Victoria (Meelick) and Hamilton Locks (OSI ~1900)
Lord Dunkellin: Do you know the Victoria lock at Meelick?
Sir Richard Griffith: I do.
Victoria Lock, Meelick
Dunkellin: Do you know what is called the Old Cut, the old canal?
Griffith: Yes.
Dunkellin: The Victoria lock is a new work, is it not?
Griffith: It is.
Dunkellin: Should you be surprised to hear that vessels do not use that frequently, but go by the old cut?
Griffith: In times of very high flood I am aware that the canal boats find it advisable and beneficial to go by the Hamilton lock, on the old cut, in preference to the other.
Dunkellin: Prima facie, one would have thought that a new work like the Victoria lock would have the effect of regulating the state of things?
Griffith: It arises from the Counsellers’ Ford, as it is called, above Meelick; it has not been sufficiently excavated, and there is a strong current, and the boats are not able to get up to it in times of high flood.
Dunkellin: Then the boats made use of the old canal instead of the new lock?
Griffith: Under those peculiar circumstances they did.
Evidence of Sir Richard Griffith to the Select Committee on the Shannon River 12 June 1865
Irish waterways history 