Category Archives: Irish waterways general

Ephemera 4: John Martin’s bonus

Posted on Wednesday 15 December 2010 | 3 comments

John Martin, Chief Executive of Waterways Ireland, received a bonus of £8500 (€9628) in February 2010, as a reward for his performance in 2007.

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Posted in Economic activities, Irish waterways general, Non-waterway, Operations

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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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Ephemera 1

Posted on Sunday 12 December 2010 | 1 comment

The Grand Canal from Noggus Bridge 11 December 2010

Haughton's Shore (Shannon Erne Waterway) 11 December 2010

Garadice Lough frozen 11 December 2010

It’s cold outside.

 

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Posted in Ashore, Extant waterways, Irish waterways general, 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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Budget 2011: Waterways Ireland

Posted on Tuesday 7 December 2010 | 2 comments

Money to be paid by Dept of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs to Waterways Ireland in 2011:

  • current expenditure down from €25,585,000 to €24,335,000 (I make that a cut of just under 5%)
  • capital expenditure down from €8,000,000 to €6,000,000 (25%)
  • total down from €33,585,000 to €30,335,000 (about 10%).

 

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Posted in Economic activities, Extant waterways, Irish waterways general

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The Ulster Canal and WI assets

Posted on Sunday 5 December 2010 | Leave a comment

I’ve received a partial response (described as a full release, but actually ignoring several of my questions) from Waterways Ireland to some questions about the Ulster Canal. You can read about it here; it includes interesting information about the current valuation of sites in Dublin that might have raised money for the construction of the canal to Clones.

I’m writing this in advance of the Irish budget, due on 7 December 2010; it will be interesting to see whether Ajai Chopra gives the Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs enough capital to pay for the first year’s proposed work on the canal.

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Irish waterways general, Non-waterway

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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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Lough Tap railway bridge

Posted on Monday 18 October 2010 | 1 comment

This site has some great photos of the replacement of the railway bridge over the Shannon Navigation at Lough Tap, near Drumsna, on 31 October 2009.

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Irish waterways general, Non-waterway, Operations, Rail

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