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Ireland's Worst Heritage/Interpretative Centres
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12-05-2010 10:46pm#1I like to think myself as something of a connoisseur when it comes to Heritage/Interpretative Centres - I have been in enough of them over the years - and involved in some of them too. I think a poll is in order too but obviously it can only include the ones that I can think of at the outset.
Anyway to get the ball rolling this one would have to be right up there when it comes to being a major disappointment as a visitor experience.
1. The Corlea Trackway Visitor Centre, Kenagh, Co.Longford. Built due the intervention of the late C.J.Haughey, at enormous expense and has utterly failed to bring in the visitors. It opened in 1994 and despite the initial admission charge being dispensed with some years ago, in 2009 it attracted a staggering 5,000 visitors!!! See here: http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=SEN20091007.XML&Dail=30&Ex=All&Page=13
Those that reach it are lucky to escape with their sanity after the 17 minute guided tour of the planks - I know I was. Currently operated by the unfortunate OPW!
This is the main attraction!!
Ireland's Worst Heritage/Interpretative Centre 33 votes
The Corlea Trackway Visitor Centre - Co.Longford0% 0 votesThe West Cork Model Railway Village - Clonakilty12% 4 votesThe Tralee/Blennerville Steam Railway - Co.Kerry0% 0 votesThe Lismore Experience - Lismore, Co.Waterford3% 1 voteThe Queenstown Story, Cobh, Co.Cork3% 1 voteThe Cavan & Leitrim Railway, Dromod, Co.Leitrim3% 1 voteThe National 1798 Centre, Enniscorthy, Co.Wexford9% 3 votesThe National Transport Museum, Howth, Co.Dublin6% 2 votesThe Waterford & Suir Valley Railway, Co.Waterford9% 3 votesCliffs of Moher Visitors' Centre, Co.Clare0% 0 votesThe Guinness Hopstore, Dublin42% 14 votesThe Foyle Valley Railway Museum, Co.L'derry.12% 4 votesBrú Ború Centre, Cashel, Co.Tipperary0% 0 votes0
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Twenty two views but no votes - ah well!
Next up the Foyle Valley Railway Museum in Derry City. This award winning, EU funded museum which was opened in 1989 by Derry City Council in conjunction with the North West of Ireland Railway Society has lain dormant/semi-derelict since 2000. A seemingly irretrievable breakdown of relations between the NWIRS and Derry City Council since then has led to the 3.5 miles of railway and superb museum falling into a state of decay. Some exhibits have been removed by the NWIRS and one of the railcars now operates on the Finn Valley Railway near Fintown in Co.Donegal. http://www.antraen.com/
Derry City Council occasionally throw the Museum open for exhibitions but its long term future remains in doubt. Before the property collapse speculators were trying to get hold of the site for apartment development - only in Ireland - or should that be only in the Republic of Ireland? If Derry City Council let this museum die they will have qualified their county to join the Republic on the basis of that's how we do things down here. :mad:
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Explain, please?
The Corlea Trackway Centre was a politically inspired development and is now an embarrassment to the OPW but one which they are tasked with operating. In truth the few bits of timber which were dug up up at Corlea could have been put in a cabinet in the National Museum at virtually zero expense. 0 -
Judgement Day wrote: »The Corlea Trackway Centre was a politically inspired development and is now an embarrassment to the OPW but one which they are tasked with operating. In truth the few bits of timber which were dug up up at Corlea could have been put in a cabinet in the National Museum at virtually zero expense.
Unfortunately, planks in Ireland are always undeservedly given positions of prominence.0 -
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Actually, I have been to one of the other sites, the one in Cobh. I got there 5 mins before closing and they wouldn't let me in! It really made a lasting impression!
I know it's not on the list, but I went on a tour of Lissadell House, in Co. Sligo, a couple of years ago, and the tour guide was completely on auto-pilot, very disappointing.
BTW, I'm a seasonal OPW guide, (not at the home of the planks, I hasten to add!) which is why I was curious earlier. 0 -
The Tralee/Blennerville train barely gets up steam before it reaches its destination. If they ever managed to get the line extended by a few miles, it probably wouldn't be such a waste of time and money. The Orient Express, it isn't.
Which brings me on to number three on my list - The Tralee/Blennerville Steam Railway - and it's a close second to Corlea in terms of disappointment.
It's a long time since the Tralee/Blennerville train got up any steam at all, as the solitary locomotive has been dismantled and out of use since the middle of 2006 see here:http://blog.tralee.org/2009/03/23/the-tralee-and-dingle-light-railway-revisited/#more-132
Despite an inordinate amount of effort by FAS and large sums of public money the Blennerville Steam Train never amounted to much of a visitor experience anyway. Standard gauge platforms (complete with cobblelock); massive Spanish carriages (complete with domestic door handles!) that dwarfed the original T&D locomotive; no signalling; and poorly motivated FAS employees operating the train with little or no knowledge about the original railway. It all could should have been so different but the Council and local business interests knew best and the enthusiasts who had been there from the start were pushed out years ago. I have been predicting the demise of this project for more than ten years now but it just refuses to finally give up the ghost -it appears that you just can't get rid of a bad thing. 0 -
Judgement Day wrote: »Which brings me on to number three on my list - The Tralee/Blennerville Steam Railway - and it's a close second to Corlea in terms of disappointment.
It's a long time since the Tralee/Blennerville train got up any steam at all, as the solitary locomotive has been dismantled and out of use since the middle of 2006 see here:http://blog.tralee.org/2009/03/23/the-tralee-and-dingle-light-railway-revisited/#more-132
Despite an inordinate amount of effort by FAS and large sums of public money the Blennerville Steam Train never amounted to much of a visitor experience anyway. Standard gauge platforms (complete with cobblelock); massive Spanish carriages (complete with domestic door handles!) that dwarfed the original T&D locomotive; no signalling; and poorly motivated FAS employees operating the train with little or no knowledge about the original railway. It all could should have been so different but the Council and local business interests knew best and the enthusiasts who had been there from the start were pushed out years ago. I have been predicting the demise of this project for more than ten years now but it just refuses to finally give up the ghost -it appears that you just can't get rid of a bad thing.
I'm a regular visitor to Tralee, and I never noticed that it was out of action, which goes to show how noticeable it was when it was in action.
I know it never made a profit, and it was rumoured that Tralee Town Council increased the parking fees in the town in an attempt to mitigate the losses.
In Listowel, there's another rail project, this one being a re-construction of the Lartigue Railway, a monorail which connected Listowel to Ballybunion in the late 19th century. The new project doesn't go to Ballybunion, and instead travels round a big yard in Listowel. I've never been on it, don't know how much it is, and I'm not interested. I have to watch any criticism of Listowel, because some of the natives are on Boards, and they feel the need to give me a doing.
For all I know, the Listowel effort could be making money. :pac:0 -
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ejmaztec - I have no axe to grind with the Listowel & Ballybunion recreation although with internal combustion replica steam locomotives it wouldn't float my boat. At the very least it is operational, tidy and not a drain on the ratepayers. The original Tralee & Dingle Railway was a burden on the ratepayers for all of its independent life so at least in that respect the present operation is authentic.
http://www.lartiguemonorail.com/0 -
Judgement Day wrote: »ejmaztec - I have no axe to grind with the Listowel & Ballybunion recreation although with internal combustion replica steam locomotives it wouldn't float my boat. At the very least it is operational, tidy and not a drain on the ratepayers. The original Tralee & Dingle Railway was a burden on the ratepayers for all of its independent life so at least in that respect the present operation is authentic.
Tralee got first degree burns to the fingers on their rail project, and were practically cremated after throwing money at the Jeanie Johnson replica famine-ship project. They'll think twice before getting involved in anything similar again.:eek:0 -
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Today's contribution: The Queenstown Story, Cobh.
Quite apart from the financial shenanigans that have surrounded this project from Day 1, the Centre today itself bears little relationship to the grandiose proposal outlined when funding for the project was originally being sought. The pic below from the Irish Times tells more than I can in a few lines. The revamped railway station and carriage shed (now bizarrely incorporated into a space age garda station) was to be the main event, with steam trains running between Cobh and Cork from 1993 onwards. Over €2 million, that I know of, was received in EU structural funds for the project and the ubiquitous London firm of Robin Wade/Pat Read Design Partnership were commissioned to oversee the project. To my knowledge this same firm was also involved in the Jameson Distillery Visitor Centre at Midleton and the Clonakilty Model Railway at the same time - no doubt a nice little earner for all concerned.
Today the usual souvenir shop and tearoom take centre stage and there's hardly an original artefact to be seen - but sure isn't it good enough for the tourists. As usual all the enthusiasts involved in the planning stages were pushed out as soon as the EU funds were given the nod.
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johnny_doyle wrote: »I quite like visiting the 1798 Centre and Enniscorthy Castle when back in Ireland. The Yola centre outside Rosslare is a very poor excuse for an attraction.
I first visited the Enniscorthy Castle Museum in 1967/68 and on the occasion of my second visit, in 2001, I was amazed to find that little had changed - even the cobwebs seemed the same. Be that as it may the Castle Museum has been closed for three years now and seems unlikely to reopen anytime soon.
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Kildare Village has no mention of Silken Thomas
http://www.kildarevillage.com/en_GB/
Silken Thomas (Fitzgerald) great legs in a pair of hose
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Kildare Village has no mention of Silken Thomas
http://www.kildarevillage.com/en_GB/
Silken Thomas (Fitzgerald) great legs in a pair of hose
That's because the FitzGerald castle of Silken Thomas and his father - and ancestors - was in Maynooth. If you go there today you can still see and walk around the ruins. It was once massive until it was destroyed by the English army after the Geraldine rebellion.0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YHk7joKxeE
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