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IH News 2021

Glass production in Tyrone

The BBC has a video article about the revival of glass production in Co. Tyrone.

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IH News 2021

CDR steam engine to return to Donegal Town

It is not often that I comment about trains on this site, not having an interest in them per se.

However, some train news is worthy of publicity and this includes this post on the County Donegal Railway Museum’s site that the former CDRJC steam engine Drumboe is being returned to Donegal Town on Saturday 9th October 2021.

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IH News 2021

Pelletstown Station opening

I reported previously about Pelletstown Station opening, which took place today.

RTE reported on it, as part of an overall article about the Metro for Dublin being delayed (again!). They included the following line, which they attributed to Jim Meade, CEO of Irish Rail:

“Iarnród Éireann CEO Jim Meade said it is hoped that the station will be electrified for future DART use.”

I genuinely hope he did not state this as it would show a fundamental lack of understanding of how railway electrification on a line, using overhead line electrification, works.

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IH News 2021

The Tin Church, Laragh, Co. Monaghan

The Irish Independent has a nice video feature about The Tin Church in Laragh, Co. Monaghan (roughly halfway between Carrickmacross and Castleblayney) and its saving by the local community.

The IH link is that the church was built by a local mill owner, allegedly as a declaration of love.

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IH News 2021

Restoration of ornamental canal in Castleward

Castleward, Co. Down, is a country house and estate under the ownership of the National Trust. There are a few industrial heritage features on the estate, including a mill and sawmill as well as a harbour.

Added to this, the NT have restored an ornamental canal which was used to provide water to the mill.

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IH News 2021

Derelict mill workers houses to be restored

The CorkBeo website reports that former mill workers housing associated with the erstwhile Sunbeam Wosley operation in Cork, are to be restored for use as social housing, in preference to their demolition.

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Greenways IH News 2021

Another greenway

Finally, something other than railways, but it is still about greenways, which appear to be the new thing for local authorities all over the Republic of Ireland.

The Irish Times reports that Dublin City Council are to seek Part 8 planning permission to widen the towpaths of sections of the Royal Canal in their administrative area.

Public consultation on this is supposed to be available but I cannot see any reference to it on Dublin City Council’s website, nor on Waterways Ireland’s.

Per the Irish Times, the sections to be widened (which means narrowing of the canal) are:

600m west of Lock 6, 345m west of Broomebridge and 85m west of Lock 8.


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Greenways IH News 2021

Another day, another greenway

I wish there was some non railway IH news to report, but there isn’t so it is another railway post!

Wicklow County Council are apparently carrying out surveys for a greenway along the entire Woodenbridge to Shillelagh trackbed – a very small part of which near Tinahely is a walkway (co-incidentally, I was there yesterday).

It will be interesting to see how the home owners at Tinahely will take this – one of these (the old goods store) won an award for the conversion of the building to a house a few years ago but such was their concern for privacy, the location of the house was unstated (I was able to figure it out). The station building is also now a private residence.

Separately, I see the car dealership that was in the goods store at Aughrim (another former station on this route) is now closed. As it is not generating rates income for Wicklow County Council, maybe they should see about buying the site/building, using the trackbed for the greenway and granting themselves planning permission for conversion of the goods store to a house, a la Tinahely. This would enhance the value of the building to be sold on to a third party.

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IH News 2021

Dublin and Blessington Steam Tramway

As a follow up to Friday’s post about this line, I managed to drive the route of the rural end of the line today – covering from Embankment to Poulaphoca (and damaging the phone I was using as a camera in the process).

It was interesting to see that all of the former station locations up to Blessington have a Dublin Bus stop for the 65 route (the replacement bus service) at their locations. There are also many intermediate bus stops not at former tram station locations so the presence of a bus stop is not automatically indicative of there having being a tram stop there.

The road (N81) is largely unchanged in curvature/route since the days of the tramway, which is great from an historical perspective, but does mean that driving it poses difficulties, especially around parking at or near the former stations. In addition, finding somewhere to do a u-turn if you overshoot a station location is fraught with difficulty.

I stopped the drive after Embankment as roadworks at Jobstown meant I couldn’t find somewhere to park safely and likewise in Tallaght village, the road layout didn’t facilitate this. I may survey this section by bike or bus.

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Greenways IH News 2021

Greenways in Ireland

Euronews have an article about greenways in Ireland. One of the routes mentioned is the Great Western Greenway in Mayo and how the landowners generally allowed permissive access to the land at no charge.

What is not mentioned is that this is not a long term, sustainable solution as such permission can be revoked (as has happened on occasions) if an issue arises – even if this is nothing to do with the greenway.

It also establishes a bad principle which is that individuals should give access to their property for free, in order to allow others to profit from the provision of services to those who turn up to use it. Just as the principle that the polluter pays is now accepted, the principle that those who benefit from a public good should pay for it, needs to become established.