Tag Archives: Barrow

Russells of Portarlington, timber merchants

Posted on Friday 13 January 2012 | Leave a comment

I am indebted to Eleanor Russell for permission to reproduce four photos of the canal operations of Messrs Russells of Portarlington, timber merchants and sawmills operators. They used the Royal and Grand Canals (and the Barrow Line and Mountmellick Branch) to carry timber cut on large estates to their sawmills. One of the estates on which they cut timber was Rockville, and Eleanor Russell has also given me permission to use a photo of Rockville House, taken in 1913, on my page about the Rockville Navigations.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, People, Sources, waterways

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Grand Canal drowning near Shannonbridge

Posted on Sunday 18 December 2011 | 1 comment

Irish Times report. I presume that this was at L’Estrange Bridge.

L'Estrange Bridge (2003)

 

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Posted in Ashore, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish waterways general, People, waterways, Waterways management

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Hello clouds, hello sky

Posted on Tuesday 1 November 2011 | Leave a comment

A former minister for waterways has been elected President, dooming the state to seven years of waffle. He is chiefly famous (in these parts) for having given four barges to “communities” as well as for seizing the waterways from the OPW; I understand that three of the barges have now been returned to the waterways service (now Waterways Ireland).

It seems that some folk are not entirely convinced of his poetic gifts. I stand with Nigel Molesworth.

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Posted in Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Waterways management

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Buggering up the Barrow

Posted on Sunday 11 September 2011 | 2 comments

Have you ever wondered, as you grounded on a sand bar or fought a current upstream, quite why the River Barrow is so challenging?

Here is a confession (with photos) from the man wot done it — in 1931 ….

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Posted in Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, People, Sources, The turf trade, waterways, Waterways management

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Uncle Gaybo …

Posted on Sunday 28 August 2011 | Leave a comment

… bigs it up for the Barrow, specifically a walk from Graiguenamanagh to St Mullins.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Natural heritage, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

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Departmental responsibility for waterways

Posted on Tuesday 7 June 2011 | Leave a comment

Statutory Instrument No 195 of 2011 transfers responsibility for inland waterways (and Waterways Ireland and waterways northsouthery) from Craggy Island to the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport.

It does not say whether the same people are still doing the work.

Text of the statutory instrument here.

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Ireland, Politics, Sources, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management

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Canals and labour history

Posted on Thursday 28 April 2011 | Leave a comment

The building and the use of Irish inland waterways, by navvies and boatmen respectively, will be discussed at the May Day Labour History School, to be held at Athy Community Arts Centre on Saturday 30 April 2011. The events of the day (copied from here):

12pm-4.00pm: photographic exhibition commemorating the workers who built the canals and the boatmen who transported the goods throughout the canal network.

2pm-2.15pm: Official Opening of the Festival by the Mayor of Athy

2.15pm-4.00pm: series of talks examining the socio-economic and cultural impact that the opening of the canals had on provincial life. The typical life of the early navvies and boatmen will be brought to life, and the struggle for improvement in conditions leading to early Trade Union formation will also be explored.

8.00pm: A concert of Labour and Workers’ songs, featuring two of Dublin’s well-known balladeers, Tom Crean and Jimmy Kelly. The concert will be preceded by a Wine Reception at 7.30pm.

More details of the weekend here or here (PDF). I wouldn’t bother trying the SIPTU site: I couldn’t find the info there.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, People, Politics, Waterways management

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Kildare County Council endangers citizens

Posted on Monday 28 March 2011 | Leave a comment

The Barrow at Monasterevan (or -in)

Wouldn’t it be better if the Council ordered weak currents instead?

 

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Posted in Ashore, Extant waterways, Operations, Tourism, Water sports activities, Waterways management

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Consultancy fee? No, it’s OK, thanks ….

Posted on Tuesday 22 February 2011 | 2 comments

How A N Other and I saved the Irish waterways … or at least suggested how Waterways Ireland should approach British narrowboaters.

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Posted in Built heritage, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, Uncategorized

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The upper Barrow

Posted on Tuesday 15 February 2011 | Leave a comment

Charlie Horan (of Go with the Flow, the canoe expedition specialists) left a comment on my post about Abbeyleix (below) saying

I have some very very interesting pictures of the Barrow near source in flood taken just two weeks ago ….

And here they are. They are indeed interesting!

White water (courtesy Eamonn and Charlie Horan)

Eek (courtesy Eamonn and Charlie Horan)

The burling Barrow brown (as Gerald Manley Hopkins called it) (courtesy Eamonn and Charlie Horan)

Even the indefatigable F E Prothero might have been put off …. He canoed down from Mountmellick to Athy in 1897, taking about eight and a half hours. Major Rowland Raven-Hart said that the Barrow had been canoed from a little above Portarlington (which is downstream of Mountmellick); there is a PDF of his book here.

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Posted in Ashore, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Scenery, Water sports activities

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