I always enjoy stopping in at The Bally Hotel around St. Patrick's Day to enjoy a wonderful Irish lunch (bangers and mash with delicious gravy; Irish Whisky cake for dessert and a touch of Jamison to top off a fine meal). 

A view of the tunnel under a barren hill shows the depth of the railroad underpass.

            Wonderful Irish tunes fill the air while I enjoyed my meal and the music, it made me think of what the Irish immigrants brought to our area more than a century ago.  Stories that made me smile and needed to be shared, especially with newcomers, to our region.

            Back in 2015 I was invited to share one such story at the Reading Railroad Heritage Museum's "Rails Go Bragh" event celebrating the contribution of Irish workers to the Reading Railroad.  Taking from the archives of the Town and Country, I

A steam engine, pulling a passenger excursion in 1991, exiting the Dillingersville Tunnel.

wanted to share a little tale about the Irish railroad workers passing through our area while digging the Dillingersville Tunnel.

            The Town and Country newspaper was started in 1899, several decades after the coming of the railroad to the Perkiomen Valley area.  Early editions of the newspaper contain several stories, from the mouths of those who witnessed its coming, about the people who built it and worked on it. 

            The famine in Ireland during the1850s made life cruel for the people but, according to some historians, immigrating to America was not a joyful event.  Many referred to it as the American Wake and most of those who came here would never see Ireland again. They came here only because they knew their future in Ireland would only be more poverty, disease, and oppression.  They came to this county in droves in vessels that were so crowded and conditions so terrible, that they were referred to as Coffin Ships.

            The Irish came at a time of need for America. The country was growing and it needed men to do the hard, heavy and dangerous work of building bridges, canals, and

Looking north towards the Dillingersville tunnel.

railroads. Building a railroad was indeed dangerous work, a common expression heard among the railroad workers was "an Irishman was buried under every tie." Desperation drove them to these jobs.

            The Irish immigrants of the 19th century worked hard to build our railroads in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.  Their days were long, the work was hard, and the pay was a pittance.  Many people in our country were less than welcoming to the Irish at the time; in fact there were many who discriminated and took advantage of them. But unlike many growing towns and cities that were unsympathetic, these workers found solace in some of the farm areas where Germans, who fled their own religious persecution, welcomed them. 

            This is a story of a group of Irish workers who helped to lay the tracks and dig the tunnel in Dillingersville, Lehigh County along the Perkiomen Line of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.

            In the last quarter of the 1800s the Perkiomen region underwent a wonderful renaissance.  The communities were growing and lives were changing as the railroad brought prosperity to it.

            As the tracks inched their way from Pennsburg to Emaus (Emmaus) in 1874, the workers who moved the ground, laid the ties, and placed the irons went with them.  These "sons of Erin" were a spirited bunch, who lived in shanties or lean-to's set up along the way.

            They were a hard-working and hard-drinking group.  A friendly go at fisticuffs among the men from the Emerald Isle was almost an every night occurrence.  They fought fiercely among themselves, causing many a good Irishman to show up for work the next day sporting a shiner from the previous night's to-do.  While they were not opposed to slugging it out with each other, they became united when confronted by those who spoke with a "Dietsche" accent instead of an Irish brogue. 

            It didn't take long for tolerance to be replaced by acceptance for the two ethnic groups.

            Some of the local Pennsylvania-German people laughed at the foreigners' antics, while a few were a little afraid and suspicious of them.  Some of the local farmers even allowed the workers to sleep in their barns during bad weather.  But, there was one important rule – no smoking.  In fact, the farmers would gather up all the matches from their temporary boarders to try and avoid any accidents.

            The north side of the tunnel boasted a steep grade of 43 feet to the mile for the ties and tracks to set on.  This hill would present problems for the steam engines but provided a wonderful place for the workers to play.  After work the Irishmen would amuse themselves with beer from the Dillingersville Hotel while riding a hand car down the slide and into the tunnel.  Their temporary neighbors found entertainment in watching them.

            The railroad workers completed their work and train service commenced northward to Emmaus in 1875.  They helped the region grow and their antics provided the local plain folks with a few smiles and a chance to meet some fellow immigrants. 

            Though railroad traffic is less than a trickle of what it used to be, the Dillingersville Tunnel is still in service – the only one in Lehigh County.