Investment for West Cork Model Railway

THE PRESIDENT of the GAA told hundreds of locals gathered for the opening of an interpretive centre at the West Cork Model Railway Village that “we must all play our part in the stimulus of the country”.

Up to 40,000 people visit the Clonakilty attraction each year and Christy Cooney described the €25-€30,000 investment in the centre as “an example of the type of local stimulus that will get us back as a country to where we once were”.

“Visitors will repay you in double, triple and quadruple in the years ahead. Sometimes we forget our history but here today is a community who are remembering theirs, remembering the closure of the West Cork Railway by investing in this great historical project,” he said.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the closure of the West Cork Railway.

“Community should be about a sense of pride and the sense of pride that you feel about your collective history. We should never forget our pride in our town,” he said.

The new interpretive centre houses an audio-visual display unit and story boards reflecting the times and lives of those who worked and travelled on the West Cork Railway. It includes local memories and stories about the railway which were gathered after a call was put out to the community earlier this year. The Clonakilty Enterprise Board were helped in their task by Drs Oonagh Walsh and Larry Geary from UCC’s Department of History.

Among those celebrating the official launch on Saturday were the Dolan family from Clonakilty who travelled on the last passenger train that journeyed from West Cork to Cork city in 1961. A photograph of the then children, Mary, Clare and Maeve and their brothers, Micheál, Ciaran and Joe is included on the storyboard at the centre and the family attended yesterday’s opening to celebrate the big day.

Chairwoman of the West Cork Model Village Committee Nora Walsh has said: “The closure of the railway was a black day in the history of West Cork, but as we commemorate the event today we sincerely hope it will be a bright day in the history of the model village. We will be presenting the entire history of railway and its effect on the social and economic life of West Cork from Kinsale to Bandon, to Beara and the Mizen.”

Up to 37,000 West Cork locals signed a petition at the time of the planned closure objecting to the Government decision. They brought their campaign all the way to the High Court where the decision was eventually upheld.

The West Cork Model Village depicts life in 1940s and 1950s West Cork with the handmade towns connected by G-scale railways. It includes an all-weather playground and the famous choo-choo road train which runs around the town.

Financial and practical support for the venture came from West Cork Development Partnership, Clonakilty Town Council, Cork Town Council, Fáilte Ireland and Pobal Community Service Programme.