William Dargan

Dargan was born on 28 February 1799, The young Dargan earned the relatively large sum of £300 for his work on this road and this provided the capital for future public works investments. Following this, Queen Victoria visited Dargan at his residence, Dargan Villa, Mount Annville on 29 August 1853. She offered him a baronetcy, but he declined this also. Wishing to encourage the growth of flax, he then took a tract of land whose culture he devoted himself to, but owing to some mismanagement the enterprise entailed a heavy loss. He also became a manufacturer, and set some mills working in Chapelizod, near Dublin, but that business did not prosper. In 1860, continuing his branching out into different business ventures, Dargan brought the International Hotel in Bray from John Quin. Another hotel named Hayes Royal Hotel in Kingstown was also subsequently bought in 1863 by Dargan with elaborate plans for extension. Financial issues meant that these plans were abandoned, and the original hotel was simply remodelled to fit Dargan's original purpose. From the original design envisioned, the only pieces realised were the centrepiece and south wing. Architect John McCurdy had originally intended to add a right-hand wing to the hotel but none of this came to be. The hotel was rechristened as the Royal Marine Hotel and opened in September 1865. It is understood that the financial difficulties encountered during the purchasing and building of the hotel exacerbated Dargan's financial issues, eventually leading to economic ruin. Latterly he devoted himself chiefly to the working and extension of the Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway, of which he was chairman. In 1866 he was seriously injured by a fall from his horse. He died at 2 Fitzwilliam Square East, Dublin, on 7 February 1867, and was buried in Glasnevin cemetery. His widow, Jane, was granted a civil list pension of £100 on 18 June 1870. == Dargan and the 1853 Dublin Exhibition ==

The Royal Dublin Society elected Dargan as a life member in November 1851. After attending the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851, William Dargan proposed to the society with an extended exhibition, with an offer of £20,000 of funding. As the committee of the 1853 Exhibition believed that this event would be self-financing, mainly relying on Dargan's contribution of £20,000, it was announced that there would be no cash donations taken. After the building costs had risen by the autumn of 1852, the committee was forced to make a public subscription, but Dargan offered another £6,000 as patronage. It eventually reached to the point that Dargan personally funded this exhibition with a considerable amount of £88,000. Dublin Exhibition received many visitors. Although there were only 400 people on the first two days, this number rose to 4,000 a week later, and to 5,000 on the following day. The British royal party arrived at Dun Laoghaire on 29 August 1853 at the purpose to attend the exhibition, and Queen Victoria personally met William Dargan. Prince Albert commented both on Dargan and the Dublin Exhibition, "Mr Dargan is the man of the people. He is a simple, unobtrusive, retiring man, a thorough Irishman, not always quite sober of an evening, industrious, kind to his workmen, but the only man who has by his own determination & courage put a stop to every strike or combination of workmen, of which the Irish are so fond. All he has done has been done on the field of Industry & not of politics or Religion, without the Priest or factious conspiracy, without the promise of distant extraordinary advantages but with immediate apparent benefit. The Exhibition, which must be pronounced to be very successful, has done wonders in this respect. A private undertaking, unaided by Govt, or any Commission with Royal Authority, made and erected at the sole expense of a single Individual, & this an Irish Road contractor, not long ago a common labourer himself, who had raised himself solely by his own industry & energy, - it deserves the greatest credit & is looked upon by the Irish with infinite self-satisfaction as an emblem of national hope". William Dargan ultimately lost £20,000 on the venture. At the close of the exhibition, the Irish National Gallery was built on Leinster Lawn, as a monument to Dargan, with a fine bronze statue of him in front of it, looking out upon Merrion Square. ==Works==

• MacNeill's Egyptian Arch • Ulster Canal • The Cut, Banbridge • Kilnap Viaduct • Cork railway tunnel ==See also==