STORIES - AN MULLAIGH BHÁN QUARRY

The forties saw an upsurge in road improvements in the Loughanure/Annagry area. Local stone was quarried to repair local roads, something the engineers of today might explore if interested in getting maximum value per Euro spent.

The Mullaigh Bhan Quarry (on the Annagry Road and still clearly visible) was the main source of road material in the forties and today used as a supply dump for stone which is now brought in from Churchill or Carrick and other sources.

In the forties, locals under the supervision of Niall ‘Thimlin’ Mac Bride, used three, four and five foot long ‘jumpers’, or iron drills, which were hand held, while a second and third person took turns on striking it with heavy sledge hammers, until it was driven to the desired depth into the rock. This went on for days until dozens of holes were drilled. Then the holes were primed with gelignite explosive and the entire area covered with sand bags metal sheets tyres and anything else which would help prevent the debris and rock from the explosion from travelling too far and causing damage. Later pneumatic drills were used as work practice modernised. (Later when the E.S.B. arrived in the fifties and were boring to erect poles, they used chains which were drawn to the explosion site by tractors or horses. This proved a great deal more efficient as there was less manhandling of suitable cover and less volume required with much safer effect).

Mickey ‘Dhonnchaidha Johndy’ Duggan was a face I still remember for his ear to ear smile and Owney ‘Donnie’ Boyle of Loughanure became “Fear a ‘siúd é”, as he always entertained us coming home from school running round the quarry pointing up to the sky and shouting “Siúd é”. (There he is!!)

When the rock was blasted it was then crushed into smaller stone from two inch down to half inch. The crusher was on site and was belt-driven using a tractor.

A small terrier dog called Roddy owned by a local family had many near misses on blasting day when he raced in and out between the various blasts barking and trying to catch the debris and still, as a good old soldier, managed to live to the grand old age of fifteen years, dying of old age, having miraculously escaped the ‘war zone’ in the quarry for many years.

In August 2007 Donegal County Council carried out road works at the Mullaigh Bhán, taking away the very dangerous bend at the top of the hill. A chunk of history was removed when a concrete platform which was cast there in the fifties on the edge of the road and on the bend was taken away to facilitate the road widening. The purpose of the platform was to dump the stone chippings there as they were crushed in the quarry and make it easier to load lorries which pulled up (on the bend) and were loaded manually with shovels. (Cars were few in those days allowing a lorry to sit on the bend without fear of having to move for other traffic for a long time).

Previous to this loading bay, the men had to shovel by hand from ground level onto the lorries...hard work!

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by John Sweeney
10/09/07