Qualla: Sligo Mac Diarmada Railway Station

Sligo Mac Diarmada Railway Station: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John Lucas, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 11 January 1923, in the middle of the Irish Civil War, the railway station at Sligo went up in flames. Anti-Treaty forces set the building alight and then, in a final flourish of sabotage, sent seven engines flying down the branch line toward the quay. Six of them stopped somewhere along the way. The seventh punched through the concrete wall at the end of the line and tumbled into Sligo harbour. It would be three years before the new station building opened on the same elevated site, dominating the streets below as the old one had. Today the terminal carries the name of an Irish patriot who was executed seven years before that fire was lit.

Image: John Lucas | CC BY-SA 2.0

Sligo Mac Diarmada Railway Station: How the Lines Reached Sligo

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User: (WT-shared) Plug at wts wikivoyage, Public domain. Sligo's railway story begins on 3 December 1862, when the Midland Great Western Railway extended its main line from Dublin and made the seaport a terminal. Within twenty years it became a small hub: the Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway pushed north to Enniskillen in 1...

Image: User: (WT-shared) Plug at wts wikivoyage | Public domain

Sligo Mac Diarmada Railway Station: Naming for a Patriot

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit National Party from Dublin, Ireland, CC BY 2.0. In 1966, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Easter Rising, the station was renamed Mac Diarmada Station after Seán Mac Diarmada from County Leitrim. Mac Diarmada was one of the seven signatories of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic, executed by firing squad at Kilmainha...

Image: National Party from Dublin, Ireland | CC BY 2.0

Sligo Mac Diarmada Railway Station: The Freight Line That Was

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aubrey Dale, CC BY-SA 2.0. When the Midland Great Western Railway came to Sligo in 1862, it also built a short branch curving off north and downward before reaching the station, dropping to the freight terminal at Sligo Quay. A large crane built by CIÉ in the mid-1970s handled containers there. The last fr...

Image: Aubrey Dale | CC BY-SA 2.0

Sligo Mac Diarmada Railway Station: Elevated Above the Streets

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John Lucas, CC BY-SA 2.0. The current station building, opened after the 1923 fire, sits raised above the surrounding streets, its frontage dominating the approach from Lord Edward Street. Two platforms, one intermediate carriage siding, and a passing loop on the approach handle the modest but steady traf...

Image: John Lucas | CC BY-SA 2.0