


















|
Kiltimagh
Museum
The Railway
Station
Kiltimagh, County Mayo,
Ireland
Because
it was the last link with home for so many of our relative
who were forced to emigrate in search of work, the Railway
Station always had a special place in our affections. In the
40s and 50s all the necessities of life were transported by
train - sugar, flour, spirits, newspapers - even films for
the local cinema - while out goings included cattle, sheep,
pigs, beet and eggs.
That was also the era when McAlpine's Fusiliers filled
the pubs of the town on Fair days, recruiting men for
the building industry in England. As work was scarce
here, people were only too glad to have job
prospects. The result was that on Friday mornings, the
platform of the station was thronged with anxious men on
their way to a new life and the heartbroken, disrupted
families they were leaving behind.
The
last passenger train passed through the Station in 1963, and
the last goods train in 1979. The loss of the
station was a huge blow to the morale of the town and
our hopes for its expansion. With no prospects for work
here, we were back in the old, unending cycle of emigration
and depression, which because of the world wide recession
meant there were no longer any havens for willing
workers.
However, in the 1980s, we set out to transform the
social and economic life of the town with the formation of
IRD. The derelict station epitomised all that we wanted to
change and so we set to work on transforming the Goods
Store into a Museum. Two carriages were bought to
commemorate the many emigrants of the past
and our optimism about our future was reflected in the
carnival atmosphere that accompanied the breath of life once
more into the Station as the carriages were delivered.
The
former Stationmaster's house is now an Exhibition Centre,
with regular art exhibitions, while the once derelict park
is now an amenity area, featuring work of leading Irish
artists and local people.
And so our Museum is a community enterprise which
reflects the power, confidence and maturity of a community
to shake off the shackles of depression and look forward
with confidence to the future.
|