Dublin-London ferry

neris

Does any one know anything about a passenger ferry service from dublin to london up to the 60s? Ive just started reading a book on ship building on the liffey and it mentioned a service from dublin to london that ran for over 150 Years apart from the two world wars. I always thought the irish uk ferries went from dublin to either holyhead or liverpool

tricky D

I reckon they're just referring to Dub > Holyhead/Liverpool then train/road to London. I can't imagine that the long way around would ever have made economic sense and road would have generally been more comfortable. Then there could have been other factors like beating against prevailing winds along the south of England.

(Open to correction)

pedroeibar1

News to me. Never heard of any 'passage' to London, but there are lots of records of Kingstown-Holyhead or rosslare Fishguard, never to London. In the late 60's and 70's it was mailboat to Holyhead then train to London – often a change at Crewe, depending where the job was. All the students went that way, summer jobs canning peas or working in the fish factories at Grimsby.
There used to be a cutting from the Dun Laoghaire line that brought the boat trains down onto the Carlisle Pier, level crossing gates between the George & the National, though I cannot for certain remember seeing a train travel on it.

Hoagy

neris wrote: »

Does any one know anything about a passenger ferry service from dublin to london up to the 60s? Ive just started reading a book on ship building on the liffey and it mentioned a service from dublin to london that ran for over 150 Years apart from the two world wars. I always thought the irish uk ferries went from dublin to either holyhead or liverpool

Yes it was a B and I line route for many years, there's very little on the web about it but there are some details here.

neris

I came across the mention of that route in a book called Liffey ships & ship building by pat sweeney (2010) if anyones interested in a bit of Dublin maritime history

munchkin_utd

In the days before the motorways it could have made sense and the demise of the link seems to coincide with the building of the motorways.