Wheels Around Connaught

Ireland was traditionally divided into four provinces, of which Connaught, comprising the counties of Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon, was the most westerly. This collection of photographs showcases the many modes of transport to be observed around Connaught from mid-Victorian times to the 1970s. Buses feature prominently, but there are also cars, horse-drawn carts, trains, lorries and trams, together with more unusual vehicles such as a hearse, a horse box, a mobile crane, a tractor, an ambulance and a decommissioned Great Southern Railway bus enjoying a change of pace as a Red Cross canteen. Connaught's big transport operators are well represented but so are many of the small concerns that once contributed to public transport in this sparsely populated area of Ireland. Featured locations include Clifden, Galway, Lough Corrib, Westport, Achill Island, Salthill, Leenane, Ballina, Knock, Mallaranny, Sligo, Carrigallen and Athlone.