Tag Archives: currach

More Pathé

Posted on Tuesday 11 February 2014 | 4 comments

A train ferry, claimed to be in service on the Liffey

Fishing at Ringsend the hard way

Launching the Irish Elm in Cork

A Boyne regatta

Making and using a Boyne currach in 1921 (you can learn the art yourself here)

A non-watery film: Irish Aviation Day 1936

Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Rail, Scenery, Sea, Sources, The fishing trade, The turf trade, Water sports activities, waterways

Tagged barge, Barrow, boats, Boyne, bridge, canal, coracle, currach, Dublin, flying machines, Grand Canal, Ireland, Irish Elm, Liffey, Operations, quay, Ringsend, salmon, steamer, turf, vessels, waterways, wicker

Shannon hooker

Posted on Wednesday 23 March 2011 | Leave a comment

No, not a rugby player, but a replica of one of the Shannon estuary workboats — the Massey Fergusons of their day — that carried turf towards Limerick and limestone back, as well as anything else that needed shifting further, or in larger quantities, than the canoes could manage.

The boat is being built at Querrin; see this article in the Irish Times.

Leave a comment

Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Restoration and rebuilding, shannon estuary, The turf trade

Tagged boats, canoe, Clare, currach, Dixie Collins, Fergus, hooker, Ireland, jetties, Kerry, Limerick, limestone, Operations, quay, Querrin, Shannon, turf, vessels, waterways, workboat

Nimmo’s non-existent harbour

Posted on Tuesday 16 March 2010 | Leave a comment

Beginning a section about the piers, quays and harbours of the Shannon Estuary, especially those noticed in the mid-nineteenth century. At that time, and while the Shannon Commissioners were at work, the estuary was seen as a part of the river, just as Lough Derg was, although nowadays the Shannon Foynes Port Company controls the estuary and Waterways Ireland (and the ESB) the river upstream from Limerick.

Noel P Wilkins, in his recent biography of the engineer Alexander Nimmo (Irish Academic Press 2009), says that Kilbaha was the only place where Nimmo selected an unsuitable site for a harbour. Within a couple of years it had been abandoned and replaced by a pier.

Kilbaha is the westernmost harbour on the north side of the Shannon Estuary and the closest to Loop Head. It exported turf (peat) and imported sea-manures; it was also a pilot station. A lot of activity for a small place. Read about it here.

Leave a comment

Posted in Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Irish waterways general, Scenery, shannon estuary, The fishing trade, The turf trade

Tagged boats, canoe, currach, estuary, fisheries commission, Ireland, kilbaha, loop head, nimmo, pilot, sea-manure, Shannon, shannon estuary, turf