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There are several books about the history of the
construction and use of the Irish canals, with notable contributions by W A
McCutcheon (The Canals of the North of Ireland, David & Charles,
1965) and by Ruth Delany. Their histories, however, are in the institutional
mould. Only May Blair's Once Upon the Lagan (Blackstaff Press, 2000)
gave much attention to those who worked on the waterways.
The first step in filling that gap has now been taken by Joe
O'Reilly, Caitriona Killaly and pupils at St Mary's Secondary School and
Oaklands Community College, both in Edenderry, Co Offaly, a town at the end of
a short branch line off the Grand Canal, which runs from Dublin to the Shannon.
They have interviewed canal-boat men and lockkeepers (male and female) and have
written up their recollections in Through the Locks, a wonderful,
well-illustrated book. The focus is on the Grand Canal, its branch to Athy and
the River Barrow from there to Waterford, and the River Shannon and its lakes
on which the canal-boats ventured forth.
The interviews provide an invaluable insight into the
operations of the canal and of the boatmen. The boats originally had a crew of
four: the skipper, the greaser, often a lad who helped the skipper, the
engineman and the deckman. According to Piery Bolger of Graiguenamanagh on the
River Barrow, they worked a 96-hour week, from midnight on Sunday to midnight
on the following Saturday. He started on 36/- a week: £1.80.
The characters of the men and women shine through, as does
the love most of them had, despite the tough conditions (including many
deaths), for the canal. Many still resent the closure of the canal to
commercial traffic by the state-run railway company, CIE, which at the time
owned the canal.
But there were compensations: "You'd have a gimlet for
boring the barrel and you'd take eight pints out of two half barrels. You'd
need the eight because four wouldn't take the 'droot' off you!"
It seems that many of the canal people retired on tiny
pensions; maybe Charlie McCreevy, currently the Irish Minister for Finance,
could do something about that. His family were the first lockkeepers at the
14th Lock and, when his father died in 1954, his mother continued to mind it
until 1959, when a cousin took over. That was almost two hundred years of
service.
This book was privately produced in late 2000; the first
printing sold out in a matter of weeks. Efforts are now under way to persuade
the publishers to reprint it and to distribute it more widely. If that happens,
get it immediately: it's essential to the library of any waterways enthusiast.
The authors and the contributors deserve our thanks.
Review by Brian Goggin, first published
in Inland Waterways News, the journal of the Inland Waterways
Association of Ireland, February 2001 |
