Shannonbridge Watershed

Infrastructures for Life Jack Brennan, MArch Yr. 2

Component 2 Submission, 20/05/2020 Contents

Introduction 3

Shannonbridge - Bord na Móna Workers’ Protest 4

Electrical Infrastructure Studies 5

West Offaly Power Station - Kit of Parts 6

West Offaly Power Station - Site Plan 7

Shannonbridge Site Plan 8

Poetry & Policy - Bog Profile 9

Poetry & Policy - Rewetting the Bogs 10

Shannonbridge to Clonmacnoise - Blackwater Bog 11

Shannonbridge to Clonmacnoise - Bog Walk 12

Shannonbridge to Clonmacnoise - Ferry Route 13

Shannonbridge Watershed - Site Plan 14

Shannonbridge Watershed - Site Elevation 15

Shannonbridge Watershed - Flooding Perspectives 16

Shannonbridge Watershed - Site Section 17

Shannonbridge Watershed - Quay Section 18

Shannonbridge Watershed - Men’s Shed Model 19

Shannonbridge Watershed - Floor Plans 20

Triptych - History, Landscape & River 21

Final Review Board Layout 22

Appendices 23

Shannonbridge - Figural Elements 24

Napoleonic Fort - Survey Drawings 25

Napoleonic Fort - Model Collage 26

N3 Study - De Paor Architects 27

Reliance on Power - Collage 28 Introduction

These photographs were taken on the first day of Spring in Shannonbridge, County Offaly. The building is topped off with a watch tower. This pays homage to the defensive architecture Hundreds of Bord na Móna workers and their families marched across the River Shannon and of the Napoleonic military fort on the opposite bank of the river and the round tower of through the village before the protest finally culminated at the entrance to the West Offaly Power Clonmacnoise. All three achieve a height that allows the occupant to survey the landscape Station. Here, workers past and present voiced their concerns about the announced closure of beyond. This height offers a different perspective and would help demonstrate the vastness of the power station and what the government was labelling a ‘Just Transition’. the bogs.

As a result of the climate crisis, the power station at Shannonbridge, along with several others are Lifted above the floodplain is a workshop that is primarily occupied by a Men’s Shed group. This due to be decommissioned. It is no longer deemed acceptable to harvest and burn peat for the organisation caters for men and offers them a space to communicate and work with one another. generation of electricity. This proposal hopes to offer a resource for the predominantly male workforce that are about to lose their livelihood working on the bog. The bogs of Ireland are desert wetland areas, made up of dead plant material that has accumulated over millennia. These waterlogged landscapes are often described as ‘carbon sinks.’ By latching on to historical and geographical features the aim of this proposal is to add stability For the last century, bogs have been drained so that when harvested the peat is dry enough to be during future moments of uncertainty amid this just transition phase for Shannonbridge. used as fuel. Now that we are transitioning away from the burning of peat, bogs are slowly being rewet, rehabilitated and restored.

Bord na Móna are the main reason for the systematic mechanisation and organisation of Irish Schedule of Accommodation bogs. The equal distribution of striations across their bogs enables the efficient extraction of Shannonbridge Watershed: peat from these landscapes. The boundary areas of these bogs that did not coincide with the - Summer Quay 288m2 2 framework of parallel drains were taken over by the rural public. - Winter Quay 120m - Ticket Booth Pavilion 18m2 - Public Toilets 32m2 The highlighted route allows the public to once again takeover this boundary condition and - Plant Room 22m2 2 create a trail to the nearby Clonmacnoise. The ancient monastery offers the sense of permanence - Watch Tower Viewing Platform 24m to the community of Shannonbridge that is desperate for an anchor. Men’s Shed: - Workshop 137m2 2 From Clonmacnoise, the return leg of the loop is a ferry route back to Shannonbridge. The water - Material Store 15m - Kitchenette & Tea Room 35m2 level of the River Shannon changes constantly, with a typical range of 2.5meters between the - Office & Teaching Area 72m2 high in winter and low in summer. The section of the building steps accordingly to accommodate this. The larger portion of the quay is lower to suit the summer levels, and this submerges as winter draws closer and the waterway is not as busy.

3 Proposed Site

4 Shannonbridge - Bord na Móna Workers’ Protest Fuel Power Grid

5 Electrical Infrastructure Studies *Vertical Steel Structure Only

1000x300 300x300 400x400 900x600 600x600 400x400 300x300 400x400

2000

3,165.39m2 6,421m2 1,658.76m2

10000

20000

200mm P.C. Conc 120mm P.C. Conc

x18

x21

30000

x10 x4 x4

40000

50000

x3 x5 x5

58000 x26

West Offaly Power Station Disassembly Kit of Parts 1:200 (isometric 1:1000) 6 West Offaly Power Station - Kit of Parts 7 West Offaly Power Station - Site Plan 40

50 40 40

4 0

8 Shannonbridge Site Plan (1:2000 at A2) Public Sheds Residential 0 100 m m Bogland

Years/mm Layer Depth Description We have no prairies Dark reddish brown mafs compact: no 1 600 mm fibers of Mofs visible, surface of bog To slice a big sun at evening— decomposed by the Atmosphere

Everywhere the eye concedes to 1000 Light reddish Brown fibers of Mofs very 2 1000 mm perfect Encroaching horizon,

Old Croghan Man’s Hand 2000 Is wooed into the cyclops’ eye Pale yellowish Brown fibers of Mofs very 3 1500 mm perceptible Of a tarn. Our unfenced country

Is bog that keeps crusting 3000 Bog Butter in Wooden Mether Between the sights of the sun.

4000 They’ve taken the skeleton Deep reddish Brown fibers of Mofs 4 2600 mm perceptible Of the Great Irish Elk 5000 Out of the peat, set it up

An astounding crate full of air.

6000 Blackish Brown fibers of Mofs scarcely 5 1000 mm perceptible, contains numerous twigs, & Butter sunk under small branches of Birch, Alder & Fir

More than a hundred years Great Irish Elk 7000 Dull yellowish Brown fibers not visible 6 1000 mm contains much empyreumatic Oil, mafs Was recovered salty and white. compact The ground itself is kind, black butter 8000

Melting and opening underfoot,

Missing its last definition 9000 Blackish Brown mafs compact fibers not 7 3000 mm visible , contains much empyreumatic Oil By millions of years.

They’ll never dig coal here, 10000

Only the waterlogged trunks 11000 Of great firs, soft as pulp. Black mafs very compact, has a strong resemblance to Pitch or Coal, fracture 8 1200 mm conchoidal in every direction and lustre Our pioneers keep striking shining

Inwards and downwards,

9 1000 mm Marl contains 64% of carbonate of Lime

Every layer they strip

Seems camped on before. 10 1200 mm Blue Clay The bogholes might be Atlantic seepage.

The wet centre is bottomless.

11 Unknown Clay mixed with Limestone gravel Seamus Heaney

9 Poetry & Policy - Bog Profile (1:50 at A2)

Poetry and Policy Bog Profile Scale 1:50 The Tollund Man in Springtime (extract) 1810 1995 2000 2005 2020 My heavy head. Bronze-buffed. Ear to the ground.

My eye at turf level. Its snailskin lid.

My cushioned cheek and brow. My phantom hand

And arm and leg and shoulder that felt pillowed

As fleshily as when the bog pith weighed

To mould me to itself and it to me

Between when I was buried and unburied.

Between what happened and was meant to be.

On show for years while all that lay in wait

Still waited. Disembodied. Far renowned.

Faith placed in me, me faithless as a stone

The harrow turned up when the crop was sown.

Out in the Danish night I’d hear soft wind

An remember moony water in a rut.

“The soul exceeds its circumstances”. Yes.

History not to be granted the last word

Or the first claim … In the end I gathered

From the display-case peat my staying powers,

Told my webbed wrists to be like silver birches,

My old uncallused hands to be young sward,

The spade-cut skin to heal, and got restored

By telling myself this. Late as it was,

The early bird still sang, the meadow hay

Still buttercupped and daisied, sky was new.

I smelled the air, exhaust fumes, silage reek,

Heard from my heather bed the thickened traffic

Swarm at a roundabout five fields away

And transatlantic flights stacked in the blue.

Seamus Heaney

10 Poetry & Policy - Rewetting the Bogs 11 Shannonbridge to Clonacnoise - Blackwater Bog 0 1000 m m 12 Shannonbridge to Clonacnoise - Bog Walk 13 Shannonbridge to Clonacnoise - Ferry Route 14 Shannonbridge Watershed - Site Plan (1:500 at A2) 0 50 m m 15 Shannonbridge Watershed - Site Elevation (1:200 at A0) 0 20 m m 16 Shannonbridge Watershed - Flooding Perspectives 17 Shannonbridge Watershed - Site Section (1:200 at A0) 0 20 m m 18 Shannonbridge Watershed - Quay Section (1:50 at A1) 0 5 m m 19 Shannonbridge Watershed - Men’s Shed & Structural Model (1:50) 20 Shannonbridge Watershed - Floor Plans (1:200 at A1) 0 20 m m Clonmacnoise Blackwater Bog River Shannon

21 Triptych - History, Landscape & River Bogland

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(YHU\ZKHUHWKHH\HFRQFHGHVWR 1000 /LJKW UHGGLVK %URZQ ÀEHUV RI 0RIV YHU\ 2 1000 mm perfect (QFURDFKLQJKRUL]RQ

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Blanket Bogs Raised Bogs Poetry and Policy Industrial Bogs %RJ3URÀOH Scale 1:50 Peatlands of Ireland Scale 1:1,000,000

The Tollund Man in Springtime (extract) 1810 1995 2000 2005 2020 My heavy head. Bronze-buffed. Ear to the ground.