Sarah Harte: A train to Youghal would help protect our cultural heritage

Because Youghal not only has the sandy beaches of the Front Strand, Redbarn, and Claycastle which retained their blue flag last week but also an extraordinary historical wealth that could be marketed to the historically curious.

Bordered by the Blackwater River and steeped in history, the walled mediaeval port town is physically beautiful, characterised by its long narrow street, and straddled by its eighteenth-century clock gate tower. At over 800 years old, St Mary’s Collegiate church is one of Ireland’s oldest churches. It still has its original roof intact and contains traces of an old Viking grave, suggesting that the town’s origins predate the Anglo-Normans.

At various times Youghal has seen Elizabethan adventurers come and go including Walter Raleigh, Richard Boyle Earl of Cork, and Oliver Cromwell who wintered at Youghal with his army en route to quell a rebellion. Walter Raleigh allegedly brought Ireland’s first potatoes from Virginia — planting them in the garden at Myrtle Grove in 1585.

Much later on Claud Coburn, the famous radical British journalist, and hs wife Patricia lived in Myrtle Grove which belonged to her family and is a rare example of an unfortified 16-century Tudor House. Both are buried in St Marys. Coburn, who was famous for his witticisms and presumably enjoyed the legendary and savagely black Youghal wit, described the town as “standing at a slight angle to the universe”. 

He is credited as having persuaded John Huston to make Moby Dick in Youghal in 1954 when the town got a taste of Hollywood glamour and thousands flocked to line the quays.

Its town walls date back to 1250 and are the most intact Anglo-Norman example of such a protective structure in Ireland. There are over 250 protected structures listed for Youghal. A properly designated historic quarter that was marketed internationally would bring visitors.

But they let the train go in 1963 with a limited Sunday summer service operating until 1987. I have a vague memory of rattling along in it as a small girl. This is why when last Friday Transport Minister Eamon Ryan announced a landmark contract for the design of eight long-planned commuter rail stations as part of the Cork Commuter Rail Project (CCRP), and reading how towns like Midleton and Cobh will benefit, and good for them, the thought occurred why not Youghal?

This idea is doable even though a 23km greenway connecting towns and villages is running along the former railway line between Midleton and Youghal, the first phase of which was opened to the public in March. In February, as reported in this paper, a senior Irish Rail official said at a meeting of the East Cork Municipal District Council that the reopening of the Midleton-Youghal railway line had not been ruled out. 

Apparently, Irish Rail inserted a clause in an agreement with the council on the construction of the greenway that it could use the route at any time if it wanted to reopen the railway line. Irish Rail project manager AJ Croninalso confirmed that there was sufficient land to accommodate a twin track to run alongside the greenway. A greenway would complement a railway line. How fabulous would that be?

Youghal has had its problems. Pockets of unemployment in Youghal town are still higher than the national average. It also has higher-than-average retail vacancies in the town, as all too frequently the lights go down on small but brave dreams. This leaves the main street pock-marked by dereliction like a once beautiful mouth missing its teeth. However, according to a piece in The Echo by Chris Dunne last Friday, a small group of community activists are trying to open dedicated museums in some of the town’s empty business premises for the culturally curious.

The first of these will be a Film and Photography Museum in what used to be a butcher’s shop on North Main Street. It will feature one of the earliest animations made in Ireland by the Horgan brothers, Philip, James, and Thomas, among the first filmmakers in Ireland who recorded everyday life in the area. They were contemporaries of the greatest contemporaries of the age, the Lumiere Brothers and Meliere but in an Irish context and therefore have not been celebrated as they should. Horgan’s cinema is still there but the building is collapsing which maybe tells its own story.

It gets a mention in William Trevor’s elegiac story, Memories of Youghal. On the terrace of a hotel in the South of France Quillan, the half-cut detective recounts childhood memories to Miss Ticher, including eating ice cream outside “Horgan’s picture house”. Trevor was always very positive about Youghal, it was one of three towns he lived in as a child. As a small child, he attended the Loreto convent in Youghal and found the schooling experience very pleasant. In one of his stories, he depicts a small Protestant boy sitting in the cloakroom while the catechism takes place. He also spoke about how Youghal was ‘mildly fashionable’ in his youth. Maybe it can be again.

Bryan Mohally, chairman of Youghal Heritage, makes the point that “Youghal should be our Kinsale. We pride ourselves on our town”. He’s right. Why, when the town has patently got so much to offer, is it destined endlessly to be the bridesmaid in the sateen dress of an unfortunate hue traipsing down the aisle after a triumphant bride like say Kinsale? It just doesn’t make sense. As we become increasingly exposed to other cultures in Ireland it might make us think more about what it is that makes us Irish, prouder of our cultural heritage, and better at recognising and preserving historical sites.

There’s clearly a dynamic bunch in Youghal with vision. There’s something about that pioneering energy springing from the local but backed by an international level of ambition that is worth backing. As the anthropologist Margaret Mead said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

But sometimes even dynamos need support. A train to Youghal could be part of that.