A prison van got stuck under the Blundell Aqueduct on the Long (18.5-mile) Level of the Grand Canal this afternoon.
The Blundell Aqueduct
The prisoners were no doubt undertaking a waterways tour, taking in the Edenderry Branch, the Main Line and the Barrow Line (at Rathangan).
Drawings now uploaded. Much more activity in these than in the Lough Ree equivalents, with steamers towing barges, turf boats, the surveyors’ cutter and other excitements.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Operations, People, Politics, Scenery, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, The turf trade, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Admiralty, Beechey, boats, Charles Wye Williams, chart, Clare, cutter, drawing, Grand Canal, Holy Island, hydrographic, Ireland, Killaloe, Lady Lansdowne, Limerick, Lough Derg, Nutgrove, Operations, quay, Shannon, survey, turf, vessels, waterways, Williamstown, Wolfe, workboat
The development of the Plot 8 site at the Grand Canal Docks, Ringsend, was to be the most valuable of three sites to be sold by Waterways Ireland, with Craggy Island hoping to use the proceeds to fund the Ulster Canal. The DDDA’s interest in Plot 8 has now passed to NAMA.
I provided background information from the Oireachtas Committee of Public Accounts here; the DDDA announcement is here but NAMA, alas, has no information at the moment.
DDDA had withdrawn permission for IWAI Dublin Branch to work on the graving docks at the site.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Ulster Canal
Tagged canal, Craggy Island, DDDA, Department of Community Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs, Dublin, Erne, Grand Canal, Ireland, lock, Lough Neagh, NAMA, Operations, quay, U2, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways Ireland
… their true origins revealed (up to a point, Lord Copper).
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, People, Scenery, Sources, Tourism, waterways
Tagged Brahman, Buddhist, Devenish, Erne, Hindu, Holy Island, Ireland, Kali, lingam, Lough Derg, Lough Neagh, phallus, Ram's Island, round tower, Shannon, Shiva, Siva, waterways
Here is a page showing eight of the drawings made by Commander Wolfe RN and Lieutenant Beechey RN while surveying Lough Ree in 1837.
Posted in Built heritage, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, People, Scenery, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged 1837, Admiralty, Beechey, boats, chart, Ireland, Lough Ree, Operations, Shannon, survey, waterways, Wolfe
According to the Sunday Business Post of 20 November 2011 (paywall),
There is growing momentum behind a proposal to abolish the use of a green dye in subsidised agricultural diesel because of its widespread abuse through diesel ‘washing’ facilities.
The Irish Road Haulage Association wants the Minister for Finance “to leave all diesel white in colour, but allow agricultural users like farmers and contractors to receive a rebate for the diesel they purchase for agricultural use.”
Were this proposal adopted, it would mean that owners of private pleasure craft would be relieved of the obligation to make an annual return of their propulsion fuel purchases to the Revenue Commissioners, a return that must be accompanied by a cheque for the difference between the low price they currently pay for green diesel and the full price for white diesel. As I an quite sure that all owners are making such returns, the IRHA proposal would not increase the cost of boat use and would remove the form-filling.
I am so confident that all owners of private pleasure craft pay in full that I have asked the Revenue Commissioners to tell me how much the owners paid in each of the last two years.
Note, by the way, that the SBP’s account is at odds with that in the Irish Times on 9 November 2011, which said:
THE GOVERNMENT has effectively ruled out a rebate system to farmers and other legitimate users of agricultural or marked diesel to combat fuel laundering.
No doubt much spinning is going on.
Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Operations, Politics, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged boats, diesel, green, Ireland, private pleasure craft, rebate, Revenue, vessels, waterways, white
The Joint Communiqué from the last Plenary Meeting of the North/South Ministerial Council meeting (18 November 2011) can now be read or downloaded (PDF) from the NSMC website. It has much to say about the Ulster Canal:
Progress on the Ulster Canal is progressing incrementally with the planning process ongoing.
Er … right. That’s it, then. Progress is progressing, eh? Well, I never.
We’ve now had an Inland Waterways Sectoral Meeting (12 October 2011) and a Plenary Meeting, neither of which has said anything about how (or whether) the canal to Clones is to be funded. Why not? Shouldn’t they show us the money?
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged canal, Clones, department of arts heritage and the gaeltacht, Department of Community Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs, Erne, Ireland, Lough Neagh, North South Ministerial Council, Ulster Canal, Waterways Ireland
I was listening to the news on the wireless this evening, on 2RN (or, as they call it nowadays, Radio Athlone). Just after 6.00pm the presenter said:
Following a leak in the German parliament, the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan ….
I know things are bad, but are there now no loos in Dáil Éireann, so that the minister has to travel to Berlin for a pee?
Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Foreign parts, Ireland, People, Politics
Tagged 2RN, drivetime, Germany, Ireland, michael noonan, rte radio 1, wireless
Grass-cutting team's van at Ballyconnell ...
... and van at Riversdale
Notice that both vehicles have the same number on their sides:
WCPDC-08-1153
What is it?
It’s Waterways Ireland’s Waste Collection Permit number, issued by Dublin City Council to Waterways Ireland at its Enniskillen address, but handled by the Environment Officer in WI’s Scarriff office. The permit allows WI staff to pick up rubbish along their waterways in counties Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Fingal, Galway, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Longford, Meath, Monaghan, North Tipperary, Offaly, Roscommon, South Dublin and Westmeath and in Dublin and Limerick cities. It will expire on 17 June 2014, so the link above may stop working after that.
Note that WI is not permitted to pick up dogshit (if that’s what “animal by-products” are) or batteries.
WI has 92 vehicles authorised to pick up waste.
Isn’t that interesting? What a lot of stuff WI staff have to know about and what a lot of regulations they have to comply with.
Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Ireland, Operations, Politics, Sources, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged canal, Grand Canal, Ireland, permit, vehicles, waste, waterways, Waterways Ireland
The Limerick Leader has a story here.
Irish waterways history 