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| More than 50 years ago the mining
for lead in the Wicklow mountains had some dangers, hazards and accidents.
One of the accidents killed James(Jim) Mernagh, while Bobby Carter was very
lucky to escape Bobby received really severe injuries. Bobby and James were
mining less than a mile into the Foxrock (a mine). They were drilling
to blow up a large piece of hard rock in front of them.
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A piece of granite showing where drill holes were made. Into these holes the fuse wire and dynamite were put. This is how the rock was blown up. More and more tunnels were made to get at the lead. It was while Bobby and Mr. Mernagh were drilling that an accident happened. Mr. Mernagh was killed and Bobby was badly injured. |
| They were standing about 2 feet away and they were always told not to drill into the same socket as before. Two other attempts before had been made to blow up the rock face.. As they were drilling they met a crack in the rock and the drill took off and hit a device that was in the rock. The device blew up and Bobby ran back to surface out of the mine. Bobby was unable to speak but kept pointing into the mine. Two men who were outside ran in and found James lying on the ground dead. Bobby was taken to hospital and had an injury to his right lung and still his lungs can't expand fully. Ever since little pieces of rock keep coming out of his skin. When the bomb went off the priest and Dr. O'Shaughnessy came up to the mines. | |
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| Spoil Heaps can be seen all around Glendalough. They are made of crushed rock left over after the lead was removed. This rock was taken out from the mines with the lead. Then the lead and rock were separated. The lead was taken away to be smelted and the crushed granite was left behind in these spoil heaps. In the picture the girls are standing on a spoil heap in the Glendasan Valley. | |
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Mining can be very dangerous. Explosions and gas in the mines are two. Also water can get into the mines and flood all the shafts, tunnels and caverns. The miners suffered from too much gas because when they blew up the shaft they were sent to work straight away and there was still gas in the mine. The most poisonous thing in the mine was lead. Some people were gassed by the toxic fumes this made them very sick.
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| Our school is in the Wicklow
Mountains National Park. At the Education Centre they have a display about
mining in Glendalough. One poster describes a record of miners' deaths in
the Glendalough area between 1864 and 1899. This is a long time ago when
there was little medicine to help miners when they got sick.
Miners died from illnesses linked to mining:
There were many causes of deaths listed on the poster but most were due to the bad working conditions in the mine. In the Registers of Deaths 1864 -'99 for the area about 76 men died from a disease or injury caused from being a miner. The register lists names and details of the people who died e.g.
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By Martina, Stephanie K., Ann, Niamh D and Jessica. |
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