Category Archives: Drainage

I have indulged in just such conjecture about the design of the ferry boat in use at Cammoge in 1849, crossing the outlet from Poulnasherry Bay, west of Kilrush on the Shannon estuary. The news reports of the time give very little information about the design of the boat, and the reliability of that information is questionable, which makes my speculation even more dangerous. Nonetheless, I thought it might be useful to set out some thoughts on the subject in the hope that other folk, who know more about the background, the location or naval architecture than I do, might be able to help to clarify the design.

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Posted in Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Scenery, Shannon, shannon estuary, Sources, The turf trade, waterways, Weather

Tagged 1849, boats, Cammoge, Clare, Commogue, drown, estuary, famine, ferry, floods, flow, horse boat, Ireland, Kilrush, Limerick, Operations, Poulnasherry, quay, Shannon, turf, vessels, workboat

On wires and worked with steam*

Posted on Monday 4 March 2013 | 2 comments

Thanks again to Paul Quinn for another set of photographs, this time of the newly-installed wakeboarding system thingie in Grand Canal Dock, Dublin, which is to be opened on 9 March 2013.

Wakeboarding, as I understand it, involves dressing up in brightly coloured plastics, standing on a plank and being towed around behind a boat. I don’t myself see the appeal, being more the sedentary sort, but chacun a son gout, as the French don’t say, apparently, although why they’re supposed to know anything about it I don’t … but I digress. The wakeboarding system thingie seems to allow wakeboarding without a boat; it might also require less sea room.

A system was installed temporarily last year; there is information about it here. I don’t know whether that is the same system as has now been installed. You can read the environmental report here [PDF]. Waterways Ireland tells me that

Waterways Ireland has entered into a three year commercial operating licence agreement with Colin Harris T/A Wakedock Ltd., to place and operate a mobile wakeboarding system in Grand Canal Dock.

There seems to be an association between Wakedock and the Surfdock business in the Naomh Éanna, although Wakedock also has its own website.

I asked Waterways Ireland how much it was earning from this; it refused to tell me:

Waterways Ireland do not release license fees charged to individual commercial licence holders as this would be detrimental to our business interest in future license fee valuations.

A tower tower

Looking from Grand Canal Theatre: note the white ramps

Seen from Hanover Quay

The ramps (looking east towards Ringsend)

looking south from hanover quay at ramps.

A close-up from Hanover Quay

looking south from hanover quay.approx.25 meters

The Naomh Éanna in the background

looking south from sea locks.aprox 50 meters

About 50m from the sea locks

Looking west to Gallery Quay

Ramp in the foreground; excavator at Charlotte Quay in the background

Ramps and western line support

Naomh Éanne in its new position

Waterways Ireland tells me that:

When agreeing the location, consideration was given to maintaining access to the pump-out on Hanover Quay and also access to vessels wishing to enter via the lock gates. No detrimental impact on navigation for other users is anticipated.

WI kindly provided this map.

GCD wakeboarding map

Semper aliquid novi Africam adferre, as my old grandmother used to say.

* see The Third Policeman

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged boats, cable, canal, Dublin, Grand Canal, Grand Canal Dock, Ireland, Naomh Eanna, Ringsend, surfdock, vessels, wakeboard, wakedock, waterways, Waterways Ireland

Mystery solved

Posted on Wednesday 27 February 2013 | Leave a comment

Nobody tried the Spot the canal I set the other day, so I must now reveal that the eel weir shown is at the upper end of the Cong Canal. There are many photos and maps on that page.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Operations, Rail, Sources, Steamers, Tourism, waterways

Tagged Ashford, boats, bridge, canal, Cong, floods, flow, Ireland, jetties, lock, lost, Lough Corrib, Lough Mask, MacMahon, mill, navigation, Operations, quay, Roberts, vessels, water level, waterways, weir

The corncrake and the decline of religion

Posted on Monday 18 February 2013 | Leave a comment

On 13 February 2013 the Irish Times reported that a farmers’ representative had told politicians that

Farmers in the Shannon callows are facing extinction along with the corncrake and wading birds […].

He wanted taxpayers’ money to be spent on stopping the river flooding its flood plain.

Back in the days when people believed in gods, they would have known what a flood meant: it was a message from a deity, telling them to stop whatever they were doing. On the Shannon, either people have stopped believing in gods or they are having some difficulty in interpreting the message, despite its having been delivered over and over again for hundreds of years. If it were interpreted properly, or even if landowners had a modicum of common sense, they would realise that they should either cease trying to earn a living along the banks of a river that floods regularly or adapt their expectations or their activities to take account of the floods (one thinks of rice paddies …).

In the years 2009–2011 net subsidies to agriculture in the Midland region were 114.4% of the operating surplus. For the Border, Midland and Western region as a whole, the figure was 110.4%. In other words, agriculture in those regions is, on balance, a form of outdoor therapy for landowners: it is not an economic activity, and there is no point in taxpayers’ spending any more money on it.

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Posted in Ashore, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Natural heritage, Operations, People, Politics, Scenery, Shannon, Sources, The cattle trade, waterways, Waterways management, Weather

Tagged agriculture, farming, floods, Shannon, waterways, Waterways Ireland

Wexford

Posted on Monday 18 February 2013 | 2 comments

Here is a great account of the development of Wexford Harbour, with a history of its shipping here.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Rail, Scenery, Sources, Steamers, The fishing trade, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged Bargy, boats, bridge, Caarnsore, Forth, Ireland, Operations, Slaney, waterways, Wexford

The glory that was Greese

Posted on Monday 11 February 2013 | Leave a comment

The River Greese is a tributary of the River Barrow, joining it below Maganey Lock. The photo is taken from the road on the west bank of the Barrow.

The Greese joins the Barrow: the trackway passes over it on a bridge

You can locate it on the OSI map by zooming out from here; the extract below shows the confluence.

The confluence

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Natural heritage, Operations, Scenery, waterways, Weather

Tagged Barrow, bridge, Carlow, floods, flow, Grand Canal, Greese, Ireland, Laois, Maganey, Operations, Shrule, waterways

Newcomen Bridge again

Posted on Thursday 24 January 2013 | 5 comments

Last month I wrote about the lock at Newcomen Bridge on the Royal Canal:

Industrial Heritage Ireland has created a page giving the history of the railway crossing at Newcomen Bridge. However, it would be nice to have some documentary evidence about the resiting of the lock — and about the headroom under the bridge before the lock was moved.

Here it is, from the Freeman’s Journal of 12 April 1873, in an article about the new Spencer Docks:

Above the new metal bridge there is a basin for Canal boats, with a quayage of 450 feet at either side and a depth of six feet. In connection with the new works, the lowering of Newcomen-bridge on the Clontarf-road must be alluded to. To effect this the old lock had to be moved higher up, and the old bridge replaced by one suited for the requirements of the tramway traffic. The arch of the bridge crossing the Canal was lowered five feet, and a new girder iron bridge crosses the railway at the same level. The Main Drainage Board wisely took advantage of the opportunity of the Canal being drained to make a main sewer under the canal and the railway above Newcomen-bridge at the low level required.

Happy, Mick?

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Non-waterway, Operations, Rail, Restoration and rebuilding, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged barge, boats, bridge, canal, Dublin, Ireland, jetties, lock, MGWR, Newcomen Bridge, Operations, Price, quay, railway, Royal Canal, sewer, Spencer Dock, steamer, vessels, water level, waterways

Dredgers

Posted on Monday 21 January 2013 | Leave a comment

I’ve moved my pics of dredgers to a new page and added a few more.

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Posted in Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Shannon, shannon estuary, Suir, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged boats, bridge, canal, Clare, dredger, dredging, Dublin, Erne, estuary, Ireland, Killaloe, L & M Keating, Limerick, lock, Lough Derg, Operations, Shannon, Shannon-Erne Waterway, vessels, waterways, Waterways Ireland, workboat

Category Archives: Drainage

The Limerick Navigation: lock sizes

Sailing in the Lowtown high

Mark Twain and the Cammoge drownings of 1849

On wires and worked with steam*

Mystery solved

The corncrake and the decline of religion

Wexford

The glory that was Greese

Newcomen Bridge again

Dredgers

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