A Long Time in the Making: The Pier at Gyles Quay, County Louth

The story of the building of the pier now standing at Gyles Quay officially begins in 1871 with a memorial to the Board of Works. But the story of the struggle to have a pier built at Gyles Quay has a much longer and occasionally controversial history than would be illustrated by this, its latest chapter. There had been repeated attempts to establish a pier at this location starting in the late eighteenth century. This was followed by two proposals in the 1820s and another in the 1840s, before the final proposal made in the 1870s, replete with its own set of complications and controversies, was finally successful. This long journey reveals the complex dynamics of different agents on the process, from landownership and the structure of tenancy agreements, government structures and policy instruments, the occasional failure of crops and ensuing famines, and evolving construction technologies and materials. It was this last that was to finally overcome repeated obstacles to the building of a pier by providing the Board with an inexpensive alternative to dressed stone in the emerging material of concrete. As a result, the pier at Gyles Quay claims recognition as the first pier built of precast concrete blocks in Ireland, which ushered in a new age of harbour construction in Ireland.