Posted by murrisk on January 12, 2001 at 17:05:55:
In Reply to: Re: Mail Coach Stage Ruins Near Walsh's posted by Magnolia Mary on January 12, 2001 at 11:04:47:
Before the railway linked Castlebar (the county town) and Westport, around 1835, the only way for people or the mail to get from one town to the other was to walk, ride or take a cart or coach. The coming of the train probably did not affect regular travel in any significant way. Coach travel was the established means of transport in the 1700's, 1800's and into the 1900's. In the late 1700's an Italian name Bianconi (?) established stage coach service between Dublin, Carlow and other places in the southeast. This is the only site I know of in the Castlebar area and I always heard it referred to as the "mail coach stage". I am sure there are others. Today, we tend to forget just how important the horse and cart/coach was to rural industry and transport not only in Ireland, but also in Britain and the continent. Horses were in widespread use in Ireland at least until the late 1960's, the French eat them, and the German army used more horses in World War II than it did in World War I !