The Miner
The unnamed access road - part of the 'Miners Way' hiking trail, which goes through the Glendasan Mine above.
The miner, Robert Carter, was a worker in the Camaderry workings of the St. Kevin’s lead and zinc mines in the Glendasan Valley near Glendalough, Co. Wicklow. Not long into the midnight shift on Tuesday morning, January 22, 1957, Robert, alongside fellow miner, Jim Mernagh, were drilling into the rock face in the Moll Doyle shaft, about three quarters of a mile into the Camaderry mountain. The drill holes were carried out using air drills, each of the two miners drilling about 10-12 long reach holes into the rock face. When all the drilling is finished, then the miners would normally finish off by packing the finished drill holes with a number of gelignite explosive sticks, connecting all the individual detonators in each hole, to a battery plunger switch, placed a safe distance away from the explosive charges, to activate. However, while they were still drilling holes, at about 3:30 AM, one of the drill bits hit an unused detonator connected to unexploded gelignite on an older drill hole from a previous shift.
The miner Robert Carter at the old Glendasan Mine , near Glendalough, Co. Wicklow
The result was a large explosion of the rock face, straight onto both miners, who were blown back a considerable distance, down the narrow mine shaft. After some time miner Robert Carter regained consciousness but found himself with almost no sight and very badly injured. He eventually got to his feet, and he immediately tried to find his fellow miner, Jim Mernagh. Eventually, he felt his colleague lying on the floor of the shaft with no movement. Robert Carter knew, at that moment that he had to get out of the area, as there is always a risk of a cave in after a blast. He began to carefully make his way to the mine opening, with very restricted sight and serious pain down his left side, and very painful movement. It was pitch black inside the shaft as there was no mine lighting other than their carbon lamps, which were destroyed in the blast. The mine shaft was thick with rock dust and dangerous gases which filled the seven foot high by four foot wide, jagged hand cut walls and ceiling of the tunnel. He slowly and painfully made his way mainly from memory, out along the three quarter mile long mine shaft, to get help and to get to safety.
Eventually Robert reached the shaft opening and summoned help from fellow workers processing rock ore outside the shafts. They were totally unaware that an explosion had taken place inside the mine, as the noise and dust subsided before reaching the outside, nearly a mile away. Fellow miners rushed up the shaft to the rock face and found miner Jim Mernagh. They rushed his lifeless body all the way out of the mine to find that he had passed away from multiple injuries. 24 year old Jim Mernagh from the Greenane area of Rathdrum, died leaving a young wife and two young children. Robert Carter was attended to nearby, by a local doctor, and was immediately rushed to hospital in Loughlinstown, critically injured, where he underwent multiple emergency surgeries. His prognosis was very poor and was not expected to live. For three days and nights he battled for his life and miraculously on the fourth night, showed signs of improvement. He had endured multiple serious injuries including a large piece of rock shattered his chest bone, puncturing his lung and exiting out through his back. His eyes were badly damaged, as were his arms and legs. He had multiple injuries throughout his entire body and face, with numerous pieces of rock fragments lodged all over his body. Robert Carter spent six months in hospital, requiring numerous surgeries and procedures. The Glendasan mine stayed open for some months after the accident, but due to poor levels of lead and zinc veins, was closed in June 1957. Sixty local people lost their livelihoods that day and the company or the government had no enquiry nor made any attempt to establish the cause of the accident. The company did pay reasonable compensation for both miners.
Robert Carter - Miner
Robert was born in 1939, in the village of Laragh, near Glendalough in Co. Wicklow. There were 6 siblings and Robert was out working for local farmers at just over fourteen years of age. At just over sixteen, he was given the opportunity to work in the local lead and zinc mine. Initially, he worked breaking rocks down and shovelling the pieces into a crushing machine. This was an eight hour shift and was so physical that the shovel head became worn out every six days and had to be replaced. After only twelve months, he got to work down the shaft inside the mine where the wages were three times the local working wage. There, he was trained on rock drills and explosives. Just three years later, Robert Carter was twenty years old, when the explosion happened.
Robert worked on rebuilding his health and his life. About five years later he was strong enough to take full time work as a bus conductor on the famous Doyle’s bus that ran daily from Roundwood to Dublin City and back. He joined another underground project a few years later, driving a truck at the construction of the unique Turlough Hill electricity generating station. When the construction on the site was complete, Robert was offered a job attending one of the giant electric turbines at the station, where he remained until his retirement. Way back in 1959, Robert met the love of his life and began courting. In 1962, he married his beloved wife Mary, and together they raised a family of five girls and two boys. Their family all live within a stone’s throw of Robert and Mary’s home, where there is a constant flow of 18 grandchildren and four great grandchildren, in and out almost every day. Robert is in his 85th year and in very good health, spends a large chunk of his free time organising talks about the Glendasan Mine, usually up at the mine site in Camaderry Mountain. Robert is a leading member of the Glendalough Mining Heritage Project. A beautifully produced documentary video entitled “The Life and Times of Glendalough Mines” was recently launched, with Robert and the few remaining miners from the area, bringing Glendalough mining history to life. The video documentary is widely available in the region. The same group of volunteers have built a lasting memorial to his mining colleague Jim Mernagh, right in the middle of the Glendasan Mine, outside the Moll Doyle shaft where the accident happened all those years ago. Robert still has some minor health issues with bits of embedded rock fragments still in his body, but only when they decide to come out through his skin.
Mary & Robert Carter in 2024
However, probably just as big an annoyance is people like me, dragging him up to the mine to make portraits and asking endless questions. I have to say a most patient and kind man, who gave me freely, his time and total cooperation, and each time I called to his home, his wife Mary, always had a table laid and the coffee ready to go. And because Mary just celebrated her magical 90th birthday, I just had to create a special portrait of this wonderful one in a million magic couple. What a joy and uplifting experience to spend time in their company, listening to Robert’s story and experiencing the hospitality of both them and their family.
