The BBC have an article about the industries of Roman Britain which is interesting.
Author: ewan.duffy
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The Cable that Changed the World
RTE One will be showing a documentary programme on Monday 12 August 2024 at 21:35, about the transatlantic cable connecting Valentia Island in Kerry to Newfoundland.
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Old Head of Kinsale Lighthouse
The lighthouse at the Old Head of Kinsale will be open for public tours on 31st August and 1st September 2024.
The cost of entry is €15/adult (family ticket available). No pre-booking is required. The funds raised are for the Lusitania Museum & Old Head Signal Tower.
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Culture Night 2024
Culture Night 2024 takes place on 20th September 2024. I’ve had a look through the Culture Night events lists and there isn’t much from an IH perspective – only identifying 2 events as follows:
DUBLIN
Turlough Hill 50th Birthday Bash
KERRY
History & Culture Tour at the Creamery
Both events require pre-booking – the relevant links are on the event pages above.
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Heritage Week 2024
I have done another review of the Heritage Week listings and have updated the events page to reflect this.
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Kilkenny Mills, Kells
RTE has put an archive segment from 1984 on their website, reporting on the Kilkenny Mills in Kells, Co. Kilkenny.
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Drones and IH
One of the many things on my to do list is to learn how to fly a drone, given the enormous possibilities it offers in the arena of IH recording.
In advance of that happening (no scheduled date unfortunately), I link to this Youtube channel, by the name of DroneHawk, (I don’t know who the owner/content creator of the site is) which has excellent footage of both recent engineering works, such as the Dunkettle interchange/Foynes railway relaying and footage of historic railway alignments.
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Meelick Weir facilities
The Connacht Tribune reports on the absence of public facilities at or near the Meelick Weir walkway.
Whilst complimentary about Waterways Ireland’s part in restoring the walkway along the weir, they note that WI have not provided any facilities for those caught short.
When I was in Clones recently, looking at the new addition to the waterways of Ireland, I did notice the toilet block in Clones which was built as part of this. I am at a loss to understand why similar could not be provided at or near the Meelick Weir, especially as there does appear to be a control building at Meelick Lock:
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The Glendalough Railway
No, there was never a railway to Glendalough, Co. Wicklow. However, as with most places in Ireland of any significance, proposals to build such a line were made in the 19th Century.
The Greystones Guide has an article by Gary Paine about this.
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Boating as a tourism activity
Proponents of the Ulster Canal Thon Sheugh like to tell us that this is a wonderful tourist attraction that will revitalise Clones and all other areas that the canal served.
Not only do I beg to differ (even the Cost Benefit Analysis of the “restoration” – which calculated a negative return – accepted that traffic on any restored navigation would be displaced from elsewhere in Ireland and not generate additional business overall), but it appears that boating activity on the one navigation in Ireland that should work for tourism (the River Shannon) is in decline.
Certain Leitrim county councillors are trying to blame this on fees charged by Waterways Ireland and are calling for the proposed fee increases that WI are seeking to be deferred.
From the Leitrim Observer (linked to above):
“The numbers have fallen from about 100,000 in the mid 1990s to 76,000 in 2004 and down to 36,000 in 2023. It looks like it’s going to dip under 30,000 this year,” explained Cllr Flynn.
https://www.leitrimobserver.ie/news/home/1557625/councillors-advocate-for-study-on-declining-traffic-on-river-shannon.html
If the premier boating resource in Ireland is seeing a natural decline in usage, what makes anyone think that a dead end canal to Clones will see sufficient activity to justify its restoration?