Category Archives: Irish inland waterways vessels

An update on the Suir

Posted on Thursday 23 December 2010 | Leave a comment

I have updated my page about the River Suir above Carrick. I have added photos on some locations above Clonmel (Cahir, Athassel, Golden); I have also added a new section about the infrastructure of the navigation between Carrick and Clonmel. That section has benefited greatly from the information provided by Fred Hamond on the tour he organised for the Industrial Heritage Association of Ireland earlier this year. Several of the photos taken on the tour show warm, sunny weather. They will also, I hope, help to draw attention to the delights of the Suir.

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, Rail, Scenery, The fishing trade, Weather

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Ephemera 2

Posted on Sunday 12 December 2010 | Leave a comment

Work in progress on the new moorings above the bridge in Killaloe.

WIP Killaloe 12 December 2010

Below the bridge, the downstream end of the canal has been blocked by a fallen tree. The ESB boats (62M and the tug) have been moved to the dockyard side (I don’t know whether that has anything to do with the blockage) and the path down the side of the marble mill has been blocked by a locked gate. It is climbable, but being burdened I did not attempt it.

Killaloe canal blocked

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Posted in Ashore, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, Weather

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The Swiss Army stop plank

Posted on Saturday 11 December 2010 | 1 comment

Photographed 11 December 2010 from Noggus Bridge (N62) on the Grand Canal, south of Ferbane. As the Swiss Army Knife has been parked there for some time, I presume its function is to block boat access to Shannon Harbour while work is under way there. But wouldn’t some planks, or a couple of padlocks at Lock 32, have been cheaper?

Swiss Army stop plank

If it is parked there for some other reason, I would be glad to know of it.

 

 

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Posted in Ashore, Extant waterways, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Weather

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Killaloe to Limerick Docks via Ardnacrusha

Posted on Wednesday 8 December 2010 | Leave a comment

Join the ex-Grand Canal Company motor-barge 68M on its trip from Killaloe to Limerick Docks, carrying barrels of stout for Dolan’s Pub. The trip marked two occasions: Arthur’s Day, the annual Guinness marketing opportunity, and the fiftieth anniversary of the last commercial cargo on the Grand Canal and the Shannon, which was a shipment of stout to Limerick.

This page provides a slide-show of 300 photos taken from 68M on its journey. If you can’t make the trip in person, do it this way.

Note that the page takes some time to load. And, even clicking through pretty fast, the show is likely to take at least ten minutes.

Click on the first photo to bring up the controls. If you have any problems with it, leave a Comment to let me know. I haven’t done this before. I may not be able to fix any problems, but I can at least look into them.

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Posted in Ashore, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, Scenery, shannon estuary, Steamers, The turf trade, Weather

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Update: New Ross dry dock

Posted on Thursday 2 December 2010 | Leave a comment

Eamonn Coady has kindly sent on some pics of New Ross dry dock, which I’ve added to the Dry docks page.

Lots more stuff in the wings: getting time to sort it all out is the problem.

 

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations

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Who took the arch? A Shannon whodunnit

Posted on Wednesday 20 October 2010 | Leave a comment

O’Briensbridge is a village in Co Clare, islanded between the headrace of the Ardnacrusha hydroelectric power station and the River Shannon. Up to 1929 the river was the navigation between Limerick and Lough Derg (and eventually Dublin), and the bridge itself was something of an obstacle to navigation.

In 1832 the engineer Thomas Rhodes drew a sketch of the bridge with 14 arches, whereas nowadays it has only 12. We know when the seven arches on the Co Limerick side were reduced to six, but it has not been clear when an arch was removed from the Clare side. I think I know the answer; you can read it here.

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Posted in Ashore, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, Scenery, Sources, Steamers

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The barge at Plassey: seeking experts on iron

Posted on Saturday 16 October 2010 | Leave a comment

On my old photographic website I had a page of photos of an abandoned barge at Plassey, on the River Shannon. I have now moved those photos to here and added some text.

I am hoping that someone expert in old iron barges might be able to make a guess at the age, and perhaps even the origin, of the barge. I will, in the meantime, be trying to pin down the date of its abandonment.

 

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, Sources, Steamers

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More wooden boats

Posted on Thursday 7 October 2010 | Leave a comment

I’ve added some more pics of wooden boats to the main page here. I’ve also added links to some pages about a boat that was built for use on Lough Derg, the Gleeson hydroplane Sereia:

Sereia history (note links to pages on restoration and photos)

Sereia for sale

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Posted in Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general

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The Ulster Canal: the supposed benefits

Posted on Wednesday 15 September 2010 | Leave a comment

Here is the latest (and almost the last) in this series of posts: an examination of the expected benefits of the canal to Clones. My conclusion is that the benefits cited are higher than those likely to arise in current conditions.

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Irish inland waterways vessels, Non-waterway, Operations, Water sports activities

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Waterways Ireland: best practice on consultations

Posted on Wednesday 11 August 2010 | Leave a comment

Its implementation of “best practice” in running consultations means that Waterways Ireland has sought the views of the following bodies (amongst others):

Age Action Ireland
Age Concern
Carers Northern Ireland
Deaf Hear.ie
Disability Action
Equality Commission for Northern Ireland
Equality Tribunal
GLEN (Gay & Lesbian Equality Network)
Immigrant Council of Ireland
Irish Farmers’ Association
Irish Traveller Movement
Irish Wheelchair Association
National Disability Authority
National Women’s Council of Ireland
Northern Irelan Council for Ethnic Minorities
Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association
Northern Ireland Women’s Aid Federation
Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)
Traveller Movement Northern Ireland
Ulster Farmers’ Union

That’s 20 out of 129.

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Posted in Extant waterways, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations

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