industrialheritageireland.info

Another entry in the RTE Home of the Year with an IH connection (one of the railway stations on the Shillelagh Branch in Co. Wicklow featured a few years ago).

This time, it is a former mill in Co. Down which has been converted to a private residence.

Whilst I understand the privacy concerns of the producers/entrants, I’d have thought that the whole point of converting an historic building is that you let it be known where it is (something more specific than “Co. Down”).

The same applied to the railway station entry referenced above, however, as all railway stations known to have existed are well documented, I was able to identify which station it was. This is less so in the case of mill buildings.

For those with deep pockets, a ruined lighthouse on Inis Mór, one of the Aran Islands in Galway, is up for sale with an asking price of €500,000!

I’m not sure what the Aran Islands have going for it that justifies such a price tag – even being first in line for government pork due to speaking a dead language doesn’t justify this.

Just a quick post to link to the Slugger O’Toole blog, which carries a guest post from Northern Irish railway enthusiast Andy Boal, debunking the possibility of a railway tunnel from Scotland to NI.

In the first decade of this millennium, I was involved in the Boyne Navigation branch of the IWAI – taking an active part in restoration work parties on the 1st section of the Boyne Navigation – from the Sea Lock to Oldbridge.

For various reasons connected with the IWAI and not the Boyne Navigation branch, I let my membership of the IWAI lapse.

I note with interest that Meath County Council are proposing to establish a “Boyne Navigation” greenway and have proposed including the restoration of the navigation as part of this.

I wish the Boyne Navigation Branch of the IWAI well for its future in light of this.

In January, I noted the end of peat harvesting in Ireland.

What is the official solution to the needs of the horticulture industry going forward? Nothing but a word salad of deferral and delay in the hope that the problem disappears off the radar.

From the article in the Irish Independent linked to above:

“With boatloads of peat imports now arriving in Ireland – the first shipment from Scotland arrived this week – representatives said they will be forced to rely on peat alternatives from the Baltic States, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the UK over the coming months as there is no viable peat alternative in Ireland.”

So, in order to reduce Ireland’s carbon footprint, we stop the harvesting of a product in Ireland, in order to import the same product from elsewhere in the world, thereby increasing the global carbon footprint due to transport of the material to Ireland.

The English used to say (and be castigated for it) that the Irish were stupid. I think they had a point.

The Connaught Telegraph is reporting that a second series of the successful RTE programme “Great Lighthouses of Ireland” has been commissioned and the producers are looking for those with a family connection to lighthouses in Ireland to come forward with their stories.

The producers can be contacted at david@inproduction.tv.

In addition to the Boris bikes and the London cable car (but not the Garden Bridge, which was cancelled), the failed Prime Minister of the UK is edging closer to his Caligula moment with the proposals for a road/rail tunnel from Scotland to Northern Ireland.

It is rare that I find myself agreeing with Tory MPs, but on this one, I have to agree with Simon Hoare MP, who has suggested that trains in the tunnel could be hauled by unicorns and “overseen by stern, officious dodos”.

He continued “A PushMePullYou could be the senior guard and Puff the Magic Dragon the inspector.”

This is a link to a new website designed to provide information on the industrial heritage of the Coalisland/East Tyrone area.