Broken Rails: Crashes and Sabotage on Irish Railways.
Author: MAC AONGUSA, Brian.
Dublin: Currach Press, 2005. 254 pages. Illustrated. Hardback.
Railway accidents have had a strange fascination for many people tor generations. No matter how slight the damage caused or how few casualties are involved, the very fact that a train leaves the railway tracks and ploughs ahead uncontrolled by any guiding rails, fills the imagination with awe and wonder. Sensational headlines appear and people want to know what awful consequences followed, how much worse the accident could have been and, more importantly, why it happened in the first place. Frequently human frailty is the cause but, as revealed in this book, there are often less obvious reasons. Fatigue, intrigue, overwork, carelessness, stubborn animals, the elements, or even the longings of the heart have caused accidents on the railways of Ireland.
The selection of crashes and mishaps featured in this book provides a unique insight not only to railway working in Ireland over the past century-and-a-half, but also to the fortitude and ingenuity of Irish people when confronted with unexpected difficulties. The accidents described in this book include the great railway tragedies that happened at Armagh, Camp, Cahir and Buttevant, as well as politically-inspired mishaps of the Civil War period and of more recent times in South Armagh and County Louth including the episode that became known as The Sallins Mail Train Robbery. `Acts of God’ such as the Owencarrow Viaduct disaster in Donegal are included with other lesser-known incidents caused by wind, snow, goats, a steam-roller or a love tryst. All have one common feature in that the trains involved came to a sudden and unexpected stop and this led to stories that make for interesting, and often fascinating, reading.
CONTENTS:-
BUIOCHAS
PREFACE
PART ONE: ACCIDENTS TO 1900
The Elopement at Annaghmore
The Brandy Hole Accident
Ballymacarrett Accident Cover-Up
Drink Culture and the Railways
The Athboy Accident
The Armagh Disaster
Derry Tragedy
The Camp Disaster
Storms in West Clare
The Harcourt Street Accident
The Goat at Castlerea
Track Inspection Cycles
PART TWO: CIVIL WAR SABOTAGE
Introduction
The Destruction of Mallow Viaduct
Waiting for an Ambush
War in County Wexford
The Campaign in Killurin
Keeping the Locals Friendly
Single-Handed Coup
Wrecking Trains at Macmine
The Scarawalsh Ambush
Staged Collision at Palace East
Adventure on Ballyanne Bank
Steaming on the County Road
Dan Doyle’s Revenge
Trouble on the Tuam Line
Into the Sea at Sligo
Smash-Up at Streamstown
Sabotage in Kilkenny
The Great Flour Robbery
Toppled into The Abyss
Outrage in Ardfert
PART THREE: TWENTIETH CENTURY ACCIDENTS
The Owencarrow Disaster
The Steamroller Collision
The Clogher Valley Railway
The Train That Ran Out of Steam
The Gortavoy Accident
Snowbound in North Antrim
By Train to Tramore
The Mayor’s Outing
The Cahir Viaduct Disaster
The Clogh Bridge Accident
Distress in Dalkey
The Buttevant Disaster
‘We’re Out of Fuel’
PART FOUR: BOMBINGS, ROBBERIES & A DERAILMENT
Sabotage at Meigh
Robbery at Dundalk
The Runaway to Portadown
Scare at Scarva
Gunfire at Wicklow
The Sallins Mail Train Robbery
Huge Explosion
Driverless to Goraghwood
The Spectacular Dunleer Robbery
Downhill Derailment
EPILOGUE
The Big Scare of Knockcroghery
APPENDICES
Recovering No 18 from the River Slaney
Letter to D&SER in praise of Inspector Michael Forde
Railroad Protection Corps Armoured Trains 1922-23
Significant Irish Railway Accidents since 1853
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX OF INCIDENTS
ISBN: 1856079252