ENTRANCE TO THE PHOENIX PARK TUNNEL [PASSING UNDER CONYNGHAM ROAD]-163035 by William Murphy Via Flickr: The Phoenix Park Tunnel is a railway tunnel in Dublin which passes under Conyngham Road. The tunnel was built in 1877 and begins at the Liffey Railway Bridge near Heuston Station, running underneath the Phoenix Park for 690 metres before re-emerging close to the junction of the Cabra Road and Navan Road. It joins with the Sligo line near Glasnevin, before continuing to Dublin Connolly. The tunnel was originally built by the Great Southern and Western Railway company to connect Kingsbridge station to the Dublin Docklands, and primarily used for freight. Historically the line had not been used for regular passenger trains, with most traffic through the tunnel being freight or carriages and engines shunted between Connolly and Heuston for maintenance. It had occasionally been used for special passenger services, including traffic for major Gaelic Athletic Association fixtures. The tunnel was used during World War Two for storing emergency supplies of food and when I was young we called it the ghost railway. It reopened on 21 November 2016 for regular passenger traffic. These were only weekday peak at launch, with weekday off-peak being added in December 2018. There are currently no scheduled weekend services.

My memory plays tricks on me. When I try to remember specifics, a dam breaks and every detail falls out at once. A song, a letter, an embarrassing moment from 16 years ago. At 24, I lost memories in a ‘cure’ for sadness. For months, I couldn’t remember anything. An anecdote, the name of my favorite author, how to get home. All of these lost to me. Slowly, they began to return. The sound of my mother’s voice, the steps to a dance, the entirety of the Treaty of Versailles. I am still missing pieces of myself.

But she never showed. You stood, soaked to the bone from the torrential rain. Go inside, go inside, she's not coming to save you. You'll have to dry off alone.

Like blood it races through my veins, spreading through every inch of me. It settles in my lungs, until every exhales comes with an almost inaudible 'you.' You, in my bones when they crack. You, in my stretching muscles. You, pumping through my heart until it stops.