Industrial Heritage Ireland has been visiting Ulster waterways including the Blackwater, which linked the Ulster Canal to Lough Neagh.
Brian Cassells was quoted again in the Belfast Telegraph on 27 April 2013. He believes that walking in the country is a Good Thing, although it’s not clear why that requires a canal. I trust that Sammy Wilson will stand firm and refuse to spend public money on a project that has an even stronger political smell than the proposed Narrow Water Bridge.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Sources, Tourism, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Blackwater, boats, bridge, canal, Erne, Ireland, Lagan, Lough Neagh, motorway, Narrow Water, Operations, Sammy Wilson, Ulster Canal, water level, waterways, Waterways Ireland
From Canals of Dublin.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Operations, Restoration and rebuilding, Sources, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged bridge, Broombridge, canal, Dublin, Ireland, Royal Canal
Some superb pics here, by Conor Nolan, of converted working boats on the final descent into Dublin on the recently reopened Royal Canal.
Posted in Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Rail, Restoration and rebuilding, Scenery, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged barge, boats, bridge, canal, Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland, lock, Operations, Royal Canal, vessels, waterways, Waterways Ireland
I dare say you’ve observed, Major, how singularly little originality there is about Chief Secretaries. One of them, whose name is lost in the mists of antiquity, thought of piers and seed potatoes, and since then all his successors have gone on building piers and handing out seed potatoes. They never hit on anything original. Now if I was a Chief Secretary I’d strike out a line of my own. When I found I had to build something I’d run up a few round towers.
Thus the Rev J J Meldon, curate of Ballymoy, to Major Kent in George A Birmingham’s excellent Spanish Gold. (Birmingham was really Canon James Owen Hannay, who managed to annoy nationalist Catholics, which is always useful.)
Amongst the builders of piers were Alexander Nimmo and the Shannon Commissioners, whose works on the estuary included Saleen Pier.
The Irish Press Releases website has a page dated 17 April 2013:
Funding approved for Clare piers
Co. Clare, Ireland — 17 Apr. 2013 — Funding has been approved for various harbour and pier improvement projects in County Clare. Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney, T.D., today announced funds totalling 91,500 euro for projects at Ballyvaughan, Cappagh, Liscannor, Carrigaholt and Kilbaha harbours/piers.
“The safety works scheduled to take place at these harbours will have a hugely positive impact on the livelihoods of fishermen and other users of the piers,” explained Clare Senator Tony Mulcahy. He added: “These projects are central to ensuring the safety of all users of the piers. The continued upgrading of these piers is essential to the development of both industry and tourism in the respective areas.”
The funding announcement features allocations of €22,500 to Carrigaholt, €37,500 to Ballyvaughan, €9,000 to Kilbaha, and €11,250 to both Liscannor and Cappagh.
According to Senator Mulcahy: “The funding contribution from the Government covers 75% of the total cost of the relevant projects which include repairs to the pier wall in Ballyvaughan, the installation of a handrail to pier access, harbour wall and upgrade of visitor moorings at Carrigaholt, a complete remediation to the existing pier walls at Liscannor, repairs to the sea wall at Cappagh, and repairs to the harbour wall capping stones at Kilbaha.”
Carrigaholt, Kilbaha and Cappa[gh] are all Shannon Estuary harbour or piers; Cappa[gh] was extended by the Shannon Commissioners. This press release suggests therefore that, if the Chief Secretary’s successors cannot afford to build any new piers, they can at least afford some money to repair them. There is no news about seed potatoes (or, alas, about fodder).
Unfortunately I could find nothing about this topic either on the website of Senator Tony Mulcahy FG or on that of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, although I may have had the wrong search terms. However, some other (coincidentally. also Fine Gael) politicians have welcomed the planned spending of money on Glin pier [do look at all the pics], which seems to be used only for swimming, so perhaps there is a nationwide campaign of spending small amounts of money in many places — and getting local Fine Gael pols to announce it. Presumably it distracts attention from the shortage of seed potatoes.
The Minister for Ag is a member of Fine Gael.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Scenery, Shannon, shannon estuary, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, The turf trade, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged boats, Cappa, Carrigaholt, Clare, estuary, George A Birmingham, Glin, Ireland, J J Meldon, jetties, kilbaha, Kilrush, Limerick, Operations, Shannon, Spanish Gold, steamer, waterways
The Irish Independent says today:
Canal ‘to reopen’ after 80 years
Part of the cross-border Ulster Canal which has not been used for 80 years is to reopen, it has been revealed. […]
It says that the NI environment minister, Alex Attwood, announced that planning permission had been granted in Northern Ireland for the restoration of the Clones Sheugh and that Brian Cassells of the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland expected restoration to be extended all the way to Lough Neagh, which he thought would be a good thing.
Waterways Ireland has a press release here [PDF], the Impartial Reporter covers it here, the Indo’s sister-paper the Belfast Telegraph report is here and 4ni has a brief account here.
I realise that it would be folly to expect newspapers to know anything about the subjects they write about, but shouldn’t they do something to check the press releases they’re given? A moment’s googling would have shown that “is to reopen” is, to put it mildly, an overstatement, because there can be no reopening until funding is provided. The last Irish government undertook to pay the cost but soon found that it couldn’t afford it; it and its successor have, since then, been trying to disguise the fact (and to find a crock of gold).
Of course, even if the Irish government does find the funding, spending it on a dead-end stump of a canal to Clones would be a waste of money, and there is not the slightest possibility that the canal will ever get any further. Some Clones folk, and inland boat-owners, are all in favour of it, but they’re not offering to pay for it.
But back to the newspapers. Shouldn’t they check the context, as well as the content, of press releases to ensure that the published accounts tell the full story?
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Sources, Tourism, Ulster Canal, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Alex Attwood, boats, bridge, canal, Clones, department of arts heritage and the gaeltacht, Erne, Ireland, Irish Independent, Lough Neagh, Operations, planning permission, press releases, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways Ireland
Paul Quinn has very kindly sent on some recent photos of the work in progress at the Grand Canal Dock in Dublin. Two of the photos show the strengthening of Hanover Quay and the third shows the new slipway, which is now complete and in use. I’ve added the photos towards the end of the existing GCD page here.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Restoration and rebuilding, Steamers, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged barge, boats, bridge, canal, Dublin, Grand Canal, Grand Canal Dock, Hanover Quay, Ireland, L & M Keating, Liffey, lock, Operations, Ringsend, slipway, waterways, Waterways Ireland
Last September, I noted that the excellent KildareStreet.com website had been crippled by a change to the software used on the Oireachtas debates website. Life is too short to be spent ploughing through the witterings of politicians (unless you’re being paid to do so, of course), so KildareStreet.com’s search facility was invaluable, as was its emailing of alerts when my chosen keywords were mentioned. That flow of information ended in September.
Happily, though, the KildareStreet.com folk did not give up, readers donated funds, the rebuilt parts of the site are being tested and, yesterday, I got my first alert in over six months. Here, then, is the news about the Clones Sheugh, as seen from Kildare Street.
Posted in Built heritage, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Scenery, Sources, Tourism, Ulster Canal, Uncategorized, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged boats, bridge, canal, Clones, Dáil, department of arts heritage and the gaeltacht, Erne, Fine Gael, Ireland, Lough Neagh, Oireachtas, Operations, Sean Barrett, Seanad, Senate, Sinn Fein, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways Ireland
Just for a change, I’ve put up a new header photo showing a Shannon 1. The photo was taken from Shannon Airport; you can see Ringmoylan Quay on the far side of the river and the beacon on the right is (I think) on the Horse Rock.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Operations, Scenery, Shannon, shannon estuary, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged airport, Clare, estuary, Horse Rock, Rineanna, Ringmoylan, Shannon, Shannon 1, Shannon Foynes Port Company, waterways
The Impartial Reporter reports (impartially) that “Councillors press for Ulster Canal funding to be released”. The two councillors quoted are Thomas O’Reilly of Fermanagh District Council and Pat Treanor of Monaghan County Council. Both are members of Sinn Féin.
Cllr Treanor is quoted as saying “Once the Government release the funding ….” Cllr Treanor seems to have missed the point that “the funding” does not exist: the [RoI] government has not got the money and, as I have pointed out here many times, no money was set aside for the Ulster Canal. He says that …
… we would in the interim call upon all living in the local community, from Derrykerrib to Clones to begin to think about taking advantage of the obvious business opportunities that this reopening will bring.
If the members of the local community have any money, they might be better advised to invest it in Swiss bank accounts. Or even Bitcoins.
Posted in Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Sources, Tourism, Ulster Canal, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged canal, Clones, councillors, department of arts heritage and the gaeltacht, Derrykerrib, Enniskillen, Erne, Fermanagh, Impartial Reporter, Ireland, Irish economy, Lough Neagh, Monaghan, Operations, Shannon-Erne Waterway, Sinn Fein, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways Ireland
I have remarked before that …
Ewan Duffy of IndustrialHeritageIreland and I have both, in recent times, uncovered new information about the history of the Royal Canal after it was taken over by the Midland Great Western Railway in 1845: a period that, because (I think) of the absence of company archives, is not well covered in published histories of the Royal.
Ewan has now published a splendid piece of research showing that the Dublin end of the Royal Canal, from Newcomen Bridge (Lock 1) to Cross Guns Bridge (Lock 5), was extensively rebuilt during the second half of the nineteenth century. This is, as far as I know, entirely new information. It gains further interest from the interaction between different concerns — canal, railway, tramway, drainage — all contending for the same small space in Dublin.
I have no doubt that there is yet more to be discovered about the Royal’s lost century.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Rail, Restoration and rebuilding, Sources, The cattle trade, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged barge, Binns, boats, bridge, canal, Cross Guns, Dublin, Ireland, lock, Midland Great Western Railway, Newcomen, Operations, Royal Canal, waterways
Irish waterways history