Category Archives: Engineering and construction

The Blocks in the Docks

Waterways Ireland’s visitor centre in Dublin, known as the Box in the Docks, has been closed for some time. I don’t know whether it has yet been reopened, but it has a new website.

If you are pained by greengrocers’ apostrophes, don’t go there. The main problem, though, is that the website says nothing about what is in the Box. Why “Plan a visit” if you don’t know what you’ll see when you get there?

Perhaps it’s a work in progress, with more to be added later, but I’d welcome information about what’s in the centre from anyone who has visited it recently.

A new activity

Trainspotters have it easy: even if they run out of engines to record, they can fall back on writing down the numbers of carriages.

There is less scope on the waterways, with relatively few working boats. However, Waterways Ireland seems to have a sizeable fleet of land vehicles, so we could record all of them … and, in the process, find out how many land vehicles WI actually operates.

I’ve started here with some pics of vehicles on the Shannon–Erne Waterway, but I’d like your help. If you spot a WI vehicle, photograph it and send the pic to me (reduced to less than 300 KB) with a note of when and where you saw the vehicle and, if possible, information on what it was doing. I’d also like you to give me permission to use the photo on the vehicles web page (but you will still own the copyright).

Just think, we could be just like those interesting chaps who photograph Eddie Stobart trucks ….

Buried at the crossroads …

… but without a stake through its heart. The Ulster Canal is dead, but it’s spinning in its grave. Its parent department has admitted some of the truth about its funding, but Waterways Ireland will be applying for planning permission for the scheme: there’s enough money for that, but not for digging. Nonetheless, Fine Gael TDs have managed to distract attention from the absence of funding by pointing to the planning application, while Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil have not realised that a scheme’s benefits should outweigh its costs. Return of the Son of the Ghost of the Bride of the Ulster Canal on view here.

Waterways users

What are waterways halting-sites or harbours used for? After some time spent on the Shannon–Erne Waterway, I can say that they’re not just for cruising boaters. Other users included:

  • sales reps (or other management types with their suit jackets on hangers in the back) needing cheap, clean loos on their journeys
  • local owners of jetskis and speedboats, launching for an evening run
  • anglers, both on shore and in boats
  • campers
  • campervanners seeking free, relatively secure overnight stops with good facilities
  • walkers and cyclists, including some long-distance chaps taking breaks
  • seekers after water.

At Ballyconnell, a chap drove down in an elderly tractor with three blue barrels on the back, filled up with water and drove away. He was followed by a couple in a 2011 Cavan-registered Renault Fluence, with six 2-litre plastic containers in the boot, who also filled up and drove off. [I have photos of both the tractor and the car.] When water is charged for by the amount used, Waterways Ireland may have to consider locking its taps.

 

 

Funding the Ulster Canal

I go away for a week and suddenly there’s lots of information about the funding of the Ulster Canal …. Happily, I was on the Erne, so I was able to read the Anglo-Celt, the Leitrim Observer and the Impartial Reporter, and was thus able to keep up with the news.

The really extraordinary thing, no doubt the result of an amazing coincidence, is that this sudden access of information comes just as I expect a ruling from the Office of the Information Commissioner on my appeal against Craggy Island’s refusal to give me any meaningful information about the funding of the project.

My last letter to Craggy Island on the subject was a request for an internal review of their refusal; as expected, that too resulted in a refusal, which enabled me to go to the Information Commissioner. You might, nonetheless, be interested to read my letter.

I will comment later on the content of the recent relevations and on how they’ve been spun; happily, Ewan Duffy was not deceived by the spin.

Pue’s Occurrences

I’ve had an article accepted at the history blog. It’s about the capstan at O’Briensbridge on the old Limerick Navigation and the trade it facilitated. There is more information about the technicalities on my own page about O’Briensbridge.

From the Dáil

Questions – Northern Ireland Issues, Dáil Éireann Debate Vol. 729 No 2 Unrevised

Deputy Gerry Adams:

[…] The Taoiseach might update us on other flagship projects such as the Ulster Canal — at least, it was described as a flagship project at the time it was launched. […]

The Taoiseach:

[…] A number of issues were identified which clearly, from any political point of view, would be of interest and benefit to the infrastructure and the economies North and South. The Deputy mentioned some which have been under discussion for a long time. Were we not obliged to pay €3 billion to Anglo Irish Bank for the next ten years, it would be great to be able to tell the Deputy that the Government could now deal with the Ulster Canal or a number of other issues. Unfortunately, that is not the way it is at present. Consequently, from that perspective the Government will continue to commit itself to working diligently in the interests of the development of the economies North and South and, in consequence, of the entire island. […]

[…] Deputy Adams knows we could deal with the Ulster Canal and many other issues in the north west and elsewhere in the country if we did not have this imposition and burden, but that is a fact of life. […]

[Emphasis mine]

Northern Sound News Details Jul 07 2011

[…] The Project Co-Ordinator for the regeneration of the Ulster Canal says he is not concerned about the funding issue. Gerry Darby says he is still confident that the Ulster Canal regeneration is on track.

What is the basis for that confidence?

 

OPW on the Shannon Estuary

A brief note on the navigational interests of the Office of Public Works on the Shannon Estuary.

Ulster Canal funding

When in Clones the Minister stated that he had been “warned not to give a commitment to funding” in relation to the redevelopment of the Ulster Canal, although he also remarked that he would be anxious to see the initiative going ahead.

Northern Standard 8 July 2011

Whoda thunk?

 

The Junction Navigation

Here are some pages about the Junction Navigation in the Ballinamore & Ballyconnell drainage district. It later became known as the Ballinamore & Ballyconnell Canal and later still as the Shannon–Erne Waterway.

The role of the cads and bounders of the Ulster Canal Company in getting a canal built at taxpayers’ expense

The construction of the Junction Navigation at Aghoo (Lock 4)

Lock gear old and new

And here’s a reminder of an old page about the Belturbet-built dredger used in constructing the navigation.