Tag Archives: Lough Derg

Rescue boats on Irish inland waterways

Posted on Sunday 20 January 2013 | Leave a comment

I’ve moved my photos of rescue boats to a new page and added photos of some more services. Still a lot missing, though.

Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Shannon, shannon estuary, Suir, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged boats, Clare, Coast Guard, Erne, estuary, Ireland, Killaloe, Limerick, Lough Derg, Lough Neagh, Operations, rescue, RNLI, Shannon, Suir, Tipperary, vessels, Waterford, waterways, workboat

Mountshannon

Posted on Saturday 5 January 2013 | Leave a comment

In the Foreword to his latest book, Portraits of Mountshannon (East Clare Heritage, Tuamgraney 2012), Ger Madden writes of the changes to Mountshannon since 1993:

The Aistear, the children’s playground, the pre-school building, the floating jetties at the harbour, additional restaurants and shops have been hugely positive and successful. The same cannot be said for housing. Ten years of reasonable prosperity for some, has resulted in new private holiday homes built on the fringes of the village and others planned. They are not associated with the needs of the community. The majority of the owners have not the slightest interest in the history, culture or welfare of the community they have chosen to display their wealth.

Any such owners wishing to develop an interest in the history of Mountshannon could not do better than to start with Ger’s book. It’s A4 landscape, with an aerial colour photo of Mountshannon on the front and a map on the back. Inside, the foreword gives a brief overview of Mountshannon’s history. Then follow 52 pages, each with a black and white photo and each covering a building, a tree or a place of interest in and around Mountshannon. Their locations are shown on the map on the back cover.

But, although architectural information is provided, the book is not about the buildings per se. Each page is a window into Mountshannon’s history and, together, they provide a rich account of the place and its people over the centuries. Part of the interest is in the fact that buildings you might pass by without noticing turn out to have interesting stories attached to them. Nor are they all about the distant past: I was glad to see that Mountshannon’s more recent claim to fame, as the last telephone exchange in the country to be automated, was recognised here (although I suppose that too may seem like the distant past to younger readers).

I highly recommend the book. If you’re in the area, you’ll probably know better than I where to get copies; if you’re not, you might ask East Clare Heritage.

Ger runs boat trips to Holy Island during the summer.

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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, Scenery, Shannon, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, Tourism, waterways

Tagged boats, Clare, East Clare, Ger Madden, Holy Island, Ireland, Lough Derg, Mountshannon, Shannon, Tuamgraney

The end of an era

Posted on Saturday 5 January 2013 | Leave a comment

Ger Reid, the Ardnacrusha lockkeeper, retired at the end of December 2012. Ger has guided many boats through the locks over the years and has always been cheerful and reassuring as well as informative, helpful, reliable and competent. He will be sadly missed but I wish him well in his retirement.

Meanwhile, I have heard that Limerick City Council has decided not to renew Pat Lysaght’s contract for work on the river and has suggested that Waterways Ireland should retain him. Pat’s most important role, though, in assisting boats passing through Limerick (220 in 2012), has always been voluntary. Were Pat to cease to provide that service, I think the number of boats visiting Limerick would be greatly reduced.

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Operations, People, Shannon, shannon estuary, Tourism, waterways, Weather

Tagged Ardnacrusha, boats, bridge, canal, Clare, ESB, estuary, Ger Reid, Hunt Museum, Ireland, Killaloe, Limerick, Limerick City Council, lock, Lough Derg, Operations, Pat Lysaght, pilot, Shannon, vessels, water level, waterways, Waterways Ireland, workboat

Around the world with Irish waterways

Posted on Friday 4 January 2013 | 7 comments

Yesterday was one of those days: I managed to track down sources for several pieces of information I’ve been hunting for some time, but in the process I came across a few interesting links, from Gordon of Khartoum to the War between the States.

The starting point was William Watson, manager of the Inland Department and later Chairman of the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company. He worked with Robert Mallet on the design of an innovative boat for use on Irish inland waterways. Robert Mallet married a Cordelia Watson in 1831. (I thought that might be a daughter of William of the CoDSPCo but it’s pretty clear from the excellent Mallett Family History site that that was not so.)

One of Mallet’s inventions was a large mortar designed for use in the Crimean War. And one of Mallet’s sons, John William Mallet, went to the USA and became professor of chemistry at the University of Alabama. He joined the Confederate forces, rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the artillery and superintendent of the Confederate ordnance laboratories.

Meanwhile Watson’s son Charles Moore went east rather than west. Colonel Sir Charles Moore Watson KCMG, CB, MA, of the Royal Engineers, Watson Pasha, was a general in the Egyptian Army and Governor-General of the Red Sea Littoral. Watson’s base was at Suakin on the Red Sea. The Dubliner was succeeded in that post by a Kerryman, Horatio Herbert Kitchener, from Ballylongford near Saleen on the Shannon Estuary, on which the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company operated.

Watson was “Gordon’s principal friend in Egypt”:

It is certain that Watson was, above all others, the one man in Cairo whom Gordon cared about most, and that he was the last to see Gordon off when he started [for Khartoum].

Gordon died at Khartoum; the relief expedition, led by another Irishman, Sir Garnet Wolseley, arrived two days too late.

A younger brother of Sir Garnet, Frederick Wolseley, went to Australia. His Sheep Shearing Machine Company made a brief expedition into the manufacture of motor-cars, under one Herbert Austin, who later founded his own company. Austin and Wolseley both ended up in British Leyland Motor Corporation, which made diesel engines, some of which were marinised and used in boats on the Irish inland waterways … which brings us back to where we started.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Scenery, Shannon, shannon estuary, Sources, Steamers, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged Alabama, Australia, BMC, boats, bridge, canal, Confederacy, diesel, Dublin, estuary, Frederick Wolseley, Garnet Wolseley, Gordon, Grand Canal, Herbert Kitchener, Ireland, John Mallet, Khartoum, Killaloe, Kilrush, Limerick, Lough Derg, mortar, motor-car, O'Briensbridge, Operations, ordnance, Robert Mallet, Royal Canal, Saleen, sea lord, Shannon, sheep-shearing, steamer, Suakin, US, Virginia, waterways, Watson Pasha

Where is this?

Posted on Monday 31 December 2012 | 14 comments

Paul Gauci’s 1831 drawing of a Shannon steamer

This drawing of a steamer is from an 1831 book called Select Views of Lough Derg and the River Shannon by Paul Gauci. I haven’t seen the book myself, but this illustration is used in a couple of places, including Ruth Delany’s book The Shannon Navigation [The Lilliput Press Ltd, Dublin 2008]. Andrew Bowcock, in his article “Early iron ships on the River Shannon” in The Mariner’s Mirror Vol 92 No 3 August 2006, says of the steamer shown that

The funnel looks to be almost over the paddle shaft, which is artistic license.

But my question is not about the vessel but about the house in the background. If it is drawn without artistic licence, where is it?

It is a very large house, seven bays by three storeys, quite close to the water. Using the Historic 6″ Ordnance Survey map [~1840], I have followed the banks of the Shannon from Shannon Harbour down Lough Derg to Killaloe, then from Limerick down the estuary as far as Tarbert, across the estuary to Doonaha and back up on the Clare side to Limerick, then from Killaloe up the Clare and Galway shores back to Shannon Harbour. Anywhere I found a large house within what seemed the right distance of the shore, I looked it up in the Landed Estates Database and in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage, with some supplementary googling.

I haven’t been able to find images of all the houses marked on the OSI map, but I found enough to show that houses of the size shown by Gauci were very rare. Within those few, I ruled out some (like Tervoe) because they didn’t seem to match Gauci’s drawing (although alterations could have accounted for that). I ended up with only one house that looked at all like Gauci’s, but the background may not match.

If you can identify the house, I would be glad if you could leave a Comment below.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Scenery, Shannon, shannon estuary, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, Tourism, waterways

Tagged Banagher, boats, canal, Clare, estuary, Fergus, Galway, Gauci, Grand Canal, Ireland, Kerry, Killaloe, Kilrush, Limerick, Lough Derg, Offaly, Operations, Shannon, Shannon Harbour, steamer, Tipperary, vessels, waterways

Shave and a haircut?

Posted on Sunday 16 December 2012 | Leave a comment

The Ships Pass at Parteen Villa Weir with work in progress.

Two bits

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, Shannon, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged Ardnacrusha, canal, Clare, ESB, flooded area, Ireland, Killaloe, Limerick, lock, Lough Derg, Operations, Parteen Villa Weir, Shannon, ships pass, waterways, weir

Tinarana

Posted on Sunday 16 December 2012 | Leave a comment

According to the Sindo Tinarana House on Lough Derg has been sold.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Ireland, People, Scenery, Shannon, waterways

Tagged Clare, Ireland, Killaloe, Lough Derg, Shannon, Tinarana

WI programme costs

Posted on Tuesday 11 December 2012 | 1 comment

From WI’s annual report for 2011

Note that programme costs do not include staff costs, as the income and expenditure account for y/e 31 December 2011 makes clear.

From WI’s annual report for 2011

The most startling thing in the programme costs is that Shannon costs have increased 57% while Grand Canal costs have decreased by 25%. I presume that the change is in the Civil Construction/Supply contract costs, as the other items don’t seem to have enough scope for such large changes. It would be interesting to know what the contracts were. The accounts of Grand Canal improvements on pages 12 and 16 don’t suggest any diminution in activity, although they are not specific enough to be definitive; the account for the Shannon on page 17 mention some new undertakings, of which the most significant was perhaps the new mooring at Killaloe, whereof the Chief Executive said in the Foreword:

From WI’s annual report for 2011

And so, I’m sure, say all of us.

But wouldn’t that be a capital cost? I can’t work out how the income and expenditure figures link to the activities covered in the descriptions of achievements.

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Operations, People, Restoration and rebuilding, Shannon, Sources, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged boats, bridge, canal, Clare, costs, department of arts heritage and the gaeltacht, Dublin, Grand Canal, Ireland, Killaloe, Lough Derg, Operations, Shannon, waterways, Waterways Ireland

Water levels

Posted on Thursday 6 December 2012 | Leave a comment

Meelick Weir today

Almost level.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Drainage, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Shannon, waterways, Waterways management, Weather

Tagged canal, ESB, farmers, floods, flow, Galway, Ireland, lock, Lough Derg, Meelick, Offaly, Operations, Shannon, Victoria Lock, water level, waterways, Waterways Ireland, weir

Where are the boats?

Posted on Thursday 6 December 2012 | Leave a comment

Learned Readers will be aware that you can moor cheaply for the winter in a Waterways Ireland Shannon harbour; see Marine Notive 111/2012 about half way down this page.

Now, anyone paying commercial rates in a Shannon marina will tell you that WI’s charges represent extremely good value: cheaper even than a year’s canals permit.

But I have noted recently that there seem to be only four boats in Dromineer for the winter). Pottering about today, I found Portumna Castle Harbour deserted.

Portumna Castle Harbour December 2012

Terryglass had more boats, but most of them are on the county council’s jetty with only seven on the Waterways Ireland extension.

Terryglass December 2012

There were only four boats on the west bank below the bridge in Portumne. There were a few more in Connaught Harbour, but all in all the numbers were lower than I had expected. And I don’t think they’re in Shannon Harbour, which seemed to have fewer boats than usual.

So have boat-owners found that their insurers won’t cover them if they are not in supervised marinas, or out of the water, for the winter? Are private marinas, especially those that can haul boats out of the water, more crowded than usual? Or has the number of boats decreased even more drastically than I had imagined?

I don’t know. Readers’ observations welcome.

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Shannon, Water sports activities, Waterways management

Tagged boat owner, boats, Clare, Galway, Grand Canal, haul out, insurance, Ireland, Limerick, Lough Derg, marina, Offaly, Operations, Shannon, Tipperary, vessels, waterways, Waterways Ireland

Tag Archives: Lough Derg

Rescue boats on Irish inland waterways

Mountshannon

The end of an era

Around the world with Irish waterways

Where is this?

Shave and a haircut?

Tinarana

WI programme costs

Water levels

Where are the boats?

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