Patrick Kavanagh said that no one could write a comprehensive account of
Irish life who ignored the Gaelic Athletic Association. Likewise, any attempt to
chronicle events of the last century would be far from complete if CIE was
omitted.
CIE as a semi-State body was founded in 1945. From 1950 it brought out an
“in-house” magazine. THE LINK ran
from 1950 and was replaced by NUACHT
in the
‘nineties . The last NUACHT rolled
off the presses in 2003.
Thanks to a few dedicated employees most of these publications have been
rescued from the jaws of obscurity. And now they are about to “share the
transport (publications)” with all on DVD.
The
first edition of the Link dated 24th November 1950 published a letter
from the CIE Chairman;
“Dear
Mr. Editor,
On
the occasion of the first issue of The Link I want to offer you my best wishes
for the success of the paper.
I feel sure that you, and your colleagues who contribute, or otherwise
help, will do everything that can be done to make The Link a staff paper which
will, as its name suggests, bind together the members of our staff in all grades
and in all places throughout the country.
I ask every CIE man to become a regular reader and in this way co-operate
with you in developing a spirit of unity and good fellowship in our organisation.
Yours sincerely
T.
C. Courtney.
The Editor, Frank Finn, thanked all contributors for, “ . . . articles,
notes, news stories and pictures which have helped me to fill this issue”.
Charles Bianconi,
the
pioneer of public transport in
Ireland |
 |
The
first issue carried articles on subjects as diverse as Charles Bianconi, the
pioneer of public transport in
Ireland
, “The Goats of Westport”
new loading gear for loading cattle on aircraft and an advertisement from
Cotts of Kilcock, “
Ireland
’s biggest Mail-Order store”. In June 1951 the CIE lost property department
had a “lost go-car” on its hands.
|
Example of Issue
|
And in
the Small ads section of May 11th 1952 you could have purchase a
beautiful 3-plate electric cooker for £17 10 shillings. Decades of “Gleanings
from the garages”, “Capital News”, “Notes from the provinces”,
“Greetings from Christmas travellers” and accounts of funny happenings
within the company are all there.
When the
Nuacht came on it was soon published
in full colour and had the effect of bringing employees, with a literary bent,
who were shy about their scribblings, “out of the closet”. There is now in
existence the “CIE Writers’ Group” which brought out a collection of
short-stories, poems, essays and articles in 2005. The title of the anthology
was, “There’s Love
And There’s Sex and There’s The 46A” with a foreword by
Professor Brendan Kennelly who described the contributors as, “ . . . writers,
. . . keen listeners, sharp observers, constantly in touch with the foibles of
humanity and, most striking of all they are gifted storytellers”. The
group is now on the lookout for people to contribute to a second collection. And
it all started with The Link and Nuacht.)
If you worked for CIE and did anything newsworthy, from “ missing a
free” to acting as midwife on a crowded bus, there is a good chance that you
are in there somewhere. If there was a picture of, or an article about, you or
yours in any of these magazines now is your chance to re-capture the past.
Pictures Included
(example) - For larger view,
click here |
(Try clicking the resulting pic for an even larger view, as that works on some computers.) |
DOWN THE DECADES WITH
THE LINK AND NUACHT
, on DVD is now available. Details from; ciewriters@gmail.com:
Click on author's byline for bio and list of other works published by Pencil Stubs Online.
