I see from the blatts (or at least from the Cork Examiner) that there is much free food to be had in the Tralee Ship Canal, which has, it is said, “Literally millions of sprat and mackerel” as well as eels, baby ray and shrimp. According to the story,
Kerry County Council said engineers were meeting yesterday to find a resolution and to organise a clean up.
Perhaps a call to Captain Birdseye?
Posted in Built heritage, Canals, Extant waterways, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Modern matters, Natural heritage, Operations, People, Restoration and rebuilding, Sea, The fishing trade, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management, Weather
Tagged fish, Kerry, Tralee Ship Canal
On 22 September 2015 Eric Byrne [Labour, Dublin South Central] put a written question to the Minister for Fairytales:
To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht her plans to review the no swimming in locks and harbours under the by-law within the Canals Act by-laws of 1988 in view of the fact that there is no penalty for ignoring such signs; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
The minister replied:
I have been informed by Waterways Ireland that while it has not determined a need for an associated penalty with this by-law at this time, the matter is being kept under review. I am advised also that the locks, docks and harbours are manned and/or frequently visited by Waterways Ireland Operations and Inspectorate Authorised Officers. Where swimmers are encountered, they are made aware of the by-law provision and the dangers of swimming in or near canal infrastructure and they are requested to remove themselves from the navigation. Such requests are normally acceded to. In the event of persistent offender(s) unwilling to obey direction from Waterways Ireland Authorised Officers, the assistance of An Garda Síochána is sought to remedy the situation.
Sometimes I wonder whether politicians have any grasp on reality. Swimmers in the Naller are a force of nature and are as far beyond the control of Waterways Ireland, the police and indeed politicians as hurricanes, the economy or Mick Wallace. People have been swimming in the canals, in Dublin and no doubt elsewhere, for generations, and nothing or nobody has been able to stop them.
I suspect that more people have swum in the canals than have ever boated on them; swimming is therefore a legitimate topic for waterways studies. Here is a preliminary contribution to the field.
Posted in Built heritage, Canals, Extant waterways, Historical matters, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Modern matters, Operations, People, Politics, Safety, Sources, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged bridge, Dublin, Grand Canal, lock, Naller, Royal Canal, swimming, Waterways Ireland
Budget documents [available here] include the Part IV Estimates for Public Services 2016 [PDF]. The Summary of Gross Expenditure (Capital and Current) by Ministerial Vote Group shows that the Department of Fairytales [aka Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht], RoI parent of Waterways Ireland, is to get an increase in its budget.
Its forecast outturn for 2015 matches its estimate for the year at €277,434,000, of which €215,854,000 is current and €61,580,000 is capital spending. However, the estimates for 2016 show €234,430,000 current + €76,000,000 capital = €310,430,000 total, an increase of €32,996,000. Current spending is up 8.6% and capital by 23.4%; total spending is up by 11.9%. Perhaps the extra €14,420,000 in capital spending is to extend Saunderson’s Sheugh to Clones?
Skipping the numerous tables that repeat more or less the same gen in different ways, and skipping too the unimportant government departments, we zoom forward to the details of the Department of Fairytales estimates.
But there we find, alas, that while the department as a whole has secured lots of extra lolly — and it’s going to be shovelling 18% more to the luvvies [Arts, Culture and Film], 11% more to heritage and 3% more to the BéalBochters — it intends to cut spending on North-South Cooperation, which is where Waterways Ireland gets its money.
The 2015 estimate for NSCoop current expenditure was €35,072,000; the 2016 estimate is €34,925,000, which is a cut of only about half of one per cent. But capital spending on NSCoop is down almost 20%, from €3,487,000 to €2,799,000, and total spending down 2% from €38,559,000 to €37,724,000.
The NSCoop figures are “subject to the North-South Ministerial Council”, which means that the (southern, Fine Gael) Minister for Fairytales has to persuade the (northern, Sinn Féin) Minister for Marching Bands that the cross-border language and waterways bodies aren’t getting any increase in their funding from the Free State, at least not while there is an election to be won. However, HM Devolved Administration didn’t seem too keen on allocating extra money to waterways last time I looked.
Regular readers will not need to be reminded that 85% of WI’s current budget is supplied by the RoI government and 15% by the NI administration, while capital expenditure is paid for by the state in which it occurs.
The estimates figures as shown don’t tell us the precise impact on Waterways Ireland’s current budget: the money is divided between WI and the language shamrock but the document doesn’t tell us which gets how much. [The last time a breakdown was given was in 2011, when WI got roughly 60% of the total.] However, most of the department’s NSCoop capital expenditure is undertaken by WI, and little or none of it by the language shamrock, so we can say that the 20% cut in NSCoop capital spending means a 20% cut in capital spending on waterways in the Free State.
The breakdown of the Multi-Annual Capital Investment Framework confirms that: in 2015 €3,368,000 of the €3,487,000 NSCoop capital budget (96.5%) went to WI, and in 2016 WI will get €2,680,000 of the €2,799,000 NSCoop capital budget (95.7%). I imagine that the language folk prefer sitting i dtóin an tí and don’t want fancy buildings.
WI’s capital budget for RoI is down from €11,000,000 in 2008.
According to the Multi-Annual Capital Investment Framework 2016 to 2021 (Table 1), the Department of Fairytales as a whole is getting an unusually large amount, €76,000,000, of Exchequer Capital Funding in 2016; the total is to fall back to €45 million in 2017 and €43 million in 2018, before rising to €46 million in each of the years 2018, 2020 and 2021. So, in a year in which the department is getting much more money for capital spending, NSCoop and, specifically, waterways are getting significantly less.
Looking at the breakdown (Table 2), it seems that the big changes in the department’s capital spending are:
There are a few other minor changes, but the increased allocation of €15,270,000 to the main Decade of Centenaries item has more than swallowed the extra €14,420,000 allocated to the department. Three other significant items — Teach an Phiarsaigh, the Cork Event Centre and the Built Heritage Jobs Leverage Scheme, which between them have been given an extra €8,150,000 — have been funded by the reduced allocations to the Crawford Gallery, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Údarás na Gaeltachta and Waterways Ireland.
So there’s no money for Sinn Féin’s beloved Clones Sheugh.
Posted in Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Modern matters, Operations, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Shannon, Sources, Tourism, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged budget, capital expenditure, Clones sheugh, department of arts heritage and the gaeltacht, Fine Gaewl, Ireland, North South Ministerial Council, Saunderson's Sheugh, shinners, Sinn Fein, Ulster Canal, Waterways Ireland
I still have no idea why Sinn Féin thinks the Clones Sheugh would cause any significant increase in tourism, or any other economic benefit.
Thanks to Brian Simpson for this update on the continuing resurrection of St John’s Pill [river] in Waterford.
Waterford Council had new fencing erected by Fairybush Landscaping Ltd around Cherrymount bridge and around the slip area. The Council also recently opened a beautiful greenway for pedestrians and cyclists along the St John’s river right into Waterford City Centre.
Our slipway at Cherrymount bridge was being eroded by heavy rainfall and
strong currents when the canal was swollen.
The slipway
The slipway fenced (but eroded)
In order to prevent further damage with the approach of autumn and winter, improvement works had to be carried out. With a low tide window for much of the day and a couple of dry days beforehand, Saturday 29 August 2015 was our perfect opportunity.
Men at work
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our Chairman David Hayes [of David Hayes Engineering, Waterford] for organising the mixer, sand/gravel cement from Doyle Concrete …
Doyle Concrete
… and the concrete slabs and capping from Boyce Mulrooney, scrap merchant, Tramore Road, Waterford.
All the committee members who donated bags of cement, tools, ideas, labour and teamwork.
Wade in the water
A great day was had and most importantly the slip is now much secure and pleasing to look at too.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Ireland, Operations, People, Restoration and rebuilding, Suir, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged canal, fencing, greenway, river, slipway, St John's Pill, Suir, Waterford
If you happen to be driving across southern England and Wales — say from Fishguard or Pembroke to London — and you want a break, you could turn off the M4 or M48 and drive to the Purton ships’ graveyard in Gloucestershire. It’s roughly 25 miles, 35 minutes, each way: a two-hour break will give you an hour on site — and take you a world away from the busy motorways.
Purton gives you two waterways for the price of one: the Severn estuary and the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, which bypasses part of the estuary.
Big estuaries — including the Shannon and the Suir — always give a sense of space, with big open skies, but somehow the Severn looks even bigger when the tide goes so far out.
The long and level sands stretch far away
Note the train on the far bank, behind the signpost
Incidentally, the west bank too seems to have a place called Purton, if Messrs Google’s map is to be believed.
Drawing a line in the sand
Purton has two of the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal‘s swing bridges, a weir and other interesting features.
Purton lower bridge
Purton lower bridge control room. The keeper operates both bridges
Swinging room
Purton lower bridge from downstream
Purton upper bridge
Information board beside the lower bridge
Purton weir
Weir bridge and sluices
Weir inflow
Weir sluices
Weir outfall
Canalside cottages (all occupied)
One of several designs of self-closing gate
Pontoon
Pumpout
Moorings
Boats 1
Boats 2
Boats 3
Boats 4
The hulls of old vessels were used to shore up the embankment, between canal and river, at Purton. [This practice was also used in Ireland, on both the Barrow and the Suir, but not on anything like the same scale.] The result was the creation of a boat or ship graveyard that preserved, and makes reasonably accessible, the hulls or frames or at least parts of a large number of inland, estuarial and coastal vessels. And some of them are vessels that traded with Ireland.
The Friends of Purton have an informative website here; please also read their page about access here. I can confirm that parking is restricted on the site; it would be easy to annoy the local people by careless parking.
Good information is provided on site.
Information board
Memorial
Close-up
Advice
All identified wrecks have plaques like this
I had allowed an hour for my visit, but didn’t see everything; it would have been easy to spend twice as much time there. In the summer, growth hid a few of the artefacts, but there was plenty to see without trampling on the shrubbery.
The Mary Ann …
… is in there somewhere
There are quite a few concrete (ferrocement) barges, built during the Second World War.
Up close
Bows on
Information plaque
Stacked up
Deck details
Merging into the bank
One side
Of the other vessels, the Dursley is apparently in reasonable condition but, on my visit, was largely hidden in the grass.
Dursley plaque
Dursley sternpost and rudder
The same was true of the Katherine [or Catherine] Ellen, built in Dungarvan.
Katherine Ellen plaque
Katherine Ellen site
I failed to find the Jonadab, a Severn trow that traded to the (Munster) Blackwater, but I did see the remains of the Scottish-built Dispatch, which is amongst the vessels listed by Niall O’Brien as having visited the Munster Blackwater [Blackwater and Bride: navigation and trade 7000BC to 2007, Niall O’Brien Publishing, Ballyduff Upper, 2008].
Dispatch plaque
Dispatch hull
Then there were the dramatic remains of Sally, renamed King, of London.
Sally plaque
Sally remains 1
Sally remains 2
And many more. Even isolated timbers or iron ribs had their interest. But let me finish with a wreck that is not on the embankment but just offshore.
Tanker offshore
You can read about the loss of the tankers Arkendale H and Wastdale H here and here. They are remembered on a plaque at the site.
Plaque about the tankers
I don’t know which of the tankers is shown in my photos
The wreck is a reminder of the hazards of estuaries
Purton is well worth a visit — but it is only one of the waterways delights close to the Fishguard/Pembroke to London route.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Operations, Sea, Uncategorized, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Blackwater, Bride, canal, estuary, Gloucester, hulk, Purton, schooner, Severn, Sharpness
Waterways Ireland has applied to Offaly County Council for planning permission for work on Victoria Lock:
REPLACING THE EXISTING LOWER LOCK GATES, LAND-TIES AND LAND-TIE ANCHORS, ALONG WITH ANY ASSOCIATED SITE WORKS. THIS WILL INVOLVE WORKS TO A PROTECTED STRUCTURE RPS NO: 38-05 AND WILL BE CARRIED OUT WITHIN THE CURTILAGE OF A PROTECTED STRUCTURE RPS NO: 38-04
The decision is due by 4 September 2015.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Modern matters, Operations, Restoration and rebuilding, Safety, Shannon, Waterways management
Tagged Meelick, Offaly, Victoria Lock, Waterways Ireland
Irish waterways history 