Memories of The Railway Yard and The Polo

A typical piece of railway furniture – though this gate is missing its cast iron plate. ©Photograph: John Reidy 12-6-1982

The railway clerk’s office and store which stood where the car park is now. ©Photograph: John Reidy 12-6-1982

A view of the store and yard facing west. ©Photograph: John Reidy 12-6-1982

A single frame of McGillicuddy’s Forge – from which ‘The Back-of-the-Forge’ got its name. ©Photograph: John Reidy 12-6-1982

The Railway Children: The Keane sisters, from left: Marie, Linda and Mandy. Their grand-dad, John ‘CIE’ O’Sullivan was the last station master in Castleisland. ©Photograph: John Reidy 2-7-1983

The Railway Children Playing in The Polo: Front from left: Thomas Hayes. Peter Carty and Cathal Breen Back row: John Reidy holding baby Mandy Keane with her sisters Marie and Linda Keane and Micheál Reidy. ©Photograph: John Reidy 2-7-1983

The Castleisland Railway Passenger Terminal had fallen into serious disrepair by 1983. ©Photograph: John Reidy

More memorable railway furniture in the shape of this signal post. ©Photograph: John Reidy 12-6-1982

The Railway Children: Peter Carty in the makeshift goals with John Reidy and Cathal Breen threatening to strike. ©Photograph: John Reidy 2-7-1983

The old water tower beside the first bridge on the railway line. This is now a protected structure. ©Photograph: John Reidy 12-6-1982

The railway posts were quickly stripped of their copper wire – through which the wind made amazing music. ©Photograph: John Reidy 12-6-1982

The Railway Children Playing in The Polo: Front from left: Peter Carty, Cathal Breen and Thomas Hayes. Back row: Mandy, Marie and Linda Keane and Micheál Reidy. ©Photograph: John Reidy 2-7-1983

Many’s the time have I been asked if I had any photographs of activity in The Polo Grounds.

This was the field of dreams for the population of the bottom-of-the-town and for the boys from the Killarney and Tralee roads in particular.

It was a patch of ground of hardly an acre in total. But there were games of confined golf, soccer, Gaelic football and hurling played there.

They were as important as any ever played in Croke Park. Oh! and boxing, under no particular rules, was a frequent consequence of the keenness of the encounters there.

The ground belonged to the Great Southern and Western Railways. There are young people now who don’t realise that Castleisland was a town to which a railway ran for over a century from 1875.

Entertained the Boys from the Top

It was a place where the bottom-of-the-town teams ‘entertained’ the boys from the top. And there was always back-up as the grown-ups from the area were always walking the railway tracks which ran parallel to the grounds.

The likes of publicans, Paddy Hussey and Chris McGillicuddy and The Barber, Tom Brennan Snr could be counted on as guardian angels.

And you had the likes of Paddy and Mick Coffey cycling in or going back home and the odd member of An Garda Siochána would cast an eye over us.

Sit and Watch

They would often sit and watch and urge on their boys against ‘the useless collops from the top-of-the-town’ as The Barber was likely to throw in and add intensity to the confrontation of the day.

While I don’t have any photographs of ‘The Polo’ from its heyday, I do have a couple from the early 1980s.

These pictures were taken of what I called at the time ‘The Railway Children’ in July 1983 – while the pictures of the railway furniture were taken in June 1982 and 1983.

The Railway Yard

We were living at No. 4 Tralee Road at the time and the railway yard and ‘The Polo’ were just out the back.

I’ll let the pictures off without captions for now and see how many people can put names to the faces involved.

The other pictures will bring back fond memories to many Castleislanders who used ‘The Tracks’ for their daily recreation. The ‘Back the Tracks’ went on for several generations up to the bitter dispute which split town and country over the future of the walk in the early 1990s.

The Polo Grounds is now under the new Castleisland Area Services Centre and maybe a bit of it under Divane’s yard.

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