Author: ewan.duffy

The Irish Independent reports that the National Asset Management Agency, the Sate body setup in the aftermath of the property price crash at the end of the Celtic Tiger, has disposed of its last Dublin Docklands interest – a leasehold interest on a property adjacent to the Grand Canal Dock. The buyer of this property is none other than the freehold owner – Waterways Ireland.

I fear that WI may be trying to follow the CIE model of being a property development company with the inconvenience of a linear transport network attached. Having said that, there is a fine site for house boats in Clones – I could see WI getting into the international protection accommodation market by setting up something similar to these on the marina in Clones.

The spending by the occupants would bring economic development to Clones – after all, wasn’t that the plan?

Well, that was, underwhelming.

I paid a visit to Clones on Sunday to see this marvellous new canal, that is going to be the leading tourist attraction of South Ulster. The place was hopping with……

Well, not much really. Plenty of people walking, three water bikes for hire and a few canoes. Who’d have seen that coming.

I’ll have a full report soon (currently in Prague on holiday). However, a news article in the Anglo Celt caught my eye. It reports the CEO of Waterways Ireland, John McDonagh, stating that negotiations with landowners along the route of the canal between Clonfad and Castle Saunderson are taking place.

Are you stating, John, that you won’t have powers of Compulsory Purchase for this wonderful tourist attraction? Oh wait, no, the NI Government can see this as the white elephant that it is and sensibly won’t touch it with a bargepole.

Below is a Googlemaps view of Clonfad and the border:

Google hasn’t caught up with the new waterway yet. This ends in a field just at the border with Northern Ireland. The last section of the waterway is on a new alignment as there is a house in the way of the original alignment.

The thought struck me, that if the adjacent landowner(s) don’t want to play ball and either refuse to sell, or, better still, offers to sell, say, a 10m wide stretch of land running from the A3 ESE across the canal bed for 100m, to someone like me, the Ulster Canal is dead.

Thejournal.ie reports that Phase 2 of Thon Sheugh, sorry, the Ulster Canal for those of us who are not illiterate, is opening.

From the blurb, you would think that this was something wonderful, describing this as the opening of the canal from Clones to Clonfad.

It is only when you get to the bottom of the article and you read this:

“Phase three of the restoration, when complete, will link phases one and two, and fully reopen the waterway from Clones to Lough Erne.”

that you realise that you, the taxpayer, have been conned.

What has been opened is an elongated, open air swimming pool in Clones. I am looking forward to visiting Clones shortly to count the boats on this new section of Sheugh.