Galway to Clifden Railway

MGWR poster c. 1900

Under Arthur Balfour, the Light Railway Act (Ireland) from 1889 onwards enabled state financial support for railway projects with little prospect of profit and thus the development of the sparsely populated Irish west on a larger scale.[4] For the MGWR this meant the realization of two projects. In addition to the railway to Clifden, this also made it possible to build the route from Westport to Achill Sound in County Mayo,[6] and both routes were subsequently marketed jointly for tourism.[7]

After the decision to build the railway, the route had not yet been finalized. The majority of the population, around 60,000 people, lived along the coast and since there was an urgent need to open up better markets for local fisheries, a coastal route was preferred from Oughterard.[8] For reasons that are not considered to be fully clarified today, however, a route further inland was chosen.[8] The most likely assumption is that the owner of Ballynahinch Castle made a large amount of land available free of charge for the construction of the railway and thus significantly influenced the decision.[8] This variant was shorter, but led through a noticeably less populated area, and because of the swampy subsoil, a more massive substructure had to be built in some sections.[7]

The government approved an amount of £ 246,000 for the Connemara route.[9] Since the construction of the railway was also an emergency measure, every job seeker should be accepted and the first preparatory work began in the winter of 1890/91.[10] Strikes broke out in Clifden for the first time in March 1891.[10] Charles Braddock's contracted construction company accepted all job seekers as requested, but turned out to be a defaulting payer.[11] The further away from Galway, the more irregularly the workers were paid their wages so that further strikes followed.[11] In July 1892, the railway company withdrew the project from Braddock and handed it over to TH Faulkner, under whom the work was now reliably, but no longer as planned in 1893, due to the previous strikes.[11] The further away from Galway, the more irregularly the workers were paid their wages so that further strikes followed.[12] In November 1893, 1,500 workers were employed, not without social tensions with the population, which were often caused by the illegal serving of alcohol on the construction sites.[12]

The first section from Galway to Oughterard opened on 1 January 1895. Apart from Joseph Tatlow, General Manager of the MGWR, and guests of honour, there was hardly any audience, since New Year's Day was a strict church holiday and was reserved for attending church services. On 1 July 1895, the remainder of the line to Clifden was put into operation,[13] though the stations at Maam Cross and Ballynahinch where not felt sufficiently completed to be initially opened to the public.[14]

Due to the distance from the coast, the freight traffic did not take on the originally desired extent but brought the developed region the hoped-for reliable connection to the provincial capital Galway and more distant sales markets. This development prompted the railway company to rely heavily on tourist passenger transport. At the end of the 19th century, the wild and romantic loneliness of Connemara was already enjoying a certain popularity as a summer destination with the aristocracy and the upper classes. Starting in 1903, the Midland Great Western Railway ran direct express trains with dining cars from Dublin to Clifden during the summer season, and an upscale hotel was built at Recess station. Motorized cabs developed as a forerunner of later bus routes the line from Clifden to Westport and established a connection with the other branch line of the railway company. Celebrities and members of the aristocracy who owned summer houses in Connemara or came on fishing holidays aroused the interest of the general public in the region as a travel destination.

The First World War, the Irish War of Independence, and the resulting Irish Civil War cut the tourism business. During the civil war, the railway line was badly damaged in several places, which resulted in a shutdown of seven months.[7]

When this dispute was over, the already increased competition from road traffic made the railways very difficult.[15] In 1925, the railways in the Irish Free State (the predecessor of today's Irish Republic) were merged under the name Great Southern Railways.[15] The already poor condition of the tracks made a thorough renovation necessary from the 1930s.[15] The modest income of the Connemara line caused the Great Southern Railway to cease operations. On the afternoon of 27 April 1935, the last train left Clifden station; on this journey, all of the wagons that were still in the stations were added to this.[15] The tracks and the steel bridge over the River Corrib were subsequently removed and sold to a German scrap metal company for a mere £10.[7] As a replacement for the railway, the road connection between Galway and Clifden (now the national road N59) was paved and a bus route was set up.[15]

As of July 2020 work at Maam Cross was in progress to set up a heritage railway, to be named the Connemara Railway.[20] The Covid pandemic delayed this plan.[21]

• Baker, Michael H. C. (1972). Irish Railways since 1916. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 0711002827. OCLC 248259641.
• Beaumont, Jonathan (18 September 2021). Rails through Connemara: the Galway-Clifden railway. Locomotion papers. Oakwood Press. ISBN 9780853617594. OCLC 1263340905.
• Casserley, H. C. (1974). Outline of Irish Railway History. Newton Abbot & North Pomfret: David & Charles. ISBN 0715363778. OCLC 249227042.
• Clifden Station House Courtyard (2010). "The Station House Theatre". Archived from the original on 26 September 2011. Retrieved 22 May 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
• Galway Express (4 April 1885). "Clifden Railway". Retrieved 22 May 2010.
• Murphy, Glen (25 July 2020). "Railway revival: Steam trains set to return to Connemara almost a century on". Irish Times. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
• O'Cuiv, Eamon (20 July 2020). Molscéal 'The Quiet Man' Railway station. Connemara Railway. Retrieved 22 May 2021 – via YouTube.
• Rasche, H. (1999). "Irische Eisenbahnen" [Irish Railways — Chapter 1: The Midland Great Western Railway: Galway - Clifden]. Irish-net (in German). 1. Kapitel: Die Midland Great Western Railway: Galway–Clifden. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
• Rowledge, J. W. P. (1995). A regional history of railways. Vol. 16–Ireland. Penryn: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 0-906899-63-X. OCLC 164930974.
• Shepherd, W. Ernest (1994). The Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland: An Illustrated History. Leicester: Midland Publishing. ISBN 1-85780-008-7. OCLC 60006991.
• Villiers-Tuthill, Kathleen (1995). "The Connemara Railway 1895-1935". History Ireland. Vol. 4, no. 3. Archived from the original on 27 August 2010. Retrieved 21 May 2021.