The curved building at the north end of the former Grand Canal Harbour in Dublin continues to deteriorate. Photos taken on 1 January 2012.
Missing slates
This is a protected structure (whatever that means)
Another breach in the slates
My communication to the City Council went unanswered. Laing O’Rourke, the developers, did at least reply in November 2011:
Thank you very much for your email regarding the development at Canal Harbour and indeed the restoration of the old Ryans Building or curved building towards the northern end of the site.
We too share your concern in the deterioration of the building, and instructed our site manager to review the building and propose some alternatives in securing and preserving the building until such time as construction across the site. I will continue to press them on this
matter with a view to getting a solution delivered ASAP.If you have any specific recommendations in relation to this preservation, I would be interested to hear these.
Kind Regards […]
I don’t know anything about preserving buildings, and replied to say so, but if any concerned reader has suggestions I’ll pass them on.
As part of the tourism-oriented improvements at Dromineer, a new water feature is being tested.
Dromineer water feature
That dreadful white elephant the Jeanie Johnston, currently owned by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (whose purchase of the wretched thing was almost as big a mistake as their involvement in the Irish Glass Bottle site), is sitting in the Liffey acting as a famine museum.
Now the Grauniad tells us of a project to rebuild a replica of HMS Beagle in order to do science. It is not clear why a replica of a small, wooden, early nineteenth century sailing vessel — presumably with high maintenance costs — would provide a better platform for doing science than a modern steel motor vessel, but the promoters have their hearts set (again) on using a barque.
And, as it happens, the Jeanie Johnston is a barque, as was HMS Beagle while Darwin was aboard. Admittedly, the Jeanie Johnston is rather larger, but it might also cost a lot less than building a new Beagle from scratch. In fact, we could perhaps pay the Beagle folk to take it away.
This morning, on the wireless, I heard two people opposing the use of fracking to find gas around Lough Allen in Co Leitrim. Neither of them was convincing. One started by objecting to big multinationals being given licences to investigate the resources available; it is not clear that there was any ban on small native companies or workers’ cooperatives (or soviets of workers, peasants and soldiers) applying for licences, and presumably they could use traditional Irish implements like sleans if they wanted to.
The general line of argument adopted by the objectors was that anything that could go wrong would go wrong, probably all at the same time, wiping out the whole of Irish agriculture (some of which is not in Leitrim) and, er, eco-tourism. There would, the objectors seemed to suggest, be no preventive or mitigating measures and no insurance and the full cost of every accident would be borne by the residents of the area.
Remains of a pier at the brickworks, Spencer Harbour, Lough Allen
But the bit that really annoyed me was the depiction of the area as one of rural seclusion. Yet Lough Allen had canals, railways, coal mines, dams, iron works and brick works.
Spencer Harbour on Lough Allen
The very canal linking Lough Allen to the
rest of the Shannon Navigation owes its very existence to the desire
to carry coal from around Lough Allen to Dublin. And one of the most best tourism initiatives in the area, the Arigna Mining Experience, recognises that heritage.
Part of a brick
Insist on proper assessment and management of risk by all means, but don’t exaggerate it — and don’t ignore Leitrim’s industrial heritage.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Rail, Scenery, Shannon, The turf trade, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management, Weather
Tagged Arigna, boats, bricks, canal, Clare, coal, dam, ESB, fracking, gas, industry, Ireland, iron, jetties, lock, Lough Allen, Operations, Shannon, Spencer Harbour, vessels, waterways, workboat
News reaches us that the fisheries folk, who were threatening to block the Suir (Carrick to Clonmel) navigation with a weir so that they could count fish, have removed the material they had put on site without planning permission. Let joy be unconfined (but let not vigilance be relaxed).
Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Operations, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Suir, The fishing trade, Tourism, waterways
Tagged boats, canoe pass, Carrick-on-Suir, Clonmel, fish, fisheries, flow, Ireland, salmon, Suir, vessels, waterways, weir
The Kildare Archaeological Society’s programme for 2012 is available on the Co. Kildare Online Electronic History Journal website (which, incidentally, has a useful RSS feed). Its Heritage Week outing in August 2012 is waterway-based:
Sunday 26th August, 3.00 pm – Heritage Week Outing
Robertstown, the Grand Canal and Lowtown Lock
Guided walk by Karen Gorey.
Meet at the Holiday village Car Park, Robertstown. No Charge.
Irish waterways history 