Waterways Ireland tender documents are a source of interesting and occasionally useful information. At present WI is looking for tenders for
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Operations, Restoration and rebuilding, Scenery, Sources, The turf trade, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged canal, Ireland, Operations, Royal Canal, Shannon, turf, waterways, Waterways Ireland, weir
… just some of the things you can see from the Killimer to Tarbert ferry.
Actually, I lied about the weirs, but they were there once. As were the salmon.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Operations, Scenery, shannon estuary, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, The fishing trade, The turf trade, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management, Weather
Tagged battery, boats, Clare, Endesa, ESB, estuary, ferry, flow, fort, Ireland, jetties, Kerry, Kilkerin, Killaloe, Killimer, Kilrush, lighthouse, Limerick, Napoleon, Operations, power station, quay, redoubt, Shannon, Tarbert, Tarbert Race, Tarbert Roads, vessels, waterways, weir, workboat
… and the episode of the Madelen. Heavy lifting from the slipway at Cappa Pier, Kilrush, to Hog Island.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Scenery, shannon estuary, waterways
Tagged boats, Cappa, Clare, estuary, Hog Island, Ireland, Kilrush, Limerick, Madelen, Operations, Scattery, Shannon, vessels, waterways, workboat
Valerie Anex’s photos of ghost estates, many on the Upper Shannon and the Shannon–Erne Waterway, are worth a look. Flash is required. Some more of them here, where you can see them in high resolution.
Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Operations, Politics, Scenery, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged builders, Celtic Tiger, ghost estates, Ireland, Keshcarrigan, Rooskey, Roosky, scenery, Shannon, Shannon–Erne Waterway, Valerie Anex, waterways
Waterways Ireland’s visitor centre in Dublin, known as the Box in the Docks, has been closed for some time. I don’t know whether it has yet been reopened, but it has a new website.
If you are pained by greengrocers’ apostrophes, don’t go there. The main problem, though, is that the website says nothing about what is in the Box. Why “Plan a visit” if you don’t know what you’ll see when you get there?
Perhaps it’s a work in progress, with more to be added later, but I’d welcome information about what’s in the centre from anyone who has visited it recently.
Trainspotters have it easy: even if they run out of engines to record, they can fall back on writing down the numbers of carriages.
There is less scope on the waterways, with relatively few working boats. However, Waterways Ireland seems to have a sizeable fleet of land vehicles, so we could record all of them … and, in the process, find out how many land vehicles WI actually operates.
I’ve started here with some pics of vehicles on the Shannon–Erne Waterway, but I’d like your help. If you spot a WI vehicle, photograph it and send the pic to me (reduced to less than 300 KB) with a note of when and where you saw the vehicle and, if possible, information on what it was doing. I’d also like you to give me permission to use the photo on the vehicles web page (but you will still own the copyright).
Just think, we could be just like those interesting chaps who photograph Eddie Stobart trucks ….
… but without a stake through its heart. The Ulster Canal is dead, but it’s spinning in its grave. Its parent department has admitted some of the truth about its funding, but Waterways Ireland will be applying for planning permission for the scheme: there’s enough money for that, but not for digging. Nonetheless, Fine Gael TDs have managed to distract attention from the absence of funding by pointing to the planning application, while Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil have not realised that a scheme’s benefits should outweigh its costs. Return of the Son of the Ghost of the Bride of the Ulster Canal on view here.
Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Anglo-Celt, assets, budget, canal, Cavan, Clones, Dáil, Deenihan, Department of Community Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs, Dublin, Erne, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Heather Humphreys, Ireland, lost, Lough Neagh, McGinley, McLellan, minister, Monaghan, Operations, Shannon, Sinn Fein, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways Ireland
Irish waterways history 