at half-past nine on that Saturday night. When the bus arrived at the centre of Portobello Bridge, the conductor, Patrick Costello, called to the driver, Patrick Hardy, to “pull up.” The driver stopped at the point where he was directed, when a Mr. John Keeley, of No 4, Camden Villa, got out, along with a child who accompanied him. Six passengers remined in the bus – three ladies, two male passengers, and a child. The conductor gave the usual signal, “all right,” but when the driver proceeded to make the horses go onward, they both got agitated, and began to back-up in the direction of Rathmines. The driver turned their heads to try to make them go up the incline of the hill at an angle. This involved the partial locking of the front wheels but the horses, continuing to back-up, bringing the bus round to the south-western side of the bridge. Despite every effort to urge them forward, and the rear part of the vehicle came in contact with the wooden barrier between the lock and the road, and after some slight resistance the flimsy timber work gave way, and the bus rolled backwards down to the very edge of the stone-built lock.
For a short time, the bus stood in an upright position with the door downwards. The horses then fell between the it and the bridge but being still held by their tackle they pulled the vehicle on its wheels in their struggle, and as downwards it settled on the stone flooring of the basin. Above the bus rolled and splashed the water, with the maimed and drowning horses fighting for life. When the water was released from the lock gate, to allow access to the upper section of the vehicle, true heroism was evidenced by two men – Police Constable Gaffney, 143 E, and Private Smith of the 4th Light Dragoons.
The Freeman’s Journal continued – Cleavers and hatchets having been obtained from the neighbouring shops, these two men, at the imminent risk of their lives, descended to the top of the bus, with the aid of a ladder, and broke away a portion of the roof, through which was to be seen, in the uncertain light, the horrors of that. fatal night. Three of the bodies were immediately taken to the Meath Hospital. They were Mrs. Byrne, of 20, South King Street. Mr. Aspa, Professor of Music, of No. 31, Pleasant’s Street, and Mr. Cunningham, night watchman of the North Docks. The remaining three bodies were at once despatched to Mercer’s Hospital. They were Mrs. Chas. O’Connell, wife of Mr. Chas. O’Connell, Solicitor, Ennis, and lodging at No. 18, George’s Place. Miss Matilda O’Connell, her daughter, and a boy about two and a half years old, belonging to Mrs. Byrne, mentioned above.
The news of the sad disaster spread far and wide, and it was remarked by all that a kind of gloom had settled on the city yesterday. In many a pulpit in the several churches, the Portobello disaster was made the theme of the discourse, and nothing else was talked of in the streets, clubs, reading rooms, in fact it was the all-absorbing topic. The omnibuses ceasing to run from the pillar to Rathmines, Rathgar, Roundtown (Terenure), Irishtown, and Sandymount, reminded people more of the sad catastrophe, and induced those who had not heard about it to inquire the cause of the usual modes of conveyance not plying. Thousands flocked to see the place where the fearful tragedy was enacted, and round Sweeny’s Yard, in Camden Street, where the fatal Omnibus was placed, hundreds upon hundreds poured in to look at the vehicle and scan its every part.
So, the next time you are in the Portobello area, pause for a little while on the bridge or on the lock campshire and remember the six innocent victims of Dublin’s first bus tragedy.
Story by Ed O’Neill
This story is an abridged version of an article that first appeared in the Irish Bus & Coach Annual 2024. Originally from Portobello, Dublin, Ed O’Neill is an avid transport enthusiast and historian who has written six books on the histories of CIE vehicles since 1930s to 1990s. His next book, The VanHool McArdle Story, due out in October 2024, details the rise and fall of the company that built hundreds of buses for CIE between 1970 and 1979, further details of which are available at www.irishretro.com
Sources of Information and Photo Credits:
British Pathé
David Harper Antiques TV!
Dublin Bus Stuff
Freeman’s Journal
Geri Walton
Police History
Roaring Water Journal
The Burlington Wisconsin Historical Society
Trove
