Category Archives: Shannon

Interesting info from Waterways Ireland

Posted on Tuesday 26 May 2015 | 2 comments

Two interesting PDF documents available on this page:

2015 summer work programme [PDF]
an account of the Tarmonbarry lock replacement work [PDF].

No mention of Saunderson’s Sheugh, but I suppose dredging of the River Finn is proceeding.

Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Operations, Restoration and rebuilding, Shannon, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged Bann, Barrow, boats, canal, Erne, Ireland, lock, Lough Derg, Operations, quay, Royal Canal, Shannon, Tarmonbarry, Ulster Canal, Waterways Ireland, weir, workboat

Re-invention or re-creation?

Posted on Friday 15 May 2015 | 1 comment

I realise that many folk visit this website in order to find out what is hip and trendy, cool and with-it, in all sorts of fields, from beer to boating, casual dining to cost-benefit analysis. So, in order to keep readers down wid da kidz in da hood [as the young folk say], I’ve been checking out the latest, baddest [which means ‘goodest’, I gather, or what in the old days we would have called ‘best’], grooviest developments on tinterweb. It’s a thing called FaceTweet, and those cool dudes at Waterways Ireland have one of them. Hep to the jive, daddy-o [which means ‘How perfectly splendid, old boy’.]

As far as I can see, FaceTweet is in general intended for folk whose attention span renders them unable to read more than a single paragraph of continuous prose. But brevity is sometimes the soul of wit and good goods come in small parcels [sentiments for whose veracity I have not found peer-reviewed evidence]. And I was interested in Waterways Ireland’s self-description on the page:

Waterways Ireland is the Recreation Authority for over 1000km of Ireland’s Inland navigable waterways.

That phrase, Recreation Authority, does not occur in Waterways Ireland’s Business Plan 2015 [as approved by the North South Ministerial Council on 18 December 2014 and screwed up by the Council shortly afterwards] or in its Corporate Plan 2014–2016 [ditto]. Nor, according to its own search engine, is the phrase used on Waterways Ireland’s proper website [the search engine rather bafflingly reports “We don’t have any refiners to show you”].

Yet the concept of Waterways Ireland as a Recreation Authority is almost entirely in tune with the thinking underlying both of the plans and it is the neatest encapsulation I have yet seen of what WI is about.

I put in ‘almost’ there because the Corporate Plan‘s Executive Summary includes this:

Central to our vision for the future is the development of recreational, heritage and environmental opportunities that link people, history and nature, providing both local communities and visitors with compelling reasons to spend more time in the waterways environment.

While I’m all — well, somewhat — in favour of heritage and environment, the words seem to sit uneasily in that sentence: added as a form of ritual obeisance to the shade of Michael D Higgins, who ripped the rivers and canals from the sheltering embrace of the Office of Public Works engineers and proclaimed the waterways to be heritage artefacts. Heritage is no longer of great interest to TPTB and most people’s experience of it [whatever it is] is as entertainment or recreation; much the same applies to environment, which — for most people — is of interest only as providing a scenic background for more interesting activities.

So both heritage and environment can be subsumed under the heading of recreation, leaving Waterways Ireland with a neat, well-focused description of itself, a subheading for its title, and one that matches its Mission and Vision.

Mind you, it’s not entirely clear what a recreation authority is — Google finds relatively few [129000] instances of the term’s use, most of them in the Americas — but that might be no harm.

Waterways Ireland — the recreation authority

Hep to the jive, daddy-o: I like it.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Safety, Scenery, Shannon, Sources, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged business plan, corporate plan, department of arts heritage and the gaeltacht, environment, heritage, Ireland, Operations, recreation, waterways, Waterways Ireland

Chains at the Black Bridge

Posted on Thursday 14 May 2015 | 1 comment

It seems that the city edition of the Limerick Leader dated Saturday May 16 2015 carries a story saying that funding has been approved for the repair of the Black Bridge at Plassey. I can’t find the story on the Leader‘s website and I can’t find anything about it anywhere else [there is a limit to the amount of my life I am willing to spend trying to find anything on the Limerick Council website] except on the Leader‘s FaceTweet page, where I can expand the city edition front page.

There is a photo of several councillors, which of course is wonderful: no day is wasted if it offers an opportunity of looking at a photo of local councillors, especially important ones with chains.

From what I can read of the text, it seems that “councillors in City East” [which is not one of the Limerick districts listed here] are willing to spend €50,000 “to start work to make the walkway safe again”. And they hope that Clare County Council, the University of Limerick and Waterways Ireland will “also row in behind the project”.

Now, half a loaf is better than no bread, and €50,000 is better than a poke in the eye from a blind horse, but it’s not going to go very far towards the cost of repairing the Black Bridge. I don’t known whether it would even cover the cost of a full survey.

I’m sure that Waterways Ireland would be delighted to help, if the Department of Fairytales hadn’t raided its coffers to pay for Saunderson’s Sheugh. I have reason to believe that the university was willing to help — and that Clare County Council was not. I submitted a Freedom of Information request to the university, asking it for [recent] records relating to the Black Bridge. The university gave me three extracts from meetings of the Limerick Smarter Travel Steering Group:

9 January 2013
Funding not in place for Black Bridge

21 November 2013
Black Bridge: UL indicated that funding may be available from UL. LST [Limerick Smarter Travel] has indicated funding in the order of €100,000. UL may be able to mach [sic] this. Request for funding to be made formally to UL by LCCC and to include surveys and reports on bridge to date.

18 September 2014
RR said UL have set aside €100,000 towards Black bridge refurbishment but will need matched funding from LA [presumably local authority]. Black bridge will require a detailed study to identify what repair work will need to be carried out, also an AA study will be required, and proper consents from ABP [An Bord Pleanála?]. Funding currently not available from LA.
PON spoke to Clare Co Co. No funding available from them.
PC Department will not fund a pedestrian bridge.
RR can we look for alternative funding options, UL will ring fence for the moment.

An AA study is, I think, an Appropriate Assessment, a sort of employment creation scheme for bird-watchers who can read European directives [and sooner them than me].

The point to be remembered here is that Limerick County Council leased the bridge and undertook to keep it in repair; there is no obligation on Waterways Ireland, Clare County Council or the University of Limerick to spend a penny on it. The two parties on whom lies the responsibility for repairing the bridge are the Limerick Council and the Department of Finance, which latter has the power, under the lease, to do the work and charge it to the council. That would be a better use of its time and money than an unnecessary and intrusive footbridge in the middle of Limerick.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Natural heritage, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Safety, Scenery, Shannon, Sources, The cattle trade, The turf trade, Tourism, Uncategorized, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged Black Bridge, Limerick, Plassey

Riverfest in Limerick

Posted on Wednesday 6 May 2015 | Leave a comment

Riverfest is an annual, er, happening in Limerick. I don’t know much about it: I’ve never been because I dislike both crowds and festivals and it would take something remarkably interesting to outweigh my dislike and persuade me to attend any part of the thing. I took notice of this year’s event only because I wanted to find out what streets would be closed to traffic; the festival organisers did not, alas, think to provide a map showing the closures.

I have only two other comments on the event:

the brochure [PDF] mentions a workshop called “Craft a River” but doesn’t say what, or indeed where, it is
in a city whose history is so intertwined with that of the food industry, and which has, in the Milk Market, the best Irish market outside Cork, it seems ludicrous to import a “continental market” instead of showcasing local producers.

But I acknowledge that I am not really entitled to comment; Brian Leddin, on the other hand, has a better informed view.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Sea, Shannon, shannon estuary, Steamers, The cattle trade, The grain trade, The turf trade, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management, Weather

Tagged Ireland, Limerick, Milk market, Riverfest, Shannon

Hurrah for the red, white and orange

Posted on Tuesday 5 May 2015 | 8 comments

Colour discrimination seems to be rampant in Ireland. Of the sets of colours [red, white and blue] and [green, white and orange], there is Official Endorsement of two, green and blue, while red, white and orange are ignored. Even the North/South Ministerial Council has got in on the act, with a whole page on its website about greenways and blueways. They must have been overdosing on the Erne flag. Their page is a list of links, sort of plonked there without context or explanation, but there’s probably some hands-across-the-borderism or something going on.

I read in the Guardian today of a proposal for a greenway on the former railway line between Roscrea and Portumna via Birr. And a jolly good thing too, but how many greenways and blueways can one small island accommodate? How thinly will the tourists be spread? And what about those of us who hate walking, cycling, kayaking and other such energetic pursuits?

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, Rail, Restoration and rebuilding, Roads, Safety, Scenery, Shannon, Tourism, Ulster Canal, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged Barrow, Birr, blueway, boats, canal, Clones, greenway, Ireland, Lough Neagh, Nenagh, North South Ministerial Council, Portumna, Roscrea, Royal Canal, Shannon, Ulster Canal, Waterways Ireland

The Shannon One

Posted on Monday 4 May 2015 | Leave a comment

Heading down the estuary past Shannon Airport

Limerick Port dredger Shannon I 3_resize

Working in Limerick

Limerick Port dredger Shannon I 4_resize

Almost as much kit as WI’s Swiss Army Knife

Limerick Port dredger Shannon I 5_resize

The big crane, though, is not part of the kit

Limerick Port dredger Shannon I 7_resize

Great view from the cab … er, wheelhouse

Limerick Port dredger Shannon I 11_resize

Pusher bow?

Limerick Port dredger Shannon I 1_resize

Limerick in the background

Limerick Port old dredger Curraghgour II 3_resize

Shannon 1’s predecessor Curraghgour II

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Sea, Shannon, shannon estuary, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged boats, Curraghgour II, estuary, Ireland, Limerick, Shannon, Shannon 1, Shannon Foynes Port Company, vessels, waterways, workboat

Theft on Lough Ree …

Posted on Friday 1 May 2015 | 1 comment

… in the National Archives of Ireland May 2015 document of the month.

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Posted in Economic activities, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Politics, Shannon, Sources, waterways

Tagged barge, boats, Dublin, Grand Canal, Guinness, Ireland, Lough Ree, Operations, pirates, Quaker Island, robbery, Shannon, theft, Waterways Ireland

Portland House

Posted on Friday 1 May 2015 | Leave a comment

Chimneys of Portland House seen from the Shannon

Here is a good article about the destruction of Portland House, just upstream of Portumna on the east bank of the Shannon, by ruffians in 1938.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Non-waterway, People, Shannon

Tagged Portland, Portumna, ruffians, Stoney

News from the Windsor and Eton Express

Posted on Thursday 30 April 2015 | Leave a comment

A memorial to the lord lieutenant from the gentry and landed proprietors of Sligo, Leitrim, Fermanagh, and Cavan, lies in Enniskillen for signatures. It prays that a canal may be formed which will connect Lough Earne [sic] with Lough Allen, and that again with Lough Gill, which is navigable to Sligo. This, with the canal already sanctioned between Lough Erne and Neagh, will open a communication across the kingdom, from Sligo to the ports of Newry and Belfast. In a commercial point of view, this undertaking is of the greatest importance to Ireland.

Windsor and Eton Express Saturday 28 May 1825

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Posted in Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Ireland, Sea, Shannon, Ulster Canal, Unbuilt canals, waterways