Category Archives: Extant waterways

Kilkenny Civil Defence

Kilkenny Civil Defence training session on the Shannon

Kilkenny Civil Defence training session on the Shannon

It is not much matter …

… which we say, but mind, we must all say the same.

Thus, says Bagehot, William Lamb, 2nd Lord Melbourne, and thus, the same, the list of licensed traders in marked fuel along the Shannon.

IBRA list

The website for Boat Holidays Ireland, which included a list of members of the Irish Boat Rental Association, seems to have disappeared. I don’t know whether it has been replaced or whether IBRA members have ceased cooperation. I can’t find any useful information on the website of the Irish Marine Federation.

Floating party venue

The Belfast Telegraph has a story about the death of a young man in Grand Canal Dock, Ringsend, Dublin. It says that he

[…] was last seen onboard a former German police river boat, which has been converted into a floating party venue.

I think the boat is Polizei 69, but I can find little information about its location or operations. The newspaper article is not clear how the young man’s having been on a boat was related to the accident.

Courtesy flag

Proper order

Proper order

Sail

Heading towards Dromineer

Heading towards Dromineer

Spray

May spray

May spray

Convoy

Convoy on Lough Derg

Convoy on Lough Derg

The mystery of the missing bollard

Boaters on Lough Derg were shocked today to realise that a key part of the lake’s infrastructure, the corner bollard at Dromaan, had gone missing.

The mystery of the missing bollard_resize

The vanished bollard

There it was gone

“We didn’t know it was there until it was gone,” said a weeping cruiser-owner. “Without that bollard, the outer berth on the right-hand side is useless: you can’t tie a boat there. And the middle berth is useless too. Two whole berths gone. With so many other spaces taken by harbour-hoggers and abandoned vessels, we’ll end up tying off barges or something.”

Sergeant Pluck of Whitegate said: “Is it about a bicycle?” Later, Superintendent Clohessy, from Tipp, admitted that he was baffled. The theft of a bollard had not previously been recorded. It was, he said, a quare conundrum and a right pancake.

Waterways Ireland has not commented on the matter.

 

The Marquis survives

I reported last October that an unused London pub, named after Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne, KG, PC, FRS, was threatened with demolition in favour of a museum extension.

I pointed out that the late Marquis had two claims on the attention of Irish waterways enthusiasts. First, the best-known of the early River Shannon steamers, the Lady Lansdowne, was named after his wife. Second, he was Lord President of the Council [the current holder of the post is Nick Clegg] when the government of Her Late Majesty Queen Victoria decided, in 1839, to spend about half a million pounds improving the Shannon Navigation.

The Indie reports today that Hackney Council’s planning committee has voted against the demolition, so the Marquis survives, at least for now.