Category Archives: Built heritage

Irish Times catches up …

Posted on Tuesday 15 May 2012 | Leave a comment

… with this site, reporting on both Seol Sionna and the gandalows, which were covered here and here.

 

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Posted in Built heritage, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Restoration and rebuilding, Scenery, Shannon, shannon estuary, Steamers, The turf trade, Tourism, waterways

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Seol Sionna launch

Posted on Friday 11 May 2012 | Leave a comment

Seol Sionna under construction

The reproduction 25′ Shannon estuary hooker Seol Sionna will be launched at Querrin, Co Clare, on Saturday 19 May 2012, with celebrations continuing at Carrigaholt (home of the sublime Long Dock pub and eatery) on the following day [h/t dbm].

Canoe at Querrin. The second syllable of “canoe” rhymes with “go”

The pier at Querrin was built by the Shannon Commissioners; one of their marker stones (there are four at Querrin) is shown above.

Whaddya mean, you don’t know where Querrin is?

Remember, if the turf boats had not established the tourist traffic to Kilrush and Kilkee, the Shannon estuary steamers might never have got going and there might never have been a P&O line.

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Posted in Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Restoration and rebuilding, Scenery, shannon estuary, Sources, Steamers, The turf trade, Tourism, waterways

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Fairies, squirrels and steamers

Posted on Friday 11 May 2012 | 5 comments

I am grateful to Liam Kelly for sending me this photo of a steamer on the Shannon. He says that the photo is believed to show a steamer belonging to Lord Granard (Bernard Forbes, 8th Earl of Granard) passing through Lanesborough Bridge in 1900.

Here is a map showing Lanesborough and Castle Forbes.

Lanesborough and Lough Forbes (OSI ~1840)

And here is Castle Forbes shown in relation to Lough Forbes.

Castle Forbes and Lough Forbes (OSI ~1900)

According to a programme reproduced on page 200 of Ruth Delany’s The Shannon Navigation (Lilliput Press, Dublin 2008), Lord Granard (Right Hon the Earl of Granard, KP, GCVO) was Commodore of the 1929 Lough Forbes Regatta, held under the auspices of the North Shannon Yacht Club Flag and the Motor Yacht Club of Ireland. Page 197 of the same work has a photo of a North Shannon Yacht Club regatta on Lough Boderg in 1903; it includes a large steam yacht, but with a white rather than a black hull.

The Fairy Queen

Page 181 of the same work has a photo of a passenger steamer, the Fairy Queen, one of the six operated by the Shannon Development Company, which was set up in 1897: the Fairy Queen and the Shannon Queen worked the confined waters of the Shannon above Athlone. The same photo of the Fairy Queen can be seen here.

To my eye, the steamer in the Lanesborough photo looks rather like the Fairy Queen, although I don’t think I could go so far as to suggest that they are one and the same. They’re shown from different angles and, anyway, similarities between steamers of the same era are to be expected. The reason I comment on the matter is that, while looking into the history of the Fairy Queen, I found that the invaluable Clydebuilt Ships Database had a photo of the 1893 Fairy Queen that served on the Shannon (not to be confused with her 1897 replacement). And, again to my eye, the Fairy Queen in the Scottish photo does not seem to be the same as that in the Irish photo. I would welcome other people’s comments on the matter.

The squirrels

The story is here. There is more on the family’s collection of animals here.

 

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Natural heritage, Operations, Shannon, Steamers, Tourism, waterways

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Royal Canal: unprecedented speed

Posted on Thursday 10 May 2012 | Leave a comment

From the Freeman’s Journal of 5 December 1833:

The Broadstone, from The Tourist’s Illustrated Hand-Book for Ireland 3rd ed David Bryce, London 1854

 UNPRECEDENTED SPEED ATTAINED IN TRAVELLING UPON THE ROYAL CANAL

The Court of Directors of the Royal Canal hereby give Notice, that the present Day-Boat will cease running on Friday, the 6th, and that an Iron-Boat, capable of conveying Seventy Passengers, will leave the Broadstone harbour, at Nine o’Clock, on the Morning of Saturday, the 7th inst, for Mullingar, where it will arrive at Five o’Clock in the Evening; and Notice is further given, that at Nine o’Clock upon each Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, a Boat will leave Dublin for Mullingar, and return from thence at the same hour upon Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. By the foregoing arrangement a saving of three hours and a half will be effected. The Night-Boat will, for the present, continue to leave Dublin for Longford, each day, at Two o’Clock, and a Boat will depart from thence, for Dublin, each Morning, at Eleven o’Clock.

By Order,
SAMUEL DRAPER, Secretary.
Royal Canal-house, 2d Dec., 1833.

 

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Posted in Built heritage, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, waterways

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Grand Canal harbour

Posted on Thursday 10 May 2012 | Leave a comment

The curved building in March 2011 …

… and in May 2012

No sign of any improvement or of anything done to protect the building.

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Restoration and rebuilding

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The Limerick Gandalow

Posted on Thursday 10 May 2012 | 2 comments

Bunratty Gandalow 2008

Gandalows (there are several spellings) are boats of the upper reaches of the Shannon Estuary. They come in several shapes and sizes and have been covered in several books. There is an opportunity to see some of them on the water, in Limerick, on Saturday 19 May 2012, when the ILEN School & Network for Wooden Boat Building has organised a day of talks and races. Full details here.

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Posted in Built heritage, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Restoration and rebuilding, Shannon, shannon estuary, Water sports activities, waterways

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Limerick Dock Yard

Posted on Thursday 10 May 2012 | Leave a comment

On 9 May 2012 the Irish Times carried a large ad offering for sale a “landmark site situated in a prestigious location on the North Circular Road/O’Callaghan’s Strand” in Limerick. The site is being sold by DTZ Sherry Fitzgerald but I can’t find it listed on their website; nor can I find, on the Irish Times website, the article “Toffee factory to test sticky Limerick market” that, coincidentally, appeared on the page after the ad.

However, the Limerick Post has a brief history of the site, which is shown on the OSI map of ~1900.

The Condensed Milk Manufactory ~1900

The waterways interest is actually in the dockyard, with its dock and slip, on the river just south of the manufactory. The yard also appears on the ~1840 map.

The dockyard ~1840

You can see the site on this Google photo …

… but the dockyard is gone.

 

 

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Non-waterway, Shannon, Sources, waterways

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Heritage Council

Posted on Thursday 10 May 2012 | Leave a comment

The Heritage Council is now down wid da kidz in da hood, having acquired a facetweet page. Does this suggest that facetweeting is now becoming socially aceeptable? And it even has a YouTube thingie, where you can watch exciting videos of ministers making speeches.

Actually, the Heritage Council is becoming very with it, as the young folk say nowadays, aligning itself with the new reality that, unless it can show an economic payoff, its interests will be a low priority with the government.

You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, comme on dit, or at least comme Mr Dylan dit.

 

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Operations, People, Politics, Waterways management

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Planting Plassey

Posted on Tuesday 8 May 2012 | Leave a comment

A group called We Love Plassey Riverbank has a facetweet page and another group called Limerick City Biodiversity Network also has one.

On Sunday 13 May 2012, starting at noon, the two groups will cooperate in planting native wildflowers along the banks of the Park Canal and the towing-path to Plassey; details here and I wish them a successful day.

 

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Natural heritage, People, Scenery, waterways, Waterways management

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Money

Posted on Tuesday 8 May 2012 | Leave a comment

This Irish Times article might explain why Dublin City Council did not respond to my communication about the condition of the curved building at Grand Canal Harbour.

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Politics, waterways

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