The Birdhill Tidy Towns group has a heritage trail on its website and it was there that I first heard of the Dunally Line, AKA the R496. Tipperary North Riding County Council also uses the name [.DOC] and it is also used in several places on OpenStreetMap.
I would like to know more about the date, purpose and circumstances of the construction of the Dunally Line.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, People, Shannon, Steamers, The cattle trade, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Ballina, Clare, Ireland, Killaloe, Shannon, steam, Tipperary, waterways
Waterways Ireland has several temporary or seasonal jobs on offer. In NI, it wants a Temporary Seasonal Waterway Patroller for Lock 1 (Corraquill) on the SEW, closing date 28 May 2012, and a Temporary Seasonal Assistant Boat Person (Part Time) for the Erne, closing date also 28 May 2012.
Southron folk, though, get an extra two days to apply for jobs: a Temporary Seasonal Assistant Boat Person (Part Time) in Athlone, and Temporary Seasonal Assistant Lock Keepers for all Shannon locks north of Lough Derg.
Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Ireland, Operations, People, Shannon, Waterways management
Tagged boats, canal, Erne, Ireland, lock, Operations, Shannon, Shannon-Erne Waterway, Waterways Ireland, workboat
According to the Irish Times:
Ahead of the summit later this month, Government departments have been told to draw up lists of capital projects with potential to create thousands of jobs for which funding would be sought if EU leaders agree on the package at the meeting to be held a week before polling day here.
Will DAHG be able to resist the temptation of suggesting the Clones canal? I’m sure that, since it discovered the project was going to cost almost one third more than it had originally believed, it has had teams of economists busily reassessing its, er, viability (and I’m expecting a visit from the easter bunny at any moment) so it will have its “business case” ready.
Still, there’s a slightly more cheering take on the matter here, where Michael Taft suggests that the government won’t be able to get much money for “stimulus”. I like the idea of using project bonds for the Clones Canal, though it might be hard to show that it qualified as “key strategic EU infrastructure in transport, energy and broadband” despite the Irish state’s delusions.
Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Irish waterways general, Operations, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged canal, Clones, department of arts heritage and the gaeltacht, Erne, Ireland, Lough Neagh, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways Ireland
The Heritage Council is now down wid da kidz in da hood, having acquired a facetweet page. Does this suggest that facetweeting is now becoming socially aceeptable? And it even has a YouTube thingie, where you can watch exciting videos of ministers making speeches.
Actually, the Heritage Council is becoming very with it, as the young folk say nowadays, aligning itself with the new reality that, unless it can show an economic payoff, its interests will be a low priority with the government.
You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, comme on dit, or at least comme Mr Dylan dit.
On 18 April Michael Noonan, Minister for Finance, responded in the Dáil to three questions from his party colleague Eoghan Murphy about the cost to the exchequer (ie the taxpayer) of tax breaks, exemptions and allowances.
The minister’s response included an “Estimate of cost of certain property-based tax incentives and incomes exempt from tax for 2008 and 2009”. I am interested in one of these schemes, the Mid-Shannon Corridor Tourism Infrastructure investment scheme, which I have been trying to find out about for some years.
Note that my link is to a Shannon Development page on the subject but the scheme extended to some areas outside Shannon Development’s region: it covered district electoral divisions [I wonder why they were chosen as the relevant units ….] for counties Clare, North Tipperary and south Offaly, while Fáilte Ireland covered DEDs in counties Galway, Roscommon, Westmeath and north Offaly. The term “mid-Shannon” seems to reflect 19th century thinking, when estuary and freshwater were seen as a unit: the scheme’s coverage extended as far south as O’Briensbridge, just above tidal waters at Ardnacrusha.
The scheme seems to have been intended to cover areas that were not eligible for the disastrous Upper Shannon Rural Renewal Scheme, which has left the area strewn with unfinished houses. As far as I can see there is no overlap between the two schemes in the DEDs they cover in Co Roscommon, which is the only county covered by both. However, while the focus of the Upper Shannon scheme was on housing (with provision for some “commercial” activities), the Mid-Shannon scheme provided for:
According to the minister, in 2008 12 €1.8 million was claimed under the Mid-Shannon scheme, by 12 claimants, at an assumed maximum tax cost of €0.7 million.
In 2009, though, there were only 2 claimants, who claimed €0.6 million at an assumed maximum tax cost of €0.2 million.
The minister said:
The figures shown include the amounts claimed in the year but exclude amounts carried forward into the year either as losses or capital allowances, and include any amounts of unused losses and/or capital allowances which will be carried forward to subsequent years.
… not consistent with the actual data on the numbers of successful applications for approval under the scheme. Not that I blame the minister for being confused, because I found it very difficult to track down information about the implementation of the scheme. However, as the details were handled by the Mid-Shannon Tourism Infrastructure Board, which was to report annually to two ministers …
The [mid-Shannon Tourism Infrastructure] Board shall prepare and submit to the Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism and the Minister for Finance an annual report on the administration of the Scheme.
… and [EU] Commission Regulation (EC) No 794/2004 of 21 April 2004 implementing Council Regulation (EC)No 659/1999 laying down detailed rules for the application of Article 93 of the EC Treaty required the submission of an annual report to the European Commission, I can quote from the Board’s report for 2008:
Fáilte Ireland and Shannon Development currently have over twenty projects under discussion with the promoters. There were no projects presented for consideration in 2008, but the Board expects that some projects will be presented to it for consideration during 2009.
And for 2009:
Four projects were presented to the Board for consideration. After review, three projects received Approval in Principle and one project was rejected. […] The list of potential projects was in excess of twenty at the end of 2009 but many are prevented from being progressed by a number of factors including planning referrals and funding difficulties. There was zero expenditure incurred during 2009 by projects that received Approval in Principle under the Scheme.
And for 2010:
The Board met on four occasions during the year and reviewed two applications. They granted Approval in Principle to one project and rejected the second project. […] The Board […] was notified of the decision by [promoters of a scheme approved in principle in 2009] not to proceed to certification under the Scheme. […] There was zero expenditure incurred during 2010 by projects that received Approval in Principle under the Scheme.
I understand that none of the projects given approval in principle has proceeded and that nor has any other project. Thus the minister’s €0.9 million assumed maximum cost of the tax breaks for 2008 and 2009 overestimates the true position by, er, €0.9 million. I don’t understand why the minister’s department thinks any provision is necessary.
The initial deadline the Mid-Shannon scheme was extended to 31 May 2010 and money had to be spent by 31 May 2013 if investors were to get their capital allowances.
The insane policies of the Fianna Fáil-led governments, and the greed and stupidity of investors and lenders, have caused such a destruction of capital that schemes like this are unlikely to succeed. And anyway, it might be better to take steps — like reducing the costs of starting and running businesses — that would reward labour rather than capital: steps that would encourage folk along the waterways to start small enterprises, or ancillary enterprises, using such resources (location, skills or whatever) as they already have.
Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Operations, People, Politics, Scenery, Shannon, Sources, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Article 93, Arts Sports and Tourism, boats, capital allowance, Department of Finance, European Commission, michael noonan, mid-shannon tourism investment scheme, Operations, Shannon, tax breaks, upper Shannon rural renewal, waterways
Her Late Majesty Victoria, by the grace of god of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, had at least two locks named after her on this island: one at Meelick on the Shannon and the other at Upper Fathom on the Newry Ship Canal. This page gives a brief account of the canal’s history; it has links at the bottom to six pages (made up almost entirely of photographs) on aspects of the lock and its operation. Several of those aspects are not clear to me and I would welcome enlightenment about both the former manual operations and the current hydraulic operations.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Natural heritage, Operations, People, Restoration and rebuilding, Scenery, Sources, Waterways management
Tagged Albert, basin, Carlingford, Ireland, lock, Newry, Northern Ireland, ship canal, upper fathom, Victoria
Here is an account of the background to, and the main features of, the proposed supply of water from Lough Ennell to the summit level of the Royal Canal. It does not discuss the amounts of water involved; I intend to cover that on a separate page.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Natural heritage, Operations, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Scenery, Sources, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management, Weather
Tagged abstraction, An Bord Pleanála, anglers, boats, canal, Dublin, floods, flow, Ireland, Lilliput, lock, Lough Ennell, Lough Owel, mills, Operations, Royal Canal, Shannon, summit level, trout, water level, water supply, waterways, Waterways Ireland, weir
I mentioned the other day that extensive searches of tinterweb had failed to find any data on the heights of overhead power lines above the Shannon and that I had been forced to resort to the telephone.
I am pleased to report that the ESB expert duly rang me back today, and further pleased to report that he had himself measured the height of every cable over the Shannon. Oh joy, oh happiness, I thought. But not for long.
The ESB, it seems, does not reveal the actual height of power lines above the water. This, if I understood the reasoning correctly, is because the water level varies and a boat-owner might not understand that, hit a line with a mast and then sue the ESB [where “ESB” means “electricity transmission or distribution operation”]. I have been told that a boat-owner in coastal water did just that (presumably between the mainland and an island) and that the lawyers have advised ESB to take no further risk; I would welcome information about the incident.
So, if you want to find the height of a power line, you’ll need to polish up your trigonometry (and then relate the height to Ordinary Summer Level). But the ESB does supply the information to one organisation that makes charts: the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office. That’s OK for coastal charts, but the UKHO (to the best of my knowledge) has not surveyed the inland Shannon since 1839, and I don’t think its inland charts have been updated since then. It is possible, of course, that the UKHO supplies the data to other (electronic or paper) chart-makers; I have emailed them to ask.
The quest continues again. More info when I get it.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Politics, Shannon, shannon estuary, Sources, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged boats, clearance, ESB, height, Ireland, Lough Derg, Operations, OSL, overhead power line, Shannon, transmission, vessels, water level, waterways
Went out without the camera today, alas, and found Waterways Ireland crews at work at the canal harbour in Limerick. One crew had launched a Pioner Multi (I didn’t see them do it, alas, but it may have come on the back of a truck with a HIAB or suchlike) and were hauling rubbish out of the water. Another were welding new railings to prevent access to the old hotel/canal manager’s house and installing a steel plate in a window aperture on one of the Shannon Navigation buildings.
I presume the new plate will soon be decorated. I rather like the artwork, I must say, and I think it a pity that Young Folk should not have somewhere to go to do the things that Young Folk like to do.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Non-waterway, Operations, Scenery, Shannon, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged harbour, Limerick, lock, Operations, Park Canal, Shannon, Waterways Ireland, workboat
Irish waterways history 