Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Engineer. John Long, who was born in Dublin in about 1810, makes an appearance in the early 1840s as resident engineer under THOMAS RHODES  THOMAS RHODES on the construction of Athlone Bridge, begun in 1841 and opened in 1844.(1) His address is still given as Athlone in the list of members of the Institute of Civil Engineers of Ireland for 1849.(2) He was later employed by the Board of Works to take charge of the completion of the new docks at Limerick, which were opened in 1853.(3) Despite the successful conclusion of this work, the Board refused to sanction Long's appointment as resident engineer to the Port of Limerick in 1859.(4) In 1856 he applied for the post of Assistant to the Inspector of Works of the Dublin Ballast Board; he was shortlisted but eventually unsuccessful.(5)  According to his obituary in the Limerick Chronicle, it was he who first had the idea of promoting Limerick as 'the emporium of the south for cattle sales' which resulted in the establishment of the Great Munster Fair.

Long was resident engineer to the Limerick and Ennis Railway from 1860-1875 and to the Limerick district of the the Waterford and Limerick Railway in 1864.(6)    He was appointed engineer to the Limerick Harbour Commissioners in 1865 and was able greatly to reduce the debt of the port, by calculating that the Government's claim on the port of £230,000 should really stand at £55,000, which resulted that £175,000 was remitted to the port authorities.   He had an interest in archaeology, reading a paper on 'The age of the bronze and stone antiquities found in the Shannon' to the Royal Historical & Archaeological Society of Ireland in 1871.(7) His pupils and assistants included WILLIAM JEREMIAH HALL. WILLIAM JEREMIAH HALL.

Long was living at 10 Pembury Road Clapton, Middlesex, at the end of his life.  He died in Clapton in February 1882, when he was aged about seventy-two.   He was survived by his widow and was the father of two children. 

ICEI: member by 1849;(8) no longer on list of members for 1870.

See WORKS.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise atttributed is from the English census records of 1881 and from the obituary of Long in the Limerick Chronicle, 3 March 1882.


(1)
Inscription on bridge (IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc. 2008/44); for a description of the bridge see R.C. Cox & M.H. Gould, Civil Engineering Heritage: Ireland (1998), 68.
(2)
TICEI 3 (1849), list of members.
(3)
Cox & Gould, op. cit., 239.
(4)
DB 1, 1 Feb 1859, 16.
(5)
R.C. Cox, Bindon Blood Stoney: Biography of a Port Engineer (Dublin, Institution of Civil Engineers, 1990), 13.
(6)
Jones transcripts from Thom's directories.
(7)
IB 13, 1 Feb 1871, 25.
(8)
See note 2, above.


2 work entries listed in chronological order for LONG, JOHN [2]


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Building: CO. WESTMEATH, ATHLONE, TOWN BRIDGE
Date: 1841-44
Nature: New bridge replacing one of 1568;  'progressing wondrously' by Nov. 1841.  JL resident engineer, under Thomas Rhodes. Contractor: John McMahon.
Refs: Inscription on bridge (IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc.2008/44); Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal 4 (Nov, 1841), 402; M. Lenihan, Limerick; its history and antiquities (1866), 98; for description of the bridge see R.C. Cox & M.H. Gould, Civil Engineering Heritage: Ireland (1998), 68-69

Building: CO. LIMERICK, LIMERICK, DOCKS
Date: 1852-53
Nature: JL in charge of construction of floating dock, opened by Lord Lieutenant (Lord St Germans) in1853. Covers 8 acres and can accommodate 80 vessels. For Board of Works. Cost: £54,000.
Refs: B 10, 30 Oct 1852, 689; M. Lenihan, Limerick; its history and antiquities (1866), 1,471; APSD, V, L, 91; R.C. Cox & M.H. Gould, Civil Engineering Heritage: Ireland (1998), 239