March 25th is a date which is filled with significance in the town of Fermoy. It was on that date in 1967 that Fermoy Railway Station closed down for good.
On that fateful date, the last train ran from Waterford to Cork, via stations such Lismore, Ballyduff, Clondulane, Ballyhooly etc. Truly the end of an era.
As a major stop on the Cork-Waterford line, the closing of the Fermoy station was truly a landmark occasion. A sad but inevitable closure or the scandal of the sixties?
The jury is still out on that much vexed question.
Anyone who is old enough to remember Fermoy station at its peak has many a fond story to tell of the people who worked there and the trains which passed through it.
Our news reporter in 1997, Emmett Coffey, who wrote on the 30th anniversary of the closure in April that year, was continually told that the subject was more worthy of a book that a mere newspaper article, such is the history of the place and the many anecdotes still recounted of the station when it played such an important part in the life of the town.
Full story in our Christmas special ‘By The Fireside’ in shops now
