Category: IH News 2022

The Anglo Celt reports that the contract to restore part of the Ulster Canal build an open air swimming pool in Clones, has been signed. We are back at the madness of the final days of the Celtic Tiger.

Located in Kildare, between the Leinster Aquaduct and Digby Bridge, the Four Pots are unique in Ireland.

Built as an overflow for the Grand Canal, the circular design is reputed to have been built to facilitate a gradual deceleration of water from the canal to an adjacent stream, rather than a fast flow, which would potentially undermine the canal embankment.

KildareNow are reporting that Waterways Ireland are seeking conservation experts to undertake repairs to the structure. I hope that WI’s budget will allow for ongoing vegetation clearance from the structure once restored as otherwise, it will degenerate back into an overgrown state, as has happened in the past.

HT to Liam O’Mahony for sending me details of this former railway station for sale in Limerick, located on the former North Kerry railway line. Devon Road was located between Newcastlewest and Abbeyfeale.

At €380k, I think the market has peaked.

Irish Rail are in the early stages of planning for DART South West and have, by all accounts, ruled out including a station in Ballyfermot, notwithstanding that such a thing would improve this area that is starting to gentrify.*

But don’t worry, in co-operation with Dublin City Council, they have permitted a plaque commemorating a civil war event to be placed on the bridge that, if the current plans come to pass, will need to be demolished to allow the DART, that won’t serve Ballyfermot, to be built.

* From 2018-2021, I lived in Ballyfermot (on the Kylemore Road about 750m from the Le Fanu Road bridge). Societal changes brought about by COVID saw me leave the area.

There is an ex SL&NCR crossing cottage for sale on Daft.ie – however, the absence of internal photos of any property on a property website is usually indicative of a property needing extensive internal work.

In addition, I expect a fall in property values in the next 12 months so even at an asking price of €65k, I’m not interested.

Separately, the potted history provided by the seller/agent appears to be lifted from the blurb about the previous sale of Glenfarne Station last year, which contained errors that I pointed out to the estate agent at the time.

Another concern I would have, based on the site boundary, it that most of your garden is the railway trackbed, which will potentially be subject to compulsory purchase order for a greenway, leaving you with no garden and possibly nowhere to install a septic tank. The sales blurb states the following:

“The cottage would benefit from some renovation and modernisation and is serviced by Water and electricity.”

Nothing about a septic tank, which I suspect is not present.

The BBC are reporting that a windmill in Saintfield, Co. Down, that was damaged in a storm over 200 years ago, is to be restored, along with the creation of a park. Per the BBC, the project “will also restore a section of the old Belfast and County Down railway line.”

I suspect the latter will be as a greenway, rather than as a railway.

Every so often, the MSM provides information you were unaware of and so it is with this story.

I was aware that there had been a siding for grain off the former Portlaoise to Kilkenny line, with the result that a section of the latter was retained/reinstated, however, I assumed that with Irish Rail having a tendency to remove redundant railway sections, rather than maintain them, that this was gone.

From the photo at the above link, this is clearly not so.

Glenanne Mill in Co. Armagh, long since derelict, has been transformed into a community garden by local residents.

The BBC have a video clip on their website about the site.

RTE reports that Irish Rail are proposing to apply for planning permission to build a passing loop and second platform at Oranmore station, to divide the otherwise single track section from Athenry to Galway.

The Government of Ireland website notes that recently opened parcels of salved documents from the 1922 Four Courts fire were discovered to relate to Dublin Port and the latter is now co-funding their restoration.

This is merely one arm of the State paying for work that should have been done decades ago by the State and leads onto the obvious question – how many other unopened parcels of similar 1922 fire survivors exist unrestored?