If you own the yacht Belle, which is at Barley Harbour on Lough Ree, you may wish to visit it. Its wooden doors are missing and there is what I think is a mink on board. I’m afraid I don’t know the owner and don’t know how to contact her or him.
Belle by night
Doors missing
Mink 1
Mink 2
Posted in Ashore, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Natural heritage, People, Shannon, Uncategorized, Water sports activities, waterways
Tagged Barley Harbour, Belle, boats, Ireland, Lough Ree, mink, Shannon
Isaac Slater’s Directory[i] of 1846 lists those carrying goods on inland waterways. Most of the carriers on the Grand Canal, which runs from Dublin to the River Shannon with various branches, claim to serve a modest number of places, but Thomas Berry & Co have a very lengthy list. So long is their list that it will require two maps to show all the places they served, with a third map for the rest of the carriers.
Note that the maps are from the 25″ Ordnance Survey map of around 1900 rather than the 6″ of around 1840: I used it because it was clearer, but it shows features (eg railway lines) that were not present in 1846.
There may be some cases where I have misidentified a destination; I would be grateful to have my attention drawn to such cases.
Click on a map to get a slightly larger version.
Thomas Berry & Co midland and southern destinations (OSI)
The canal runs from Dublin, at the top right, left (roughly west) through Tullamore to Shannon Harbour, where it meets the river; there was an extension to Ballinasloe on the far side of the Shannon. Berrys served places along the canal and several others fairly close to it, but it looks to me as if there were three routes by road beyond that:
There are also two outliers for which I can think of no plausible explanation: Baltinglass and Wexford. Perhaps their inclusion was a mistake. Certainly Berrys, like John M’Cann & Sons on the Royal Canal, seem to have had extensive road networks (perhaps using car-owning subcontractors?) to supplement their water-borne routes, but I don’t see why they would take on a route no part of which could sensibly have been conducted by inland navigation.
The next map shows the north-western destinations served by Berrys.
Thomas Berry & Co north-western destinations (OSI)
You can see that their network covered much of County Roscommon and went almost as far west into County Galway as it was possible to go; it also extended northwards into County Mayo.
I have not attempted to check what industries might have made these towns and villages worth serving. Berrys certainly seemed keen to take as much as possible of the traffic from west of the Shannon towards Dublin — excluding such of it as went by the Royal Canal: it is interesting to compare these maps with that for M’Cann on the Royal.
Finally, note that along the canal itself Berrys listed only destinations towards the western (Shannon Harbour) end: it seems likely that the roads took the valuable traffic from the eastern end into Dublin. There were no doubt turf boats taking fuel in from closer to Dublin, but they were not general carriers.
Now for the rest of the carriers.
Grand Canal carriers 1846 excluding Thomas Berry (OSI)
I have included the Shannon here as well as the Grand Canal; however I have covered the Barrow Line of the Grand Canal, as well as the navigable rivers Barrow, Nore and Suir, in a separate post. Of the carriers listed here, only the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company [CoDSPCo] (which employed horses to pull its boats on canals) ventured on to the Barrow Line, serving Portarlington and Mountmellick.
Berrys and the CoDSPCo were by far the largest firms on the Grand. I don’t know the size of the Berrys fleet, but the CoDSPCo had 52 barges in addition to its Shannon (and Irish Sea) steamers. Note that only on the middle Shannon, around the junction with the Grand Canal, and at Ennis did the two firms serve the same destinations: the CoDSPCo seems to have had the lower Shannon trade to itself.
With one exception, all the carriers, including Berrys, had Dublin depots at Grand Canal Harbour, James St; the Grand Canal Docks at Ringsend, joined to the Liffey, were not mentioned.
The exception is Hugh Gallagher, whose only listed destination was Athlone. It would be interesting to know how he served Athlone: whether by road or by water and, in the latter case, whether he used a steamer. I do wonder whether Hugh Gallagher might be the same person as the Hugh Galaghan (also Gallaghan) who served Philipstown [now Daingean], Tullamore and Shannon Harbour.
George Tyrrell is another who is listed with but a single destination, Banagher, whereas James Tyrrell is listed as serving Tickneven, Philipstown, Tullamore — and Edgeworthstown, which must be a mistake as it is closer to the Royal Canal.
Finally, Cornelius Byrne is shown as serving two destinations: Philipstown and Kilbeggan (which has its own branch off the main line of the canal).
A little extra information is available from the entries for towns other than Dublin in the Directory:
As far as I know, little has been written about the carrying companies, especially those of the nineteenth century. I would be glad to hear from anyone who can correct, supplement or comment on this information.
[i] I Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland: including, in addition to the trades’ lists, alphabetical directories of Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Limerick. To which are added, classified directories of the important English towns of Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds and Bristol; and, in Scotland, those of Glasgow and Paisley. Embellished with a large new map of Ireland, faithfully depicting the lines of railways in operation or in progress, engraved on steel. I Slater, Manchester, 1846
Posted in Ashore, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Shannon, shannon estuary, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, The turf trade, Tourism, Uncategorized, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Ahascragh, Ardrahan, Athenry, Athlone, Aughrim, Ballina, Ballinagore, Ballinamore, Ballinasloe, Ballindine, Ballinrobe, Ballyboy, Ballycumber, Ballygar, Ballynagore, Baltinglass, Banagher, Barrow, Bellmount, Belmont, Birr, Birr Barracks, Borrisokane, Caltragh, Castlebar, Castleblakeney, City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, Clara, Clare, Clifden, Cloghan, Clonaslee, Cloughjordan, Cong, Cornelius Byrne, Corrofin, Craughwell, Daingean, Directory, Dublin, Dunmore, Edenderry, Ennis, Eyrecourt, Ferbane, Frankford, Gallen, Galway, George Tyrrell, Gillen, Glanamadda, Grand Canal, Headford, High Gallagher, Hollymount, Hugh Galaghan, Hugh Gallaghan, Ireland, Isaac Slater, James Tyrrell, Kilbeggan, Kilconnell, Killaloe, Killeigh, Killimore, Kilrush, Kiltulla, Kinnitty, Kinvara, Limerick, Loughrea, Menlough, Moate, Moneyveen, Monivea, Moniveen, Mount Bellew, Mount Talbot, Moylough, Naas, New Inn, New Quay, Newport, Nore, Oranmore, Oughterard, Philipstown, Portumna, Roscrea, Roundstone, Roundtown, Shannon Harbour, Shinrone, Shruel, steamer, Suir, Swineford, Tachmaconnell, Tarbert, templemore, Thomas Berry, Thomas Byrne, Tickneven, Tocmaconnell, Tuam, Tullamore, Westport, Wexford
Isaac Slater’s Directory[i] of 1846 lists those carrying goods on inland waterways. There is a long list for Dublin; entries for other towns list those providing local services [there are some conflicts between the lists: see below]. However, the Dublin list shows only two carriers on the Royal Canal:
I noted here that two published histories of the Royal Canal, and a history of the Midland Great Western Railway [MGWR], suggested that the RCC/MGWR did not commence carrying goods themselves, on their own canal, until the 1870s. However, I had come across an MGWR ad, from 1853, beginning
The Directors will receive Proposals for the Haulage of their Trade Boats to and from Dublin and Longford and the River Shannon […].
The material in Slater’s Directory strengthens the notion that the RCC/MGWR did engage in carrying well before the 1870s, although the nature of the contractual relationships is not clear. Note also that Peter Clarke’s Appendix C[ii] lists “Boat Owners operating on the Royal Canal 1826 to 1847” including four RCC boats as well as four MGWR boats.
M’Cann and RCC both provide long lists of the destinations they serve:
I thought it might be interesting to show these destinations on a map. Note that the map is from the 25″ Ordnance Survey map of around 1900 rather than the 6″ of around 1840: I used it because it was clearer, but it shows features (eg railway lines) that were not present in 1846.
Click on the map to get a slightly larger version.
Royal Canal carriers M’Cann and RCC 1846 (OSI)
I can’t stand over every location marked on the map (as it were). Spellings of place-names were sometimes not those in use today; some place-names (Ballinamore, Ballymore, Newcastle) are used of two or more places that might have been those intended; I could not identify two places, Dunmore and Junction, although I suspect the latter may be the junction between the main line and the Longford Branch of the canal.
What is interesting, though, is the different emphases in the two firms’ marketing. The Royal Canal Company lists almost every location along its canal; M’Cann offers a wide range of destinations beyond the canal, presumably linked by cars on the roads, into Counties Longford, Cavan, Roscommon, Westmeath, Mayo and Sligo. The RCC serves some such destinations, but a smaller number of them.
Some of the locations listed are small places; my presumption — which I have not yet checked, but for which I have found some supporting examples — is that such places have mills, quarries or other industries that provide cargoes for the canal.
Both operators offer to serve destinations on the River Shannon, to which the Royal Canal is joined at Clondra/Richmond Harbour:
It is possible that goods to those places were carried by water, although (if steam tugs were not available) that would have been slow and uncertain; given that there were good roads leading from the west to the Shannon and throughout the region, it is, I think, likely that these destinations were served by road. I have no evidence on the matter save that the directory entries for Carrick-on-Shannon, Drumsna and Jamestown do not mention the availability of water transport.
Some of those destinations were served by direct road services from Dublin:
Competition presumably kept charges down.
Slater’s Directory lists six corn merchants in Longford, all with addresses at Market Square. One, John Delany, also had an address in Sligo and presumably exported via that port, carrying by road; the other five all had Dublin as well as Longford addresses.
One was John McCann, whose operations are shown in red on the map; he was the only one listed as a Dublin-based carrier, but three of the other four firms also carried goods regularly towards Dublin: Francis & John Pilsworth’s boats left Longford on Mondays and Thursdays, as did Thomas & Edward Duffy’s boats; Farrelly & Killard’s boats left once a week. Only Nicholas Butler did not offer transport. The Duffy and Pilsworth boats also carried goods in both directions from Mullingar. My guess is that carrying goods from others helped these merchants to cover the costs of their own fleets.
Peter Clarke’s Appendix C suggests that M’Cann’s fleet was the smallest of those based in Longford. The list is of “Boat Owners operating on the Royal Canal 1826 to 1847” but I am not entirely clear what the list shows. It seems unlikely, for instance, that the Midland Great Western Railway owned four boats throughout the period, as the company did not exist for most of it. Is the number of boats the largest that an owner had, or used, in a peak year, or an average over several years?
I don’t, therefore, know how to interpret the list but, assuming that the same methods were applied to all owners, it seems that the fleet sizes were these:
Neither Farrelly nor Killard is listed, but there are many others: Dunne 8, Kelly 6, Murtagh 6, Murphy 5, MGWR 4, Williamson 4, and many others with 1, 2 or 3 boats each. Again, it is not clear in which years those owners had those numbers of boats.
As far as I know, little has been written about the carrying companies, especially those of the nineteenth century. I would be glad to hear from anyone who can correct, supplement or comment on this information.
[i] I Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland: including, in addition to the trades’ lists, alphabetical directories of Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Limerick. To which are added, classified directories of the important English towns of Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds and Bristol; and, in Scotland, those of Glasgow and Paisley. Embellished with a large new map of Ireland, faithfully depicting the lines of railways in operation or in progress, engraved on steel. I Slater, Manchester, 1846
[ii] Peter Clarke The Royal Canal: the complete story ELO Publications, Dublin 1992
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Rail, Restoration and rebuilding, Shannon, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, Uncategorized, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged aqueduct, Arvagh, Athlone, Ballaghaderin, Ballina, Ballinafad, Ballinamore, Ballyfarnon, Ballymahon, Ballymore, Ballymote, Balnacarig, Balnalack, Boyle, Boyne, Broadstone, Carrick-on-Shannon, Castlerea, Colooney, Coolnahay, corn merchant, Downs Bridge, Dromod, Drumkeeran, Drumkerrin, Drumlish, Drumshambo, Drumsna, Dublin, Dunmore, Edgeworthstown, Elphin, Farrelly & Killard, Fenagh, Ferns, Francis & John Pilsworth, Glasson, Granard, Hill of Down, Jamestown, John Delany, John M'Cann & Sons, Junction, Kenagh, Kilcock, Lanesborough, Leixlip, Liffey lock, Longford, Market Square, Maynooth, Mohill, Moyvalley, Mullingar, National Commercial Directory of Ireland, Newcastle, Newtownforbes, Nicholas Butler, North Wall, Peter Clarke, Rathowen, road, Roscommon, Royal Canal, Royal Canal Company, Ruskey, Rye, Samuel Draper, Slater, Sligo, Strokestown, Tenelick Mills, Terlicken, Thomas & Edward Duffy, Thomastown, Toome Bridge, Tulsk
Lowtown is at the western end of the summit level of the Grand Canal; it thus has some claim to be the highest point on the canal. It is close to the village of Robertstown in County Kildare.
Lowtown is also the site of the junction between the main (Dublin to Shannon) line of the Grand Canal and its most important branch, the Barrow Line.
Lowtown (OSI ~1840)
The main line from Dublin comes in from near the bottom right and exits near the top left. The two cuts leaving near the bottom left are the Old and New Barrow Lines, which join together just off the map. The Barrow Line runs to Athy, in south County Kildare, from which the Barrow [river] Navigation runs to the tidal lock at St Mullins, downstream of Graiguenamanagh.
The River Nore joins the Barrow a litle further downstream; the Nore is navigable on the tide upstream to Inistiogue. The combined rivers flow south through the port of New Ross and eventually join the estuary of the River Suir. Turning right at that point takes you up the Suir to Waterford, Carrick-on-Suir and Clonmel. Thus the Barrow Line, from Lowtown, forms an inland waterway link between Dublin and some towns along the Barrow, Nore and Suir.
Isaac Slater’s Directory[i] of 1846 lists those carrying goods on inland waterways. There is a long list for Dublin; entries for other towns list those providing local services. There are some conflicts between the lists (see below).
The map below shows those carrying on the Barrow Line of the Grand Canal and on the rivers Barrow, Nore and Suir. Each carrier is assigned a colour, which is used to frame the name of each place served by that carrier. Some towns (Mountmellick, Carrick-on-Suir, Clonmel) are off the map, further to the west. Note that the map is from the 25″ Ordnance Survey map of around 1900 rather than the 6″ of around 1840: I used it because it was clearer, but it shows features (eg railway lines) that were not present in 1846.
Click on the map to get a slightly larger version.
Dublin to Waterford: inland waterway carriers 1846 (OSI)
All but one of the carriers are shown as having Dublin premises at Grand Canal Harbour, James Street. The exception is Gaven & Co, which is mentioned only in the Mountmellick entry.
I have not included the Grand Canal Company’s passenger-carrying boats, which carried parcels but not goods.
The City of Dublin Steam Packet Company entry for Dublin does not include Portarlington and Mountmellick amongst the towns served but the entry for Mountmellick says that the company’s boats leave for Dublin every Tuesday and Friday (its agent being John White) while that for Portarlington says they leave weekly. Boats from Mountmellick had to pass through Portarlington as well as Monastereven and other towns en route to Dublin.
Similarly, the entry for Mountmellick says that the Hylands boats leave there every other day while that for Portarlington says that they pass through weekly.
There is a page missing from the electronic copy of the directory that I consulted so the entry for Monastereven is incomplete.
The entry for Carlow says
To DUBLIN, and also to [New] ROSS, Boats depart, at uncertain periods, from the Wharfs of Lawrence and James Kelly, the Quay.
It does not say whether Lawrence and James Kelly owned any boats. They may have had boats but used them only for their own goods.
The entry for Mountmellick says “Bryan Hyland” rather than “B Hylands”.
The entry for Mountmellick includes the only mention I have found of Gaven & Co’s boats (James Waldron, agent).
The entry for Rathangan says
There are Boats for the conveyance of Goods, but no fixed period of departure.
Thomas Berry & Co, the most important carrier on the Grand Canal, did not venture south of Lowtown.
[i] I Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland: including, in addition to the trades’ lists, alphabetical directories of Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Limerick. To which are added, classified directories of the important English towns of Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds and Bristol; and, in Scotland, those of Glasgow and Paisley. Embellished with a large new map of Ireland, faithfully depicting the lines of railways in operation or in progress, engraved on steel. I Slater, Manchester, 1846
Posted in Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Politics, Sea, Shannon, Sources, Steamers, Suir, The cattle trade, Uncategorized, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged barge, Barrow, boats, canal, Carlow, Carrick-on-Suir, City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, Clonmel, Dublin, Gaven, Graiguenamanagh, Grand Canal, Hyland, Inistiogue, Ireland, John Mongan, Kelly, Loughlin Freeman, Lowtown, Monastereven, Mountmellick, New Ross, Nore, Operations, Portarlington, Rathangan, Robertstown, St Mullins, Suir, Thomas Berry, vessels, Vicarstown, Waterford, waterways, `Joseph Lyon
One of the things about being an Enemy of the Working People is that you start thinking about stuff like regulation. It tends to be supported by well-meaning liberal folk, who think that it will tame the wilder excesses of entrepreneurs, but its effects may not be those that were intended.
Consider, to take an example well away from Irish waterways matters, the study discussed here by Aaron Carroll of the effects of telling folk about the numbers of calories in their meals. The regulators’ idea was that, if fast-food eateries told consumers how many calories were in their food, fat folk would eat less (and the social and economic costs would be lower, I suppose). Some researchers decided to check. To quote Aaron Carroll:
Researchers approached 1121 McDonald’s customers both before and after calorie posting began in New York City. Each had a random chance of being handed (1) information that described the recommended calories a man and woman should eat each day, (2) information that described the recommended calories a man or woman should eat each meal, or (3) nothing. The hypothesis was that giving people information about recommended intake would help them to make better choices about how much to order. After all, the whole menu labeling thing is based on the idea that giving people calorie information will reduce obesity.
The result?
Giving people calorie recommendations didn’t change what people offered.
I think “offered” should be “ordered”. But the point is that the regulation, requiring that menus show calories, doesn’t seem to have had the effects that the regulators desired.
In a sense, though, that’s a fairly neutral outcome. At worst, as Carroll says,
[…] although the result was not statistically significant (p=0.07), people who were given more calorie information ordered more calories.
But there are outcomes than can be much worse than that, especially in regulatory capture, a topic that should be of interest in Ireland. One way of looking at the state is to see it as a tool or machine that can be used by powerful gangs to advance their own interests. In Ireland it is used by gangs of insiders (especially operatives in the state-protected industries: moneylenders, legal operatives, teaching operatives, body plumbers, enforcers and so on) to protect both their earnings and their status. The Troika has, alas, struggled in vain against them.
But I digress. Another way of using the power of the state might tempt folk who have commercial competitors (AKA “the enemy”). You could find a regulation or two that your opponent has broken: the more regulations there are, the more certain it becomes that your enemy has broken something or other. You can then use that breach to attack him or her.
Suppose, for example — and I realise I am in the wilder realms of the imagination here — you ran a business in the marine leisure sector which, if the decline in Shannon traffic is any guide, may be suffering from declining demand. And suppose you had several competitors in the same geographical area, and offering roughly the same services, as yourself. You could compete in the standard ways, perhaps using Jerome McCarthy’s Four Ps [Product, Promotion, Price, Place] in your marketing mix. But if your product and place were more or less the same, and if promotion were of little use in a declining market, you might be left competing on price, which might have its own drawbacks.
But there might be other weapons available to you: weapons that the innocent Mr McCarthy did not dream of. Suppose, for instance, that you found that one or more of your competitors had breached one or more of a body of regulations — there are lots of such regulations, mostly incomprehensible to the layman. You could cause or encourage the state (or one or other of its arms) to investigate your competitor. And, even if you didn’t have your competitor’s business shut down, you would have increased the costs to that business and forced its management to spend hours, nay days, as well as large fees, on trying to escape from the net. And perhaps a sympathetic politician might take up the matter, questioning ministers about it.
Given the general saintliness of the Irish people, and the high moral and ethical standards that have always prevailed, I am quite sure that nothing of the kind has ever happened, or could ever happen, but it does make me wonder whether regulation should be regulated.
Someone asked me recently about the progress of the scheme to supply Dublin with water from the Shannon. I had to confess that I haven’t been keeping up with the matter, because I don’t think it’s very important, but happily KildareStreet.com has provided an update. On Tuesday 16 July 2013 one of the Sinn Féin chappies, Brian Stanley of Laois-Offaly, asked a priority question:
54. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the progress being made on the Dublin, Garryhinch, Shannon water supply project; and the timeframe for planning, construction and completion phases of this project.
I suspect that most folk think of the scheme as one involving Dublin and the Shannon, so that the inclusion of Garryhinch may have been puzzling. It seems that Garryhinch is on the road from Portarlington to Mountmellick, just after that nasty bend where folk go to commit golf.
And Mr Stanley is interested not because he wants Garryhinch, Portarlington Golf Club, or indeed Portarlington and Mountmellick to be flooded but because he wants his constituents to be employed digging a hole in the ground there (a bit like the Clones Sheugh, really) and working in a water-based ecopark that will include a reservoir where the Shannon’s water will be stored.
Anyway, Fergus O’Dowd [FG, Louth], who is a Minister of State for something, replied:
The Dublin water supply scheme long-term water source is listed as a scheme at planning stage in my Department’s water services investment programme 2010 to 2013. Dublin City Council is the lead authority for this scheme, on behalf of all of the water services authorities in the greater Dublin area.
Studies carried out for the city council and a strategic environmental assessment have identified a preferred option which involves abstraction of raw water from Lough Derg and pumping the abstracted water through a new pipeline to a proposed storage reservoir at Garryhinch cut-away bog in County Offaly, forming part of a proposed midlands water-based eco-park. After treatment, water would then be conveyed to the west of Dublin where the new supply would be integrated with the existing storage and trunk distribution system.
In December 2012, the Department approved a brief for the engagement of consultants for the planning and statutory approval phase of the scheme. Dublin City Council has carried out a procurement process and I understand it will shortly be in a position to appoint a consultant to advance the further planning of this scheme.
The programme for project implementation has been developed based on the planning and statutory approval phase taking approximately two years. The detailed design and procurement phase should take a further two years, while the construction and commissioning phase should be completed in three years.
Following their appointment by Dublin City Council, the consultants will undertake the environmental impact statement and other statutory requirements in preparation for a submission to An Bord Pleanála which will adjudicate on the matter.
He forgot to mention “best practice”, so he’s lost some brownie points. Mr Stanley wanted it all to happen much faster, to be completed before 2021, but the discussion provided no more useful information. Bord na Móna has some more information about the eco-park here. All good stuff, much as I suggested for Lough Oughter, but I’d lose the eco title: eco stuff is so last millennium.
Posted in Ashore, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Operations, Politics, Shannon, The turf trade, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Bord na Mona, Dublin, Dublin City Council, Garryhinch, golf, Ireland, Lough Derg, Mountmellick, Operations, Portarlington, Shannon, water level, water supply, waterways, Waterways Ireland
The August 2013 issue of Practical Boat Owner has just arrived. It has an article by Dick Everitt called “Mind your head …” in which he talks of dangers to boats from above rather than below: dangers from bridges and from electric power lines. He points out that electricity can jump to a metal mast and says:
So a safe clearance distance is given on the chart with a lightning-type symbol and in some countries a big warning sign is positioned nearby too. But do check local Notices to Mariners as long power cables can sag over time, reducing their official charted clearances.
Aren’t foreigners funny? Imagine having electricity suppliers actually telling boaters about the safe clearance under power cables! That would never happen here ….
I have spent several years trying to get ESB to tell me the safe clearances for cables across the Shannon. I thought I was getting somewhere at one stage but nothing happened. Perhaps ESB would prefer boaters to fry than risk getting sued for getting the clearance wrong.
Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Non-waterway, Operations, Safety, Shannon, shannon estuary, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged boats, bridge, clearance, electricity, ESB, estuary, Ireland, power line, pylon, Shannon, water level, waterways
The figures for Shannon lock passages to the end of June 2013 are now available. The decline continues, though perhaps more slowly.
Shannon lock and bridge passages January to June as percentages of the 2003 number
The usual caveats apply: the underlying figures (kindly supplied by Waterways Ireland) do not record total waterways usage because, for instance, sailing, fishing or waterskiing on lakes or river stretches, which did not involve a passage through a lock or Portumna Bridge, would not be recorded. The passage records are our only consistent long-term indicator of usage of the Shannon but they would not show, for instance, a change in the balance of types of activities from those in larger cruising boats to those in smaller (sailing, fishing, waterskiing) boats. It is quite possible, therefore, that overall usage might be increasing while long-distance cruising was declining.
Shannon lock and bridge passages by private boats January to June
As it happens, the figures show a small increase over 2012 in passages by private boats. I suspect that July’s warm weather will spur a further increase.
Folk living in Ireland, whether owners or prospective hirers, are likely to be able to react quickly to better (or worse) weather by doing more (or less) boating; folk living abroad may be less able to change their holiday plans. Accordingly, July’s weather might (I’m speculating here) mean an increase in passages by private boats and by boats hired by Irish residents; it might not lead to an increase in hiring from abroad.
Traffic in hired boats continued to decline in June.
Shannon lock and bridge passages by hired boats January to June
That decline outweighed the small increase in private traffic, leading to an overall decline in the first six months as compared with the same period in 2012, which itself continued the pattern set in 2007.
Shannon lock and bridge passages by all boats January to June
I wondered whether the figures might show any change in the geographical distribution of activity. WI’s reports don’t show separate figures for private and hired boats for the individual locks, but it seems to me that the hire business is becoming more concentrated on northern waters, from Lough Ree upwards. If that is so, then there might be an increase in the proportion of passages through the northern locks, from Tarmonbarry upwards, and a decrease in the proportion passing through Portumna Bridge and Meelick (Victoria) Lock.
I put the WI reporting stations in four groups:
The figures suggest that the distribution is indeed changing, but gradually rather than dramatically. Athlone’s figures are pretty steady, the outliers are declining slightly and Portumna + Meelick are declining a bit more; the northern locks (Tarmonbarry to Knockvicar) are taking the gains. Comments or alternative interpretations welcome.
Lock passages by group
The figures for 2013 are for the six months January to June; those for other years are for twelve months.
The locks could of course be grouped in other ways, and I may try some of them in future months.
Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Sea, Shannon, Sources, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management, Weather
Tagged Albert Lock, Athlone, Ballinasloe, Battlebridge, boats, bridge, Clare, Clarendon lock, Clondra, Drumshanbo, hire boat, Ireland, Jamestown, Killaloe, Knockvicar, Limerick, Lough Allen, Lough Derg, Meelick, Operations, passage, Pollboy lock, Portumna, private boat, Rooskey, Roosky, Sarsfield Lock, Shannon, Tarmonbarry, traffic, vessels, Victoria Lock, waterways, Waterways Ireland
Do algae pass through pumps? I don’t know, but I ask because boating, bathing and animals have been banned in Lough Ennell where blue-green algae have been found. Lough Ennell is to supply water to the Royal Canal, although I presume it will take some time before it begins to do so. But perhaps, even if algae made it through the pumps, they would die in the Royal. If you know, Gentle Reader, do please leave a Comment below.
Posted in Built heritage, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Operations, People, Safety, Sources, The fishing trade, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management, Weather
Tagged blue-green algae, Ireland, Lough Ennell, Royal Canal, water level, water supply, waterways, Waterways Ireland
Irish waterways history 