On this day in 1815, Charles Bianconi, the man who ‘put Ireland on wheels’, ran his first horse-drawn cart from Clonmel to Cahir and back. It was to be the beginning of Ireland’s first regular public transport system.
Bianconi was born on September 24th, 1786 in Tregolo, near Como, in Italy. He was christened Carlo but anglicised his name to Charles when he arrived in Ireland in 1802. In 1806 he set up an engraving and print shop in Carrick-on-Suir, moving to Clonmel in 1815.
Bianconi set up his transport business operating out of what is now Hearn’s Hotel shortly after the Battle of Waterloo and the end of the war in Europe, which is often suggested as the main reason for his success. Peace flooded the market with cheap horses and out-of-work horsemen. Bianconi bought horses for between £15 and £40, and the quality of his animals was often remarked on. Travel on a ‘Bian’ cost one penny farthing a mile.
At his peak, around 1845, Bianconi had about 1,400 horses covering more than 6,000km (3,800 miles) a day across 123 towns. He had moved on from two-wheeled jaunting cars led by one horse each to four-wheeled coaches with several horses pulling them.
Bianconi’s business came under threat with the introduction of rail transport in 1843, however he adapted very quickly and began servicing the new railway stations rather than doing cross-country routes himself.
Bianconi died just before his 90th birthday at his home, Longfield House, Boherlahan in 1875. He left his business to his employees and his land to the parish for the construction of a church. The Bianconi chapel remains in Boherlahan as does his Clonmel headquarters, on what was then Bagwell Street and is now Parnell Street. Bianconi’s assistant, Daniel Hearn, looked after the premises and later converted it into Hearn’s Hotel.
His main depot in Thurles was O’Shea’s Hotel; the stables he used there remain. Many of his staging posts – stopping points along the routes to let passengers and horses rest – had inns that still trade along major routes. Anthony’s Inn in Piltown, Co Kilkenny, was originally a Bianconi inn, and the Bianconi in Killorglin, Co Kerry, retains the name. Many more exist too.
In his declining years, he is said to have boasted that he had been, at different times, a ‘pedlar, shopkeeper, car-owner, alderman, mayor [of Clonmel], county magistrate, grand juror, deputy lieutenant- everything in fact, but member of Parliament.
Sources:
Michael Ahern, Figures in a Clonmel Landscape, pp134-143.
https://www.irishtimes.com/.../charles-bianconi-and-the...
