A WELL-KNOWN TRAIN train station in Galway is at risk of collapsing if urgent renovations are not made, according to conservation experts.
A crowdfunding campaign was launched to raise €30,000 which is required to restore the roof on the Ballyglunin Train Station, which opened for the first time in 1860.
The station is famous for its leading role in the John Ford classic The Quiet Man, starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara.
The station was re-named Castletown by Ford and was the location for the first opening scene and numerous other scenes throughout the Oscar-winning classic.
The roof of the station began to fall in about a year and a half ago. A charity established by the local community back in 2012, with an aim of preserving the station, has been told by conservation architects that the station will collapse if immediate restoration works are not completed.
In light of this news, the international crowdfunding campaign was launched by the charity with an aim to raise enough funds to restore the roof of station to protect the building. This will allow the charity to progress on to make further renovations to the station.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, the charity’s public relation officer Paschal Cassidy, said: “If we don’t fix it this year, there’ll be nothing left and the whole project will fall apart. It’s just been local voluntary groups and ourselves trying to keep it together but it’s got to the stage where if it goes that’ll be it. It’ll be very hard to come back from that.”
Cassidy has a very personal connection to the station, as he got married in the building last September. It was the first wedding to ever take place at the station.
Since it was announced that the charity was looking for funding, support has come in from around the world, something that Cassidy didn’t expect.
“The reaction we’ve gotten, mainly from the States, from the likes of The Quiet Man fans and the Irish-American community, has just been amazing,” he said.
You get caught up in your little cocoon here and forget that there’s a bigger world outside that might be interested in what’s going on.
“It was a pleasant surprise when we started getting emails of support and a couple of people have donated already before we got the project off the ground.”
The station was opened for the first time in November 1860 as a station for passenger traffic. According to Cassidy, it first opened as a private station for the nearby Brooklodge House estate.
From there, it opened for goods traffic until 1975. Nothing has passed through it since then.
To this day, the Ballyglunin Train Station has been visited by thousands of fans.
Leo Moran, the guitarist with the Saw Doctors, who is helping out with the campaign, said: ”We need everyone’s help to save this iconic building so that future generations can enjoy and understand our past.”
“The Ballyglunin Community Development Charity has huge plans to develop this amazing location however, if nothing is done, we’ll be saying goodbye to an important slice of Irish history,” Moran said.
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