Most of the
others, alas, are no longer with us. Littler later on was knighted, but
is beyond all earthly honours now, and so are Pope, Pember and
Blennerhassett.
As I have said, the proceedings occupied two sessions. In the first,
1899, two Bills came before a Select Committee of the House of Commons,
one promoted jointly by the Great Southern and Western and the Waterford
and Limerick Companies, the other by the Great Southern and the Waterford
and Central Ireland. But the Great Southern were the real promoters of
both; they paid the piper and, therefore, called the tune. The Great
Southern being the largest railway company in Ireland aspired to be
greater still, nor need this be considered in the least surprising, for
who in this world, great or small, is ever satisfied? The Waterford and
Limerick, a line of 350 miles, then ranked fourth amongst the railways of
Ireland, and its proposed absorption by the Great Southern and Western
Company aroused no little interest. The Central Ireland, a small concern
of 65 miles, running from Maryborough to Waterford, was a secondary
affair altogether and I shall say little more about it.
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