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About me

My name is Siobhan Osgood and I am researching the architecture of the former Great Northern Railway of Ireland for my PhD at Trinity College Dublin. My research is funded by the Irish Research Council. 

I gained a Master’s with Distinction in Art History: Art and Ireland at Trinity College Dublin in 2016. My master's thesis, ‘Railway Architecture: The Great Northern Railway at Dundalk’ was awarded the UK’s Association for Industrial Archaeology’s Dissertation Prize in 2017.

I was awarded the Desmond Guinness Scholarship in 2021 to facilitate research in Spain. 
In 2019 I was awarded the studentship prize for the Society of Industrial Archaeology (USA) conference in Chicago, and have presented my research at the 40th Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference in Chester, and the Irish History Students' Association Conference in Limerick. 
I have given guest lectures for Ulster Architectural Heritage, the Irish Railway Record Society, the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland, Engineers Ireland, and many other history societies. 

Publications include Architecture Ireland, the Association of Industrial Archaeology Journal, Irish Railway Record Society Journal, as well as newspaper articles. 

I am always interested in writing blogs and articles for publications and journals, as well as giving interviews. I love giving presentations, so feel free to contact me if you'd like me to give a lecture or talk. irishrailarch@gmail.com

Follow me on Twitter: @IrishRailArch
Follow me on Instagram: @IrishRailArch

Here are two heritage videos which I filmed with Irish Rail about Dundalk, and Malahide railway stations: 

Dundalk Railway Station

Malahide Railway Station






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Valley of the Engineers: The Boyne Viaduct

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Howth-a-ya?

Following festive frolics, a dose of a head cold and a birthday (ugh), it’s time to get back to the good stuff: blog posts! So let’s get back to my day of station-spotting which concluded at Howth. Dublin’s riviera promised sunshine, a beach, cliffs and overpriced seafood. The perfect end to a perfect day out. Howth Station's original Georgian frontage Having only seen the Georgian front of Howth Station (I got the bus here a few months back), my eyes deceived me by delivering me to a Mills-style GNRI station, complete with yellow, red and black bricks, as per my first true love, Dundalk. Platform-side Mills brickwork But it was not a mirage. Lurking behind tourists I waited for the platform to clear, camera at-hand ready to snap as-empty-a-platform-as-possible on a busy sunny August Bank Holiday Monday. Taking a photo of the somewhat weed-covered brickwork, a tourist-lemming appeared at my elbow with an irritating ‘cer-chik’. You can turn that sound-effect off, y’know...

Watt a Shock: Sutton

Nearing the end of my day-excursion  stopping at the stations along the way to Howth, the calm twinkling sea guided my train into Sutton railway station. Sutton Station - platform view An unassuming building, Sutton Station is a simple white-washed, single-storey Georgian example of functional symmetry. The projecting iron and wood (not glass) veranda jaggedly but gracefully sweeps towards the building mirroring the ironworks’ curves. The ‘GNR’ emblem finishes the company's decorative addition. 'GNR' emblem under station canopy Opened as Baldoyle & Sutton in 1846, it was renamed Sutton in 1901 until 1916 when it was renamed as Sutton and Baldoyle. It reverted again to Sutton in 1935. The footbridge is a modern replacement of the original lattice-girder design favoured by the GNRI and its chief engineer, William Hemingway Mills. Tickets please!  Shown above is that the station building was originally natural stone colour, and not white. I particularly like...