Category: Locations

St. Judes Spire, Inchicore

Post author By ewan.duffy
Post date 28th April 2022

St. Judes Anglican Church in Inchicore, Dublin, was built between 1862 and 1864, primarily for the use of railway workers employed at the nearby Inchicore railway works.

The main building was dismantled and relocated to Straffan many decades ago, where it now acts as the Steam Museum, thanks to the actions of Robert Guinness.* I understand that Robert would have taken the spire as well, but local objections led to this being left, with dreams of some sort of taxpayer funded community centre being built around it.

The latter never happened and the spire and adjacent ground is now up for sale. The Spire is a protected structure and therefore, any planning permission granted for development would need to factor this in.

* Declaration of interest – I know Robert Guinness personally.

Tags Church of Ireland, Inchicore, St Judes

IH News 2022 Locations

Connolly Station locomotive shed

Post author By ewan.duffy
Post date 26th April 2022

The locomotive shed at Connolly Station in Dublin is closed and out of use – ceasing to be used as a locomotive shed on 31st December 2010. The photo below shows the shed in 1992 – Irish Rail had been in existence for 5 years at this stage, but the CIE logo is still in situ.

Passing by the shed today on board a train departing from Platform 2, Connolly Station, I noticed what looked like an historic coat of arms in the space where the CIE logo is in the photo above. Not having had a good look at it, I am wondering is it the GNR(I) coat of arms?

Another possibility is that the shed is being used as a film location and another railway company coat of arms was placed therein for that.

Locations

RTE 100 buildings – The Rank Silo, Limerick

Post author By ewan.duffy
Post date 23rd April 2022

The RTE online series of webpages covering 100 buildings in Ireland continues to feature some IH related structures.

The latest such structure is the Rank Mills silo in Limerick.

History Locations

Inny Junction

Post author By ewan.duffy
Post date 20th April 2022

Located on the Dublin – Sligo railway line between Multyfarnham and Edgeworthstown, Inny Junction was a passenger transfer point only – i.e. you couldn’t buy a ticket to Inny Junction – to allow for transfer to the Cavan branch of the MGWR. Opened in 1856, it closed in 1931, when the transfer point moved to Mullingar.

Below is the Googlemaps aerial view for the junction:

The junction point can be seen below mid centre in the image. However, what is interesting is the double line of trees just above this, now with a roadway immediately to the north. Such a feature is usually a dead give away of a former railway – however, clearly this is not the route of the railway.

Looking at the 25″ ordnance survey map online (not possible to embed), I note that the field boundaries are marked separately for the areas occupied by this feature, which would suggest a formal separation of this land area and not an accidental development.

Was the track at Inny Junction re-routed and if so, why?

Locations

The Shakey Bridge

Post author By ewan.duffy
Post date 18th April 2022

Officially known as Daly’s Bridge, the “Shakey Bridge” is located over the River Lee in Cork and the indefatigable YouTuber Tom Scott has published a short video about the bridge.

IH News 2022 Locations

Mayfield House, Portlaw

Post author By ewan.duffy
Post date 6th April 2022

Portlaw, Co. Waterford, was an industrial town, built by the Malcomson family, local industrialists who developed a cotton mill in the town and were also active in other businesses including shipping and local railways.

Mayfield House was built for the family and later became the offices for Irish Tanners, who had operations in the town and elsewhere (co-incidentally, the father of an uncle by marriage of mine was a senior manager in the company).

The building has been empty since 1994 and has fallen into dereliction. The Irish Examiner reports that it has just been sold at auction for €300,000, with plans to restore it to use as a luxury hotel.

Locations

Game of Thrones

Post author By ewan.duffy
Post date 1st April 2022

I can honestly state that I have not watched any of this series, but am aware that sections of the series were filmed in Northern Ireland.

Whilst geo-referencing railway stations for my gazetteer, I noticed that Gracehill Station on the Ballymoney to Ballycastle railway is immediately adjacent to the Dark Hedges of Game of Thrones fame.

Locations

Titanic Hotel, Belfast

Post author By ewan.duffy
Post date 16th March 2022

I took my first holiday in over 2 years over the weekend with a 4 day trip to Northern Ireland. Starting in Derry, I ended up in Belfast where I spent my final 2 nights in the Titanic Hotel. The Titanic Hotel is built in the former Harland and Wolff office building and the upmarket status it claims is deserved.

In 2007, the IHAI went on a fieldtrip to Belfast and tour participants were privileged to be given access to the site where the Titanic Museum is now, as well as the semi derelict H&W offices. It was nice to be able to see the final product of the latter’s restoration and I wish this venture every success.

Locations

Portrush Station building

Post author By ewan.duffy
Post date 13th March 2022

The original station building in Portrush, Co. Antrim, is an impressive structure dating from 1892. No longer in railway use (a status it lost in 1974), it has seen various non railway uses since, including as an amusement arcade and a pub/nightclub.

I was in Portrush today and noticed that the building is now occupied by a factory store. I took the opportunity to get inside the building, something I had never had the chance to do previously.

Locations

Cáca Milis

Post author By ewan.duffy
Post date 7th March 2022

Cáca Milis is an Irish language short film which, I have been reliably informed, was imposed onto Irish teenagers as part of the Leaving Cert Irish syllabus sometime after its production.*

It is available on Youtube – the plotline is quite disturbing and can be read here.

The relevance to this website is that almost the entire film takes place on a train in Ireland. Whilst searching online for this film, I found a website – the British Railway Movie Database – which notes movies which feature British and Irish railway stations.

Their page for Cáca Milis included some screenshots of the stations featured, but noted that they did not have information as to where the stations were.

I was able to identify the unidentified locations and this information has now been updated by the site owner, with acknowledgement of my contribution.

* I am sorry to have to show my age by noting that I did my Leaving Cert before this film was produced and therefore missed having it imposed onto me.