Category Archives: Unbuilt canals

Waterways History Conference

Posted on Tuesday 9 May 2017 | 2 comments

The ninth Waterways History Conference will be held at the University of Birmingham, UK, on Saturday 24 June 2017. The programme and other details are available here. The theme is Waterways Research? and one of the topics is the Cong Canal.

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Posted in Canals, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, People, Politics, Sources, Steamers, Unbuilt canals, waterways

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The Dublin to Cork Canal

Posted on Friday 28 April 2017 | 2 comments

A Dublin paper has promulgated, at some length, a plan for the improvement of Ireland, which, we are confident, were it brought forward in Parliament, would be unanimously approved of, especially as it can be effectually done without any expense to the Nation. The plan is, a Canal, to be joined to the Grand Canal at Dublin, and to extend, in a Southern direction, to the County of Cork, a distance of 131 miles, which will, at once, penetrate into the centre of the great agricultural districts of Ireland. The expense, calculated at £400000 or £3000 per mile, to be raised by Lotteries, the tickets to be drawn in London, and conducted under the eye of Government Commissioners as our former National Lotteries.

Lancaster Gazette 24 February 1827

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Posted in Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Unbuilt canals

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Lough Allen to Limerick 1786

Posted on Monday 20 March 2017 | Leave a comment

The hopes of a gentleman of Limerick ….

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Shannon, Sources, Unbuilt canals, waterways

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Nitwitted navigation proposals

Posted on Monday 26 December 2016 | 2 comments

The tradition of lobbying for ridiculous, uneconomic, unnecessary and expensive navigations has a long history in Ireland. Here is another nineteenth-century example, which also features local government in its usual role as a forum for lunatics (a role which could now be delegated to Twitter).

Navigation of the Liffey from Dublin to Leixlip

At the last meeting of the Town Council of Dublin, the Lord Mayor in the chair, the following proceedings took place on the subject of opening the navigation of the Liffey, through the Valley, on the engineering plan of our friend, Mr Steele.

Alderman Keshan moved the following resolution:

“Resolved: That the Lord Mayor be respectfully requested to write to the Chief Secretary, soliciting that his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant will be pleased to order a section and some transverse sections of the Valley of the Liffey, from Dublin to Leixlip, to be made by the Board of Public Works for the guidance of this Corporation, in a matter of deep public interest to the inhabitants of the metropolis of Ireland (hear, hear).”

He trusted that this motion would not encounter any opposition. He made it with a view to promote Mr Steele’s project for the improvement of the Valley of the Liffey (hear). Large sums of money had been taken out of this country for the improvement of London (hear, hear), and he did not see why a portion of the national revenues should not be devoted to the improvement of Ireland (hear, hear).

The citizens of London had their water trip to Richmond (hear). Why should not the citizens of Dublin have theirs to Leixlip? This would be accomplished if the Valley of the Liffey were made navigable (hear).

Alderman O’Brien seconded the motion, which was carried.

Dublin Evening Post 14 June 1845, from the British Newspaper Archive.

From the BNA

 

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Historical matters, Ireland, Non-waterway, Passenger traffic, People, Politics, Tourism, Unbuilt canals, waterways

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Mr Monks’s plan for inland navigation

Posted on Friday 28 October 2016 | 1 comment

According to Mr Monks‘s plan for the intended northern line of navigation, great accommodation and advantages would be afforded to the inhabitants of that part of the kingdom that lies north of the city of Dublin, particularly to those of the province of Ulster, who are so numerous — for all the sea ports, all the considerable towns and villages would have a cheap and secure interchangeable communication with each other, and the metropolis, in peace or war, safe from enemies and storms, most desirable objects to that extensive manufacturing country.

The design is to run a canal from Dublin to Blackwater-town (about 68 miles); the river Blackwater is navigable from thence to Lough Neagh — and with very little expence afterwards the following great general navigable canal communication would be opened:

  • to the east coast of Ireland by the river Liffey to the bay of Dublin
  • by the Boyne Navigation (which the northern line would intersect near Navan) to the bay of Drogheda
  • from Lough Neagh, by the Newry Navigation to Carlingford bay
  • to the north east coast from Lough Neagh by the Belfast canal to Belfast lough, or Carrickfergus bay
  • to the north coast from Lough Neagh by the river Bann to Colerain
  • and by off-branching along the Ballyhays river about 10 miles, to the east end of Lough Erne, which is nearly navigable to the town of Ballyshannon, would open a communication with the bay of Donegall to the west
  • and by the Grand Canal and Barrow Navigation to the south to Waterford harbour
  • by the western branch of the Grand Canal, which will be shortly completed, to the Shannon, and the Limerick Navigation to the south west of Ireland.

And we understand (in order that the inland towns and villages should reap every advantage by this general plan) he proposes that canals of very small dimensions (which are made at very little expence) should be extended from the great lines to them for boats of only four tuns burden, where water cannot be obtained to answer canals of a larger scale; and wastage of locks, in place of which he would substitute machinery on a plain simple construction, to raise and lower them on inclined planes at the rate of 100 feet in four minutes, and which would also answer instead of aqueducts and embanking across wide valleys, one horse would be sufficient to draw, and one man to attend ten of these boats chained together, the whole carrying forty tons with great ease.

Thus not only the wealthy merchant and manufacturer, but the most inferior tradesman would have an opportunity of attending and disposing of his goods at the best market (let the quantity be ever so small) on equal terms, which would be a great means to defeat and put down forestalling — a most destructive species of dealing in a manufacturing country,

Dublin Evening Post 19 January 1797

From the BNA

 

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Posted in Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Unbuilt canals, waterways, Waterways management

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Building Ireland

Posted on Monday 26 September 2016 | Leave a comment

There is a television series called Building Ireland, about “Ireland’s building and engineering heritage”. A series of six programmes will begin on Friday 30 September 2016 at 8.30pm on RTÉ One, which is a television station.

The third programme, on 14 October, covers Ardnacrusha and the sixth, on 4 November, is entitled “Galway’s Corrib Canal” and covers canals in Galway and, I believe, may have some material about the Cong Canal.

Here is a PDF describing the series.

building-ireland-series-info-and-billings

 

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Posted in Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Modern matters, Operations, Unbuilt canals, waterways, Waterways management

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And the prize goes to …

Posted on Friday 15 January 2016 | 1 comment

… Niall Galway, who identified the Cong Canal. bjg

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Forgotten navigations, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Natural heritage, Operations, Unbuilt canals, waterways, Waterways management

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A Steam-ship Canal from Kilkenny to Inistiogue

Posted on Monday 11 January 2016 | Leave a comment

A gentleman has mooted the propriety of forming a steam-ship canal from Kilkenny to the tidal water of Innistiogue,  and he has lodged £400 in the Provincial Bank as a beginning, and as an earnest of his good faith. His name is not given, why we cannot say; but of the fact that the money is actually lodged, we have been assured by the respectable manager of the bank, Andrew M’Kean Esq.

This half anonymous character is to be regretted; and we trust the promoter will not hesitate to announce his name at once, and set the project fairly before the public. Men do business now-a-days with their eyes well open. It is computed that £320000 would be sufficient for the completion of the undertaking. The distance is only thirteen miles. The promoter calls upon eight hundred men in the counties of Kilkenny, Waterford, and Wexford to come forward with £400 each, or else raise the money in £5 shares.

Dublin Evening Packet and Correspondent 27 August 1850 quoting the Kilkenny Journal. From the British Newspaper Archive run by Findmypast Newspaper Archive Limited, in partnership with the British Library.

[NB I have not been able to find any later notice of the development of this proposal. Further information will be welcomed]

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Posted in Ashore, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Historical matters, Ireland, Non-waterway, Sources, Unbuilt canals, waterways

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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

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The Liffey link lottery

Posted on Monday 9 March 2015 | 6 comments

In The Grand Canal of Ireland [David & Charles, Newton Abbot 1973], Ruth Delany says

In 1784 the construction of a link with the River Liffey had been discussed.

John Brownrigg had suggested a link from the Grand Canal Company’s harbour at James’s Street, but the plan eventually adopted was that of the Circular Line, the four-mile canal we have today, joining the Liffey via the Grand Canal Docks at Ringsend.

However, I have found a piece of evidence showing that the company considered the Liffey link ten years earlier, in 1774. Delany says that there are no board minutes for two years between 1773 and 1775, which would explain why this earlier plan has not hitherto been noticed. The evidence is from the Hibernian Journal; or, Chronicle of Liberty 19 October 1774.

The Trustees for executing the Canal of Communication between the Canal and the Harbour of Dublin, Toll free, confiding in the Favour of the Public for the Support of a Work of so great national Utility, have unanimously resolved upon the following Scheme, grafted upon the State Lottery for this present Year, for raising a Fund for that Purpose.

The Necessity of this Application to the Public at present, will appear from a Report of the Committee of Works of the Canal Company, certifying that the Works contracted for by Mr Traill between the Liffey at or near Sallins and the City Bason, are in such Forwardness as to render it absolutely necessary to proceed in making the above mentioned Communication early in the next Year; the said Report is in the Hands of the Secretary to the Canal Company.

2 prizes of                      £2000          is £4000
4 prizes of                         £750          is £3000
5 prizes of                         £150          is   £750
10 prizes of                          £50          is   £500
20 prizes of                          £40         is   £400 *
40 prizes of                             £5        is   £200
180 prizes of                            £1/10   is   £270
600 prizes of                           £1         is   £600
19150 prizes of                          £0/6     is £5740 *
First drawn first three days £40          is   £120
Last drawn                          £200          is   £200
£15780

NB Not quite two Blanks to a Prize; and the Publick will take notice, that £35 is accounted for more than the Tickets will amount to.

Ten per Cent to be deducted from the Prizes for the Use of the Scheme.

15000 Tickets, 4 Numbers each, at £1 1s each to Subscribers for a Lot not less than 50 Tickets.

Price to Non-subscribers, one Guinea each Ticket.

Subscriptions are now receiving, and Tickets delivering out at the Navagation-house [sic] in Grafton-street, where the Prizes will be paid immediately after the Arrival of the Numerical Book from London. The Securities required from the Subscribers, viz Bankers Notes, Government and Fire-office Insurance Debentures, and City of Dublin Bonds, are to be lodged in the Bank of Thomas Finlay, Esq, and Company.

The Names of the Trustees for carrying the above Scheme into Execution, may be seen at the Navigation-House [sic], in Grafton-street.

There’s an idea for DAHG.

 

 

* sic

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Posted in Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Operations, Sea, Unbuilt canals, waterways, Waterways management

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