Category Archives: Ulster Canal

Northsouthery and the Clones Sheugh

Posted on Tuesday 6 November 2012 | Leave a comment

The minutes of the latest North South Ministerial Council plenary meeting, held on 2 November 2012, are now on the NSMC website. Of the Clones Sheugh:

The Council also welcomed the following key developments: […]

the restoration of the Ulster Canal from Clones to Upper Lough Erne is progressing through the planning application process in both jurisdictions. An inter-agency group has been set up to examine all possible options to advance the project.

Perhaps Mr Noonan will have an early christmas present for the promoters.

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Ulster Canal, waterways

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Political parties: update

Posted on Friday 2 November 2012 | Leave a comment

I said that I had asked many political parties whether they had asked the Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs [now the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht] for costings for the Clones Sheugh (aka the Ulster Canal). Those I asked 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

I have so far had responses from Fís Nua, the Green Party and Labour; it seems that none of them made the request. I have emailed a reminder to the others and I await their responses.

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

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Political parties

Posted on Wednesday 17 October 2012 | Leave a comment

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.

Party time

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.

Fianna Fáil logic

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?

Labour gains

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?

Where are the others?

I am still awaiting responses from the other political parties.

Declaration of non-interest

I did not vote for any of those parties.

 

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Ireland, People, Politics, Tourism, Ulster Canal, Uncategorized, waterways

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Da new kidz in da hood

Posted on Tuesday 2 October 2012 | Leave a comment

A couple of canally sites I hadn’t come across:

  • da corpo’s canal (h/t IndustrialHeritageIreland)
  • Dublin canal walks. I don’t know who is behind this site, which looks like a work in the early stages of progress, but I’m all in favour of folks’ walking along Dublin canals; my own effort at encouragement is here.

Industrial Heritage Ireland, by the way, has been watching the Clones Canal campaign. This suggests that the campaign is being cranked up, although I don’t know what the poor buggers from the NI Strategic Investment Board are doing in the group: pouring money into holes in the ground is not (pace Keynes) usually seen as an investment.

It is reported, nonetheless, that IWAI folk are confident that public money will be wasted on the ghastly project, thus subsidising their hobby. And it seems that a gang of Irish parliamentarians, following the tradition established in Grattan’s Parliament, are keen to distribute pork: there is nothing in the press release to suggest that any of the poor dears have any interest in assessing the costs and benefits of the Clones Canal proposal. In the unlikely event that any of them is interested, the pages starting here might be useful. And interested parliamentarians might like to check on any cost-benefit analyses done (or revised) since it was found that the canal would cost €45m, not €35m.

 

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Posted in Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Sources, Ulster Canal, waterways

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The Lagan and Lough Neagh in 1830

Posted on Monday 17 September 2012 | Leave a comment

Philip Dixon Hardy wrote in The Northern Tourist, or Stranger’s Guide to the north and north west of Ireland: including a particular description of Belfast, the Giant’s Causeway, and every object of picturesque interest in the district referred to William Curry, Jun and Co, Dublin 1830:

The river Lagan, although of very considerable breadth in the immediate vicinity of Belfast, and running nearly thirty miles, is yet by far too inconsiderable to be of any great advantage to the town in the way of trade or commerce. By its means, however, a regular communication is kept up between Belfast, Lisburn, and Lough Neagh. Since the year 1755, upwards of £100,000 have been expended in forming a canal, by the assistance of cuts in various places along the line of the river, where it was found too shallow for lighters to pass.

The Lagan Navigation Company have now the direction of the entire line, and have made such judicious improvements, as materially to promote the desired object — a speedy transit of goods and merchandise. This, however, can, after all, be only partially accomplished, as, from the circumstance of the Company not being able to have a horse-track-way along the entire line, nor to introduce steam power, the journey can be performed in a much shorter space of time by waggons and drays going direct. On Lough Neagh there is a small steam-vessel, by which the goods taken up in the lighters are rapidly conveyed to the different towns which lie in various directions round that extensive sheet of water.

W A McCutcheon, in The Canals of the North of Ireland David and Charles, Dawlish 1965, confirms the point about the trackway:

As a result [of various improvements in the early 1800s] traffic greatly increased, though water supply problems remained, and there was a horse-towing path for only part of the length of the navigation.

He gives no details, though, so I don’t know why the trackway was incomplete, how lighters travelled on those stretches that had no trackway or when and how the deficiency was remedied. My guess is that those stretches were along the river rather than the artificial cuts and that the riparian landowners were unhelpful, but I would welcome further information.

McCutcheon does not mention the steamer on Lough Neagh. However, D B McNeill mentions it in Coastal Passenger Steamers and Inland Navigations in the North of Ireland Belfast Museum and Art Gallery Transport Handbook No 3 1960:

The first steamer on the lough was the Lagan Navigation Company’s Marchioness of Donegall. She was built by Ritchie and MacLaine of Belfast, her engines were obtained from David Napier of Glasgow and she was launched at Ellis Gut in November, 1821. She was the first inland navigation steamer in Ireland and was used for towing the Lagan canal boats across the lough. When new, she was reputed to have had a speed of two knots. She was uneconomical and her owners tried to sell her in 1824, but there were no buyers. It is believed the Marquess of Donegall used her occasionally as a yacht. She was broken up sometime about 1840 and her engines were stored in Belfast.

In his Irish Passenger Steamship Services Volume 1: North of IrelandAugustus M Kelley Publishers, New York 1969 he says that the Marchioness was a wooden paddle steamer, built in 1821 and broken up in 1843, 73′ long with a beam of 16′, with a simple single-cylinder engine. He says that the engine cost £1,400, provided 30hp and gave her a speed of 6 knots. A passenger service was considered but never provided, but picnic parties could charter the boat for five guineas a day.

 

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Posted in Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Sources, Steamers, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways management

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Waterways walks

Posted on Tuesday 31 July 2012 | Leave a comment

Look!

Waterways Ireland and a local authority have cooperated in opening a canalside walking and cycling path!

And an excitable minister opened it, saying

This has huge potential for tourism but it also has a huge knock on effect for communities in the health benefit facilities like this bring and this, in turn has benefits in reducing the press on our health services as well. I want to see more walkways because I want to see more people out walking and seeing the natural beauty that we here in Ireland are blessed to have around us.

And rightly so. But you don’t need an expensive canal in order to provide a walk.

 

 

 

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Scenery, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways management

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Bertie Ahern

Posted on Friday 27 July 2012 | 2 comments

According to the Irish Times, writing about Clones:

[…] But people are trying hard to turn the tide: cleaning its buildings, promoting its hand-made lace, and hoping that the Monaghan part of the Ulster Canal will be re-opened.

The latter was a promise of former taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Clones is endearingly resistant to trends – it is still the proud capital of Irish country and western music although some admit that the best dancehall is Blacklion’s “ballroom of romance”.

I think Clones must be the last town in Ireland to cling to Bertie’s word.

Oh well, if Bertie says so ….

 

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Posted in Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Non-waterway, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways management

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NSMC latest

Posted on Tuesday 17 July 2012 | 1 comment

The joint communiqué from the latest North-South Ministerial Council inland waterways sectoral meeting, held on 9 July 2012, is here as a web page and here as a PDF.

The exciting bits:

  • WI provided more moorings, sponsored 101 events, maintained the waterways [see below], published its restaurant guide and list of events and continued involvement with the Waterways Forward project
  • WI is developing its budget and business plan for 2012 [isn’t that a bit late?]
  • the NSMC “noted” WI’s annual report and draft accounts for 2011
  • the NSMC allowed WI to sell some stuff
  • WI has thought of some funding options for the Clones canal (but citizens can’t be told what they are). An “inter-agency group”, “set up to examine all possible options to advance the project”, will meet in July; the options “will be explored taking account of fiscal constraints”, although it’s not clear whether the unfortunate members of the “inter-agency group” will do the exploring or whether some more authoritative body, like the Troika, will make the decisions. But as the canal is said to be such a good investment, it may be that a public-private partnership will develop it under the Irish government’s €2 billion stimulus package.

The waterways maintenance part includes the claim that “97.5% of waterways remain[ed] open during the months of April and May”. That depends on how you measure things, though. The summit level of the Royal Canal was closed for almost the whole of that two-month period, so the canal (one seventh, about 14%, of WI’s waterways) was impassable throughout.

 

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Ireland, Operations, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Sources, Ulster Canal, Waterways management

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Absolutely nothing …

Posted on Wednesday 11 July 2012 | 3 comments

… to do with the Clones Canal ….

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Ireland, Non-waterway, Operations, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Ulster Canal, Waterways management

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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.

 

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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

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