TRADITIONAL HERITAGE BOAT SURVEYS Grand Canal, Royal Canal, Barrow Navigation 2016 Shannon Navigation and Shannon-Erne System 2017 An Initiative of the Waterways Ireland Heritage Plan 2016-2020 In partnership with: Carried out by: Meitheal Mara Crosses Green House Cork [email protected] www.meithealmara.ie Acknowledgements The authors wish to recognise and thank the following organisations and individuals for assistance in the preparation of this report: Bill Ahern; AK Ilen Company (Gary Mac Mahon); Athlone Boat Club (Benny Dunne and Des Campbell); Athlunkard Boat Club (Maxine Murphy); boat builders Jimmy Furey and Dougal McMahon; boat owners on the Grand Canal, Royal Canal and Barrow Navigation; boat owners on the Shannon and Shannon-Erne Navigations; Donal Boland; British Ship Registry (Louise- Anne Harries); Aoife Burke; Colm Burke; Robert Byrne; Donie Conlan, Carnadoe; Carrick Craft (Doris McLaughlin); Carrick-on-Shannon Rowing Club (Frances Cryan, Roisin Guihan, John Lowe); Ciaran Clinton; Susie Coote; Larry De Cleir; Tommy Egan; Reggie Goodbody, Dromineer; Emerald Star (John Beirne and Frank Costelloe); European Maritime Heritage (Hendrick Boland); Vinnie Fennell; Hegarty’s Boatyard, Oldcourt, Co. Cork (Liam Hegarty); Liam Hannigan; Melanie Harkin; Heritage Boat Association (Tom Bayly, Gerry Burke, Cathy Dwane, Paul Martin, Conor Nolan); Inland Waterways Association of Ireland (Colin Becker); Irish Waterways History (Brian Goggin); Cormac Kenny; KonTiki Museum, Oslo (Reidar Solgvik); John Leech; David Lefroy and John Lefroy; librarians and members of staff at the National Folklore Centre and Athlone, Banagher, Carrick on Shannon, Killaloe, Nenagh, and Portumna libraries; Limerick Boat Club (Hanna Fitch and Brian Sheppard); Lough Neagh Heritage Boating Association (Kieran Breen, Pat Hughes); Gerard Madden; Mark Maguire; Cathy McAleavey; Robert McGrath; Meitheal Mara (members of the staff and Board); National Folklore Collection and Traditional Boats of Ireland (Criostóir Mac Cárthaigh); National Monuments Service, (Karl Brady); National Small Boat Register, UK (Capt George Hogg); Brendan Nevin; Norwegian Ship Preservation Society (Hedda Lombardo); Offaly Rowing Club (Frank Durkin); Old Gaffers Association (Tim McGuinness); Les Saunders; Cathy Hickey and Hugh Hickey at Richmond Harbour; Saint Michael’s Rowing Club (Niall Aherne and Dermot Henihan); Rob Robinson, Saint Mullins; Jonathan Shackleton; Justin Connelly, Paul Kemp, Mary Swain and Richard Swain at Shannon Harbour; Sharon Slater; The Maritime Trust (Ray Sudcliff); Traditional Boats of Ireland (Hal Sisk); Joe Treacy; Údarás na Gaelteachta; Waterways Ireland Centres (members of staff). We would like to mark the contribution of Martyn Heighten, National Historic Ships, UK who, alas, died suddenly in November, 2017. Pictorial Acknowledgements Survey photographs were provided by Darina Tully, Liam Kelly (75M) and Robert McGrath (Spero in Deo). The illustrations were commissioned from artist Dónal MacPólin. Editing Tina Neylon 1 Plaque on Broombridge Bridge, Royal Canal 2 Contents 1 Executive Summary ............................................................................................... 8 2 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 10 2.1 Team .............................................................................................................. 10 2.2 Steering Committee ....................................................................................... 10 2.3 Record sheet and database............................................................................. 11 3 Background .......................................................................................................... 12 3.1 Ireland’s Boating Heritage ............................................................................ 12 3.2 International Charters .................................................................................... 13 3.3 Policies and plans for heritage boats ............................................................. 14 3.4 What is a “Heritage Boat”? ........................................................................... 17 4 Findings................................................................................................................ 19 4.1 Overview of Surveys ..................................................................................... 19 4.2 Barges and Canal Boats................................................................................. 32 4.3 World War II Heritage Boats ........................................................................ 35 4.4 Narrow Boats and Narrowboats .................................................................... 37 4.5 Modern Wide Beam Barges .......................................................................... 39 4.6 Wooden Boats ............................................................................................... 39 4.7 Small Indigenous River and Estuary Boats ................................................... 41 4.8 Rowing Boats ................................................................................................ 44 4.9 Sailing dinghies ............................................................................................. 46 4.10 Boats of the Hire Boat Industry..................................................................... 47 4.11 Dugout Boats ................................................................................................. 50 4.12 Sunken & Wrecked Vessels of Interest ......................................................... 51 4.13 Ephemeral Heritage Boats ............................................................................. 53 4.14 Boatbuilders and Boatyards .......................................................................... 55 5 Comparison with heritage boat survey findings in Counties Clare and Galway . 57 5.1 Numbers of boats recorded ........................................................................... 57 5.2 Action on recommendations.......................................................................... 59 6 Resources – Organisations, Networks and Supports ........................................... 61 6.1 Organisations operating within the survey area ............................................ 61 6.2 Other Irish organisations of inland waterways interest ................................. 64 6.3 International and overseas organisations....................................................... 66 7 Resources - Funding ............................................................................................ 68 7.1 Overview ....................................................................................................... 68 7.2 EU funding programmes ............................................................................... 68 7.3 Heritage Boat Grant Schemes in Ireland ....................................................... 70 7.4 Heritage Boat Funding in other jurisdictions ................................................ 74 3 8 A Heritage Boat Register ..................................................................................... 76 8.1 Examples of Boat Registers in other countries ............................................. 76 8.2 UK National Register of Historic Vessels..................................................... 77 8.3 UK National Small Boat Register ................................................................. 78 8.4 Recommendations on a Heritage Boat Register ............................................ 78 9 Recommendations and Concluding Remarks ...................................................... 81 1 Appendix I – The Barcelona Charter ................................................................... 87 2 Appendix II - Data Extracts 2016 ........................................................................ 89 2.1 Switchboard forms ........................................................................................ 89 2.2 Edit Boat Data Form ..................................................................................... 90 2.3 View Boat Data Form ................................................................................... 91 3 Appendix III - Map Extract.................................................................................. 92 4 Appendix IV - Overview of 2016 Survey of the Grand Canal, Royal Canal and Barrow Navigation ....................................................................................................... 93 4.1 Where are the boats? ..................................................................................... 93 4.2 How are boat types distributed? .................................................................... 94 4.3 What are the Heritage Boat designations? .................................................... 95 4.4 Canal Boats and the Heritage Boat Association............................................ 97 4.5 What materials were used? ............................................................................ 98 4.6 Where were they built? ............................................................................... 100 5 Appendix V – Extract from the 2016 database records ..................................... 102 6 Appendix VI – Extract from the 2017 database records .................................... 111 7 Appendix VII – Boatbuilders ............................................................................