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
Do my eyes deceive me?
The still-unopened mooring pontoons below the bridge at Ballina (bottom of Lough Derg) seem to have sprouted an extension.
Here is what they looked like in 2009.
The upstream end of the Ballina pontoons in February 2009
Here they are in the floods of November 2009.
The upstream end of the Ballina pontoons in the floods of November 2009
And here they are in January 2011, seen from downriver.
The upstream end of the Ballina pontoons in January 2011
Well I never.
Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Irish waterways general, Operations, Weather
Tagged Ballina, boats, bridge, Clare, floods, flow, Ireland, jetties, Killaloe, Lough Derg, Operations, pontoon, Shannon, Tipperary, water level, waterways, Waterways Ireland
Tarbert Island
The Irish Times reports that:
AN BORD Pleanála has approved the application by Endesa Ireland, part of the Spanish energy company, to build a combined-cycle gas turbine power plant on the former ESB station at Tarbert, Co Kerry.
I presume that, when it says that “A submarine cable is to supply Moneypoint.” it means that a submarine pipe will do so: I imagine that the power station at Moneypoint is more likely to want gas than electricity from its rival across the estuary.
Tarbert is now the southern station for the ferries that cross the Shannon Estuary, but it has had a long history as an estuary port. Even before the first of the piers was built, Tarbert Roads provided a sheltered anchorage, and the estuary steamers adopted ingenious methods to get passengers and cargo from shore to steamer and vice versa.
Tarbert was also an important administrative centre and Tarbert Island (as was), which now houses piers and power station, had a Coast Guard station, a lighthouse, a signal mast and the largest of the six forts that guarded the Shannon Estuary. The ESB power station is built on the Ordnance Ground, right on top of the seven-gun battery, as you can see if you play with the Overlay feature on the Historic 6″ Ordnance Survey map.
Moneypoint had a large quarry; it may have been from there that Charles Wye Williams got the “marble” that he polished in the marble mill at Killaloe.
Saleen Pier at Ballylongford is covered here.
Posted in Ashore, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Irish waterways general, Non-waterway, Operations, Scenery, shannon estuary, Steamers
Tagged Ballylongford, battery, boats, Clare, Coast Guard, ESB, ferry, flow, fort, Ireland, jetties, Kerry, Killaloe, Killimer, Kilrush, Limerick, marble mill, Moneypoint, Operations, ordnance ground, pier, quarry, quay, Saleen, Shannon, shannon estuary, Tarbert, vessels, waterways
The view from Dromod 30 December 2010.
Dromod
The Swiss Army Knife is no longer sprawling across the canal above Noggus Bridge on the Grand: it’s parked in the middle of the canal, closer to the bridge.
Posted in Ashore, Extant waterways, Irish waterways general, Operations, Scenery, Weather
Tagged boats, Boderg, Bofin, bridge, canal, Dromod, Grand Canal, harbour, ice, Ireland, Noggus Bridge, Shannon, Swiss Army knife, vessels, waterways, Waterways Ireland, workboat
Here‘s a thing.
Posted in Ashore, Extant waterways, Irish waterways general, Operations
Tagged canal, Grand Canal, Ireland, lock, lock 34, Operations, waterways, Waterways Ireland
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
Two recent stories of people in canals in freezing weather. This one had a happy ending; this one didn’t.
Posted in Ashore, Extant waterways, Irish waterways general, Weather
Tagged Boyne, bridge, canal, drowning, Grand Canal, Inchicore, Ireland, lock, LUAS, Oldbridge, Operations, rescue, waterways
The Westmeath Independent reports on the opening of a new service block at Coosan Point:
Meanwhile, in Athlone, with a delicious irony that couldn’t have been lost on those in attendance, just as Ireland Inc was going down the toilet – the council in Westmeath was opening, yes, you guessed it, toilets!
At a low-key ribbon cutting ceremony, which suffered from unfortunate timing, and which was accompanied by more than a touch of farce, Waterways Ireland staff and Westmeath County Council management congregated on Monday last to officially open a new upgraded service block of toilets and showers at the Coosan Point amenity area.
Unfortunately the report does not say what the “touch of farce” was. Information welcome.
Irish waterways history 