Two hundred years ago the British Government set up the Commission for the Bogs of Ireland in an attempt to address the infrastructure deficit of Ireland. The Commission brought the engineer Alexander Nimmo here and he spent the rest of his life in this country. His influence on it was profound, not only in the civil engineering structures he left behind, but also in his seminal role in the emergence of the Irish Ordnance Survey, the Office of Public works, the Hydrographic Survey of Ireland and the Fisheries Commission.

In County Galway, he built the piers at Derryinver, Leenane, Cleggan , Gorumna, Rossaveal,Spiddal, Barna, Rinville,Ballinacourty, Killeenaran, Doorus and Killeaney. He built the quays at Clifden, Cloonisle, Roundstone Harbour, Galway Floating Docks and the Slate Breakwater which is still known as Nimmo�s Pier. He built an extraordinary network of roads and bridges in the County and a number of piers on Lough Corrib. Many of these were done in times of famine and disease and were intended as �temporary relief works�.

In 1822, the harbour of Galway was very defective, with only one small dock, known as �the Mud Dock� at the end of Long walk, and two short narrow jetties on the Claddagh shore. It was a difficult harbour to enter: the outflow of the River Corrib was too great to permit sailing boats to enter safely at low tide, and even then entry could be tricky when the wind was strong or contrary. The merchants of the town petitioned the Lord-Lieutenant in 1822 to make improvements, and he forwarded their memorial to Nimmo on his arrival.

He saw immediately what needed to be done: the Claddagh fishermen needed a quay and a proper place to draw up their boats in safety; the whole harbour needed better protection from the west and south-west, together with a floating dock; and the town needed a canal joining the harbour to Lough Corrib. At the time, the boatmen of Menlo used to haul their boats across the town to the sea when the herring fishery commenced. Nimmo put his men to work immediately, deepening the Claddagh beach, raising the jetties and making a rough quay wall along the shore. His priority was to increase the shelter of the harbour by erecting a breakwater along the rocky outcrop known as �The Slate� at the west of the entrance. It was to be 500 feet long with a return of 40 feet at its head, constructed of hewn limestone from Aran, with a sloping pavement to seaward. The work started in 1822 and was completed by 1827.

The breakwater was continuous with a long spit of gravel that stretched westward along the shore, but was detached from the land by �The swamp�, a marshy area that was overrun by high tides. Nimmo proposed to build an embanked road 300 yards long across �the swamp� joining the pier to Claddagh village. In this he planned an opening, crossed by a stone arch or a swivel bridge leading into �the swamp� transforming the area into a five-acre dock for the fishing boats. The gravel spit could be easily raised above high tide level giving extra protection to the new dock. It would have made a tidy small harbour for the Claddagh but it was never pursued. This is the area where the playing pitches are today.

Our photograph of the end of Nimmo�s Pier was taken in the 1940�s and shows the sloping pavement to the right. A number of traditional working boats are moored together, possibly getting ready to sail. All of the above information comes from a new publication entitled �Alexander Nimmo, master Engineer, 1783-1832, Public Work and Civil Surveys� by Noel P. Wilkins. It is the first book to tell the life story of this unique character and gives new insights into events and people of his time never previously covered. It is based on 4 years of research in libraries and archives all over Britain and Ireland and reveals and explains for the first time the motivation and full range of Nimmo�s activities in Ireland and Britain. It is a must-read for any engineer and should be in every serious Galway Library. Very highly recommended and available in good bookshops @ 35 euro.

Please forward any queries/comments to oldgalway@kennys.ie