Brunel was the engineer, but the Irish did the work

Forget the luck of the Irish, we each owe a lot to the pluck of the Irish, writes Will Brook.

A museum named after a founding father of Victorian engineering will pay homage to the enormous contribution the Irish community made to a true feat of British construction.

The Brunel Museum, Rotherhithe, will mark St Patrick’s Day – Wednesday, March 17 –with music and performances based on the experiences of the scores of Irish navvies that built the literally ground-breaking Thames Tunnel.

The tunnel, built between 1825 and 1843, connected Rotherhithe and Wapping, and was the first to be constructed successfully underneath a navigable river (one large enough for ships or boats to sail on).

Many workers from Ireland moved to London during the 19th-century to find work, and many of them would end up working on the Thames Tunnel.

These workers endured treacherous conditions, with floods and explosions from gas lamps posing a constant threat.

Six men died during the course of the tunnel’s construction.

Despite the tunnel being a pioneering success in terms of engineering, it was far from financially sustainable.

To earn some income from the tunnel, directors allowed sightseers to view the tunnelling mechanism in action, charging a shilling for the adventure.

An estimated 600–800 visitors took advantage of the opportunity every day.

It wasn’t until the underground railway came to London in the 1860s, and the tunnel was purchased by East London Railway, that it became economically viable.

The tunnel became, and remains, part of the London Underground network.

The project was the brainchild of civil engineer Marc Isambard Brunel who patented the tunnelling shield, a revolutionary advance in tunnelling technology which made its construction possible.

His son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, assisted his father in building the tunnel, and is said to be “one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history.”

Isambard Brunel’s innovations included the SS Great Britain – the first propeller-driven, ocean-going, iron ship – and the Great Western Railway.

His impact on British construction is reflected in street names, landmarks, street art, and the naming of shops and pubs in Rotherhithe and beyond, such as The Brunel, on Swan Road.

The Brunel Museum is close to the construction and launch site of Brunel’s last project, the Great Eastern (or Leviathan). The Great Eastern was an iron sailing steamship and the biggest ship in the world for half a century.

It carried enough coal to steam from England to Australia and back again without refuelling and was six times bigger than anything else afloat.

At 700 feet it was longer than his railway terminus at Paddington, and was launched sideways in 1858 because the Thames was not wide enough for it to be released down a conventional slipway.

The ship’s launch chains make the backdrop for the iconic photograph of Brunel, at Millwall (the Isle of Dogs site north of the river, not the football club), in top hat smoking a cigar.

Ahead of St Patrick’s Day, the Brunel Museum has teamed up with historic dramatic performance company Spectrum Drama and Rotherhithe’s Irish community to deliver a performance that captures the stories of Irish culture and immigration.

Clara Pereira, learning and volunteer manager at the Brunel Museum, said: “This live performance will be a celebration of the Irish community and their contribution to the development of this country, through their hardship, perseverance, joy, and musicality.”

Suzanne Rayner of Spectrum Drama said: “We are delighted to be collaborating with the museum to tell the tales of the generations of Irish who many would argue built much of London.”

The celebratory piece will be filmed in the Grade II listed Tunnel Shaft, and released online on St Patrick’s Day.