Here is an article, perhaps by Philip Dixon Hardy himself, from his Dublin Penny Journal of 1835. It is about the Bog of Allen, and the turfcutters living thereon, seen from the Grand Canal in 1835.
He visited a turfcutter’s hovel in the bog while stopped at a double lock about twenty miles from Dublin. What lock could that have been?
Note that Kildare is not among the counties mentioned in the article.
Posted in Ashore, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Scenery, Sources, The turf trade, Tourism, waterways
Tagged boats, bog, Bog of Allen, canal, Dublin, Dublin Penny Journal, Galway. Roscommon, gorse, Grand Canal, hovel, Ireland, King's County, landlord, landshark, lock, Longford, Meath, Operations, Philip Dixon Hardy, Queen's County, reclamation, Royal Canal, Shannon, Tipperary, Tullamore, turf, vessels, Westmeath, Wicklow
In today’s Sunday Business Post Jasper Winn, the paper’s Hardy Outdoor Correspondent, describes a five-day walk along the Grand Canal, from Harold’s Cross to Shannon Harbour. He did it in winter, camping out on the bank overnight despite its being so cold that the canal froze over, and finishing some of his days’ walks in the dark.
The SBP operates a paywall so you may not be able to see the page, but this is the link in case you want to try.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Natural heritage, People, Scenery, Shannon, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Weather
Tagged canal, Daingean, Dublin, frost, Grand Canal, ice, Ireland, Jasper Winn, lock, Operations, Sallins, Shannon, Shannon Harbour, Sunday Business Post, walk, waterways, Waterways Ireland
The Limerick Leader article about a proposed Limerick river bus has some statements that do not accord with my understanding.
The venture will see the river bus depart Guinness Pier – across from Athlunkard Boat Club at O’Dwyer Bridge – every two hours, bound for the power station […].
As far as I know, the pier in question was the Ranks jetty and was not used by Messrs Guinness. The Eclipse Flower, and other vessels owned by Ranks and their predecessors, sailed up the Shannon from there rather than attempt the stretch from Baal’s Bridge to Custom House Quay.
The boat will follow the route taken by barges of old – both passenger and commercial – some of which historically transported Guinness to the city up until the mid-1960s.
“It is a tried and tested route,” said Mr Flynn, stressing the viability and safety of the route, which passes Long Pavement – the edges of which have been repaired and grassed over – and finishes at the hydro-electric plant.
“Every passenger and commercial barge that came to Limerick for 50 years used that stretch of water. It is very safe. It was navigated by all the barges,” he said.
The route to Limerick through Ardnacrusha came into use only after the construction of the power station in the 1920s and was used for a little over thirty years. To the best of my knowledge, there were no passenger services in those years: passenger carrying stopped in the first half of the nineteenth century, when traffic was still using the old Limerick Navigation. There have been some trip-boats in recent years, but they did not (and do not) use “barges of old”. Some old barges, now converted and with more powerful engines, have safely navigated that stretch, but they do it when conditions are right.
During the final phases of Ardnacrusha’s construction, both old and new navigations were closed; the Grand Canal Company (GCC), the main commercial carrying company, ran to Killaloe and had its cargoes carried onward by rail to Limerick. When the new route through Ardnacrusha was opened, the GCC thought it was so dangerous that it refused to use it for about a year. It resumed operations only when a boom was put across the river above Baal’s Bridge and posts were provided upstream of O’Dwyer Bridge to which barges could tie while waiting for suitable states of the tide.
I accept that the proposed river bus will not be going downstream as far as Baal’s Bridge, but it will still be navigating on a stretch of water where Waterways Ireland advises that boats should not navigate when more than one turbine is running at Ardnacrusha. The ESB can run up to four turbines, each of which is said to add a knot to the current, and it can switch them on immediately, with no warning to any boat using the river.
Other pages on this site make it clear that I share the promoters’ enthusiasm for Ardnacrusha and the canal and river thence to Limerick. I do not say that the difficulties of that stretch cannot be overcome, but I do not think that they should be dismissed.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Rail, Restoration and rebuilding, Scenery, Shannon, Sources, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Ardnacrusha, Baal's Bridge, boats, bridge, canal, Clare, Eclipse Flower, ESB, floods, flow, Grand Canal Company, Guinness, Ireland, jetties, Killaloe, Limerick, Limerick Leader, lock, Lough Derg, O'Dwyer Bridge, Operations, Park Bridge, Ranks, river bus, Shannon, vessels, water level, waterways, Waterways Ireland
… from the (presumably artificially created) photograph in the Limerick Leader seems to be the Cailín Turána, formerly part of the Aran Islands Fast Ferries fleet at Doolin and seen here out of the water at Cork Dockyard in 2004. The vessel has not been on the Dept of Transport’s List of Certified Passenger Ships since 2007 (and may have come off the list before that: I have not kept copies of the lists earlier than 2007). It could of course have been used in Ireland for purposes other than carrying fare-paying passengers, or outside Ireland for any purpose, after 2004.
And it may be that the vessel shown in the photo is not that which is to be used in Limerick.
Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Restoration and rebuilding, Shannon, Sources, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Ardnacrusha, Athlunkard, boats, canal, Clare, ESB, estuary, flow, Ireland, Limerick, lock, Operations, Ranks, Shannon, vessels, water level, waterways, Waterways Ireland, workboat
Limerick river bus, allegedly.
Regular readers will know that I sent and FOI request to the Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs [now the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht] looking for files on the Clones Sheugh (aka the Ulster Canal). One of the grounds on which I was refused access was that certain files related to “the costing, assessment or consideration or any proposal of a political party carried out for or on behalf of that party”.
While my appeal against that refusal continues on its course, I thought I might as well ask the political parties directly for the information that might be in those files — in the process, of course, establishing which of them had Clones Sheugh proposals in mind.
As far as I can see, the parties that contested, or were eligible to contest, the 2011 general election were:
Christian Solidarity Party
Fianna Fáil
Fine Gael
Fís Nua
Green Party
Labour
People before Profit
Sinn Féin
Socialist Party
South Kerry Independent
Workers and Unemployed Action Group [WUAG]
Workers’ Party.
Accordingly, I decided to email them all, enquiring whether they had asked the [then] Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs for information “relating to the costing, assessment or consideration of the restoration of some or all of the abandoned Ulster Canal”. I added that, if they had done so, I would be grateful for a copy of the query they put to the department and of the response they received. I told them that I was sending my query to all political parties that contested the 2011 general election (or at least to all those for which I could find an email address).
That was not quite true: I omitted the South Kerry Independent Alliance, on the grounds that its interest in the Clones Sheugh was likely to be limited (I am of course open to correction on this). Furthermore, I was unable to find any website or email address for WUAG so I did not send my request to them.
All of the other parties had websites and email addresses — except one: Fianna Fáil. Now, strictly speaking it falls outside the range of parties in which I might have been interested: not just for the obvious reasons but because it was in government at the time and would automatically have had full access to the civil service costings (such as they were). But I was interested to note that Fianna Fáil did not provide an email address on its website: interested enough to ring it and ask for an email address for its press office. The polite receptionist asked someone and told me that the address to be used was pressoffice@fiannafail.ie.
So I sent my query to that address. And I got back an autoresponse saying
This email is not monitored. For urgent queries you can contact the FF Press Office on 087 955 5600.
Well I never. What was the point of that?
Anyway, the results so far put Labour in the lead: I got an almost immediate informal response from Dermot Lacey, saying that he didn’t think Labour had contacted the department; I also got a more formal response next day, from Mags Murphy, Director of Councillor Services and Training, saying:
Labour did not include a specific commitment to the development of the Ulster Canal in our manifesto in the 2011 Election.
However, Labour is keen that all practical possibilities for cooperation, reconciliation and mutual benefit, including maximising tourism potential from a development of the Ulster Canal would be considered seriously as part of our deep commitment to the Good Friday agreement.
To this end, the Labour members of the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement committee visited the Ulster Canal, Enniskillen and Clones with their cross-party colleagues for a range of meetings on 27 September 2012 with Waterways Ireland officials, local councillors and community groups.
Oh dear. Still, brownie points for responding.
What is the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement committee?
I am still awaiting responses from the other political parties.
I did not vote for any of those parties.
Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Ireland, People, Politics, Tourism, Ulster Canal, Uncategorized, waterways
Tagged canal, Christian Solidarity, Clones, department of arts heritage and the gaeltacht, Department of Community Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs, Dublin, Erne, Fís Nua, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Green party, Ireland, labour, Lough Neagh, People Before Profit, Socialist Party, South Kerry Independent, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways Ireland, Workers' Party, WUAG
The Abbey Theatre has announced that it has bought Nos 15–17 Eden Quay, Dublin 1. No 15 was the address of the main offices of the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company.
From the Dublin Almanac of 1845
The company crest is said to be still on the wall. Abbey Street Old seems to run between the two premises; no doubt there will be some means of avoiding any problem.
I wish the Abbey Theatre well in its extension, but I hope it will find some way of honouring the memory of the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company and of the underrecognised Charles Wye Williams.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Operations, People, Restoration and rebuilding, Shannon, shannon estuary, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, Tourism, waterways
Tagged Abbey Theatre, Charles Wye Williams, City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, Dublin, Eden Quay, estuary, Fergus, Grand Canal, Ireland, Irish Sea, Shannon, steam, steamer, waterways, workboat
Irish waterways history 