Shannon Schemes

‘The Shannon Lake Steamers’ advertisement

Prior to the coming of the railways Athlone was not on the Irish ‘tourist tail’. The arrival of the railway in 1850 and the development of a steamer service on the Shannon helped to establish Athlone as a tourist centre. This late 19th century advertisement, taken from a booklet on the Duke of York Route, promotes both Lough Ree and Lough Derg as tourist attractions. A summer service offering fishing, wild fowl, regattas and even moonlight trips on steamers specially made for the Shannon waterways helped to put Athlone on tourist itineraries.

Copyright Westmeath Library Service

‘The Shannon Lake Steamers’ advertisement
Copyright Westmeath Library Service

‘The Shannon Lake Steamers’ advertisement

Prior to the coming of the railways Athlone was not on the Irish ‘tourist tail’. The arrival of the railway in 1850 and the development of a steamer service on the Shannon helped to establish Athlone as a tourist centre. This late 19th century advertisement, taken from a booklet on the Duke of York Route, promotes both Lough Ree and Lough Derg as tourist attractions. A summer service offering fishing, wild fowl, regattas and even moonlight trips on steamers specially made for the Shannon waterways helped to put Athlone on tourist itineraries.

Copyright Westmeath Library Service

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The provision of a through navigation on the Shannon between Limerick and Carrick-on-Shannon had been authorised as early as 1715, though work did not commence until 1755. The Limerick Navigation Company was established in 1767 and responsibility for the still uncompleted waterway changed hands several times. Passengers in 1840 numbered 18,544 while in 1847 goods traffic, at 121,000 tons, reached its peak.

The Inland Steam Navigation Company was formed in 1829 and operated services until the arrival of the MGWR and later the GSWR on the river put them out of business. Passenger services ceased in 1861 but were revived in 1897. The railways had encouraged the development of tourist traffic, and circular tours were operated in co-operation with the GSWR. The steamer services did not survive the Great War and it was forty years before the Shannon again saw a passenger vessel.



 

Cork Harbour 1840

Cork Harbour has been a place of trade and travelling for centuries. It is one of the largest natural harbours in the world, with its unusual Great Island situated in the midst of the harbour. The harbour has seen many ships come and go including the Viking tall ships, the royal navies, cruise liners including the Titanic and the Lusitania, and many more. Cork harbour became widely known as a place of refuge and refuelling in the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars of the late eighteenth centuries, and early nineteenth centuries. It was also from Cork Harbour that emigrants left for a new life in America aboard the 'coffin ships' and convicts were transported to their life of exile in Australia, in the mid nineteenth century. Cork Harbour has been an important port of the Royal Navy before Ireland's independence, making Cork a great stronghold for the British Government in Ireland. Trade with other European cities was very popular in Cork Harbour especially trade with France, and butter became a huge export from Ireland across Europe from this town.

Cork Harbour 1840

Cork Harbour 1840

Cork Harbour has been a place of trade and travelling for centuries. It is one of the largest natural harbours in the world, with its unusual Great Island situated in the midst of the harbour. The harbour has seen many ships come and go including the Viking tall ships, the royal navies, cruise liners including the Titanic and the Lusitania, and many more. Cork harbour became widely known as a place of refuge and refuelling in the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars of the late eighteenth centuries, and early nineteenth centuries. It was also from Cork Harbour that emigrants left for a new life in America aboard the 'coffin ships' and convicts were transported to their life of exile in Australia, in the mid nineteenth century. Cork Harbour has been an important port of the Royal Navy before Ireland's independence, making Cork a great stronghold for the British Government in Ireland. Trade with other European cities was very popular in Cork Harbour especially trade with France, and butter became a huge export from Ireland across Europe from this town.

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Many other waterways were utilised by passenger craft during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Cork Harbour with its riparian villages, subsequently suburbs, proved fruitful for the success of water-borne passenger transport. Minor ferry services existed in the nineteenth century on many rivers and estuaries north and south: in recent times those across the Shannon Estuary, Waterford Harbour and Strangford Lough have been developed to carry vehicles. Several offshore islands are served either regularly or intermittently by passenger ferries, that from Galway to Arainn having its origin in a regular steamer service inaugurated in 1891 by the Congested Districts Board.