Clodagh Finn: Keeping track of our unheralded railway gatekeepers

Just eight of the 44 attended level-crossings are operated by people who still live at the crossing. Soon, there will be none

Betty Houlihan will be sad to see the gatekeepers go, but she appreciates it is no longer workable.

Betty Houlihan’s retirement, in 2020, passed under the radar because of the covid-19 pandemic and its attendant lockdowns, but it’s not too late to pay tribute to one of the last railway gatekeepers on Irish Rail’s network.

Betty operated the level-crossing at Fantstown, Bulgaden in Co Limerick, for more than 30 years, a job her mother, Mary Raleigh, did before her. They kept trains running for decades at a busy crossing on the main Dublin-to-Cork line.