London tube disaster recalled by Mayo native
By Tom Gillespie
FORTY-eight years ago a Castlebar emigrant in London was one of the hundreds to donate blood following the Moorgate Tube Station disaster on February 28, 1975, in which 43 people were killed and 74 seriously injured.
And for the next 30 years Kevin McAleese from Ballynew, Castlebar, continued as a blood donor.
Kevin, a former employee of The Connaught Telegraph, is now retired from British Telecom and resides in Newcastle and is involved with the Irish Centre there.
Recently, the Irish Ambassador to Britain, Mr. Martin Frazer, visited the centre and praised the articles they publish in their newsletter and those in The Connaught Telegraph, promoting Mayo.
During his visit the work of the Irish in tunnelling work in Britain was discussed, which led Kevin to recall the start of his blood donating campaign.
Kevin said: “I was always convinced that the Irish who did tunnelling all over the world were the hardest workers ever to leave our shores.
“When I first came to London I was near Moorgate Tube Station when one of London’s worst disasters happened. I gave blood that day, as a call went out for people in the area to go to the local hall, and I continued to do so for the next 30 years.
“Some weeks after the crash, many Irish tunnellers went back to clear the carnage and repair the tunnel - not a nice job.
“A few years later, while having a pint in The Grapes Vault, where the Tyne and Wear Metro was being built, I came across some lads from Achill and Donegal who had worked on the Moorgate disaster. The Grapes pub was situated beside the monument statue at the start of the tunnelling between The Monument and The Haymarket and was a men’s only pub, having no ladies toilets. Nobody would believe that story now.”
Kevin continued: “Other drinking dens for Irish tunnellers were The Farmer’s at The Haymarket, The Mallard in Felling and the Irish Club in Newcastle.
“I always wanted to see the tunnels going through the Swiss Alps and this year got my wish. The Glazier Express travels through the Albula Tunnel. It was opened to traffic in 1903. Like all tunnels constructed through the Alps, there were many fatalities, 16 in this one.
“The Mont Blanc tunnel construction began in 1959 but by the time it was completed in 1962, 23 workers had lost their lives.
“There aren’t many tunnellers left in Newcastle as most left to do other projects in the UK when the Metro finished in the '80s. Machines have now taken on the work of the Irish boys, which isn’t a bad thing as most of them finished their working lives in bad health and moved on before their time.
“Nowadays immigrants from Ireland are university students and professionals.”
The Moorgate tube crash occurred after a train failed to stop at the line's southern terminus, Moorgate Station, and crashed into its end wall. It is considered the worst peacetime accident on the London Underground.
No fault was found with the train, and the inquiry by the Department of the Environment concluded that the accident was caused by the actions of the 56-year-old driver.
The crash forced the first carriage into the roof of the tunnel at the front and back, but the middle remained on the trackbed; the 16-metre-long coach was crushed to 6.1 metres. The second carriage was concertinaed at the front as it collided with the first, and the third rode over the rear of the second. The brakes were not applied and the dead man’s handle was still depressed when the train crashed.
It took 13 hours to remove the injured, many of whom had to be cut free from the wreckage. With no services running into the adjoining platform to produce the piston effect pushing air into the station, ventilation was poor and temperatures in the tunnel rose to over 49 °C.
It took a further four days to extract the last body.