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Kilkee |
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Kilkee |
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| West Clare Railway |
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"Kilkee, oh you never get near it, You're in luck if the train brings you back; For the permanent way is so queer it, Spends most of its time off the track". |
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Kilkee was, until January, 1961, the last stop on the West Clare Railway, a narrow-guage line (tracks 3 feet apart) which, for 70 years, ran from Ennis to Kilrush and Kilkee, skirting the Atlantic coast of Clare for much of its journey. Contrary to popular opinion, it provided normally reliable passenger and freight services between Ennis and Kilkee. Until the 1890's the only way of reaching Kilkee was by horse and carriage, or steamboat to Kilrush, followe by a uncomfortable journey by cart over a bumpy road to Kilkee. In 1885, the first sod of the West Clare Railway line was cut at Ennis by Charles Stewart Parnell. Two years later, the line, which ended at Miltown Malbay, was oficially opened. The folowing year, 1888, William Martin Murphy, chairman of the West Clare Railway Company, invited Beverly griffin an English Engineer, to construct 'an extension of the West Clare line from Miltown to kilrush and Kilkee'. The extension, called the South Clare Railway, was opened to goods traffic in August, 1892, and to passengers on december 23rd the same year. The West Clare Railway played a most important part in the commercial life of the area, and particlarly in the growth of Kilkee as a holiday resort, providing a comparatively fast and direct means of travel to its increasing number of patrons. On week days during the summer there were, generally, four or five trains in each direction, and three, off-season. There was one Sunday service in each direction, with extra services for excursions. Some of these Sunday 'specials' brought 400 day-trippers to Kilkee. The "West Clare" achieved some notoriety in 1898 when Percy French, the well entertainer and song writer, sued the directors of the Railway Company for 'loss of earnings' when his troupe of entertainers was late for a performance in Moore's Hall, Kilkee. The artists had travelled by train. French was awarded £10 expenses. The Railway Company appealed but the award stood. The incident led Percy French to write the song 'Are you right there Michael?', which became one of the most popular numbes in his repertoire, and is now one of the few mementoes of the West Clare Railway, which was closed in the interests of 'rationalisation' on January 31th,1961. |
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