I am pleased to announce that I have started to further the utility of the Gazetteer on the site, by adding in the main canals/navigable waterways of Ireland.
The first map to be added is that for Kilcock, which is now live. It is my intention to then add updated maps for the rest of the Royal Canal before proceeding onto the other.
One of the many things that annoys me about life in Ireland is the level of ignorance around responsibilities as in what Government body should be doing what, which gives rise to wasted effort on the part of campaigners who spend time barking up the wrong tree as they either demand something from a State body that has no responsibility in that regard or protest to the wrong level of authority about a law they don’t agree with (e.g. complaining to their local authority about EU derived legislation).
In this regard, the Department of Child indoctrination Education and Youth has a role to play, in requiring mandatory religion classes in schools and not some form of Civics class, which would explain how society (should) work.
When Joe Normie engages in such behaviour, I do give them the benefit of the doubt, due to the lack of such education in the school system. When this level of ignorance comes from an elected representative, I get very worried.
And so it is with this story from Kilmallock in Co. Limerick. The Dublin – Cork railway runs through Kilmallock (the station is, unfortunately, closed). This includes a road bridge over the railway line.
As is common in the 21st century, the level of road traffic in the area is far in excess of what these 19th century bridges were built for and there are calls for an adjacent footbridge to be built over the railway to accommodate pedestrians.
In relation to the funding of this, the rules in this regard are quite clear. Where the original bridge exists, CIE (Irish Rail), as successors to the original railway company, are responsible for the bridge. However, if a new bridge over the railway on a new/expanded footprint is required, the railway company is not responsible for the cost, this falling to the entity requiring the bridge (in most cases, this will be the local authority or TII).
This has not stopped Cllr. Eddie Ryan calling for Irish Rail to pay for a footbridge – the Limerick Leader reporting:
Meanwhile, independent councillor Eddie Ryan said that Irish Rail should be the ones funding the bridge, given the bridge crosses over railway tracks.
Limerick Leader https://www.limerickleader.ie/news/local-news/2018621/calls-for-pedestrian-bridge-in-busy-limerick-town-amid-highly-dangerous-road.html
IMHO, not only should a civics course be mandatory in secondary schools, it needs to be mandatory to pass such a course before election to public office.
Per the the Leinster Express, Waterways Ireland are running a guided tour of restoration work currently underway on the Barrow Line at Vicarstown, Co. Laois on 1st March 2026.
The event is open to all and attendees are asked to meet in front of the Vicarstown Bridge Cafe at 11am. The Kildare branch of the IWAI recommend appropriate footwear, which may be wellies.
RTE reports that Galway City Council has secured funding from the EU to undertake the installation of three small hyrdo electric turbines along the underused waterways of the city.
It is an interesting initiative, especially in light of legislation requiring historic mill owners to pay for water abstraction for water removed from a watercourse to pass through their mill, notwithstanding that the water is returned to the watercourse in full a short distance later.
In addition, the wholesale destruction of mill dams will be undertaken in due course on foot of State instructions to prioritise fish.
Blacksod Lighthouse in Co. Mayo is, perhaps, best known for its indirect role in changing the course of history in connection with the D-Day landings in 1944. This arose due to weather readings taken at the lighthouse by Maureen Sweeney, wife of the lighthouse keeper, resulting in the decision to delay the landing in Normandy by the Allied side in WW2 by a day.
The light at Blacksod Bay was first lit on 30 June 1866 and a series of commemorative events in connection with this 160 year anniversary will be held on the weekend of 27/28 June with another event on 30 June 2026.
A little known former railway in London was the 6.5 mile long underground railway built by the Post Office, to carry mails between sorting offices in London. Opened in 1927, the line closed in 2003 due to the uneconomic cost of running the system.
In 2017, a short section of the system in the form of a loop opened as a tourist attraction as part of the Postal Museum, carrying passengers on the system for the first time (the P.O. railway was for mail only and was operated by driverless trains).
I visited this in 2018 and last weekend, I returned for a different experience on the system – a guided walking tour through the same section of the system that is operated by the Postal Museum.
The walking tour starts off at the same point as the railway trip (the walking tour takes place in the evening after the tour trains have stopped running). Participants are equipped with hard hats and hi viz (the former necessary as the tunnels are quite low as they were built for driverless trains).
At stations, the typical layout was a line adjacent to a low platform, located beneath the relevant sorting office overhead, with a diamond crossover midway for ease of access from the adjacent running line.
At one point in the walk, there is an abandoned smaller tunnel veering off to the right. This was an access tunnel to a point where decommissioned stock was dumped – many of these remaining on site today.
Overall, this addition to the tour offerings by the Postal Museum is worth doing if you get a chance and supports the charity keeping this unique piece of London infrastructure open to the public.
The West Clare Railway closed at the end of January 1961.
The RTE website has an archive radio broadcast taken on the final day of operation (no TV in those days!), interviewing both passengers and staff.
With Storm Chandra having passed over and caused extensive flooding, the clean up operation is underway and RTE have a news article with an excellent photograph, taken from the Island Road overbridge in Enniscorthy, showing an Irish Rail crew at work removing debris from the railway bridge over the River Slaney with a road rail excavator.
I reported previously on the damage caused to Elphin Windmill caused during Storm Eowyn in early 2025.
I am happy to report that funding to the tune of EUR35,000 has been awarded under the Heritage Investment Scheme to the group behind the scheme at Elphin towards its restoration.
Over the post Christmas period, I took myself up to east Donegal to close out the many missing stations in that area. I booked a self catering apartment just outside Lifford for a few days and used it as a base to cover the lines from Stranorlar to Glenties, Strabane to Letterkenny and Tooban Junction to Letterkenny, covering most stations thereon.
The photos taken and station pages updates have now been added to the gazetteer.