Category Archives: Drainage

Sinn Féin and the Heritage Boat Association

Posted on Friday 24 May 2013 | 2 comments

KildareStreet again: a Dáil written answer from Wednesday 22 May 2013.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh [SF, Dublin South Central]: 273. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his attention has been drawn to the fact that Waterways Ireland has decided to suspend the much-needed dredging works on the Grand Canal with only one section left to be completed and that that section of canal is shallowest due to years of silt and years of dumping and that this impacts on barges trying to traverse the canal, the delay in recommencing the dredging could seriously impact on plans by Dublin City Council to install a cycle track from Bluebell to Harold’s Cross, due to heavy equipment for any future dredging works having to locate on the northside of the canal where the cycle track would be,as the LUAS is on the other side; if he will ensure that funding for the dredging project to recommence works urgently be made available for Waterways Ireland. [24714/13]

Alan Kelly [Labour, Tipperary North]: I am not aware of a decision by Waterways Ireland to suspend dredging works on the Grand Canal. As you know, Waterways Ireland are a state agency under the agency of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. However, responsibility for the management of funding programmes related to the development of cycling infrastructure in the Greater Dublin Area rests with the National Transport Authority (NTA). Accordingly, to be of assistance, I have referred this question to the NTA for direct reply to the Deputy. Please contact my private office if a reply has not been received within ten working days.

I have been told that Waterways Ireland has issued no new dredging tenders this year; perhaps it’s saving up for the Cavan and Monaghan sheughs. However, I can’t check: Waterways Ireland isn’t showing tenders on its new website, sending the curious instead to a Eurosite that I can’t persuade to tell me anything interesting. Any difficulty for barges should make itself apparent shortly.

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

Tagged barge, boats, bridge, canal, dredging, Dublin, Grand Canal, Ireland, Operations, Sinn Fein, waterways, Waterways Ireland, workboat

Thon Cavan Sheugh

Posted on Friday 24 May 2013 | 4 comments

Thanks to Kildare Street for this, which came up in Dáil written answers on Wednesday 22 May 2013.

Brendan Smith [FF, Cavan-Monaghan]: To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the position regarding the feasibility study that has been underway for some time in relation to the proposed extension of the Erne Navigation from Belturbet to Killykeen and Killeshandra; when this study will be completed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24538/13]

Jimmy Deenihan [FG Kerry North/West Limerick]: I am informed by Waterways Ireland that the current position is that work is continuing on the collection of data relating to this project and Waterways Ireland is currently preparing draft options for the project. At that point consultants will then assess the environmental implications of the options. It is expected that the feasibility study will be completed as planned by the end of 2013.

That’s Lough Oughter they’re talking about. If thon Monaghan boys are getting a sheugh, Cavan boys need one too. And, of course, consultants are having a hard time so they could benefit by earning a few bob. The net benefit to the economy will be pretty well nil (any spending will simply be displaced from elsewhere).

I think that Killykeen is a forest park; it is not clear how the local economy would benefit from the arrival of a few boats. If the folk of the area want a unique water-based attraction that might bring foreign tourists, they would be better advised to have the lake made an engine-free zone, open only to boats rowed, paddled or sailed, and with safe places to camp on the banks.

You can read here about how to get a boat from Belturbet to Lough Oughter.

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

Tagged boats, canal, Clones, department of arts heritage and the gaeltacht, Dublin, Erne, Ireland, Killeshandra, Killykeen, lock, lost, Lough Oughter, Operations, Shannon-Erne Waterway, vessels, water level, waterways, Waterways Ireland, weir

Swinging moorings

Posted on Sunday 12 May 2013 | 1 comment

If you own either of these boats, you might like to check your mooring lines.

Barrow Otter between the aqueducts

Small boat between the Robertstown slipway and Lowtown

Incidentally, the roadway between Robertstown and Lowtown is in dreadful condition.

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Posted in Ashore, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Scenery, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged aqueduct, barge, Barrow, Barrow Otter, boats, bridge, canal, Grand Canal, Ireland, jetties, Kildare, Lowtown, Operations, Robertstown, Slate River, slipway, vessels, waterways, Waterways Ireland, White-eye feeder

The Clones Sheugh and other northern waters

Posted on Wednesday 1 May 2013 | 6 comments

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.

6 Comments

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

What is the point of newspapers?

Posted on Friday 26 April 2013 | 3 comments

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?

3 Comments

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

More say he rose again

Posted on Tuesday 23 April 2013 | Leave a comment

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.

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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

Raising the Royal

Posted on Wednesday 3 April 2013 | Leave a comment

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.

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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

WI CEO salary

Posted on Friday 22 March 2013 | 2 comments

In 2005 the Waterways Ireland CEO earned £86590. Subsequent annual reports have not disclosed the CEO’s earnings; the report for 2011 says this:

Martin is the CEO; Russell, Brownsmith, D’Arcy and Dennany are (or were: Dennany has since retired) Directors, and thus senior to the three regional managers whose earnings have been disclosed. I think we can assume, therefore, that all five earned more than €100,000, which is £85,187.65 at the moment.

According to the information booklet for the CEO’s job, published here today [downloadable .doc],

The salary range for the position is sterling and as follows: £61,217- £84,630. Salary at appointment will be at the minimum point of the scale.

So it seems likely that the new CEO will be earning considerably less than the outgoing CEO, than the senior directors and than the regional managers, and perhaps less than other staff.

There is a defined benefit pension, though, which is a rara avis these days.

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Posted in Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Ireland, Operations, People, Politics, Sources, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged CEO, emoluments, Ireland, Operations, salary, Waterways Ireland

Weather and water levels

Posted on Friday 22 March 2013 | Leave a comment

Have a look at the water level at Banagher Bridge. As I write at 0823 on 20130322, the latest data is 23 minutes old. The level has been falling for the last five weeks, but are there already signs of an uptick? (Or am I assuming there should be one after last night’s rain?)

Not interested in Banagher? Pick your own spot.

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Posted in Ashore, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Natural heritage, Operations, Shannon, Sources, waterways, Waterways management, Weather