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Journey back in time
by Hugh Dougherty
There’s an air of excitement among the passengers on the platform at Fintown Station in the heart of the Donegal Highlands, as the red-and-cream, narrow-gauge train clanks into view.
For some of those waiting expectantly, it will be a trip down memory lane, while, for others, a ride on the Co. Donegal Railways will be a completely new experience.
Many years back the Donegal Gaeltacht saw emigrants standing on railway platforms saying sad farewells to loved ones as they sped off to catch the boat to Glasgow or the liner for America.
But train journeys from this station have now been revived, and are being repeated every weekend during the summer.
Those who have made their way up the wild and beautiful Finn Valley to Cumman Traenach na Gaeltacht Lair (the Fintown Train Society’s headquarters at Fintown) have found a train trip without equal in Ireland.
The single track was laid on the original railway track bed built in 1895 to connect Glenties with Stranorlar and the outside world. It runs for three miles alongside beautiful Lough Finn, where according to tradition, the legendary giant, Finn McCoul, lies buried at the foot of Aghla Mountain. If Cumman Traenach na Gaeltacht Lair have their way, it will be possible to go all the way by train, through Shallogans, and right into Glenties itself.
Oliver McDevitt, chair of the Fintown Railway said: “This is a journey worth making and it’s just the start of what we’re planning here, with a longer railway and a heritage centre here at Fintown.
“Not only that, but the genuine Co. Donegal Railways railcar we’re running this summer belongs to rail enthusiasts in Derry, and thanks to some first-class cross-border co-operation, they’ve lent it to us and trained our volunteer drivers.”
The railcar, built in 1940, ran all over the Co. Donegal Railways lines until they closed for good in 1959. The North West of Ireland Railway Society have saved it from the scrap heap and returned the train to first-class condition.
Co. Donegal railcars were buses that had got on the railway track. They stopped anywhere to pick-up or set-down passengers, and they were part and parcel of rural life for many along the line side.
For me, the scenic trip alongside Lough Finn brought back memories of boyhood journeys on railcars from Ballyshannon to Rossnowlagh when on holiday. The smell of diesel, the roar of the engine, and the clash of the gears re-opened long-buried memories of Donegal from over 40 years ago.
Volunteer driver, Clare McElwee, Ireland’s only female Donegal railcar driver, is a teacher in Leterkenny’s all-Irish school. She said: “We’re delighted to be able to run this railcar for tourists. The aim is to create jobs locally, centred round the railway. It’s a very scenic journey and there’s plenty of history surrounding the railway too. Being in the heart of the Gaeltacht, there’s the Irish language dimension as well.”
Fintown Station and this stretch of line have seen plenty of history, with immigrants by the thousands catching the train for the new world. Many folk walked down from The Rosses, via Doochary, to take the train to a new life.
It was from this platform that the annual exodus of “tattie howkers” — the seasonal potato harvesters who travelled to the west of Scotland started. Patrick MacGill, the areas own “Navvy Poet”, and author of the novel about Irish labouring conditions in Scotland in the 1920s, also used the line on his way to and from his native Glenties.
“There was also a lot of activity round here during the Civil War,” added Oliver McDevitt, “for an entire train was derailed by the old IRA just along the line, and sent plunging into the lough in 1922.”
Oliver points out the exact spot to me as we rollick past in the railcar, but, nowadays, there’s nothing but peace and tranquillity on the railway. This is Donegal’s only working line running by Lough Finn, and it’s not in any hurry at all.
The views from the railcar windows are stunning, and you catch the flavour of what travel to the remoter parts of Donegal must have been like in the days before the motor car — when a narrow band of steel rails linked this scenically-stunning part of the Donegal Gaeltacht to the world beyond.
Make sure to join those passengers on Fintown station platform this summer. My next ticket is booked already.
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