ARDNACRUSHA: DAM HARD JOB 8.8 million cubic metres of earth and rock

IT NOW ranks alongside the Panama Canal and the space shuttle as a techical milestone but when the Ardnacrusha power station was being built in the 1920s the area was Ireland's Klondyke with thousands hoping for a precious job.

In a bleak Ireland recovering from the ravages of the Civil War, the huge task of harnessing electrical power from the waters of the River Shannon led to a bitter clash.

There were disputes over wages and blackleg strike breakers while construction workers could find themselves sleeping on straw in a pigsty.

It was a massive project when conceived in 1925 and still remains the most ambitious engineering project in Irish history.

A co-operative effort between the emerging Free State and the German engineering giant, Siemens, it was driven on the Irish side by two remarkably young visionaries, engineer Dr Tom McLaughlin and later ESB boss who was only 26 and Paddy McGilligan, 33, who was Industry and Commerce Minister.

During construction, 5,000 men were employed, 65 miles of railway were built, four major bridges were constructed and nine rivers and four streams were diverted.

More than 7.6 million cubic metres of earth and 1.2 million cubic metres of rock moved.

Last week, on the 75th anniversary of the ESB, Ardnacrusha was presented with two major engineering prizes, the International Milestone and Landmark awards, by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Previous winning schemes include the invention of colour television, the Space Shuttle, the Eiffel Tower, Japan's Bullet Train, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and the Panama Canal.

When Ardnacrusha was finished in 1929 it began to supply over 95 percent of the country's power - but there was a rash of robberies as men prepared to go home and were determined not leave empty-handed.

Adverts for jobs for 3,000 unskilled workers in 1925 saw the little village of Ardnacrusha swamped by hopefuls. With widespread unemployment and no dole, they came from every corner of the country and even from Scotland. Many of them simply walked as they had no money for train fares.

In a book, entitled The Shannon Scheme And The Electrification Of The Irish Free State, author Michael McCarthy outlines the punishing conditions and poor wages as thousands of navvies turned seven miles of farmland along the Shannon into a giant construction site.

Housing was scarse - many slept in huts, stables, henhouses, pigsties and barns.

Wages were set at 32 shillings a week for a 50 hour week and "free lodgings". Siemens was prepared to pay more but the Government was worried about cost over-runs.

Unions reacted angrily and Siemens said the wages compared favourably with farm labourers who got 25 shillings for a 57-60 hour week.

The Voice of Labour newspaper said it was as if the working class had no rights, no authority and no recognised status in the State and said the construction contract was signed in the spirit of an age before the repeal of anti-labour laws in 1824. A bitter and protracted strike followed.

Former Industry and Commerce Minister Joseph McGrath was appointed director of labour for Siemens. Previously he had been an organiser with Jim Larkin's Workers Union of Ireland and later head of the Irish Secret Service. His appointment caused union dismay.

With the dispute in deadlock, he outflanked the strike by hiring ex-servicemen with an offer of 50 shillings a week. Troublemakers and union organisers were excluded.

In his book, Mr McCarthy said: "The contractors also, reportedly, encouraged the formation of bogus unions in the Ardnacrusha camp, set up an effective camp informer network, and employed a 'heavy gang' to enforce law and order."

The strike was broken and the unions never established a presence on the scheme afterwards.

A former Free State army captain was made commandant of the workers' camp which could only accommodate 720 when it was finished in 1928.

For the rest, local lodgings cost anything from two shillings to pounds 1 a week as local people cashed in on the boom and rented out anything with a roof on it.

The accommodation rip-off became not just Irish, but world news. A man earning a shilling an hour and his wife were sleeping on straw in a pigsty attached to a labourer's cottage. There were 14 navvies living in a stable. The situation was worst for those who couldn't get hired or were fired.

In Clare, local councillors worried that people would die of starvation and called on the Government to shoulder its responsibilities and save people from living like "mere swine".

The council was told of a man lying in a pigsty on a straw bed with double pneumonia. As more hopeful workers poured in the councillors decided not to "feed the hungry of every county in Ireland" and only grant relief to Claremen.

One worker wrote about being paid eight pence an hour with broken time. Even with a full week's work, the 34 shillings he got was not enough to buy food to sustain him.