Communities in Reminiscence is a collaborative project with Bee Park Resource Centre and artist David Spence that engages with people’s personal histories of growing up alongside the old Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway (SL&NCR), through shared conversations combined with creative skills especially those associated with scale model making.

Drawing from the stories of growing up in and around Manorhamilton of the old railway and then inviting the younger generation to engage with the memories of their parents and grandparents will form the material upon which railway models will be created.

The trains, well they become a conduit by which these tales are brought to life, through the eyes of the people living beside a small, struggling railway straddling the Irish border. Its history is the history of the Irish state, from the railways birth in 1875 to its demise 82 years later in 1957 all of the key dynamics are enacted. Even now the hopeful greenway replacing the old route is challenged by current events. It is hoped that these stories could be enacted using the models to bring to life in video, the history of the people living alongside the railway.

Please note that the details of events listed above are provided by the relevant Local Authorities.