RESIDENTS of the Broadstone area of Dublin - flushed with the success after their campaign to restore Blessington Street Basin - have turned their attention to what was once the city's finest railway station.
Broadstone, the old Midland and Great Western terminal, has been obscured for years by poor quality surrounding buildings, trees and advertising hoardings - to such an extent that it has become almost invisible.
Dramatically sited on rising ground alongside Phibsboro Road it was designed by John Skipton Mulvany in Egyptian style, evoking the great temples of Karnak or Luxor, and built during the height of the Great Famine.
With Galway projected to become the main port for transatlantic passenger traffic between Europe and North America, the Midland successfully competed with the Great Southern to reach it first.
Mr Jerry Crowley, a local historian and secretary of the campaign to restore Broadstone's magnificence, noted that the Midland introduced a special fourth class for dirt-poor migrants from the west going to Britain for work.
The line, which branched out to serve Sligo, Westport, Achill and Clifden, was also used to transport huge numbers of cattle. From 1872, the Midland even built its own locomotives at Broadstone.
But the golden age of Irish railways was drawing to a close, road transport was taking over and lines were being closed. At midnight on January 16th, 1937, the night mail from Westport was the last train to arrive at Broadstone".
Since then, the station has used as a bus depot. But Mr Crowley and his fellow campaigners are determined to restore "the magnificent vista of Broadstone", whatever about restoring its use as a railway station.
"We first wrote to Mr Michael McDonnell, group chief executive of CIE, and were pleased to get a very positive reply," he said. "We are currently awaiting a response from CIE's property departments on the ownership of various parts of the site."
The main obstacles are two red-brick houses at the edge of the forecourt and a Maxol filling station on Phibsboro Road. There are also several advertising hoardings and Dublin Corporation is currently checking its planning status.
"The corporation is the key player in this," Mr Crowley said. "If it was to adopt Broadstone as an urban improvement project, perhaps in the context of an action plan for the area, we're certain that CIE would go along with it."
There is one significant precedent for the removal of inappropriately-located houses in the interests of civic improvement and, coincidentally, the man who achieved it - Mr Jim Barrett - is now Dublin City Architect.
As city architect in Limerick, Mr Barrett managed to get rid of the 20 local authority houses in the courtyard of King John's Castle by offering to build new houses for their occupants in the immediate vicinity.
