Big it up for the Irish Amateur Rowing Union (aka Rowing Ireland), which will be descending the Lower Shannon in May. Good to see that they’ll be doing the estuary, as fas as Bunratty, and are not confining themselves to non-tidal waters.
Bunratty
F E Prothero would be proud of them: he himself thought it best to see the estuary from the deck of the steamer to Kilrush.
They say the Lion and the Lizard keep
The courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep(Edward FitzGerald The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam)
Emerald Star Portumna: boats were moored to finger jetties along this quay
Emerald Star dinghies
Minerva battling the current above Meelick
If you own Minerva, and would like a 5MB version of the photo, leave a Comment below.
Posted in Extant waterways, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Weather
Tagged boats, floods, Ireland, Meelick, Minerva, Shannon, waterways
Added an 1879 drawing of a Shannon cot here.
Posted in Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Weather
Tagged boats, cot, floods, Ireland, Shannon, turf, waterways, workboat
Illustrations of early Irish inland waterways vessels are relatively scarce. The drawing below shows the sterns of two of them.
Portobello Harbour 1882
This is from The Graphic of May 13, 1882, and shows the lighting of tar-barrels in Portobello Harbour, on the Grand Canal in Dublin, to celebrate the release from prison of Charles Stewart Parnell and two colleagues.
The layout of the harbour in around 1900 can be seen on the OSI Historic 25″ map. Where were the vessels tied? What are the buildings in the background? What can be said about the vessels? Presumably wooden horse-drawn barges, but they look rather narrow to me. Comments welcome.
The harbour itself is, alas, no more.
Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, Sources
Tagged boats, bridge, canal, dry dock, Grand Canal, horse-drawn, Ireland, lock, lost, Operations, Parnell, Portobello, quay, vessels, waterways, wooden barge
I don’t know if you remember, but a few months ago we had sunshine, and it was warm outside. Back then, at the end of May in fact, I went on the Industrial Heritage Association of Ireland‘s tour of Carrick-on-Suir, Clonmel and areas in between.
In Carrick, Ralph O’Callaghan showed us some of the sights and addressed the group in the Heritage Centre. Here are some of the things he showed us.
Ralph O'Callaghan shows a model of a yawl (a horse-drawn boat used to carry goods between Carrick and Clonmel)
This yawl is equipped for sand-dredging
Note the large rudder
The yawl
A steel shoe for one of the 30' poles used by Suir and Barrow boatmen
A hand-made net for snap-net fishing
After lunch, I was fortunate to be one of two people who got a trip in Ralph O’Callaghan’s canoe, from Kilsheelan upstream to the Anner bridge just downstream of Sir Thomas’s Bridge, which is itself downstream of Clonmel.
I have set up a small (approx 120-photo) slide show to give an idea of the conditions on the Suir at the time. The water level was low after several dry weeks, but the previous winter’s floods may have left more silt than usual. At any event, a successful passage required Ralph’s skills and his intimate knowledge of the river and its weirs. You can see some of the weirs, and the gorgeous scenery, in the show.
I am very grateful to both Ralph O’Callaghan and Fred Hamond for facilitating the boat trip and for sharing their immense knowledge of the Suir.
If you like interesting boats, you’ll like Ralph’s canoe.
Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Non-waterway, Operations, Scenery, The fishing trade, Weather
Tagged Anner, apple, Black Weir, boats, bridge, Bulmers, canal, canoe, Carrick-on-Suir, Clonmel, fishing hut, floods, flow, Gurteen, Gurteen Le Poer, IHAI< Ferd Hamond, Ireland, Killaloan, Kilsheelan, lost, Magners, Neal's Weir, Operations, orchard, Power's Weir, quay, Ralph O'Callaghan, Rodrigo Flash, Sir Thomas's bridge, Slievenamon, Suir, Tikincor, vessels, water level, waterways, weir
Irish waterways history 