The second series of Nemetons hugely popular series Bóithre Iarainn – the story of Ireland’s railways returns to our screens with a new series from Thursday the 9th of February.

Featuring 6 more fascinating stories, from smuggling on the Bundoran Express to finding a huge hoard of gold while laying tracks for the Limerick to Ennis railway.

Bóithre Iarainn is a unique window into the life of ordinary Irish people in the first half of the 20th century from the delights of the dance trains to Bray on the Harcourt street line to the gruelling work of shovelling coal on the Cavan and Leitrim line, to the constant hum of the beet trains from Courtmacsherry in West Cork, the lifeblood of the countryside.The series features fascinating stories such as the bloody shoot-out at Clones railway station in 1922, smuggling and fasting on the Bundoran Express to Lough Derg, not to mention the quirkiness of the  radio trains of the 1950’s complete with MC and interviews with passengers in  the train’s  mobile studio! The rosary via the radio on the long road to Knock, stampedes of passengers jumping off the train at Foxrock in a bid to secure the best view at Leopardstown..each program is full of engaging and endearing human stories as well as a unique window into some of the most significant periods in Irish history.  The cast of characters you will meet on this unique journey back in time and around the country is as ever varied and rich- from men who drove the beet trains on the  West Cork railway to driving John Wayne in a scene from the Quiet Man, to digging out the train amid 5ft drifts of snow in 1947.

Not just the story of trains but that of the people who lived, in, around, and for them..who breathed their soot and smoke and who never forgot them.

Thursday 8pm, TG4 from February 9th.

Program 1

Dún Dealgan go Bundobhráin(Dundalk to Bundoran featuring the Bundoran Express)

Program 2

An  West Cork Railway

Program 3

An  Western Rail Corridor

Program 4

An Harcourt Street Line
Program 5

An Cavan and Leitrim Railway

Program 6

An Schull and Skibereen Tramway