In July 2007 Leitrim County Council gave planning permission for the development, subject to some conditions; the decision was appealed to An Bord Pleanála, which in April 2008 refused planning permission on three grounds.
Every year Waterways Ireland (WI) provides an account of what it has been doing and what's next on its list of things to do. In 2007, it spent €15.5 million on new and improved facilities including refurbishment across the network, an extra 770m of jetties and the continued restoration of the Royal Canal
Before we get into the capital works, it's worth noting a joint marketing initiative between Waterways Ireland, Fáilte Ireland, Northern Ireland Tourist Board, Tourism Ireland, Fermanagh Lakeland Tourism and Shannon Development: the Lakelands Project, promoting the waterways between Belleek and Limerick. The project was launched in October 2007 at a ceremony on the banks of the Shannon in Clonmacnoise. The first phase included the development of a guide, website (www.discoverireland/lakelands.ie) and a multi-lingual DVD.And so to the engineering. WI's isolated navigation is the Lower Bann, on which it has installed 36m replacement jetties at Mountsandel and at Vow, and has applied for planning permission for new jetties at Camus and Portglenone Wood. In 2008 WI intends to carry out feasibility studies into new facilities and service blocks.
On the Erne, WI has replaced and upgraded 346m of moorings at Castle Caldwell, Muckross and Geaglum. In many cases older timber jetties are being replaced. At Crevinishaughy Island near Castle Archdale WI has installed a larger jetty with a reduced freeboard section for watersports. In Enniskillen, the Round O slipway has been improved and 240m of moorings will be installed in 2008.
On the Shannon–Erne Waterway, a new block is being built at Lock 16 (Leitrim) for the Patrollers, and the moorings at the far end, Lock 1 at Corraquill, will be replaced in 2008.
The Shannon has had an extra 250m of floating moorings: 50m at Portumna, 100m at Ballina (with safety booms at Killaloe Bridge) and 100m at Kilglass, replacing the wreck of a jetty that was owned by the County Council. Clarendon Lock is being automated, Tarmonbarry Lock House has been refurbished to give keepers a better view of the lock chamber, the Camlin has been dredged and Scarriff has a pump-out, which makes 21 pump-outs at 14 locations on the Shannon. In 2008, weir barriers will be installed at Athlone and Rooskey.
Down the Barrow, the 54m amenity jetty at Ardreigh has been finished, and there is an 84m floating jetty at Carlow Town Park and a new slipway at Bagenalstown. Major dredging work was undertaken in Carlow and Leighlinbridge; the quay wall and landing jetty at Rathvindon Lock, and the retaining wall at Graiguenamanagh Dry Dock were all repaired.
On the Grand, a 40m long culvert under the canal at Rahan has been replaced, with associated canal embankment works and realignment of culverts to both upstream and downstream channels. Another 3km of the Barrow Line was dredged, between Ballymanus bridge and Vicarstown. In Dublin, major repair works were carried out to stabilise the walls in Grand Canal Dock. The General MacMahon lifting bridge over the canal basin (between the Inner and Outer Docks) was replaced by a fixed structure and, in a separate project, the Grand Canal Square was extended into the dock as a platform extending over the water body. With Dublin City Council, about 700m of towpath surfacing was improved, with overhead lighting, near Davitt Road at the start of the Main Line. In Sallins, works commenced in association with Kildare County Council to improve the harbour area: rebuilding the footpath, putting services underground and adding overhead lighting. For 2008, the main item will be the long-awaited service block at Shannon Harbour.The Ulster Canal is now on the list. In July 2007 the North South Ministerial Council (NSMC) asked WI to restore the section of the Ulster Canal between Clones and Upper Lough Erne. WI is establishing a project team for day-to-day management, reporting monthly to a Monitoring Committee chaired jointly by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (RoI) and the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (NI). The project will take six years to complete.
Finally, much has been happening on the Royal. A new lifting bridge at Begnagh has been finished and work has started to replace the bridge at Mosstown. A 600m section of bank reconstruction and lining was carried out between Ballydrum Bridge and the 44th Lock near Killashee. Investigative works were completed at Richmond Harbour Dry Dock, a major restoration of the 45th Lock was completed and Cloonsheerin Culvert was fully restored. Lighting and railings at Maynooth Harbour were upgraded and deep gate landing jetties were installed at the 41st and 42nd Locks. Negotiations continued with Westmeath County Council to provide an adequate water supply to the Royal Canal.
In Dublin, between Binns Bridge and Croke Park, 400m of towpath and wall were improved. Spencer Dock was widened from 12m to its original 30m width. Works included exposing and strengthening the original dock walls. Access was granted for a new LUAS bridge across the Dock. All of these works are part of large scale re-development of the area, in which the Royal Canal is an important central feature. Work began on the new Sea Lock, which has the dual purpose of facilitating navigation at all stages of the tide and providing flood protection to the area in the event of high water levels in the adjacent River Liffey. The project includes construction of new mitre gates and new sector gates, together with a control building for the operation of the Sea Lock.
In our next issue, we'll have information on plans for the reopening of the Royal Canal in 2009.
First, it was not satisfied that the Environmental Impact Statement and other documents had adequately assessed and addressed the likely effects of the development on the environment and, in particular, on the very rare fish, the Irish Pollan, which is unique to Ireland but whose status, according to the National Parks and Wildlife Service, is bad, with poor prospects.Second, the board pointed out that the Leitrim County Development Plan 2003–2009 sought to encourage location of facilities in or near existing towns and villages, to maximise the economic and social gain for the local community. As Annagh Upper is "an unserviced rural area at a remove from the nearby village of Dowra", the development would be "contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area."
Third, the board said that the local road serving the proposed site was very poor and that the proposed development would endanger traffic safety.
I'm not convinced that the rejection of this development is a disaster. Relatively few boats use Lough Allen, and they've had improvements to two existing moorings in recent years. Does the traffic justify a further development? Or would the money be better spent elsewhere? Perhaps an extension at the southern end of the navigation, through Parteen Villa Weir to O'Briensbridge, would be a better investment. Not that I'm biased.
Rush out now ...... and buy a copy of Ruth Delany's history of the Shannon Navigation, just published by Lilliput Press (paperback €29.95, hardback €60). Ruth's reputation as a waterways historian is solidly established, but this book takes her work to a new level.
The structure of the book is broadly chronological, starting with works carried out before 1800 and then devoting two chapters to the achievements of the Directors General of Inland Navigation up to 1830. But most of the infrastructure we know on the Shannon today came after that, based on a survey by Thomas Rhodes for the Shannon Commission and a report to the government in 1833.
That led to the passing of the Shannon Navigation Act in 1834 and the appointment of five commissioners (including Rhodes) to carry out work on the Shannon. Between then and 1850, mill dams and eel weirs were removed and bridge arches were unblocked. In the lower Shannon, the Black Bridge was built at Plassey and weirs were built at Worlds End (Castleconnell) and Corbally. At Killaloe the bridge was improved, a large L-shaped weir was constructed across the river and the canal retaining wall was built. On Lough Derg the navigation was opened to Scarriff, Mountshannon harbour was built and the Ballyshrule and Woodford rivers were dredged.
Upriver, boulders removed in dredging out shallow places were used as bases for navigation markers. Portumna bridge was replaced and the new cut, weir and lock at Meelick were built. The old Banagher lock was bypassed by a new navigation channel in the river, with a swivel arch in the bridge; Shannonbridge too got a swivel arch. A new lock and weir were built in the river at Athlone, with a new bridge (again with a swivel section), and the old canal was abandoned.
On Lough Ree the marking system was improved. The old lock at Lanesborough was removed and locks and weirs were built at Tarmonbarry and Roosky (abandoning the old Roosky canal). The bridge and quay were built at Carnadoe and the shallows at Derrycarne Narrows were excavated. Jamestown canal was re-sited and new bridges were built across it, but Drumsna bridge was just strengthened. Carrick-on-Shannon bridge was replaced and some improvements were made in the river to Battlebridge and in the Lough Allen Canal, while on the Boyle Water bridges and a lock were built.
There were some small changes to the infrastructure in later years, and they are covered in this book; the most important was the building of Ardnacrusha and the abandonment of the old navigation between Limerick and Killaloe. But most of the Shannon as we know it today was defined during that twenty-year period in the middle of the nineteenth century, and Ruth Delany brings it to life: the surveys, the plans and the changes, the incidents during construction.
There are chapters on flooding, on the Shannon steamers and other trading vessels and on the changes reflecting new uses: recreational boating, fishing, hydroelectric works, the development of bogs, the hire industry and the need for water management. Even looking at the pictures of boats would provide hours of amusement.Some people may shy away from the prospect of reading a 250-page history book, but there is no need to do so. The book is indeed full of information but it is also extremely well written: any technicalities are explained fully and indeed entertainingly.
But there is more: this book is extremely well illustrated and produced. Sponsorship from Waterways Ireland enabled the publishers to use full colour throughout, with an extraordinary number and range of illustrations ranging from maps and charts, through drawings of the tools used in construction, to early black and white photographs and to contemporary colour photographs. The result is a magnificent book, whose quality is a fitting tribute to the research Ruth Delany has put in to her subject over the years — and to the work she has done in campaigning successfully for Irish waterways.
RegistrationThe proposals for registration of vessels are covered elsewhere in this issue, but I have a few comments from an inland perspective. I should say that I am not opposed to registration in principle. I sold a boat once to a man who was surprised that there was no way for him to be sure that I had title to it; registration would have provided reassurance to him. If it enables the Revenue Commissioners to check on people's tax affairs, I have no objection to that either.
I have made some suggestions to the Department of Transport: that the old registers should be computerised and made available online for research and that Killaloe (where boats were sent to be gauged) should be the port of registry for inland vessels.
I also commented on the requirement that I display a flag. I don't really like flags (apart from our own) and I don't see the point when I'm inland. More seriously, there have been times when boats from Northern Ireland might have been reluctant, for fear of violence, to fly a red ensign in the republic and when southern boats might have preferred not to fly their ensign when north of the border. I hope those days may be behind us, but if the temperature should rise again I think boaters should be free to avoid calling attention to themselves.
I am not clear whether houseboats will have to be registered. And it would be nice to have a register of wrecks: I don't mean boats that have been wrecked while under way but rather those that have been abandoned and have sunk at their moorings in Killaloe, Shannon Harbour or Lowtown. And that brings up the point of how this registration will affect Waterways Ireland and its register: the proposals are silent on the matter.
Finally, the big threat in the scheme is in the sentence "Only vessels which meet the applicable standards under national, EU or international law in relation to safety, security and environmental protections in force at the time of application for registration will be allowed to register" and in the requirement for tonnage measurement. Owners might be hit with any number of demands under those provisions, and there are no details of what we might be in for. I don't like buying a pig in a poke: I want more details.
Getting tough
Waterways Ireland has issued Marine Notice 25 of 2008 saying that boats that have been parked in one harbour for more than five consecutive days, or for more than seven days in a month, may be removed from the navigation. This would be good, although I don't know how it's to be done. It probably won't be as drastic as the recent removal of sunken vessels from the Grand Canal Dock in Dublin.
Published in Afloat June//July 2008
