CHAPTER V.

THE WATERWAYS OF IRELAND. “Such was the Boyne, a poor inglorious stream, That in Hibernian vales obscurely strayed, And, unobserved, in wild meanders played.” —_Addison._ If there is one country more than another that ought to be possessed of ample and complete water communication, that country is surely Ireland. Surrounded on all sides by the sea, with a population greatly inured to the conditions of living upon or by the water, it should have at once the cheapest and the most comprehensive system of water transport in the world. This, however, is far from being the case. Neither in point of rivers, nor in point of canals, does Ireland compare favourably with Scotland, not to speak of the much more abundant resources of England. The actual waterways that are of real importance besides the Liffey, are the Earne and Shannon rivers, and the Grand Canal. About these we shall say as much as may be necessary to indicate their general characteristics. It has been said that the unfortunate Earl of Strafford, from having seen the utility of inland navigation in the Low Countries, first suggested the improvement of river navigation in Ireland. In 1703 the first Act of Parliament was passed for rendering the Shannon navigable, and many improvements were projected. Nothing, however, was effected, although a useless expenditure of 140,000_l._ was made on the Shannon and Boyne in the year 1758. Various other large sums were afterwards granted, and frittered away in partial improvements of the Shannon, Boyne, Barrow, and Newry rivers, besides the Grand, Royal, Kildare, Naas, and Lough Earne navigations. THE SHANNON. The Shannon river forms the most important feature in the inland navigation of Ireland. For the first 144 miles of this waterway, from the head of Lough Allen to the sea below Limerick, the Shannon is like a series of rivers and lakes. Issuing from Lough Allen, it passes Leitrim, Carrick, Tarmonbury, &c., and then enters, at Lanesborough, a very irregularly-shaped and extensive sheet of water, called Lough Ree, about 17 miles in length. Leaving it, the river, now greatly augmented, passes Athlone, and then winds by Shannon Bridge and Banagher to Portumna, near which it expands into Lough Derg, another narrow lake, 23 miles long, with deep bays and inlets. From the southern extremity of this lake it flows on to Limerick. In this extent of navigation we have first Lough Allen, 10 miles; thence to Lough Ree, 43; Lough Ree itself, 17; thence to Lough Derg, 36; Lough Derg, 23; thence to Limerick, 15; making together 144 miles. The mean height of Lough Allen above the sea at Limerick is about 143½ feet, being on an average about a foot of declivity per mile. Instead of the natural fall, however, the water has been reduced by means of locks to a series of level pools. The estuary or firth of the Shannon extends south-west about 70 miles beyond Limerick to its mouth, which is finally about 8 miles wide between Loop Head and Kerry Head, at the Atlantic. The direction of the Shannon from Lough Allen to Limerick, though generally south by south-west, is very circuitous, and broken by many streams, islands, and rocks. The soundings are as various, and both banks are liable to be overflowed by the river to a great extent; and the large expanse of the lakes would require a different sort of vessel from those which navigate the river. The works which have been constructed to overcome the natural difficulties of the navigation are either insufficient or in a state of decay; and it seems to be generally admitted that very little real good can be effected until the natural obstructions are removed, the number of lakes reduced, and the channel deepened and improved in various parts; though it is still doubted if the navigation would even then be suitable for anything but steam-vessels. The Shannon connects with the Royal Canal at Tarmonbury, and with the Grand Canal at Shannon harbour, near Banagher. At Shannon Bridge it receives on the west its principal tributary, the Suck; on the east, the Inny, the Upper and Lower Brosna, Mulkerna, Maig, Fergus, &c. The Shannon river connects the tide water of the Atlantic in Limerick with Dublin by two canals, the Grand and the Royal. It passes by the towns of Limerick, Killaloe, Portumna, Banagher, Shannon Bridge, Athlone, Lanesboro’, Yarmon, Roosky, Drumsna, Carrick, Leitrim, and Drumshambo. The expenditure on the river up to 1878 was 800,738_l._ The average cost of maintenance was 3300_l._, and the total receipts from tolls during the previous five years was 9510_l._, being an average yearly receipt of 1902_l._ This sum, deducted from the average expenditure of 3300_l._, left a net yearly loss of 1398_l._ At this average rate for the previous thirty years the money loss by the Shannon navigation amounts to 41,940_l._ The depth of water for this navigation, over 7 feet to 10 feet, is maintained by eight wholly immovable weir-mounds. These weir-mounds cause inundations, damaging 24,000 acres of land. This damage during the last thirty years amounts to more than 100,000_l._ In the section between Limerick and Athlone, 68 miles, the average receipts of tolls for the five years ending 1878 was 1274_l._ Out of that sum an engineer and eighteen lock-keepers had to be paid 686_l._, together with repairs, which left from 300_l._ to 400_l._ a year profit. In the section above Athlone, about 80 miles, the average receipt of tolls in the same five years was 197_l._, against the annual expenses of repairs and the salaries of an engineer and ten lock-keepers, amounting to 385_l._ The interests of the Shannon drainage do not, in Mr. Lynam’s view,[58] require to diminish the minimum depth of water under 5½ feet on the lock sills. These interests require merely that the surface of the river and lakes shall be kept within a range of 5½ feet to 8½ feet on the sills of all locks from Athlone to Limerick. The bye-laws made by the Board of Works for the Shannon limit the draught of boats to 4 feet 10½ inches. The river and locks are maintained by the weir-mounds at levels that rarely are less than 7½ feet on the lock sills, and rise in floods to 9 feet. The Earne and Shannon rivers have three features which render them, in Mr. Lynam’s opinion, peculiarly easy to regulate their floods, and prevent inundations. They have large superficial areas of lakes. Their channels between the lakes are wide and deep, so capacious as to carry their floods with an inclination of less than an inch a mile. Their floods rise slowly, 4 inches to 8 inches in twenty-four hours, very rarely rising 1 foot in twenty-four hours. On the Shannon, all the mill-weirs and fish-weirs have been purchased and removed, and all the shoals have been deepened at a cost of 529,716_l._ The lakes in the Lough Earne basin have an area of about 50,000 acres. The shoals and straits, which obstruct the river and cause the inundations, have an aggregate length of merely 6 miles. Only one mill-weir (which is the only fish-weir) exists, and it is at the outlet, where there is a fall of 12 feet. The Shannon basin has lakes of the superficial area of 87,000 acres. In the length, from the Battle Bridge above Carrick-on-Shannon to Killaloe Bridge, of 128 miles, the lakes occupy 50½ miles; the broad, deep channel extends for 73½ miles; the confined portions of the channel occupy merely 4 miles; the portions of the channel confined so as to be visible obstructions are but 2 miles long. Neither mill-weir nor fish-weir stands in the way of the current. The floods scarcely ever rise 1 foot in twenty-four hours. The great floods are but 4 feet where deepest on the lands, and generally but 2 feet deep, and merely 18 inches deep over large areas. Many damaging floods are not more than 6 inches deep on the land. From Lough Allen to the tide of the Atlantic Ocean at Limerick, a length of 149 miles by the sinuosities of the river, the Shannon has been made navigable for steamers with a depth of 6 feet of water. The river lies naturally in eight separate levels, but the lowest, at Limerick, is very small, and detached from the others by a length of 5 miles and a fall of 90 feet. The upper level, at the outlet from Lough Allen, has a fall of 20 feet in 6 miles. The lowest level, between Castleconnell and Killaloe, contains only 641 acres of lowland, rarely flooded in summer or autumn, and rarely covered by more than 1½ foot of water. To preserve the land from summer and autumn floods the surface of the floods must be lowered 2 feet nearly. A permanently solid embankment, used during many years for a navigation horse tow-path, extends along one side of the river, the only openings being four culverts for side drainage. On the other side of the river there exists a natural ridge, which is a little higher than the highest floods. It is not continuous, but interrupted in five places. These circumstances are held by Mr. Lynam to “render it very easy to protect the lowlands from all floods.” Very favourable sites exist for back-drains to carry off rain-water and springs. The 641 acres of lowlands may be thus protected from summer and autumn floods at a cost of 6000_l._, being 10_l._ per acre. This would allow of winter irrigation also, which the occupiers of the lands particularly require. The system of river embankments is much objected to as dangerous, and properly so, when it is proposed to make high embankments. In this case the required embankments are in existence for seven-eighths of the required length, so permanently solid as to be absolutely safe, and the small portions to be built need not be more than 3 feet to 5 feet high. The obstructions are a rock-shoal near the middle of the length, an old bridge with narrow arches and thick piers, and a shoal of solid limestone rock at the outlet. MINOR IRISH RIVERS. _The Barrow River_ has been rendered navigable from the tideway below St. Mallins up to where it is joined by the Grand Canal at Athy Bridge, a distance of 43 miles, falling 172 feet. But from Athy to the mouth of the Barrow, in the estuary of Waterford Harbour, and through that to St. George’s Channel, the distance exceeds 60 miles. _The Blackwater River_, county Cork, is navigable from its mouth at Youghall up as far as the tide reaches, or at most to Cappoquin. There is another, and smaller Blackwater, connected with the Tyrone Canal, and flowing into Lough Neagh. _The Boyne River_ is navigable from the Bay of Drogheda for 22 miles, up to Trim, in the last 7 miles of which it ascends from Navan 189 feet by means of locks, which are from 80 to 100 feet long and 15 feet wide. _The Corrib River and Lough_, or Lake, form a navigable line, commencing at the mouth of that river, in Galway Bay, and extending from Galway town in a north-westerly direction for about 24 miles. _The Earne River and Lough_, or Lake, are navigable through the lake from the upper part, where the river enters it, below Belturbet, till it leaves it again at Enniskillen, where it is obstructed by weirs; but below the isle on which that town is built the river again expands into the lower part of the lake, through which it is also navigable. Thus far the entire distance is about 30 miles, and the navigation is terminated by a fall, from which the river has a rapid course of 9 miles to Donegal Bay. It has been proposed to construct a canal from Lough Earne, beginning near Belturbet, and to follow along the valleys of the Finn and Blackwater to Lough Neagh. _The Fergus River_, county Clare, is navigable from its mouth, in the Shannon, up to Ennis, the county town. _The Foyle River_ is navigable for 10 miles from its mouth, in the estuary of Lough Foyle, below Londonderry, up to Strabane. _The Lagan Navigation_ commences in the tideway at Belfast, and proceeds mostly by the course of the rivers as far as Lisburn, from which it is continued by a canal by Hillsborough and Moira to Lough Neagh. The total length is 28 miles. _The Lee River_ is navigable in the tideway up to the city of Cork, and for small craft somewhat farther. Below Cork, however, the navigation is principally an arm of the sea called Cork Harbour. _The Liffey River_ is navigable from its mouth in Dublin Bay for about 3 miles up to Carlisle Bridge, at the farther end of the city of Dublin. From the south side of this navigable part proceeds the Grand Canal, and from the north side the Royal Canal, of which we shall presently speak. _The Limerick Navigation_ commences at that city, and proceeds in a north-easterly direction, partly in the Shannon and partly by canals, for 15 miles, to Killaloe, at the south end of Lough Derg. _The Moig River_, county Limerick, is navigable from its mouth in the Shannon to near Adare. _The Moy River_, county Mayo, is navigable for about 5 miles, from Killala Bay up to Ballina. _The Neagh Lough_, or Lake, being about 20 miles long and 10 broad, is generally of sufficient depth to be navigable to a considerable extent in every direction. It communicates with Belfast by the Lagan Navigation, with the Tyrone Collieries by the Blackwater, with Antrim by the Antrim river, and southward with the sea by the Newry Navigation. _The Newry Navigation_ commences in the tideway of Lough Fathom, 3 miles below Newry, which it passes, and proceeds 16 miles by a canal to the Upper Bann River, in which it continues to Lough Neagh. The entire length is about 30 miles, generally in a northerly direction. This, which has always been a very imperfect navigation, was the first executed in Ireland. _The Slane, or Slaney River_, is navigable from its mouth in Wexford Haven, for 14 miles, to Enniscorthy. _The Suir, or Sure River_, unites with the Barrow in the estuary called Waterford Harbour, about 5 miles below the town, and is navigable from that up to Carrick for sloops, and to Clonmel for barges. At the town of Waterford the largest ships lie afloat in 40 feet water. _The Tyrone Colliery Canal_ commences at the south-west extremity of Lough Neagh, proceeding by a short cut across the isthmus of Maghery to the Blackwater River, and, following it a short way, passes by another cut of 3 miles to the Colliery Basin, from which a railway extends to the mines. THE GRAND CANAL. The Grand Canal was begun in 1765 by a body of subscribers; but they could not have completed the work without very large advances from Government. The canal commences at Dublin and stretches in a westerly direction, inclining a little to the south, to the Shannon, with which it unites near Banagher, a distance of 85 statute miles, and thence on the west side of the river to Ballinasloe, 4 miles distant. But, exclusive of the main trunk, there is a branch to Athy, where it joins the Barrow, a distance of about 27 miles, and there are branches to Portarlington, Mount Mellich, and some other places. There is also a westerly branch, more recently constructed, from the Shannon to Ballinasloe, about 14 miles in length. The total length of the canal, with its various branches, is about 164 English miles. Its summit elevation is 230 feet above the level of the sea at Dublin. It is 40 feet wide at the surface, from 24 to 20 feet at the bottom, has 6 feet depth of water, and cost, in all, about 2,000,000_l._ The tonnage on this canal for the eight years ending with 1837 varied from 215,000 to 237,000 tons, while the tolls varied from 33,000_l._ to 38,000_l._ The highest part of the canal rises 298 feet above sea level. Two errors are said to have been committed in the formation of the Grand Canal; it was framed on too large a scale for that time, and it was carried too far north. Had it been 4 or 4½ feet, instead of 6 feet deep, its utility would have been but little impaired, while its expense would have been very materially diminished. But the greatest error was in the direction of the canal. Instead of joining the Shannon about 15 miles above Lough Derg, it should have joined it below Limerick, and conversely would have avoided the difficult and dangerous navigation of the upper Shannon. The canal would then have passed through a comparatively fertile country, and it would not have been necessary to carry it across the bog of Allen, in which, says Mr. Wakefield, “the company have buried more money than would cut a spacious canal from Dublin to Limerick.” The main line of the Grand Canal is 89 miles long, but there are branches to Naas, Mount Mellick, Portarlington, and other places. On the main line there are six locks, each 70 feet by 14½ feet. THE ROYAL CANAL. The Royal Canal was undertaken in 1789. It stretches westwards from Dublin to the Shannon, which it joins near Tormanbury. Its entire length is about 92 miles, exclusive of a branch of 5 miles, from Kilashee to Longford; its highest elevation is 307 feet above the level of the sea. At the bottom it is 24 feet wide, and it has 6 feet depth of water. It had cost, exclusive of interest on stock, loans, &c., advanced by Government, in February 1823, 1,421,954_l._ The tolls produced in 1826 25,148_l._, the expenses of the canal for the same year being 11,912_l._, leaving only 13,236_l._ net. The canal has paid dividends over a number of years, although not on a high scale. This canal seems to have been wrongly planned, for throughout its whole course it is nearly parallel to, and not very distant from, the Grand Canal. There are consequently two large canals where there ought not to be more than one. It is probable that one canal of comparatively small dimensions would have been quite enough for all the business of the district, though it were much greater than it is, or is likely to become. Besides the above there are some other canals, as well as various river excavations in Ireland, but hardly one of them yields a reasonable return for the capital expended upon it. They have almost all been liberally assisted by grants of public money, and their history, and that of the two canals now adverted to, has been said to strikingly corroborate the caustic remark of Arthur Young, that “a history of public works in Ireland would be a history of jobs.” FOOTNOTES: [58] ‘The Engineer,’ Oct. 11, 1878.