A TRAIN connection with a difference in West Cork during National Heritage Week has brought the grandsons of former stationmasters together.
Vincent Tierney and David Fogarty found a shared past through a timeline tracing the village’s rail history called ‘Making the Connection’. This was unveiled in the village during Heritage Week and traced the Ballinascarthy Railway Timeline from 1886 to 1961 with a theme of this year’s themes of ‘connections, routes, and networks’.
Vincent and David met up at the unveiling ceremony and found themselves looking at the same photograph on the timeline, which captured the stationmasters of Ballinascarthy Junction. The pair vaguely knew each other previously from going to the same school in Mallow and studying at the same time in UCC but their shared history through the railways was a complete surprise.
Their grandfathers were stationmasters in Ballinascarthy with Vincent’s grandad Gene Tierney working there from 1954 to 1957 while David’s grandad Claude Fogarty worked there from 1957 to 1961.
To further link Eugene and James, their fathers were both born in Clonakilty Hospital while the families were stationed at Ballinascarthy Junction.
The railway timeline occupies a place in the Ballinascarthy village heritage hub, near the Model T sculpture, and is a popular attraction with locals and visitors alike. A booklet tracing the railway history of Ballinascarthy is available in The Village Store.
