Irish Railway Architecture

As I sat eating a Solero outside Mullen's bar in Cootehill, Co. Cavan, my mind wandering to the potential architectural treasure I was about to encounter, a cry from a discernible gentleman in a passing car of ‘gevas a lek!’ shattered me back to reality. Time to move on. Taking the road to Bailieborough I stopped after a five minute march, seeing the high-speed road curve ahead of me and the pavement disappear. “I’m not risking my life for a stat-” and there it was to the left of me, tucked away discretely with the later addition of the manure-soaked aptly-named Station Road Mart plonked where the tracks used to be. Cootehill railway station. Designed by William G. Murray and built for the Dundalk & Enniskillen Railway Company in 1860, the station closed to passengers and goods in 1947, finally closing forever in 1955. The station’s gothic splendour lifts its small stature to higher levels (perhaps it’s growing to escape the neighbouring cow pats), with exquisite