North visitors
go on a train
tour of Cooley

The Dundalk Railway Historical Society ran a very successful Tour of Cooley recently. A total of 62 patrons gathered at Dundalk railway station and about 20 members of the R.P.S.I. and the Portadown and Armagh Railway Society and 10 people from the Dublin and Drogheda arrived at Dundalk to join in the tour.

A double decker bus supplied by Bus Eireann, departed shortly after noon. There was a tour of some of the railway sights of interest around Dundalk including Barrack Street Goods Depot, Quay Street. Railway Station and the remains of the metal bridge.

The tour continued on the road to Greenore past Telford McNeill’s house. The first stop was for lunch at Fitzpatrick’s restaurant at Rockmarshal. A beautiful lunch was served by very courteous and friendly staff. The chairperson of D.R.H.S Mr Patsy Duffy then welcomed everybody to the event. He thanked the I.F.I and the R.D.C. for their sponsorship of the event. After lunch the tour continued towards Greenore.

Mr. Brian Larkin acted as tour guide and pointed out bridges, stations etc relating to the former Dundalk Newry and Greenore Railway. The bus then stopped at Greenore. The patrons visited the former Co-Op building on Euston Street which now houses a first class museum dedicated to the railway and port of Greenore. In the basement there is a working model of the former station of the D.N & G. railway at Quay Street and the Quay area of Dundalk. There is also a very fine coffee shop which is very well managed by Anne Larkin. After a very enjoyable time at the former Co-Op the party went on the bus to view the private agricultural museum owned by the O’ Hanlon family. The bus then conveyed the Northern Ireland contingent to the train at Newry and returned back to Dundalk by 6;30 pm. Everybody agreed that the tour was most enjoyable and are looking forward to the next event to be organised by D.R.H.S. which is a visit to the railway museum at Downpatrick in August.