The Grand Canal of Ireland
- The Grand Canal of Ireland
- Inland Waterways Histories series
- In Ireland, as on the Continent of Europe, the early canals were Government financed, begun as part of a great effort at economic development. In this they differed from those of Great Britain, which were built by private companies to enable what had already developed to expand.
- Irish canals were indeed planned on an ambitious scale, and construction started before an comparable building took place in Britain. The Grand Canal from Dublin to the Shannon, 80 miles long, was begun in 1756, a year after the Sankey Brook Navigation act, but three years before the Duke of Bridgwater commenced his famous waterway. Many vicissitudes followed before, with William Jessop as consulting engineer, the main line finished in 1805. It had cost the state and the shareholders who had taken it over well above a million
- The Grand was the premier canal of Ireland, a line of extraordinary interest. With a magnificent main line and branches to Ballinasloe, the Barrow Navigation and elsewhere, it provided a main artery of trade and means of development. Along it, too, ran the passenger craft described by Trollope, Lever and other travellers, and besides it stood a unique chain of company built hotels. Now (its trade ended with the last Guiness boat in 1960) it finds new life in its growing fleet of pleasure cruisers.
- Mrs Delany, with her husband, wrote the classic 'The Canals of the South of Ireland' for 'The Canals of British Isles' series. The Grand Canal of Ireland uses much new material to give, in text, pictures and maps, an incomparable picture of a great canal over two and a quarter centuries.
- 255 pages, 1969, Case bound, 5½" x 8¾"
- David & Charles Publications
- ISBN-10 071535972x
- ISBN-13 9780715359723
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Canals & Waterways
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