I have received from the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht a statement on the funding of the Ulster Canal; I reproduce it here.
This statement seems to me to be more forthright than statements from DAHG’s predecessor department, which is something I welcome, and so I reproduce it without comment. I will, in a few days, offer some thoughts on the canal’s prospects.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Operations, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Tourism, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged budget, canal, Clones, department of arts heritage and the gaeltacht, Department of Community Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs, Erne, Ireland, Jimmy Deenihan, lock, lost, Lough Neagh, Operations, Sinn Fein, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways Ireland
Here are some photos of dredging and related operations under way in Limerick. There are some pics of small workboats too.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Operations, Shannon, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged boats, bridge, canal, dredging, excavator, floods, flow, Ireland, L & M Keating, Limerick, lock, Lysaght, Operations, Shannon, vessels, water level, waterways, Waterways Ireland, weir, workboat
For some years I have been trying unsuccessfully to find out more about a trip that Orson Welles is said to have taken on a barge on the River Shannon. Now I see that a chap in Wiltshire wants to make a film that, according to the synopsis, includes this incident:
First, though, he takes a leisurely barge trip on The River Shannon and meditates on nature and the beauty of the countryside.
There is more about the project here.
The Mid-West Regional Authority is seeking tenders for developing a “Signage Audit & Strategy for the Lough Derg Destination Area”.
The strategy is to cover
the Lough Derg Destination Area from Portumna to Ballina/Killaloe including the major settlements within this boundary incorporating both sides of Lough Derg ….
It involves auditing existing signposts within three miles of Lough Derg, consulting “key stakeholders” and developing a new signposting plan for the region. The new signage is to guide visitors to and through the Lough Derg Destination Area, to benefit the “local host community” and to provide a “comprehensive, branded, co-ordinated signage strategy for the Lough Derg Destination Area which will also inform and direct signage in the future”.
Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Scenery, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Clare, destination area, Ireland, Limerick, Lough Derg, Mid-West Regional Authority, Shannon, sign, signage, Tipperary, tourism, waterways
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
Irish waterways history 