Irish waterways history

Most popular waterway

Posted on Tuesday 6 March 2012 | Leave a comment

Ballynatray House ...

The waterway page that has received most visits since this website was set up is that covering the Bride, the Munster Blackwater and the Lismore Canal.

... and boathouse on the Blackwater

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Scenery, Tourism, waterways

Tagged Ballynatray, Blackwater, boats, Bride, Cappoquin, Ireland, Lismore, Munster, waterways, Youghal

NAMA, DDDA and the Grand Canal Basin graving dock

Posted on Monday 5 March 2012 | Leave a comment

One of the graving docks

Interesting contextual material from Nama Wine Lake here. IWAI Dublin Branch page on the graving docks here.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Operations, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Sources, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged DDDA, Dublin, Grand Canal, graving dock, Ireland, NAMA, Ringsend, waterways, Waterways Ireland

Waterways power stations

Posted on Sunday 4 March 2012 | Leave a comment

Great Island from downstream

According to the Sunday Business Post [paywall], an American venture capitalist firm and a Singaporean company have considered buying the Tarbert (Shannon Estuary) and Great Island (Suir Estuary) power stations from Endesa, which bought them from the ESB. Endesa had intended to invest in its Irish operations, but it was taken over by an Italian company, Enel, in 2009; Enel wrote down the value of the Irish assets and wants to sell them off.

Tarbert from the ferry

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, shannon estuary, Suir, waterways

Tagged Endesa, Enel, estuary, Great Island, Ireland, power station, Shannon, Suir, Tarbert

This week’s big shout out …

Posted on Saturday 3 March 2012 | 2 comments

… [I do hope I’m using the idiom correctly: I gather it’s the latest phrase the young folk use to applaud some worthy person or initiative] for Ian Jack in the Grauniad, for his piece on Huddersfield, where one pushes one’s boat through canals broad and narrow. whereof there is much to be learned (and fine things to be seen) on the Pennine Waterways website.

Stalybridge, mentioned in the article, is where “It’s a long way to Tipperary” was composed and first sung.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Natural heritage, Politics, Scenery, waterways

Tagged beer, canal, England, Harold Wilson, Head of Steam, Huddersfield, Pennine, scenery, Slaithwaite, Stalybridge, Tipperary

Public sector cutbacks

Posted on Friday 2 March 2012 | Leave a comment

The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, which is ultimately in charge of waterways, has published an organisation chart [one-page PDF]. It shows that the department has a minister and a minister of state and a secretary general.

At the next level down there are five main divisions:

Corporate Affairs
Arts, Film, Music, Cultural Institutions
Heritage
Gaeilge, Gaeltacht & Islands
Central Translation Unit & Placenames.

Each of the first three is headed by an assistant secretary; the fourth has a Director of Irish and the fifth a plain director. The department is spread between offices in Galway, Killarney, Wexford and four locations in Dublin.

So where, I hear you ask, are waterways looked after? We have to come down to the next level, the principal officers, to find out. And there, we find that Corporate Affairs has three POs, one of whom is responsible for

HR, Strategic Planning, Corporate Governance, N/S Co-ordination & Waterways Irl.

That’s quite a lot of things for one person to be responsible for.

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Operations, People, Politics, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged department of arts heritage and the gaeltacht, Ireland, North South Ministerial Council, northsouthery, waterways, Waterways Ireland

Date

Posted on Friday 2 March 2012 | Leave a comment

Killaloe & Ballina are having one of Waterways Ireland’s Discover Days on Sunday 29 April 2012.

Includes “visitor attractions, water activities, arts and crafts, face painting, live music, a historical walking tour, boat trips and other land and water activities”.

More info as it becomes available.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, People, Politics, Scenery, Shannon, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged boats, bridge, canal, ESB, Ireland, Killaloe, lock, Operations, Shannon, waterways, Waterways Ireland

Barrow Corridor Study

Posted on Thursday 1 March 2012 | 4 comments

The Barrow Corridor Study is now available on the Waterways Ireland — in twelve separate chapters, alas. Catering for folk with two-stroke modems is a good thing, but what about catering as well for those of us with broadband and pains in our mouses?

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Posted in Economic activities, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Scenery, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged Barrow, canal, Grand Canal, Ireland, waterways, Waterways Ireland

Long-term serviced moorings at Shannon Harbour

Posted on Thursday 1 March 2012 | Leave a comment

Request submitted to Waterways Ireland:

I would be grateful if you could tell me how many bids you received for these moorings, how many you accepted and what the lowest and highest accepted bids were.

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged boats, canal, Grand Canal, houseboat, IRBOA, Ireland, moorings, residential, Shannon, Shannon Harbour, waterways, Waterways Ireland

Alexey Grigoryevich Stakhanov

Posted on Thursday 1 March 2012 | 1 comment

There has been such interest in my posting on Stakhanovite homoeroticism that I thought I would post a few close-ups of the mural. The light fittings get in the way a bit, but you can pretend that they represent the fires of passion.