Category Archives: Canals

More Pathé

Posted on Tuesday 11 February 2014 | 4 comments

A train ferry, claimed to be in service on the Liffey

Fishing at Ringsend the hard way

Turf by canal

Launching the Irish Elm in Cork

A Boyne regatta

Making and using a Boyne currach in 1921 (you can learn the art yourself here)

A non-watery film: Irish Aviation Day 1936

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Rail, Scenery, Sea, Sources, The fishing trade, The turf trade, Water sports activities, waterways

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Relieving Athlone

Posted on Monday 10 February 2014 | 2 comments

Parteen Villa Weir is sending large amounts of water down the original channel of the Shannon, and over the Falls of Doonass, to draw water off from the upper reaches of the river.

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The footbridge at Castleconnell

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Above the bridge

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The downstream side of the bridge

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A bumpy ride

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At normal levels the bottom of the wall is several feet above the water

 

Levels below Parteen Villa have not yet reached those of 2009 and the channel can probably take more before folk get flooded.

The Old River Shannon site has some photos taken at Parteen Villa Weir.

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Posted in Built heritage, Canals, Charles Wye Williams, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Natural heritage, Operations, Safety, Shannon, Sources, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management, Weather

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Canal tourists or canal pensioners?

Posted on Monday 10 February 2014 | Leave a comment
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La Serre

Nibbling yesterday on a morsel of cured salmon, with fennel and apple salad, lemon crème fraiche and lavender jelly, at the excellent La Serre restaurant at the Village at Lyons, I looked forward to walking outside afterwards, on to the canal bank, to view the many boats that would undoubtedly be moored there, above the thirteenth lock, as their owners lunched at La Serre’s sister institution, the Canal Café.

The thirteenth lock (and its wonderful O)

The thirteenth lock (and its wonderful O)

Judge of my surprise, then, when I found not a single boat outside. I realised, though, that boaters probably walked from nearby Hazelhatch and even from Sallins. For we know, do we not, that boaters are vital to tourism? Even Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party tells us so, which means that they must be out and about along the canals, spending money (and where better to spend it than at the Canal Café?).

The Canal Café, mere feet from the canal bank

The Canal Café, mere feet from the canal bank

But a difficulty has struck me. Mr Higgins’s position is that boaters have money available for discretionary expenditure, but Senator John Kelly tells us that most boaters are “retired couples from England who are receiving small English pensions”. So one politician tells us that boaters have disposable incomes and that they should not pay money to Waterways Ireland because they spend money in pubs and restaurants along the canals; another politician tells us that boaters should not pay money to Waterways Ireland because they have none to spare.

I find it difficult to reconcile these two positions.

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Scenery, Tourism, Uncategorized, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

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Scrap the damn thing

Posted on Monday 10 February 2014 | 4 comments

The Irish Times reports today, in an article that will probably disappear behind a paywall sooner or later, that some folk don’t want the Naomh Éanna, a decrepit former ferry cluttering up the Grand Canal Dock, to be scrapped.

There seems to be a reluctance to accept that things, like people, have a lifespan. Keeping them alive indefinitely costs a lot of money. And none of those quoted in the article has put forward any good reason for keeping the damn thing, never mind any reason that would justify the spending of very large amounts of money on it.

Yes, it had some interesting (if minor) historical associations, but the best way of recording them would be to write a book, or create a website, or even make a movie, about the ship’s history. Money spent that way would be a far better investment than money spent on keeping the Naomh Éanna afloat. Its heritage or historical value lies in the associated information, not in the steel.

As it is, the vessel has been hanging around for about twenty-five years, since it failed a survey in 1986 or 1988 (I have found different dates). I don’t know how much it has done since then to advance appreciation of industrial or cultural history, or whatever it is that the complainants think is being vandalised, but I would have thought that anyone who wanted to gaze on an elderly vessel has had plenty of opportunity to do so.

Addendum: it seems some folk want to draw up an investment plan.

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Posted in Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Sea, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, The turf trade, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management

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Send for the lifeboat

Posted on Saturday 8 February 2014 | 2 comments

I read here that some folk want to remove the retired lifeboat Mary Stanford from Grand Canal Dock (a laudable aim, especially if it saves Waterways Ireland money), transport it to Ballycotton, Co Cork, and restore it.

It is to be hoped that their efforts will be more successful than those of the group that intended to restore the Clogherhead lifeboat Charles Whitton.

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Posted in Ashore, Canals, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Restoration and rebuilding, Sea, Sources, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

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Snails

Posted on Thursday 6 February 2014 | 2 comments

Snails may save us from restoring the Longford Branch of the Royal. Industrialheritageireland has the story.

Might be an idea to start breeding these snails for judicious use elsewhere.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Charles Wye Williams, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Natural heritage, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Shannon, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, Tourism, Ulster Canal, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

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Shinners losing patience over sheugh

Posted on Thursday 6 February 2014 | 2 comments

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin [SF, Cavan-Monaghan] in the Dáil on 5 February 2014:

There is no excuse for either the British or the Irish Governments to stand over any delay in advancing with key cross-Border infrastructural projects such as the Carlingford Narrow Water bridge and the Ulster Canal. With regard to the Ulster Canal, I have been in touch with the office of the Northern Ireland Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure, Carál Ní Chuilín MLA, my party colleague. She assures me that both she and her counterpart here, the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan, are fully committed to this project, and I welcome that affirmation. As I pointed out in the debate on the Six Counties last year, the North-South Ministerial Council agreed to proceed with the Ulster Canal project in 2007. In the intervening period, we have seen the economic collapse in this State and a parallel contraction in the North. Despite this, the Ulster Canal project was kept alive.

Permission was granted last year for the Northern section by Environment Minister, Alex Atwood, and by Clones Town Council and Monaghan County Council for the section in this jurisdiction.

The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan, has advised that the earliest the contract could be awarded would be late 2014 with a completion date in spring 2017. I urge the Minister to do all in his power to expedite this process and to encourage his colleagues to do so. I also urge him to maximise the possible EU funding for the project from the Peace IV programme.

The Ulster Canal project is about greatly enhancing one of the finest landscapes in Ireland for locals and tourists alike, regenerating rural areas that have long been neglected and delivering a tangible peace dividend to Border communities that were neglected for far too long. It is time to get the work on the ground under way.

Yes …. Sinn Féin’s faith in the economic potential of canals is touching, if slightly worrying for anyone who believes that the world economy has changed since the late eighteenth century.

But wait: as far as I can see, SF is one of the few groups that has not asked Jimmy Deenihan about Waterways Ireland’s proposed new byelaws, which might force boaters to pay slightly more of the cost of their hobby. Perhaps SF is secretly hoping that user charges on the Clones Sheugh will be high enough to pay at least the interest on the construction cost? That would be nice.

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Natural heritage, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Sources, Tourism, Ulster Canal, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

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Sallins speculation

Posted on Thursday 6 February 2014 | Leave a comment

I emailed Waterways Ireland on 4 February 2014:

I would be grateful if you could tell me whether any person applied, under byelaw 38q, for permission to hold an aquatic event on the Grand Canal at or near Sallins on or after Friday 24 January 2014.

WI said:

No-one applied to hold an aquatic event on or around that date on the Grand Canal.

If I were Waterways Ireland, and I heard a rumour (or got a tip-off from the NSA) to the effect that some boaters were going to hold a demo at Sallins, and if nobody had asked permission to hold the demo, or made any arrangements with me about it, and if I expected work to start shortly at Sallins, I might be worried that the demo might turn out to be more than a photo opportunity: that it might turn into an occupation or moor-in, one that would delay the work and possibly expose me to additional costs.

So I would do what I could, within the byelaws, to prevent the holding of the aquatic event. I would note byelaw 18 (2) (b):

(2) The Commissioners, or any authorised officer, may prohibit navigation on the canals or any part thereof from time to time for the purposes of—

( a ) an emergency, or

( b ) preventing the passage of a boat in respect of which a permit has not been issued under these Bye-Laws, or has been withdrawn, or is not displayed in the manner prescribed in Bye-law 40 of these Bye-laws.

If I were not Waterways Ireland, then, but a would-be demonstrator, I would make a note to inform the authorities next time I planned a demo so that there would be no surprises on either side.

I am, however, neither WI nor a would-be demonstrator, so (apart from the information I gleaned from WI) I know nothing of what either side may have done or not done, thought or not thought.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Safety, Sources, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

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English pensioners

Posted on Thursday 6 February 2014 | 7 comments

How useful it is to have such well-informed politicians as John Kelly, a Labour Party senator from Co Roscommon. He was able to tell us that there are 300–400 people “moored on our canals and waterways”, which is rather fewer than WI thinks, what with there being over 8000 boats registered on the Shannon. The learned Senator Kelly was also able to tell us that, of those 300–400 people,

Most of them are retired couples from England who are receiving small English pensions. This proposal will drive them off the water and back to England. They are contributing hugely to local economies throughout this country.

Most of them? For, I presume, certain values of most — and certain values of 300–400.

Maybe whoever is briefing politicians could make sure they can read their briefs properly …. It was almost a relief to turn to the more conventional Trottery from Joe Higgins. I imagine that his intervention will certainly sway Fine Gael.

Addendum: Senator Kelly did it again next day, but at least he had changed most to many.

Approximately 400 families in this country currently paying only €126 per year in respect of mooring will if these by-laws are introduced now be faced with charges of €3,500 per annum. Many of the people concerned are retired English couples and families who cannot afford housing.

The concept of a range of prices seems to be unfamiliar to the good senator, so he takes the top rate, for the largest size of boat in the best location with the highest level of services, and says that that applies to all. And he seems to be unaware that many boats are parked by people who do not live on them.

Had the good senator had able to read Waterways Ireland’s document, he would have seen that proposed mooring fees range upwards from €160 for non-residential moorings (many boats are not lived on) and €1250 for residential. Claiming that the highest value is the only one is seriously misleading.

 

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Politics, Safety, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

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Goodbye Naomh Éanna?

Posted on Thursday 6 February 2014 | 6 comments

See Fergal.b’s post today on boards.ie. Scrapping sounds like a good idea to me, but it would be nice (if it hasn’t already been done) to take as many photos as possible of the vessel.

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Posted in Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Safety, Sea, Sources, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

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