Month: July 2021

Categories
General

Updating the site

For the last 15 months or so of this new abnormal, I have been wondering whether or not to bother continuing with this site, but have recently decided to do so.

As part of the process for relaunching the site, I am checking various sections of the site outside of WordPress prior to reloading the entire site to my webhost. This includes checking links to external sites and one of these was to the Dundalk Museum.

For the uninitiated, this is located in a former tobacco warehouse and its primary focus is industrial heritage. Upon following the link to the site, the following message is displayed:

The Dundalk Museum website has been taken down.

If you have any queries, please contact Brian Walsh – Brian.Walsh@louthcoco.ie

In an era where government is throwing money (that it doesn’t have) at anything that moves and one where overseas travel is actively discouraged, the removal of a website dedicated to a tourist attraction in the Republic of Ireland is inappropriate and a false economy.

industrialheritageireland.info calls on Louth County Council to reinstate this website immediately. I wont even blink if they claim that doing so would be to “build back better”.

Categories
General

Were they wearing masks?

I will declare a conflict of interest here – I don’t believe that COVID19 is anything more than a bad flu season and mask wearing is virtue signalling.

The question does arise though, in the case of those reported to Irish Rail for doing lines of cocaine off train tables, were they wearing masks?

Categories
IH News 2021

St. Anne’s Park Dig

The Irish Independent reports that a dig is to take place in St. Anne’s Park, Raheny, at the site of the former mansion, to determine what remains beneath the earthen mounds covering same.

St. Anne’s was the country residence of Lord Ardilaun of the Guinness family.

Categories
Overseas

Caminito Del Rey, eat your heart out

Spain has the Caminito Del Rey, Switzerland has the Torrent Neuf.

The latter is a 15th Century, suspended water leat system which was used to divert water from glaciers to otherwise dry valleys. Per the BBC, some 200 such systems spanning 1,800km in length still operate. One such systems is the Torrent Neuf. Initially put out of service in 1935, it was restored in 2013 as a tourist attraction.

Categories
IH News 2021

New plaque on Victoria Quay, Dublin

Dublin People reports on the unveiling of a new plaque on the outer wall of the Diageo complex on Victoria Quay, Dublin, commemorating the Guinness barges which previously operated between the quay and Dublin port.

The previous plaque was stolen many years ago – hopefully, this one will survive.

Update 18th August 2021 – photo of the new plaque:

Plaque commemorating the last Guinness barge on the River Liffey
Plaque commemorating the last Guinness barge on the River Liffey. Copyright Ewan Duffy 2021
Categories
Overseas

Historic arch railway bridge filled in with concrete

Not in Ireland (but I am genuinely surprised that CIE haven’t tried this as an excuse).

Highways England have engaged in an outrageous act of encasing an historic arch railway bridge (no longer in use for railway purposes) in concrete to “protect” it.

Thankfully, the local council have stepped in and demanded that they apply for retrospective planning permission (I hope that this is to allow the council to refuse such permission).

Categories
IH News 2021

Moira Station

Located at the southern end of Co. Antrim, close to the Lagan Navigation, the station at Moira was an attractive one, with the original station building on the Up side (the oldest original railway building on the island of Ireland), the former signal cabin preserved at the Belfast end of the station (albeit not on its original site) and an original GNR(I) style waiting shelter on the Down side.

Separately, the DOE(NI) had a storage base on the Dublin side of the station. This makes you wonder how this monstrosity slipped through the planning process:

Categories
IH News 2021

Velorail for the Burma Road?

This one passed me by when first announced – possibly because I reckoned it would come to nothing.

However, per the Irish Independent, it looks like a Velorail project (basically a bike on rails) may come into existence on the disused railways around Claremorris.

Categories
History

Bray Head No. 4 Tunnel

In 1917, due to coastal erosion, the railway line between Bray and Greystones was deviated inland for the final time (for the moment!) with the construction of Bray Head No. 4 Tunnel. This commenced almost immediately south of Bray Head No. 3 Tunnel and replaced a long section from there to just north of the harbour at Greystones. Part of this route had already been deviated in 1888 – the remains of which can be seen on GoogleMaps:

At 1,084 yards long, this is the second longest railway tunnel in use in Ireland and just north of the south portal, there is an air vent.

Very few photos of this exist and I am not surprised. It is located on private land and is not accessible from nearby roads nor the Bray Head cliff path.

I went out to Greystones today to see how close I could get and the photos below are the best I could achieve:

Bray Head No. 4 Tunnel Air Vent from Bray Head cliff path
Bray Head No. 4 Tunnel Air Vent from Bray Head cliff path – copyright Ewan Duffy 2021
Bray Head No. 4 Tunnel Air Vent from Bray Head cliff path
Bray Head No. 4 Tunnel Air Vent from Bray Head cliff path – copyright Ewan Duffy 2021
Categories
IH News 2021

A new World Heritage Tentative List for Ireland

Google gave me a link to this page on the Government of Ireland website, in connection with the preparation of a new World Heritage Tentative List for Ireland.

I noted that one of the suggested sites for inclusion is “Trans-Atlantic Cable Ensemble: Valentia, County Kerry-Heart’s Content, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada”.

What drew my attention and is the genesis of this post, was the list of experts consulted by the civil service Irish Government. These include:

“Ms Jane Jackson, Industrial Architectural Expert”.

Never heard of her.