Category: IH News 2021

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.

The BBC have an article examining the possibility of using the heat of groundwater in abandoned coalmines to heat homes/businesses. This looks at both the possibilities and the potential drawbacks.

I have seen videos on YouTube of systems in Europe involving a motorised chair on a single rail, which takes its user around a closed loop system at speed, as a form of entertainment.

I have never been on one, but with such a system now appearing on the island of Ireland (outside Belfast per the Irish Independent), I might get a chance.

WI have launched their online, digital archive, containing many historical documents from their archive collection.

The site can be accessed here.

What looks like a good news story at first, turns out to be a bit of a damp squib.

Irish Distillers makes its pre-1937 employee records available to search online – so far so good. However, to do this, they have gotten into bed with Ancestry.com who have carried out the digitisation and as such, expect a return on their investment.

Access to the resource is available for free in July 2021, but will be commercialised after that.

The BBC has an article about the use of railway sleepers made from discarded household plastic waste, this being a novel use of such material.

In an era when we are told that we have to be green, Dublin Port decides to do its bit and stop railfreight services from Ballina into the port, using the excuse of ‘the bad man (Brexit) made me do it’.

It is quite clear that the “Green” Minister for Transport is nothing more than a damp squib and should go back to organising cycling holidays.

If there was the straw that broke the camel’s back that showed that Dublin Port’s days need to be numbered (build a new, rail served port in North Dublin and give statutory redundancy to Dublin Port employees), it is this.

Famous as one of 5 counties in Ireland with no operational public railway, a funicular railway has been proposed for Fort Dunree in Co. Donegal.

Whilst unlikely to actually materialise, it would be the third railway in the county, after the line at Fintown and Sir Gerry Robinson’s railway.

I received a letter from my friends in Irish Rail today – well, technically they weren’t writing specifically to me – it was a generic brochure addressed to the house, advertising the commencement of the first public consultation process in connection with extending the DART to Hazelhatch and Celbridge.

As the DART is planned to pass south of Ballyfermot with no station provided, it is as useful to the people of Ballyfermot (and me) as tits on a bull.

Separately, aware of the consultation process starting, I visited Irish Rail’s website yesterday and downloaded all the documents in connection with DART South West thereon – some light reading for the weekend!