The Innisfallen Boat III
The Innisfallen was built at Dumbarton , Firth of Clyde , for the British and Irish Steampacket Company , which operated the City of Cork Steam Packet Company ( 1936 ) Ltd . On Friday 12 December 1947 , Mrs F P Hallinan , wife of the Chairman of the Cork Harbour Commissioners , launched the third MV Innisfallen for the Cork-Fishguard at Dunbarton .
The new vessel was built expressly for the direct Cork-Fishguard service and was popular amongst those emigrating to the UK in particular . This would be the first vessel running between Britain and Ireland to have a stabiliser . In addition , it hastened developments in ship construction to aid mariners , one of the most important developments was radar , which the new vessel possessed .
IRELAND ’ S FIRST RAILWAY TUNNEL
The idea for the Great Southern and Western Railway ( GS & WR ) began in the 1840s and initially aimed to link Dublin to Ireland ’ s southern provinces . In 1846 , William Dargan was awarded the contract for the Thurles-Cork section of the line . Despite the difficult landscape conditions encountered , by 1849 the line had been constructed from Mallow to Cork .
The boring of the tunnel began in the spring of 1848 and took seven years to complete . The tunnel had four ventilation shafts ; two sunk on either side of what is now Assumption Road , one in Barrackton and the southernmost shaft at Bellevue Park . These latter two can still be seen today in the Montenotte-St Luke ’ s area , under which the tunnel runs .
On 19 July 1854 , the tunnel was completely bored through and was opened in 1855 . The Great Southern and Western Railway ( GS & WR ) Terminus Cork station opened on 3 December 1855 and in July 1856 , the passenger building and train shed at Penrose Quay was erected .
In 1866 , the Cork , Youghal and Queenstown Railway whose trains ran into Summerhill Station , immediately north of Penrose Quay became part of the GS & WR Quay Terminus .
Kent Station was built to replace the Dublin and Cobh termini , which were situated at Penrose Quay and Summerhill , this was opened in February 1893 .
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