Category Archives: Tourism

Where do …

Posted on Tuesday 31 July 2012 | Leave a comment

… (a) correct ideas and (b) camper vans come from?

Correct ideas, as everyone is undoubtedly aware, come from three kinds of social practice: the struggle for production, the class struggle and scientific experiment.

Camper vans (or RVs: song on this page requiring Flash) may come to WI harbours because they’ve studied the Safe Nights Ireland website, which (inter alia) lists all the public toilets in Ireland (many counties have none) and the WI facilities.

Incidentally, I have been told that WI now welcomes camper vans, having persuaded Bord Fáilte that the economy won’t collapse if it recognises the reality that the vans use the harbours. However, I haven’t seen that in writing anywhere; if anyone can point me towards a reliable source, please leave a Comment below.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Non-waterway, Operations, Politics, Shannon, Sources, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

WI gets tough on the Erne

Posted on Monday 2 July 2012 | Leave a comment

Press release just in from WI, reproduced unchanged

Waterways Ireland has successfully undertaken the prosecution of two boats owners on Lough Erne for breaching the 48 hour mooring Bye-law. The defendants received a caution and undertook to comply with the Bye-laws in the future.

Waterways Ireland communicates regularly with boat owners about the Bye-laws and has produced a publication “Good Boating Guide” advising boat owners of the Bye-laws on Lough Erne.

Having recorded breaches of the 48 hour mooring Bye-laws, Waterways Ireland wrote to the boat owners advising of the breach and after subsequent breaches were noted, Waterways Ireland reluctantly brought the prosecutions under the Bye-laws.

The Magistrate, Mr. Kennedy, commented that “the Prosecutions were properly brought and it is important that people comply with the Bye-laws. “

Brian D’Arcy, Waterways Ireland’s Director of Operations stated “Waterways Ireland had no option but to prosecute following the increasing numbers of local boat owners abusing moorings provided for visiting tourist boats. Waterways Ireland provides moorings free of charge to enable tourists and touring boat owners to access attractions, services, towns and villages. Particularly in Enniskillen, the moorings facilitate the tourism economy as boaters spend in shops and restaurants; reduced access means less income for the town. Waterways Ireland would like to ensure all boat owners are made aware of their responsibilities when using public moorings and do not leave their boats moored in one location on a public mooring for more than 48 hours.”

Comment

I wonder when we’ll see the corresponding prosecutions on southern waterways.

Update

More details in the Impartial Reporter.

Leave a comment

Posted in Economic activities, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Politics, Sources, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Enda gets confused

Posted on Tuesday 26 June 2012 | 2 comments

In the Dáil on 19 June 2012, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin (Cork South Central) complained that there was not enough northsouthery:

[…] We have had good relations since the Good Friday Agreement and there have been good initiatives under the various North-South bodies and agencies that were subsequently established, from InterTradeIreland to the Food Safety Promotion Board and from Tourism Ireland to Waterways Ireland. In the early days, these had concrete, substantive, project-based achievements that delivered considerable momentum. Nothing of that calibre is in evidence currently.

With the British Government and the Northern Executive, will the Taoiseach commit to examining the North-South agenda seriously, in particular the review of North-South bodies, which has been waiting for some time to be signed off on? What are the conclusions of the review and what is the Government’s response to an additional North-South agency?

Taoiseach Enda Kenny (FG, Mayo) replied:

There was no conclusion at the meeting on Friday about additional bodies. Clearly, there were a number of issues outstanding in regard to some of the existing bodies. For instance, the Minister, Deputy Deenihan, committed to working with his counterpart in respect of the continued planning of the Erne Canal, which has been an issue for a very long time. There is no funding for it now, but there is no reason to believe one cannot put in place a strategy and a plan to open it. It would have enormous implications for tourism.

For “Erne” read “Ulster”: the NSMC decided not to extend Waterways Ireland’s remit so Ireland’s most insane current canal proposal is not on WI’s things-to-do list. The Ulster Canal is only rhe second most insane current canal proposal, although there is a new competitor entering the field.

 

2 Comments

Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Sources, Tourism, Ulster Canal, Waterways management

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Shannon–Erne Waterway: excavating the excavator

Posted on Tuesday 19 June 2012 | Leave a comment

Excavating the excavator (h/t Tony). bjg

Leave a comment

Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Ireland, Operations, Restoration and rebuilding, Tourism, waterways

Tagged , , , ,

Shannon Princess II

Posted on Friday 15 June 2012 | Leave a comment

Had I been able to erect a fence across the pier at Mountshannon recently, I might have made money by charging a fee to the many folk who walked down to look at the Shannon Princess II. When I told one chap that it was a hotel barge, he asked if he could go there for lunch. I tried to explain, but this notice from TravelWorld may explain it better.

Admittedly the headline is a bit misleading: when I saw it first I thought that the guests were to dress as artisans, whereas in fact the theme is artisan food, which means food made by members of the middle classes for sale to other members thereof. Put it this way: you might not invite the staff of your local Aldi to your garden parties but you would be quite happy to have your artisan food suppliers there. Not that I’ve anything against “artisan” food per se (indeed I buy lots of it); I just dislike the name.

More on the Shannon Princess here and here. When I win the lottery ….

 

Leave a comment

Posted in Economic activities, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Natural heritage, Operations, Scenery, Shannon, Tourism, waterways

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Shannon traffic figures May 2012

Posted on Thursday 14 June 2012 | 3 comments

Amended to add linear trendlines to the graphs.

Passages recorded at each location in May

Portumna Bridge      635
Victoria Lock             618
Athlone Lock              771
Tarmonbarry Lock 433
Clondra Lock                91
Roosky Lock              622
Albert Lock                826
Clarendon Lock        692
Battlebridge                 74
Drumleague                 70
Drumshanbo Lock    54
Pollboy Lock            237
Sarsfield Lock             14

Total                  5137

Figures courtesy of Waterways Ireland.

Total passages for first five months of the year

2002 14630
2003 14840
2004 13993
2005 12693
2006 12184
2007 14013
2008 12273
2009 11407
2010   9800
2011    9103
2012    9189

Derived from WI data.

Charts with trendlines

The decline continues.

3 Comments

Posted in Economic activities, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Shannon, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management, Weather

Tagged , , , , , , ,

WI on the wireless?

Posted on Tuesday 12 June 2012 | 2 comments

I heard several ads today on 2RN (or Radio Athlone, as the young folk say) for, er, “fun” on the Shannon and the Erne. Folk were encouraged to visit a Discover Ireland website, which I think is run by one of the bits of what used to be Bord Fáilte.

The site in question might be this one, where the Lough Derg offers include a hotel in Thurles, which is miles away from Lough Derg. The insistence on “fun” and “family adventure” suggests that that site is aimed at the members of the moronic community, and it is difficult to find any information apart from the prepackaged “family breaks”. And I’m not sure that the slogan “Discover Fermanagh: Where the days seem longer …” is a winner: why travel to Fermanagh to be bored when you could do it at home?

But what is most interesting is the sudden increase in the amount of advertising on the wireless; I don’t yet know whether it is matched by an increase in that on other media. I assume that tourism folk don’t spend money unless they are short of visitors. So have the numbers of overseas, foreign and domestic holiday-makers been disappointing so far this year? I don’t know, and the Tourism Barometer for April 2012 [PDF] suggested that service providers were optimistic at least at that stage.

I am aware that Waterways Ireland, which contributes to the lakelands marketing effort, has pulled advertising from some media; is it diverting its spending in an effort to boost tourism, or is that simply a change of policy consequent on a change of management? I would welcome information.

I would also welcome a proper analysis of the success of WI’s Lakelands and Inland Waterways marketign initiative.

2 Comments

Posted in Economic activities, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Ireland, Natural heritage, Operations, Politics, Scenery, Shannon, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

A day at Mountshannon

Posted on Tuesday 12 June 2012 | Leave a comment

Some of the variety of boats seen at Mountshannon on 4 June 2012.

0-0-0-0

0-0-0-0

0-0-0-0

0-0-0-0

0-0-0-0

0-0-0-0

0-0-0-0

0-0-0-0

0-0-0-0

0-0-0-0

0-0-0-0

0-0-0-0

0-0-0-0

0-0-0-0

0-0-0-0

0-0-0-0

0-0-0-0

0-0-0-0

 

Leave a comment

Posted in Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, People, Scenery, Shannon, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Weather

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Shannon traffic figures, first four months of 2012

Posted on Monday 28 May 2012 | Leave a comment

The Shannon traffic figures for the early part of the year need to be treated with caution. As at other times of the year, the figures show only vessels that passed through locks (and Portumna Bridge), so boats out on the lakes, or on the river between locks, will not be recorded. So the traffic figures don’t tell us the total amount of traffic; their main use is in showing trends from year to year.

The figures for the early months have a further disadvantage. Numbers of passages are low anyway and a single event — especially a weather event like floods, ice or gales — can have a major effect on winter and spring traffic, whereas the effect might be much smaller on the figures for the whole year.

I am grateful to Waterways Ireland for supplying the figures. I have them for each counting point, but won’t give all that detail here.

January 2012: 35
February 2012: 59
March 2012: 642
April 2012: 3316
Total: 4052

To put that in context, here are the figures from 2002 onwards:

Year J F M A YTD 5YMA
2002 10 6 1331 3528 4875  
2003 10 35 644 5515 6204 5157.4
2004 60 52 424 4768 5304 5524.6
2005 13 54 2162 3123 5352 5848.6
2006 37 55 591 5205 5888 5423.4
2007 42 85 698 5670 6495 5358.2
2008 28 44 1377 2629 4078 4991.0
2009 42 82 563 4291 4978 4849.6
2010 30 45 495 2946 3516 4363.o
2011 48 66 512 4555 5181  
2012 35 59 642 3316 4062  

The YTD column is Year To Date; 5YMA is a five-year moving average, which might remove some of the distortion caused by one-off events like ice and floods. I still wouldn’t read too much into four months’ figures, but the general trend is downwards.

 

 

 

Leave a comment

Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Shannon, Sources, Tourism, Waterways management, Weather

Tagged , , , ,

Morons on jetskis

Posted on Saturday 26 May 2012 | Leave a comment

Killaloe Coast Guard is rather more polite about them here. Well done the member of the public who made the call as well as the Gardaí and the Coast Guard for taking action.

Yes, I know there are sensible and sane folk who use jetskis; I am friendly with several of them and I’m not talking about them or other sane users.

Leave a comment

Posted in Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Shannon, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged , , , ,