THE angry reaction to CIE's decision to consider closing the Claremorris Limerick railway line is nothing to the fury which will be unleashed if it goes ahead.
The closure is mentioned as a possibility in CIE's £44 million plan, announced last week, to cut costs. A decision will be taken within the next two or three weeks, a CIE spokesman said.
But even to consider closing the western line - used only for freight - is a bizarre move which raises questions about the vision, if any, CIE management has for the future.
Every day we hear how technological changes affect our lives. Teleworkers in Kerry call US companies on US soil and work away, using phone and computer links.
In Britain, the Millennium Commission has approved a £33 million grant to build a new type of university, one that will be spread around 11 separate colleges on Gaelic speaking islands and in the Scottish Gaeltacht.
Back in Ireland, Foinse, the new Irish language newspaper, is assembled on a computer screen in Connemara, then sent down the telephone line to the Meath Chronicle for printing and distribution.
Enter any bookshop and you will find a raft of publications predicting fundamental change to people's work practices and where they choose to live. The phrase "future shock" describes how hard people find it to adapt to the accelerating rate of change.
Although nobody knows exactly how settlement patterns will change in the next century, it is a safe bet that more people will leave traffic congested, overcrowded cities for the country.
Rural depopulation may continue, even accelerate, in remote areas, but other parts of the country will see a reversal of the forces which led to a third of the population ending up in Dublin.
In that context, shutting down railway lines makes no sense, at least until people see what is going to happen.
Ireland had a comprehensive railway network at the turn of the century and the closure of lines still raises hackles from Letterkenny to Dungarvan. Is the skeleton that remains to be stripped further?
The Claremorris Limerick line joins the main Sligo Dublin line to the Limerick Dublin line.
En route it passes through Ballindine, Tuam, Athenry, Craughwell, Ardrahan, Gort, Crusheen and Ennis.
It skirts an abundance of rivers and lakes, and historic churches and round towers at Kilbennan and Kilmacduagh. It passes near Coole House, Fiddaun Castle, the nature reserve at Crusheen, Clare Abbey, Maughaun Fort and Cratloe Woods.
Can CIE not see the line's tourist potential if it were reopened to passenger traffic? And why should the people of Gort not have the option of catching an early morning train to Limerick or Dublin? The company's spokesman says the decision on the line will be taken as part of a "cost base review". If a case can be made to keep it open on business grounds, then the company will do so, he says.
Coillte uses the line to transport timber products from western forests. With the planned increase in such plantations this business will develop in coming years. At any rate, as the spokesman says, there are "sound environmental reasons" why the timber should be transported by rail and not in dozens of articulated trucks.
The accountants who will determine the line's fate will consider it is hoped, these other factors. Otherwise, in their eagerness to look after the bottom line, they risk not being able to see the wood for the trees.
AMONG those who would welcome the reopening of the Claremorris Limerick line to passengers are the Connors and Malone families lately of Tallaght and Ballinteer but now residents of Carran, near Corofin in Co Clare.
The village - one shop, one pub, one post office, one school and one church - is 12 miles as the crow flies from the railway line and half that distance to Mullaghmore on the edge of the Burren.
Its biggest boast is that it is the birthplace of Michael Cusack, founder of the GAA and a prime mover behind the Gaelic League at the end of the last century.
But with only 18 pupils on the school rolls, the community faced an uncertain future earlier this year and the loss of the dynamic second teacher in the two teacher school, Ms Dolores O'Halloran.
Local residents, including Ms Maura Lynch, Mr Paddy Hynes and Father Enda Glynn, decided it was better to light a flame than curse the darkness. They contacted Rural Resettlement Ireland (RRI).
A few months later the names on the school roll have risen from 18 to 32. Young Jamie Malone has switched from playing soccer to Gaelic football and his brothers Declan and Danny are learning to play the tin whistle while baby Ciara looks on.
They have the freedom of the fields and the wonders of the Burren to explore, together with local children and the other arrivals, Garry, Laura, Jennifer, Shane, Kimberly and Amanda Connors.
Gerald and Madeline Malone left a crime and drugs ridden block of flats in Ballinteer last month to move west with their children.
The improvement in their lives is "unbelievable", says Mr Malone.
He is an enthusiastic fan of the rural resettlement scheme. "Dublin is getting so sprawling now, you can see they are having problems locating estates and all that. It's an obvious idea to move people out to where they're needed", he says.
Ms Julie Connors is full of praise for her neighbours, saying they have gone out of their way to welcome her family. With a few hens scratching around the yard providing free range eggs, and a comfortable house for herself, her husband Alan and her six children, life is looking good.
They were motivated to move mainly because "we wanted our kids to have a childhood they could look back on", she says. Living in Tallaght meant they would suffer discrimination, regardless of who or what they were. "My eldest boy, no matter how well he did at school, I feel he would never get a job because of the address he had."
According to Mr Paul Murphy of RRI, of the 250 families resettled over the past six years under the scheme, 80 per cent have stayed in their new homes.
The waiting list is 4,700 and rising. Under a mortgage scheme organised with the help of the Bank of Ireland some unemployed or low income families have the chance to buy their own homes.
Most resettled families have moved from local authority housing in Dublin and elsewhere, and over 120 houses worth £6.6 million have been returned to local authorities.
A quarter have found full time work or set up businesses and 40 per cent of the families have at least one person working part time.
A delegation from RRI recently met the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, to discuss the group's pre budget submission. They pointed to the scheme's many social benefits and argued that the Department should take a pro active approach to resettlement, by offering it as a mainstream option to families on housing lists.
If the Department spent £1 million to fund resettlement, then 100 families could be helped to buy their own homes in rural areas. Local authority houses worth £5.5 million would be given back, the delegation said.
The Minister listened carefully to the delegation. Time and the next Budget will tell if he takes their advice.