What is the top priority of the Northern Ireland Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure?
Is it to promote culture?
No.
To promote the arts?
No.
To promote leisure?
No.
… to promote social and economic equality and tackle poverty and social exclusion.
Mary Meehan’s was a dramatic story.
In April 1847 she had gone to the house of William Dwyer at Cuphaunhane [Cappanahanagh?]. She heard voices inside and stopped to listen. The door opened and William Dwyer ran out. She went in and saw William’s wife Mary dragging the seemingly lifeless body of Ellen Dwyer, William’s sister, into the room. Mary Dwyer then ran off and Mary Meehan raised Ellen’s head; she saw blood on the left side of the head.
She went home and told her husband about it; he told her to say nothing. About two hours later she was in the haggard and saw William and Mary Dwyer digging at the brink of the ditch. She gave a deposition to Edward J Bell RM on 8 October 1849, adding on 16 December 1849 that, if Bell were to dig in the field near the Dwyers’ house, or in the nearby quarry, he would find the remains of a human body.
Bell, with Mr Head and the Castleconnell police, dug more than forty times in the field in question, but with no success. They then drained four feet of water from the quarry and found a skull and some human bones in the mud. Constable Swan delivered them to Dr Thomas Travers Riordan at Castleconnell.
Dr Riordan thought that the skull was more likely to be that of an old woman than that of a fifteen-year-old girl. The bones had been in water or earth for much more than two years and belonged to a tall muscular person: the skull and the bones were almost certainly from two different people. The church at Abington was close to the quarry.
On 14 March 1840 Mary Meehan was indicted …
… for that she with felonious intent to injure William Dwyer …
… did swear to an untrue story. She was described as …
… a woman of about forty years of age, […] dressed in a blue cloth cloak, clean white cap, and white woollen shawl, as the wife of a farmer in comfortable circumstances. Her appearance was not unprepossessing, but there was a peculiarly sinister expression about the eyes.
Mr Bell had taken depositions from William and Mary Dwyer; they contravened Mary Meehan’s statements but she stuck to her story. No witnesses supported her.
William Dwyer said that he had sent his sister to England [en route to America?] that April: his wife had accompanied her to Killaloe and seen her aboard one of the [City of] Dublin Steam Packet Company’s boats. He had not heard from her since then.
Mary Dwyer said that she and her sister-in-law had slept at the house of Mary’s father Michael Healy, in Killaloe, the night before Ellen’s departure. The following morning they went to the house of Nancy Preston, who accompanied them to the steamer to help Ellen get a cheaper fare. Michael Healy confirmed that evidence, as did Nancy Preston. Mary Dwyer said that she was on board with her sister-in-law until the boat left.
The final witness was the steamer’s captain, Captain Winder. He said he remembered the circumstances perfectly and had charged Ellen only 4s 3d for the passage to Dublin.
His Lordship charged, expatiating on the enormity of the prisoner’s offence, and the revolting exhibition of the remains of the skull and bones of a human being on the table, and adding that from the evidence they could hardly hesitate in finding a verdict of guilty.
The Jury returned a verdict of Guilty accordingly.
The Limerick Reporter and Tipperary Vindicator 15 March 1850
Posted in Ashore, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Shannon, Sources, Steamers, waterways
Tagged City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, Killaloe, Limerick, Operations, Shannon, vessels, Waterways Ireland
Carpenters Road Lock in 2003
Here is a page about an art (craft?) project happening at Carpenters Road Lock on the Bow Back Rivers in London: the lock has changed quite a bit since I took the photo (above) in 2003.
I should warn you that the link is to a very long web page, but the section headings stay on top so you can move around. However, if you allow Javascript, you’ll find that two places on the page show those very annoying sequences of photographs that change automatically.
What I thought was most interesting was the set of events organised at the lock. Canals of Dublin organises canal walks in, er, Dublin, but what about Waterways Ireland having lockkeepers doing talks and demonstrations?
Here are some links to sites with more information about the Bow Back Rivers in London:
London Canals and associated blog
An extensive Wikipedia article with schematic diagram
A political view from Mick Hartley
London’s Lost Rivers on pre-Olympic scenery (black background makes the text hard to read but the photos are good)
The most informative page I found: a superb piece of work. Well done Richard Thomas, to whose Steamers Historical site I have a permanent link.
h/t celr
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Restoration and rebuilding, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Bow Back Rivers, Carpenters Road Lock, Lea and Stort, London, waterways
I wrote here about a Slaney cot, built by Larry Duggan, which we had spotted on its way to Wales. The owner has very kindly sent some more photos of the cot’s construction, of Larry Duggan and of the cot on the Usk; I have put them on a separate page here.
Posted in Built heritage, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, People, waterways
Tagged boats, cot, Larry Duggan, Slaney, Usk, vessels, waterways, Wexford
From the Financial Resolutions speeches:
I am committed to developing North-South co-operation within the broader arts, heritage and commemorative activities of my Department as well as through the funding of North-South bodies. A provision of more than €38 million is made available to support the two North-South implementation bodies — An Foras Teanga and Waterways Ireland. These budgets will be subject to the approval of the North South Ministerial Council in due course. The provision will enable Waterways Ireland to keep the waterways open for navigation during the main boating season and promote increased use for recreational purposes while developing and promoting our waterways to attract increased numbers of overseas visitors.
Nothing new there, I think, but note the repetition of a point I highlighted last year:
The provision will enable Waterways Ireland to keep the waterways open for navigation during the main boating season […].
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, People, Politics, Shannon, Sources, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged boats, budget, canal, department of arts heritage and the gaeltacht, financial resolution, Heather Humphreys, Ireland, Operations, Shannon, waterways, Waterways Ireland
Irish waterways history 