Tag Archives: Shannon

Bring back the Black

Posted on Friday 17 August 2012 | Leave a comment

The Black Bridge at Plassey has been closed since the floods of November 2009. Its reopening seems to have a low priority; I suspect that is because the importance of the bridge in Ireland’s technological, economic, entrepreneurial and political history is not widely appreciated. Here is a page explaining some of the background and suggesting a context within which reopening might be justifiable.

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Posted in Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Operations, People, Restoration and rebuilding, Scenery, Shannon, shannon estuary, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, The turf trade, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management, Weather

Tagged Annaghbeg, Black Bridge, boats, bridge, canal, Charles Wye Williams, City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, Clare, floods, Grand Canal, Ireland, John Brownrigg, Killaloe, Kilrush, Limerick, Limerick Navigation, Liverpool, livestock, lock, lost, Lough Derg, Manchester, Montpelier, O'Briensbridge, Operations, P&O Line, Plassey, quay, Shannon, Thomas Rhodes, Tipperary, turf, vessels, water level, waterways, Waterways Ireland

Dry docks

Posted on Thursday 16 August 2012 | 6 comments

Waterways Ireland has a new web page up about the conditions under which it will allow its dry docks to be used. The page includes links to a downloadable MS Word application form and a PDF. Anyone applying to use a dry dock must now submit:

a completed application form
a letter from an insurance company confirming that the owner has adequate insurance in place [sic] to bring vessel into a dry dock for works
a letter from the insurance company of any third party contractors to be employed confirming they have adequate insurance in place [sic] to carry out the proposed works
the relevant payment for number of days usage booked
a security deposit payment of €250
a shoring/propping certificate
a method statement of work to be carried out
a safety statement for work to be carried out.

In April 2012 I discussed the issues here.

My page about dry docks is here.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Restoration and rebuilding, Waterways management

Tagged barges, boats, dry docks, Grand Canal, Ireland, propping, risk, Royal Canal, Shannon, Waterways Ireland

Marl update

Posted on Thursday 16 August 2012 | Leave a comment

I have added more information, from Arthur Young in 1780, to my piece on dredging for marl on Lough Derg. Young provides a few more details on the process.

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Shannon, The cattle trade, waterways, Weather

Tagged Arthur Young, boats, Derry, Head, Ireland, Killaloe, Lough Derg, marl, Shannon, Tipperary, vessels, water level, waterways

A very interesting photo …

Posted on Friday 10 August 2012 | 1 comment

… here.

h/t PW

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Posted in Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Scenery, Shannon, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, Tourism, waterways

Tagged Ballina, boats, Clare, Ireland, Killaloe, lawrence, Lough Derg, Operations, Shannon, steamer, vessels, wreck

Plasticine

Posted on Thursday 9 August 2012 | 2 comments

Why, when speaking of the branded product Plasticine, did [do?] Irish teachers insist on using the Irish word marla? Even that word was, according to Terry Dolan’s Dictionary of Hiberno-English [Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 2004; new ed forthcoming], derived from the English marl.

At least in the nineteenth century, marl was a valuable manure or fertiliser and, on Lough Derg, Mr Head of the Derry Estate introduced a system of dredging it from deep water. Read about it here.

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Scenery, Shannon, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, waterways

Tagged "marl dock", boats, broadford, Clare, Derry Castle, Derry estate, dredging, Dublin Society, fertiliser, Hely Dutton, Ireland, Killaloe, Lough Derg, manure, marl, Mr Head, Operations, Scarriff, Shannon, shelly, Spaight, Tipperary, vessels, waterways, workboat

Fox II (113B)

Posted on Wednesday 1 August 2012 | 5 comments

Thanks to Liam Kelly for these photos of the retired WI maintenance vessel Fox celebrating her 75th birthday in dry dock at Roosky recently.

-0-

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Posted in Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Restoration and rebuilding, Shannon, waterways

Tagged 113B, boats, Fox, Roosky, Shannon, vessels, waterways, Waterways Ireland, workboat

Barges, cots and subaltern waterways studies

Posted on Wednesday 1 August 2012 | Leave a comment

I am to speak at Jamestown, near Carrick-on-Shannon in Co Leitrim, on Saturday 4 August 2012. Jamestown is having its heritage festival, and large numbers of old (converted) barges will be there. I will be giving one of four talks; mine is entitled

Down with barges: why cots were the really important vessels on Irish inland waterways.

I will be citing His Late Majesty Henry VIII, Fid Def, in support of my contention.

Here is some of the background to my thinking. If you would like to hear more, do come along on the day: the talks are open to all.

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Posted in Economic activities, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, People, Politics, Shannon, Sources, Suir, The cattle trade, The fishing trade, The turf trade, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged barges, Barrow, boats, cots, Erne, floods, Ireland, Kilrush, Limerick, Lough Derg, Lough Neagh, O'Briensbridge, Operations, Shannon, Suir, turf, vessels, waterways, workboat

Essential kit for barge-drivers

Posted on Tuesday 31 July 2012 | 2 comments

So there you are outside one of the more sheltered harbours (Dromaan, say), unable to see how much space there is inside and wondering whether, if you go in, you’ll find you have to reverse out again. How useful it would be to be able to see inside from some distance away. How useful it would be to have a small helicopter at your disposal, one that could send pics back to you.

Clearly such a gadget would be a must-have item, an essential piece of equipment for any conscientious barge-driver. Happily, it exists.

2 Comments

Posted in Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Operations, Shannon, Water sports activities

Tagged boats, camera, drone, helicopter, Ireland, Lough Derg, quad copter, Shannon, vessels, waterways

Where do …

Posted on Tuesday 31 July 2012 | Leave a comment

… (a) correct ideas and (b) camper vans come from?

Correct ideas, as everyone is undoubtedly aware, come from three kinds of social practice: the struggle for production, the class struggle and scientific experiment.

Camper vans (or RVs: song on this page requiring Flash) may come to WI harbours because they’ve studied the Safe Nights Ireland website, which (inter alia) lists all the public toilets in Ireland (many counties have none) and the WI facilities.

Incidentally, I have been told that WI now welcomes camper vans, having persuaded Bord Fáilte that the economy won’t collapse if it recognises the reality that the vans use the harbours. However, I haven’t seen that in writing anywhere; if anyone can point me towards a reliable source, please leave a Comment below.

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Non-waterway, Operations, Politics, Shannon, Sources, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management