Tag Archives: Shannon

Had I been able to erect a fence across the pier at Mountshannon recently, I might have made money by charging a fee to the many folk who walked down to look at the Shannon Princess II. When I told one chap that it was a hotel barge, he asked if he could go there for lunch. I tried to explain, but this notice from TravelWorld may explain it better.

Admittedly the headline is a bit misleading: when I saw it first I thought that the guests were to dress as artisans, whereas in fact the theme is artisan food, which means food made by members of the middle classes for sale to other members thereof. Put it this way: you might not invite the staff of your local Aldi to your garden parties but you would be quite happy to have your artisan food suppliers there. Not that I’ve anything against “artisan” food per se (indeed I buy lots of it); I just dislike the name.

More on the Shannon Princess here and here. When I win the lottery ….

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Posted in Economic activities, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Natural heritage, Operations, Scenery, Shannon, Tourism, waterways

Tagged boats, hotel barge, Ireland, Lough Derg, Mountshannon, Shannon, Shannon Princess, workboat

Eppur si muove

Posted on Friday 15 June 2012 | 2 comments

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Posted in Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Scenery, Shannon, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged boats, Lough Derg, Mountshannon, Shannon, waterways, Waterways Ireland

British power

Posted on Friday 15 June 2012 | Leave a comment

The Sunday Business Post [paywall] reports that a British energy firm called SSE plc [formerly Scottish and Southern Energy plc], which already owns Airtricity, intends to buy Endesa Ireland. SSE’s press release is here.

Endesa owns the power stations at Tarbert, on the Shannon Estuary, and Great Island, at the junction of the Barrow and Suir estuaries; both are covered on this website. Endesa also owns a power station at Rhode, near the Grand Canal, and one in Co Mayo. It seems that SSE will also acquire options on sites at Lanesborough and Shannonbridge.

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, shannon estuary, The turf trade, waterways

Tagged Barrow, Endesa, energy, Grand Canal, Great Island, Ireland, power station, Rhode, Shannon, SSE, Suir, Tarbert, turf, waterways

Shannon traffic figures May 2012

Posted on Thursday 14 June 2012 | 3 comments

Amended to add linear trendlines to the graphs.

Passages recorded at each location in May

Portumna Bridge    635
Victoria Lock    618
Athlone Lock    771
Tarmonbarry Lock 433
Clondra Lock    91
Roosky Lock    622
Albert Lock 826
Clarendon Lock    692
Battlebridge 74
Drumleague    70
Drumshanbo Lock 54
Pollboy Lock    237
Sarsfield Lock       14

Total 5137

Figures courtesy of Waterways Ireland.

Total passages for first five months of the year

2002 14630
2003 14840
2004 13993
2005 12693
2006 12184
2007 14013
2008 12273
2009 11407
2010 9800
2011 9103
2012 9189

Derived from WI data.

Charts with trendlines

The decline continues.

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Posted in Economic activities, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Shannon, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management, Weather

Tagged boats, Ireland, Operations, Shannon, traffic, vessels, waterways, Waterways Ireland

WI on the wireless?

Posted on Tuesday 12 June 2012 | 2 comments

I heard several ads today on 2RN (or Radio Athlone, as the young folk say) for, er, “fun” on the Shannon and the Erne. Folk were encouraged to visit a Discover Ireland website, which I think is run by one of the bits of what used to be Bord Fáilte.

The site in question might be this one, where the Lough Derg offers include a hotel in Thurles, which is miles away from Lough Derg. The insistence on “fun” and “family adventure” suggests that that site is aimed at the members of the moronic community, and it is difficult to find any information apart from the prepackaged “family breaks”. And I’m not sure that the slogan “Discover Fermanagh: Where the days seem longer …” is a winner: why travel to Fermanagh to be bored when you could do it at home?

But what is most interesting is the sudden increase in the amount of advertising on the wireless; I don’t yet know whether it is matched by an increase in that on other media. I assume that tourism folk don’t spend money unless they are short of visitors. So have the numbers of overseas, foreign and domestic holiday-makers been disappointing so far this year? I don’t know, and the Tourism Barometer for April 2012 [PDF] suggested that service providers were optimistic at least at that stage.

I am aware that Waterways Ireland, which contributes to the lakelands marketing effort, has pulled advertising from some media; is it diverting its spending in an effort to boost tourism, or is that simply a change of policy consequent on a change of management? I would welcome information.

I would also welcome a proper analysis of the success of WI’s Lakelands and Inland Waterways marketign initiative.

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Posted in Economic activities, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Ireland, Natural heritage, Operations, Politics, Scenery, Shannon, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management