The Galway Electric Light Company was set up by James Perry, an engineer and County Surveyor of the Western District of Galway, and his brother, Professor John Perry, to generate electricity. On November 1, 1888, they applied for permission from the Galway Town Commissioners to ‘erect poles in some parts of the town as an experiment for the electric lighting of the town’. The company had established a generating station at Newtownsmith in an old flour mill which had existed since the 1600s and straddled the Friar’s River. They installed a hydroelectric turbine in the watercourse which was linked to a generator producing alternating current.
The plant at Newtownsmith consisted of a 200 BHP VJ4 Vickpet crude oil engine manufactured by Vickers Petters of Ipswich, a National and Crossley gas engine of 60/70 BHP each fuelled by anthracite coal and a Hay Maryon turbine of 130 HP supplied by water power. In addition, they had an extensive battery system where surplus current could be stored. The company started off with a private scheme customer base of 59 houses and this was the reason for their application to erect poles to deliver current to their customers.
This put them into competition with the Galway Gas Company who had, up to then, been providing street lighting in the city. In March the GELC were awarded a contract by the Harbour Commissioners to light the port and docks area at a cost of £40 per annum.
In 1893, a Swedish journalist Hugo Vallentin wrote of having the opportunity “in old half ruined Galway, to see electricity generated in a way I had never seen before”. His visit to the offices of The Galway Express was interesting because “the bulbs shone with bright even light but the most startling impact came with the printing press, which was driven by electricity. The whole device was not huge, you could have taken it under your arm. When I saw it, it had only been used for a day and everything worked as smoothly as could be wished. It was somewhat dissonant to come in from the old fashioned atmosphere in the alleys to where the lifeblood of the 19th century shone and pulsed”.
By 1899, when the GELC submitted a detailed plan for a new mains supply, the battle between it and the Gas Company for the public lighting of the city was as good as over.
The GELC employed a manual staff usually of about 14 in number which included three switchboard attendants who worked eight hour shifts at a flat rate of 10/- per shift. In the last days of the company these men were Joseph Reilly, Raleigh Row, Joseph Rooney, Court Avenue and Bartholomew of Grafton Terrace. Martin Beatty was the mechanical fitter and Patrick Shiels, Bohermore worked as a carpenter. Two of the best known employees were Thomas Tierney, Suckeen and Pat-Pan O’Donohue, Newcastle Road. These two could be seen in all kinds of weather in their oil skins, pipes aglow, pushing out their handcart with ladders, tool box, insulators, coils of wire to where their services were most required to repair storm damage etc. and restore supply. They took care of all mains and public lighting maintenance and took a real and personal interest in their work.
Others who worked there were Isaac Edward Rayner who was the manager for a time, then later John Lee, Dick Byrne, Archie Barnett, Henry Wall and Tom Stephens. Mr Pemberthy was the manager when the company closed down. The average wage ranged from £2-5-0 to £2-15-0. Electricity charges were at a flat rate of 8d per unit for lighting, 4d per unit for power and 2d per unit for heating.
In later days, due to pressure drop in the Salthill area, it was decided to provide that area with the first instalment of a 230V rather than 120V supply, so a motor generator was installed on a plot of ground now occupied by a private dwelling, between Kingshill and the beach.
In 1929, two years after the legislation establishing the ESB was passed, GELC was serving 1017 consumers in a city of 14,000. In May of that year, the GELC announced that because the supply of electricity would soon be taken over by the ESB, the company would not be investing in any further infrastructure or taking on any new customers. The ESB acquired the premises in 1929 and the Galway Electric Light Company ceased to exist. It had been the first electricity undertaking to be established in the country.
So, we have two images this week – the first courtesy of Moya Cannon is a wonderful photograph of the staff of the company taken in 1910. The second, courtesy of the National Library shows the Fish Market c1895. You can see a tall elegant Electric Light Company pole on the right and you can also see a Gas Company light in front of what later became the Galway Museum building. Our thanks to Roger Derham for his help with the above.
