The horse’s journey (OSI 6″ ~1840)
A horse and car fell in at the lower lock of the Canal this day — passed rapidly down by the flood-gates, under Baal’s Bridge, between the Malls, under the new Bridge, by the Custom-house, where a row boat came to the rescue, and the poor struggling animal was secured by the boatmen, who cut the harness, and brought him safe to shore to Arthur’s-quay, where hundreds were assembled to behold the horse again on terra firma.
Limerick Chronicle 13 December 1845
Posted in Extant waterways, Historical matters, Ireland, Safety, Shannon, waterways
Tagged Abbey River, Arthur's Quay, Baal's Bridge, Custom House, Ducart, horse, Limerick, Nw Bridge
Sunday last, as a small boat, in which were four boys, was passing between Baal’s Bridge and the New Bridge, it suddenly upset, and the boys were in imminent danger, struggling in the water; two of them clung to the wooden pillars of the temporary bridge, and held on until a boat, belonging to Poole Gabbett Esq, came to their assistance, and picked them up. The others would have been carried off by the tide but for a man named Frawley, who rushed into the riber with his clothes on, and at the risk of his life, succeeded in bringing them safe on shore.
Limerick Chronicle 18 June 1845
Posted in Extant waterways, Historical matters, Ireland, People, Safety, Shannon
Tagged Abbey River, Baal's Bridge, Frawley, Limerick, Mathew Bridge, New Bridge, Poole Gabbett, Shannon
Abbey Bridge
Baal’s Bridge
Mathew Bridge
Current heading for Mathew Bridge
The weir
Lots of pumps running and equipment trundling about the place
Trouble at t’mill
T’millstream
Cots on the bank
The Black Bridge getting another hammering
I have been told that the Mulkear River rose very rapidly on Saturday night and that, at one time, it was feared that the (older) bridge would be swept away. I gather that folk working in other areas were called to Annacotty to deal with the emergency.
The old bridge at Annacotty (downstream face)
A tree in the water above the bridge
There’s a weir in there somewhere
The Mill Bar in Annacotty was closed today after being flooded.
The Mill Bar
This, from a small garden beside the bridge, suggests that the Mulkear may have carried and deposited a lot of silt
I gather that the Mulkear’s waters, added to those of the Shannon itself, raised the level of the Park Canal (the bottom section of the Limerick Navigation). A problem with opening the lock gates, to release the water, meant that a few houses in Corbally were flooded. A Sinn Féin councillor, whose party colleague has been responsible [with her southern counterpart] for slashing Waterways Ireland’s budget in recent years, is quoted as saying
I am in no doubt it was primarily caused by the ineptitude of Waterways Ireland.
Alas, the news story does not tell us the source of the councillor’s certainty.
The article also says that
[…] the force of this water meant it was not possible to open the lock gates by hand.
That is, I think, misleading: neither set of gates has gate beams, so they are not opened by hand.
The upper gates in 2004, shortly after installation. Note the absence of gate beams. Note also the two sluices or paddles on each gate
Control pedestal and gear
The upper gates open today
I see no sign of the paddles or sluices. Perhaps the level is so high that they’re underwater. I must try to check next time I’m at the canal harbour.
The upper gates in the floods of 2009
In the floods of 2009 the upper gates were held slightly open and all four sluices were discharging water. That would have lowered the level in the canal; it would also, I think, have made it easier to open the gates fully.
I am guessing, but I imagine that on Saturday night some sort of hydraulic machine was brought in this way …
Two bollards have been moved from the gateway and stacked beside it
… and used to push or pull open the near-side upper gate. There seems to be some slight damage to the stone and iron work.
Slight damage
One other possibility that struck me is that silt from the Mulkear might have built up behind the gates, making them difficult to open, but I have no evidence on the matter.
The lower gates
From the outside looking in
Posted in Built heritage, Canals, Charles Wye Williams, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Modern matters, Operations, Safety, Shannon, waterways, Waterways management, Weather
Tagged 2009, Annacotty, Anney River, Baal's Bridge, Black Bridge, bridge, cot, flood, gate, harbour, hydraulics, lock, Mulcair, Mulkear, Park Canal, Plassey, Shannon, silt, University of Limerick, water level
In May 1895 the fear induced by the prospect of a passage under Baal’s Bridge, on the Abbey River in Limerick, as revealed in the commercial court in London before Mr Justice Mathew and reported by the Freeman’s Journal of 20 May 1895.
Arthur George Mumford of Colchester, Essex, was described as an agent, but was actually a marine engineer and manufacturer of steam engines. He owned a 25-ton steam yacht called Gipsy, which he decided to sell through Messrs Cox & King, the well-known yachting agents (their 1913 catalogue is here).
The buyer was Ambrose Hall, the man responsible for the statue of Patrick Sarsfield. A former mayor of Limerick, he was an alderman and a “house and land commission agent”; his address was given as Mignon House, Limerick, which I have not so far found.
Hall bought the boat for £500; it was to be delivered to him at Limerick. The original plan was to sail it around the coast of Ireland and up the Shannon estuary, but bad weather in late 1894 caused Cox & King to suggest taking it to Dublin and then down the Grand Canal and the Shannon to Limerick. Hall agreed; the boat left Dublin in January 1895. It reached Killaloe on 19 January and Limerick “a day or two afterwards”, where it was moored in the canal harbour.
Canal harbour, Limerick in March 2007
Hall refused to accept the boat in the canal, saying that it should have been delivered to Limerick dock, a short distance downstream. Mumford and Cox & King sued him and the National Bank.
Ordnance Survey ~1900
Hall, an alderman and a former mayor, who had lived at North Strand, presumably knew the river and its difficulties.
Baal’s Bridge looking upstream towards the canal harbour in the floods of 2009
The navigation arch at Mathew Bridge looking downstream in the floods of 2009
It was contended by the defendant that to get the vessel from the canal into the estuary of the Shannon there was a considerable risk involved. The passage was only a few hundred yards, but it was stated it could only be effected at certain states of the tide when it would be possible to get through Ballsbridge.
The judge sensibly suggested that it should be possible to insure the boat for the journey; the plaintiffs agreed to deliver it; Hall agreed to accept delivery and to pay £15 for the cost of the caretaker who had been looking after the boat since 23 January; the case was settled.
Clearly Ambrose Hall didn’t know Pat Lysaght.
Posted in Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Natural heritage, Operations, People, Shannon, shannon estuary, Sources, Steamers, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways
Tagged Abbey River, Ambrose Hall, Baal's Bridge, boats, bridge, canal, Clare, Colchester, Cox & King, Dublin, estuary, floods, flow, Gipsy, Grace, Grand Canal, Ireland, Killaloe, Limerick, lock, Mumford, O'Briensbridge, Operations, Pat Lysaght, quay, Shannon, steam yacht, steamer, vessels, water level, waterways
The Limerick Leader article about a proposed Limerick river bus has some statements that do not accord with my understanding.
The venture will see the river bus depart Guinness Pier – across from Athlunkard Boat Club at O’Dwyer Bridge – every two hours, bound for the power station […].
As far as I know, the pier in question was the Ranks jetty and was not used by Messrs Guinness. The Eclipse Flower, and other vessels owned by Ranks and their predecessors, sailed up the Shannon from there rather than attempt the stretch from Baal’s Bridge to Custom House Quay.
The boat will follow the route taken by barges of old – both passenger and commercial – some of which historically transported Guinness to the city up until the mid-1960s.
“It is a tried and tested route,” said Mr Flynn, stressing the viability and safety of the route, which passes Long Pavement – the edges of which have been repaired and grassed over – and finishes at the hydro-electric plant.
“Every passenger and commercial barge that came to Limerick for 50 years used that stretch of water. It is very safe. It was navigated by all the barges,” he said.
The route to Limerick through Ardnacrusha came into use only after the construction of the power station in the 1920s and was used for a little over thirty years. To the best of my knowledge, there were no passenger services in those years: passenger carrying stopped in the first half of the nineteenth century, when traffic was still using the old Limerick Navigation. There have been some trip-boats in recent years, but they did not (and do not) use “barges of old”. Some old barges, now converted and with more powerful engines, have safely navigated that stretch, but they do it when conditions are right.
During the final phases of Ardnacrusha’s construction, both old and new navigations were closed; the Grand Canal Company (GCC), the main commercial carrying company, ran to Killaloe and had its cargoes carried onward by rail to Limerick. When the new route through Ardnacrusha was opened, the GCC thought it was so dangerous that it refused to use it for about a year. It resumed operations only when a boom was put across the river above Baal’s Bridge and posts were provided upstream of O’Dwyer Bridge to which barges could tie while waiting for suitable states of the tide.
I accept that the proposed river bus will not be going downstream as far as Baal’s Bridge, but it will still be navigating on a stretch of water where Waterways Ireland advises that boats should not navigate when more than one turbine is running at Ardnacrusha. The ESB can run up to four turbines, each of which is said to add a knot to the current, and it can switch them on immediately, with no warning to any boat using the river.
Other pages on this site make it clear that I share the promoters’ enthusiasm for Ardnacrusha and the canal and river thence to Limerick. I do not say that the difficulties of that stretch cannot be overcome, but I do not think that they should be dismissed.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Rail, Restoration and rebuilding, Scenery, Shannon, Sources, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Ardnacrusha, Baal's Bridge, boats, bridge, canal, Clare, Eclipse Flower, ESB, floods, flow, Grand Canal Company, Guinness, Ireland, jetties, Killaloe, Limerick, Limerick Leader, lock, Lough Derg, O'Dwyer Bridge, Operations, Park Bridge, Ranks, river bus, Shannon, vessels, water level, waterways, Waterways Ireland
Irish waterways history 