Track gauge in Ireland

This unusually broad track gauge is otherwise found only in Australia (where it was introduced by the Irish railway engineer F. W. Sheilds), in the states of Victoria, southern New South Wales (via some extensions of the Victorian rail network) and South Australia, as well as in Brazil.

The Dublin and Drogheda Railway was proposed to be built to 1,575 mm (5 ft 2 in) gauge[1] on the grounds of lower costs.

Most are now closed, including one of the largest narrow-gauge systems, that of the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee.

The Irish narrow gauge today survives as heritage railways in both the Republic and in Northern Ireland.

Bord na Móna uses narrow gauge in the Midlands bogs as part of its peat transport network.