It was from the grasp of the Waterford and Limerick, as I have mentioned before, that in 1892 we (the Midland) sought, though unsuccessfully, to snatch possession of the Ennis line.  Now the Waterford and Limerick were to lose, not only the Ennis line, but all their lines and their own identity as well.  A great struggle ensued which, from the length of time it lasted, and the number of combatants engaged, was one of the biggest railway fights the Committee Rooms had for many a long year witnessed.  For 106 days, from first to last, the battle raged.  In it thirty-one companies and public bodies participated, most of them being represented by counsel.  There was a famous Bar, including all the big-wigs of course, and some lesser wigs, and numbering more than twenty in all.  The promoters were very strongly represented, but we had Littler for our leader, who, indeed, was our standing senior counsel.  Their team consisted of Pope, Pember, Balfour Browne, Seymour Bushe, McInerny and two juniors; our, much smaller but well selected, of Littler, Blennerhassett and Vesy Knox; the last-named then a rising junior, but long since a senior, and for some time past a leader, is still to the front in the bustling, reckless, impatient world of to-day.  Most of the others, alas, are no longer with us.  Littler later on was knighted, but is beyond all earthly honours now, and so are Pope, Pember and Blennerhassett.

As I have said, the proceedings occupied two sessions.  In the first, 1899, two Bills came before a Select Committee of the House of Commons, one promoted jointly by the Great Southern and Western and the Waterford and Limerick Companies, the other by the Great Southern and the Waterford and Central Ireland.  But the Great Southern were the real promoters of both; they paid the piper and, therefore, called the tune.  The Great Southern being the largest railway company in Ireland aspired to be greater still, nor need this be considered in the least surprising, for who in this world, great or small, is ever satisfied?  The Waterford and Limerick, a line of 350 miles, then ranked fourth amongst the railways of Ireland, and its proposed absorption by the Great Southern and Western Company aroused no little interest.  The Central Ireland, a small concern of 65 miles, running from Maryborough to Waterford, was a secondary affair altogether and I shall say little more about it.  The Waterford and Limerick had its headquarters at Limerick, its southern terminus at Waterford, its northern at Sligo—­a direct run from south to north of 223 miles, certain branch lines making up the rest of its mileage.  Its access to Sligo was by means of the Athenry to Tuam, the Tuam to Claremorris and the Claremorris to Collooney lines, all of which it worked.  The last-mentioned was one of the “Balfour” light railways (constructed on the ordinary Irish gauge of 5 feet 3 inches) and should have been given to the Midland Company, but by some unfortunate contretemps, when constructed,