I recently posted about the GoFundMe campaign for Elphin Windmill, to raise funds for repair to the damaged sails, caused by Storm Eowyn.
Today, I put my money where my mouth is and donated EUR2,000 to the campaign.
Categories
Author: ewan.duffy
Categories
Factory Girls memorial, Derry
It has finally happened – the long talked about memorial to the female shirt factory workers in Derry has been unveiled.
The Derry Journal reports that representatives of former shirt factory workers were given the honour of unwrapping the memorial in an area beside the Guildhall in Derry City.
Categories
Dublin’s Railway Architecture
Dublin City Council are hosting the above titled talk on 23 April 2025 at 18:00 in the Mansion House in Dublin.
The event is free but registration is required and can be done here.
Categories
Tralee Fenit Greenway
Heading back to Dublin after another greenway visit – this time, the Tralee to Fenit greenway.
Similar to the Midleton to Youghal Greenway, there are multiple sections where a deviation off the route of the former railway is required due to possession of the former trackbed by others.
As with the Youghal line, this railway had not been abandoned and the question must arise, who took their eyes off the ball in either allowing advserse possession of the line to take place, or worse, who in CIE sold the trackbed of a non-abandoned railway?
Categories
RTE Archive – getting it wrong
The RTE archive has a piece on the opening of 4 new stations on the Maynooth Line in 1990 (Broombridge, Castleknock, Coolmine and Leixlip Confey).
The blurb contains many errors, including:
Referring to the service as “A new Dublin suburban rail line”. The Maynooth Line service actually started in 1981.
Stated that the original railway along which the service ran dates back back to the 1870s. The line actually opened in 1847.
Stated the railway was originally known as the “Great Midland and Western Railway”. No. The railway was originally built/owned by the Midland Great Western Railway.
Categories
From the Basin to the Bar
The above titled talk is a photographic journey on the waterways around Newry, which takes place on 22nd March 2025 at 14:00 in Newry & Mourne Museum in Newry. Tickets can be obtained here and cost £2.50.
Categories
Elphin Windmill
A GoFundMe campaign to facilitate the repair of the damage caused to Elphin Windmill during Storm Eowyn has been setup and can be accessed here.
Per the Belfast Telegraph, the on off saga of the Commissioners of Irish Lights proposals to modernise the lighting arrangements in St. John’s Point Lighthouse in Co. Down continues, with local residents objecting to the replacement of the fundamentally unsafe mercury based rotation mechanism and light with LED lights and a ball bearing based rotation mechanism, citing a range of spurious arguments against this.
There are many examples of former lighthouse lights preserved as static exhibits in adjacent (and non adjacent) areas and I would suggest that if the local community wish to have a known toxin in their community, they should be facilitated to have the mechanism preserved at a site in the community in the community/council ownership, with all the associated civil liability for same on the community/council if the mercury leaks.
Armaghi.com reports on a refusal to grant planning permission to convert a former reservoir in Banbridge into a house.
The applicant had sought to construct a new build house above ground and incorporate the former reservoir into the structure as a basement.
Categories
Newtownards to Bangor Greenway
Another day, another greenway. This time in Co. Down, from Newtownards to Bangor.
At first the headline on insidermedia.com had me confused, stating:
“Construction starts on £5.6m Newtownards to Bangor Greenway – will utilise former railway track”.
Was there a heretofore unrecorded railway line from Newtownards to Bangor? A quick look at my own gazetteer enlightened me. The plan is to use the trackbed from Newtownards to Conlig (also known as Whitespots) and head across country from there to Bangor.