L & M Keating: the modern Henry, Mullins & McMahon

Some weeks ago I posted a short note about the new flood gates being installed at Killaloe: it seemed to me that, in floods, they might operate as a flash lock. I hope to return to that topic anon.

While I was looking at the site, I took a photo as a reminder of the name of the contractors.

I thought no more of it, but noted that I occasionally get visits from folk googling for “l&m keating”. But then I visited Shannon Harbour, where houseboat moorings are being built …

… and returned home across Portumna Bridge, which is being shot-blasted and painted.

A few more photos of that project here. Pics of the Shannon Harbour houseboat moorings here. Pics of the dredging of Limerick here. Some projects from 2012 and early 2013 here.

I visited the firm’s website, where I found an impressive list of projects, many of which I knew about without having appreciated the Kilmihil firm’s role. Their waterways projects (I haven’t provided links because you can find them for yourself on the website) include:

• the Monasterevan lift bridge (with photo of Hawthorn passing through) on the Barrow Line of the Grand Canal
• the swivelling span of Portumna Bridge on the Shannon
• an enabling bridge and the Living Bridge, crossing the Shannon at the University of Limerick
• repairs to the lifting span of Tarmonbarry Bridge on the Shannon
• work on both ends of the Killimor to Tarbert Shannon Estuary ferry crossing
• several projects in Kilrush (close to home) including the marina building
• dredging at Foynes Yacht Club and Aughinigh Alumina on the Shannon Estuary
• work for the ESB at Moneypoint, also on the Shannon Estuary.

They also did the Milk Market in Limerick, where food comes from.

That’s an impressive list, and they might be seen as the successors to Henry, Mullins & McMahon, “the leading building contractors in Ireland in the first three decades of the nineteenth century, involved largely in government work and canal construction“. Their work will be the industrial archaeology of the future, so it deserves coverage here.

Here is a page about their work at Grand Canal Dock, Dublin, in spring 2013, and a brief notice of work at Lowtown in March 2013.