Go with the flow

The celebration of Ireland's inland waterways is, significantly, a popular theme in Irish poetry. From W.B. Yeats's musing on "lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore" in the Lake Isle of Innisfree, to Patrick Kavanagh's self-written epitaph: O commemorate me where there is water/ Canal water preferably, so stilly/Greeny at the heart of summer./ Brother commemorate me thus beautifully/ Where by a lock Niagarously roars.

The inland waterways can still bring out the wistful and the romantic in us. But there is another reason to pay homage to the mystical, soothing qualities of our wide and slow waterways - money.

In the five years since the reopening of the Ballyconnell Canal, as it was then known, tourism receipts have matched the initial £35 million investment. An economically disadvantaged Border region has been revitalised - butchers' shops display signs in German and boat owners from as far away as Carrybridge in Co Fermanagh have been sighted in Carrick-on-Shannon.

Now, under the Belfast Agreement, there is provision for the setting up of an all-Ireland waterways body, most likely to be located at Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh. The body would have on its agenda a joint North/ South proposal for the reopening of the Ulster Canal.

Jointly commissioned by the Irish and British governments and aided by the European-funded Interreg Programme, the proposal concluded that the canal could be reopened at a cost of £60-£68 million - small change out of an island-wide budget of at least £5 billion a year over the next six years.

The Ulster Canal is one of the last links in Ireland's waterway network. Navigation is already in place between Beleek in Co Fermanagh and Wexford/Waterford, through the Shannon and River Barrow, or Limerick on the Shannon Estuary.

The Ulster Canal is a key stretch which would make navigation possible between Limerick and Coleraine on the Lower Bann. It passes through counties Armagh, Monaghan and Fermanagh. Covering 93 km in a north-east to south-westerly direction, it emerges from Lough Neagh along a 13 km stretch of the River Blackwater to Charlemont.

From Charlemont there is a 74 km-long still-water canal with 26 locks. Of these, 19 are met rising from Charlemont to the summit level just west of Monaghan, while seven fall to the River Finn, near Wattle Bridge. From this point there is five kilometres of river navigation before it enters Upper Lough Erne, near Belturbet on the Cavan/Fermanagh border.

Towns and villages it passes through or near include Charlemont, Moy, Blackwatertown, Benburb, Milltown, Caledon, Tynan, Middletown, Monaghan, Smithborough and Clones, all of which stand to benefit from the reopening as their counterparts on the Shannon-Erne waterway have benefited from the reopening of that canal. In fact, the feasibility study into the reopening of the Ulster Canal is almost embarrassing in the amount of reasons why the canal should be reopened.

It has inter-community benefits - in terms of its cross-Border aspect, it would be a significant tourist attraction. There are heritage and economic benefits, and it would contribute to rural and regional development in a significantly disadvantaged area.

A significant tourist attraction in itself, the canal should also provide a spin-off to other tourist activities. Most of the support mechanisms are already in place on the existing navigation, which includes a new Emerald Star cruiser base at Belturbet, with access to the Republic's largest hire fleet, boat maintenance, and of course, shops, pubs and restaurants. The feasibility study comments that a number of access points along the route could be developed to cater for people with disabilities.

Approximately 60 per cent of the original Ulster Canal route is intact. The old narrow gauge locks are of particular heritage interest. One of the options envisaged by the feasibility study is to construct new locks adjacent to the older ones, so preserving the originals. The original canal bridges are typically a single-span masonry arch with an integral towpath ledge underneath. There are 56 original masonry arch bridges intact along the navigation.

The standard recommended by the study provides for a 13-metre surface water width and locks of six metres. The standard was set to allow interchange with the adjacent Lough Neagh, as well as the Shannon and Erne waterways.

Historically, the water supply to the summit of the canal was maintained by a dam at Quigh Lough, although that would not now be sufficient and water could be pumped through the canal from the River Finn and the River Blackwater in a similar procedure to that which maintains the levels of water in the Shannon-Erne link.

It is estimated that the work would take four years to complete and the operation of the pumps, locks and maintenance would cost £650,000 per year. The income in year one is expected to be at least £2 million. As well as hire boats, income may be derived from private boats, waterbuses, anglers, cyclists, walkers, special interest groups, other water sports and the provision of pump-out and washing facilities.

Construction would create 1,050 temporary jobs, 25 permanent jobs in maintenance, and 300 permanent jobs in the tourism industry in the project's final year of construction.

The project's immediate future will depend on the establishment of the North-South bodies, specifically the all-Ireland waterway authority. In this respect, today's deadline for the Northern parties in the Assembly is particularly significant. It may be worth quoting the Lake Isle of Innisfree once again: "And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow."