I have today sent this email to both Waterways Ireland and Clare County Council.
This email is being sent to Waterways Ireland (Scarriff office) and Clare County Council.
Let us suppose that, during the summer season (15 May to 15 September), I set off on my boat, with my dogs, from somewhere at the northern end of Lough Derg; I moor in Mountshannon at 11.15am.
Under Clare County Council’s beach bye-laws (number 16), I may not take my dogs ashore until 6.00pm: they will be confined to Waterways Ireland’s piers and pontoons. The entire area of the car park, the access from the piers to the roads, is off limits to dogs between 11.00am and 6.00pm.
Perhaps you might, for the convenience of visiting dog-owners, designate a corridor through which dogs (on leads) might be taken to land. After all, the area in question is not actually a beach: it is a car park.
Irish waterways history 
LOL What about cats?
The dogs’ bye-laws do not apply to cats save that, in the brief period when dogs are allowed on “beaches”, they must refrain from “worrying, chasing, injuring or disturbing any animals, birds or other creatures on the beach”. I presume therefore that my dogs are forbidden to bark at the rats that visit the bins or to look threateningly at any swans (vicious and dangerous buggers, they are) that might be attacking children. Cats, of course, are unaffected by the provisions concerning animals as they come under the heading of evil spirits, but maybe they are classed as “other creatures”. bjg
Now now Mr. Goggin – didn’t you get the memo about not questioning your betters ;)
You should also enquire about the rights of coypu!
I’m just looking for a way for Fido to get ashore: a sort of Fexit.
Fido says that, if necessary, he’ll pass a motion.
bjg
I was tempted to say that Fido needed to bark loudly in dogese to the effect that Clare needed Fido more than Fido needed Clare but it is probably the case that Clare does need Fido’s owners to come ashore and spend money more than Fido’s owners necessarily need to do.
This is very true. But Mountshannon seems to want to discourage Fido’s owners. For instance, Fido is welcome at Limerick Milk Market and at Killaloe Market but is not allowed in to Mountshannon Market.
Am I right in thinking that the hotel in Mountshannon has closed? And last time I visited the shop/filling station was for sale.
bjg