Part 3 of The Canal Boats
PROABLY the most romantic and best loved canal barges of all were, arguably, the Guinness Liffey Barges.
Their journey was the one-mile stretch between James’s Street Quay and the Customs House. In their day they were truly a part of Dublin life being a daily sight since they first appeared in 1873.
These steam-driven boats conjure up romantic memories for Dubliners as they remember the smoke filled stacks being lowered to enable the boats to go under O’Connell Bridge at high tide. The Guinness barges ceased to sail on midsummer 1961.
The combined fleet of 22 boats was in reality two fleets; one named after Irish rivers like Lagan, Liffey, Slaney and later another fleet named after Dublin places like Chapelizod, Killiney and Castleknock. Of the original total fleet, nine ended their days as sandboats on Lough Neagh, some floundered, some were lost in explosions and the others have just disappeared.
Probably the only Guinness boat still afloat is owned by M O’Hanlon of Fastnet Shipping near Waterford. It is interesting to note that although they were well equipped with cranes, there was a lot of manual loading and unloading. It was not unusual for two men in the hold and a jetty bogie-gang of eight to load 1,000 casks in a day.
Canal boats hold personal memories for me as I grew up near the shores of Lough Neagh in Lurgan, Co Armagh. Many a boyhood hour was spent swimming and fishing at Ellis Gut where the Lagan navigation meets the Lough. It should not be forgotten that the sand extraction business is the most significant commercial inland waterways activity on the island. As has already been mentioned, some of the Guinness barges ended their days on Lough Neagh. Today the majority of barges working on Lough Neagh are Dutch barges.
There is an interesting story told about Croke Park and the sand from Lough Neagh. The Armagh and Tyrone Gaelic football teams (both counties border the Lough) have had considerable success in Croke Park in recent years. It may not be that surprising when you consider that over seven thousand tonnes of Lough Neagh sand was used as a base for the playing pitch. You could say that the northern teams were playing on home soil!
It is interesting to consider boats which have associations with Naas and Co Kildare. The 79M was the last boat to be built for the Grand Canal Company and she is believed to be the last boat to leave from Naas Harbour in 1959.
John Connelly finished up in her in 1960 and was pensioned off by CIE at the tender age of 24 at a pension of £12-10 a week. When the canal closed she was one of the boats taken back for six months to carry “the Black Lady” to Limerick from Dublin. She is currently lying disused in the waterways maintenance yard in Tullamore Harbour.