All Aboard: remembering the Clifden railway, 1895-1935

    

 1 July marked the 130th anniversary of a train running from Galway all the way to Clifden. The line was 48 miles long and served seven stations along the way. Its construction was funded by the British administration in Ireland, championed by the Chief Secretary of the day, Arthur Balfour. When he visited Galway and Connemara in 1896, he was presented with an album of photographs of the area taken by the Belfast photographer, Robert J. Welch. Since 1987, this album has been part of the Library's Special Collections when it was acquired from the Balfour family. It now forms part of our Digital Archive.  Sadly, the railway was often in financial difficulties and finally closed just 40 years later, in April 1935. 

The Library's Special Collections is home to maps, railway history items and a selection of tourist guides which incorporate using the “new” railway to see Connemara's sights. Also included is Oughterard photographer, Lorraine Tuck's 2015 book, The Whistle Blowing, a photo-documentary of the line as it existed then.  Our archival collections include an 1880s planning document, part of archival collection BUS2, which details initial plans for a railway to Clifden, ten years prior to its construction and with a different route! Wonderful images are also available in the publictions of the Irish Railway Record society, a full collection of whose journal was donated to us by Ernie Shepherd in 2022. 

The Bridge images, from the Balfour Album, show the metal bridge which carried the railway across the Corrib at Woodquay. Galway City Council currently has plans to build a footbridge using the stone uprights which carried the railway bridge. You can see more about this at Clifden Railway Pedestrian & Cycle Bridge.