Category Archives: Foreign parts

Avoid Lough Erne …

Posted on Thursday 15 November 2012 | Leave a comment

… in June 2013? Maybe they’re coming to commit corporate golf …. I presume there will be hot and cold running security men, missiles, helicopters, gunboats ….

 

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Operations, People, Politics, Tourism, waterways

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Thon Strabane sheugh

Posted on Tuesday 13 November 2012 | 4 comments

[I’m practising Ulster Scots in a spirit of parity of esteem and such.]

I wrote the other day about a Sinn Féin campaign to have the Strabane Canal foisted upon the unfortunate Waterways Ireland (as though it didn’t have enough trouble already, what with smooth newts and mooring permits).

I once went looking for the Strabane Canal but I couldn’t find it (and wasn’t allowed to spend enough time searching). I don’t know that area at all, so I thought it would be useful to send a drone [well, actually, I used Google Maps in Photos view] to capture an aerial view of the Foyle. I was particularly interested in the likely demand for the Strabane Canal and I thought the number of pleasure craft on the Foyle might be a useful indicator.

This might be the Google view of the downstream lock on the canal.

So I flew the Googledrone down one bank from Strabane to the sea, crossed the mouth of the estuary and came back on the far side. And as far as I can see, there are very few pleasure boats on the Foyle. Londonderry Port and Harbour Commissioners have a small marina in Stroke City, Lough Foyle Yacht Club races dinghies and Foyle Punts from Culmore Point and there is a port at Greencastle, but that seems to be about it. I saw no serried ranks of motor cruisers, narrowboats or barges parked anywhere. It is of course possible that I missed them in my flyover, but where are the boats to come from to sue the Strabane Canal?

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Tourism, Waterways management

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Save the newts: abandon the Clones sheugh!

Posted on Monday 12 November 2012 | 2 comments

Why has the proposed sheugh not yet been approved in Northern ireland? Because the Northern Ireland Environment Agency has been asking hard questions. WI has very kindly put the answers on its website.

The newts are going to be evicted, the stables may have to go but the Orange Hall won’t be affected. Hours of interesting reading.

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Operations, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Sources, Tourism, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways management

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Northern Ireland seeks cutting-edge technology … of the 18th century

Posted on Saturday 10 November 2012 | 2 comments

IndustrialHeritageIreland reports on two recent outbreaks of cargo cultism in Norn Iron. Folk in Tyrone want the whole of the Ulster Canal to be restored to its, er, former glory, which presumably means without any water west of Monaghan, while a Sinn Féin MLA wants to lumber Waterways Ireland with responsibility for the useless Strabane Canal on which £1.3 million has already been wasted.

What is it with Sinn Féin and canals? I realise that Irish republicanism is by definition a backward-looking creed, with little contact with reality, but why not look to (say) early nineteenth century technology, like the steam railway, rather than that of the eighteenth century?

Part of the problem, I suspect, is that Sinn Féin folk, especially those who are subjects of Her current Majesty, adopt a British conception of inland waterways. In Britain, canals dominate and boats must travel slowly, no faster than the horse-drawn vessels of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. But Irish waterways are dominated by lakes, whereon modern folk like to zoom around in fast boats: jetskis, speedboats and skiboats, fast cruisers. Such boats are entirely unsuitable for canals: they damage the banks and the pace bores their owners.

As it happens, we have lots of lakes where owners can zoom. [I’d prefer if they didn’t, but that’s the way it is.] And with reductions in the amount of boating activity, we don’t need any additional waterways. Sinn Féin, though, doesn’t seem to have grasped this. Stuck in the eighteenth century, it wants canals. I suppose we should be grateful it isn’t proposing to have the taxpayer stump up for coal-mines as well.

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Posted in Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, People, Politics, Rail, Restoration and rebuilding, Tourism, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways management

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Sinn Féin and the Clones Sheugh

Posted on Wednesday 7 November 2012 | 1 comment

Northern Ireland Assembly debate 6 November 2012, via TheyWorkForYou.com:

Phil Flanagan (Sinn Féin): […] Will the Minister provide an update on the restoration of the Ulster canal from Clones to Upper Lough Erne?

Martin McGuinness (Sinn Féin): As I said, there was a presentation on the issue at the North/South interparliamentary forum, and the planning processes are up and running. I understand that, on the Cavan side of the border, it has been successfully concluded. There is still some work to do on this side. Everyone realises, from a tourism point of view, that this is filled with all sorts of potential for us, particularly in the context not only of whatever construction jobs will be created by the project but of the prospects for utilising our waterways in a way that can bring employment to local communities.

For “everyone” read “everyone except irishwaterwayshistory.com and a few other sane people”.

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Posted in Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Tourism, Ulster Canal, waterways

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The end of a ghost

Posted on Wednesday 7 November 2012 | 4 comments

In the UK, the Statute Law Repeals Bill is working its way through the House of Lords. You can download a PDF list of the bills being repealed. In amongst the turnpikes, Indian railways, benevolent institutions and lotteries, we find Part 4: Ireland (Dublin City). Within that, Group 1 sees the repeal of these statutes:

  • 3 & 4 Will.4 c.cxv (1833) (City of Dublin Steam Packet Company Act)
  • 6 & 7 Will.4 c.c (1836) (Dublin Steam Packet Act)
  • City of Dublin Steam Packet Company’s Act 1860 (23 & 24 Vict. c.xcviii)
  • City of Dublin Steam Packet Company’s (Consolidation of Shares) Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c.iii)
  • City of Dublin Steam Packet Company’s Act 1868 (31 & 32 Vict. c.xxx)
  • City of Dublin Steam Packet Company’s Act 1876 (39 & 40 Vict. c.xi)
  • City of Dublin Steam Packet Company’s Act 1884 (47 & 48 Vict. c.cxxx)
  • City of Dublin Steam Packet Company’s Act 1895 (58 & 59 Vict. c.cxxiii)
  • City of Dublin Steam Packet Company’s Act 1910 (10 Edw.7 & 1 Geo.5 c.vii)
  • City of Dublin Steam Packet Company’s Act 1916 (6 & 7 Geo.5 c.viii)
  • City of Dublin Steam Packet Company’s Act 1920 (10 & 11 Geo.5 c.i).

In a Consultation Paper published in 2008, the Law Commission explained:

The City of Dublin Steam Packet Company was founded by Charles Wye Williams in 1822. From 24 January 1839, the Post Office contracted the company to run the mail service from Dublin to Holyhead. This service was later extended such that the company ran both the day and night service.

During the First World War the company suffered heavy losses, including the sinking of its ship the R.M.S. Leinster by a German submarine on 10 October 1918, resulting in a loss of over 500 lives. A further two ships were sunk during this period. The company never fully recovered from its wartime losses and, in 1924, an order for the winding-up of the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company
was petitioned for and granted by the High Court at Dublin Castle.

In Ireland, the Statute Law Revision Act 2009 repealed the 1833 and 1836 Acts and the Statute Law Revision Act 2012 repealed all the rest — except the 1895 Act. I don’t know where to get a copy of that Act, so I don’t know why it was specifically retained. But, with that exception, it seems that the ghost of the CoDSPCo has been laid to rest.

 

 

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Posted in Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Politics, Shannon, shannon estuary, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, waterways

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Portadown Foundry Ltd

Posted on Tuesday 6 November 2012 | Leave a comment

I am grateful for a copy of Portadown Foundry Ltd: a history of the foundry 1844–1983, by Cardwell McClure and Wilson Steen, published by the authors in October 2012. It is available from five shops in the Edenderry (Portadown) area; the Edenderry Cultural and Historical Society may be able to assist.

The book’s breadth of coverage is very impressive. It may be thought of as having three main sections. The first provides five chapters covering the five main eras of control of the foundry. The second has four chapters covering employees, surviving artefacts, sporting history and Foundry Street, where many employees lived. The final section has six chapters providing the essential contest that is often omitted in local history books. These six chapters cover:

  • Portadown and the economy of Ulster
  • Foundry-built barges and lighters (of particular interest on this site)
  • The evolution of flax and linen processing in Ulster
  • The evolution of engineering in Ulster
  • The evolution of power plant in Ulster
  • The evolution of transport in Ulster.

It is richly illustrated throughout and is well worth a fiver (sterling) of anyone’s money.

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, People, Politics, Steamers, Waterways management

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All sheugh up

Posted on Tuesday 6 November 2012 | Leave a comment

Thinking about the exciting news from the North South Ministerial Council plenary session about the Clones Sheugh, I was reminded of the even more exciting news of the first meeting of the North/South Inter-parliamentary Association.

Strangely, its meeting received little publicity in the great world. I asked Messrs Google to search for it but to omit links from the Oireachtas and the Northern Ireland Assembly, as well as those from politicus.org and flickr.com. It found only 42 hits, of which the first seven were links to the site of a Labour senator called Mary Moran. (I won’t provide a link to her site as she’s obviously perfectly capable of generating all the links she wants.)

Anyway, the first meeting of the North/South Inter-parliamentary Association seems to have passed almost unnoticed. You can read about it on InsideIreland.ie, which seems to be a news site run by an advertising agency.

From Ciarán Hanna’s account, I deduce that the North/South Inter-parliamentary Association is an entirely pointless body. I note that it won’t meet again until April 2013. And perhaps the Irish government’s support for the Clones Sheugh is because it gives this pointless body something to discuss, thus keeping it from commenting on anything important.

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Non-waterway, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Ulster Canal, waterways

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Northsouthery and the Clones Sheugh

Posted on Tuesday 6 November 2012 | Leave a comment

The minutes of the latest North South Ministerial Council plenary meeting, held on 2 November 2012, are now on the NSMC website. Of the Clones Sheugh:

The Council also welcomed the following key developments: […]

the restoration of the Ulster Canal from Clones to Upper Lough Erne is progressing through the planning application process in both jurisdictions. An inter-agency group has been set up to examine all possible options to advance the project.

Perhaps Mr Noonan will have an early christmas present for the promoters.

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Ulster Canal, waterways

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Political parties: update

Posted on Friday 2 November 2012 | Leave a comment

I said that I had asked many political parties whether they had asked the Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs [now the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht] for costings for the Clones Sheugh (aka the Ulster Canal). Those I asked were:

Christian Solidarity Party
Fianna Fáil
Fine Gael
Fís Nua
Green Party
Labour
People before Profit
Sinn Féin
Socialist Party
South Kerry Independent
Workers and Unemployed Action Group [WUAG]
Workers’ Party

I have so far had responses from Fís Nua, the Green Party and Labour; it seems that none of them made the request. I have emailed a reminder to the others and I await their responses.

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways management

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