Category: IH News 2021

The BBC has a video report on a project in Newmills, Co. Tyrone, involving the local community, including children, in conducting an archaeological dig at the site of a former mill.

I missed this one when it happened – on 25th July 2021, a fire in the kitchen of Hartley’s restaurant in Dun Laoghaire (located in the former Dublin and Kingstown Railway terminus) broke out, closing the restaurant that was due to reopen.

I hope that the building will be retained and restored.

One of the ongoing issues faced by Irish Rail is bridge strikes – primarily caused by overheight lorries hitting railway overbridges.

A substantial number of railway overbridges are height restricted, unlike modern day road over road bridges, hence it is not often that you hear of a bridge strike that is not railway related.

Today, we have such an event – a lorry carrying hay hit the new road overbridge on the Naas bypass carrying the Sallins Bypass over the N7.

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.

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:

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:

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.