The ramp to the pontoons in Dromineer is now sloping upwards
The water level at Banagher has risen about one metre in the past 35 days.
Dromineer people need to drink more wine
The ghost ship is back
Dromineer sans ivy
Garrykennedy
Garrykennedy from a distance
Miranda in Dromineer
Garrykennedy 1
Fewer boats in WI berths this year, I think
Garrykennedy 2
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Restoration and rebuilding, Safety, Scenery, Shannon, Sources, waterways, Waterways management, Weather
Tagged Banagher, boats, Drominer, Garrykennedy, Ireland, Lough Derg, Operations, Shannon, Tipperary, vessels, Waterways Ireland
In The Cookin’ Woman: Irish country recipes (Blackstaff Press, Belfast and Dover New Hampshire, facsimile edition 1986), Florence Irwin says of Lough Neagh:
This lake, 153 square miles, has always provided much sea-food. Eeels [sic], pollan, trout, grunts and their elderly relatives, perch, to mention the most common fish eaten by the loughsiders and sold by them.
No doubt that is true for certain values of “sea”.
She says that the (Irish) pollan is found only in Lough Neagh, but that does not seem to be true. I had not come across the grunt before: earlier, in her chapter on soups, Ms Irwin has a recipe, from Moortown, for grunt soup, which requires 1 dozen grunts; she explains that
Grunts are the young of perch.
Perch we called “grunts” …
which suggests that perch are grunts or vice versa. Wikipedia says
The grunts are a family, Haemulidae, of fishes in the order Perciformes.
The taxonomy set out on its page about Perciformes suggests a relationship between grunts and perch that is more complex than either Ms Irwin or Mr Heaney allows, but says
Classification is controversial.
I am left wondering whether there are still grunts in Lough Neagh and, if so, whether they are of the Haemulidae family or whether the name is simply used locally for perch, young or old.
Here is a page about the Lough Neagh fisheries.
That’s from the government’s Medium Term Economic Strategy 2010 [PDF]. Not a word about the Clones Sheugh, which would undoubtedly save the economies of both jurisdictions on this island, but perhaps it will qualify for one of the new models of infrastructure funding mentioned hither and yon in the document.
Maybe the Sunbeds Bill would be more interesting – or more important.
PS Folk who write “between both” should be flogged naked through the streets before being hanged in the marketplace.
Waterways Ireland removed boats from Charlotte Quay in the Grand Canal Dock at Ringsend today.
Being lifted
Getting ready
Pumps on the quay
Ready for the slings
Thanks to Paul Quinn for the information and photos.
Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged barge, basin, boats, canal, Charlotte Quay, crane, Dublin, Grand Canal, Grand Canal Dock, Ireland, lift, lock, Operations, Ringsend, vessels, waterways, Waterways Ireland
It is always pleasing to learn that powerful folk take an interest in the humble pleasures of the proletariat. Thus, back in 2003, many a plebeian heart leapt with joy on learning that Tha Lord Laird o Artigarvan [as we say in Ulster Scots] was asking questions of Her Majesty’s Government in the House of Lords about Waterways Ireland developments on the River Shannon at Limerick, Boyle, Ballinasloe, Ballyleague, Shannonbridge and Scarriff.
Alas, it seems that Tha Lord Laird, who once had the highest expenses in Their Noble Lordships’ House, may not be asking questions in the House of Lords for some time. He resigned the Unionist whip in June; it appears that he may now be suspended from the House of Lords, whose members he esteems. It really take the biscuit.
… is to address, on Sunday night, anyone who watches television but doesn’t have a choice of television channels. There will be a medium term economic strategy too, promising a new and better future for all our people. But as Finfacts says:
… past experience coupled with signals so far, suggest that [the strategy] will be a promotional brochure for an international audience with some questionable claims and omissions. The expected plunge in services exports by as much as €50bn during the time horizon is not likely to be acknowledged.
There is an urgent need for a credible growth strategy that has an unvarnished assessment of the challenges with an honest analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, using data that is free of the outsize impact of the foreign-owned exporting sector.
I wonder whether the strategy will include any sheughs.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Non-waterway, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Ulster Canal, Waterways management
Tagged boats, canal, Clones, Clones sheugh, department of arts heritage and the gaeltacht, Erne, Ireland, Lough Derg, Operations, Shannon-Erne Waterway, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways Ireland
SHANNON-RIVER. This is by far the most considerable river in Ireland, or perhaps in any known island, not only on account of its rolling 200 miles, but also of its great depth in most places, and the gentleness of its current, by which it might be made exceedingly serviceable to the improvement of the country, the communication of its inhabitants, and consequently the promoting inland trade, through the greater part of its long course, being navigable to a considerable distance, with a few interruptions only of rocks and shallows, to avoid which there are in general small canals cut, to preserve and continue the navigation.
Thus Wm Wenman Seward, Esq [correspondent of Thomas Jefferson], in his Topographica Hibernica; or the topography of Ireland, antient and modern. Giving a complete view of the civil and ecclesiastical state of that kingdom, with its antiquities, natural curiosities, trade, manufactures, extent and population. Its counties, baronies, cities, boroughs, parliamentary representation and patronage; antient districts and their original proprietors. Post, market, and fair towns; bishopricks, ecclesiastical benefices, abbies, monasteries, castles, ruins, private-seats, and remarkable buildings. Mountains, rivers, lakes, mineral-springs, bays and harbours, with the latitude and longitude of the principal places, and their distances from the metropolis, and from each other. Historical anecdotes, and remarkable events. The whole alphabetically arranged and carefully collected. With an appendix, containing some additional places and remarks, and several useful tables printed by Alex Stewart, Dublin, 1795. [Google it if you want a copy.]
Seward was one of many people who saw the Shannon as a valuable resource, even if they were vague on how it was to yield a return. I was reminded of that on reading the Strategic Integrated Framework Plan for the Shannon Estuary 2013–2020: an inter-jurisdictional land and marine based framework to guide the future development and management of the Shannon Estuary. The Introduction includes this:
The Shannon Estuary is an immensely important asset and one of the most valuable natural resources in Ireland and the Mid-West Region in particular — the fringe lands and the marine area both provide space and location for development, activities and opportunities to progress economic, social and environmental growth within the Region.
This report is an attempt to show how the estuary could deliver a return. The core point seems to be that a small number of areas are designated as “Strategic Development Locations for marine related industry and large scale industrial development”, thus protecting them from the attentions of the environmentalists: the whole of the estuary is a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area.
Almost all the Strategic Development Locations are already industrialied in some way:
There is one more, Inishmurry/Cahircon (which is not boring), which is even more interesting because there is no industry there at present. It was used as a resting place for certain vessels, but it was also proposed as the site for an explosives factory. Perhaps the designation as a Strategic Development Location suggests that that proposal is not dead but merely sleeping.
Ballylongford is equally lacking in industry, despite activity at Saleen in the early nineteenth century. However, Shannon Development assembled a large landbank nearby; the report’s Executive Summary says:
The Ballylongford Landbank benefits from a significant deepwater asset and extant permission for a major LNG bank.
Here is the area in question. Note that the red oval is just to indicate the rough location; it does not show the boundaries of the landbank.
Ballylongford (OSI ~1840)
You can see a proper map and a marked-up aerial photo in Volume 1 of the report [PDF] on page 73 (77/174).
Shannon Development agreed to give a purchase option on a little uder half of the site to Shannon LNG Ltd, which proposed to build a liquefied natural gas terminal there, to be supplied by ship; much information is available here.
The Commission for Energy Regulation decided to introduce charges that would have increased Shannon LNG’s costs; the company took the matter to court but, yesterday, lost its case. The Irish Times report here will probably disappear behind a paywall at some stage; the Irish Independent report is here and the Limerick Leader‘s here (its photo shows Tarbert and Moneypoint; the Ballylongford site is off to the left).
If the Ballylongford development does not proceed, plans for economic growth on the Shannon estuary may prove to be for the birds.
Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Operations, Politics, Scenery, Sea, Shannon, shannon estuary, Sources, Steamers, Tourism, Uncategorized, Waterways management
Tagged Ballylongford, boats, Clare, ESB, estuary, Fergus, Hess, Ireland, Kerry, Limerick, liquefied natural gas, LNG, Operations, SAC, Saleen, Shannon, shannon estuary, Shannon Foynes Port Company, Shannon LNG, SIFP, SPA, Tarbert, waterways
Irish waterways history 