AN IRISHMAN'S DIARY

APOCRYPHAL, some said. Not so, others cried. Now, thanks to the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland, (IWAI) the true story can be told.

The date was February 12th, 1928. The place was the lower saloon of a number 3 tram as it crossed Dublin's Victoria Bridge. Bound for Sandymount, passengers were looking out on to Ringsend's Grand Canal Basin when ... smash, bang, shrieks, confusion Glass flew in all directions. A bow sprit had broken through the tram window. Miraculously, no one was hurt.

A bowsprit? Why not! The craft was the Cymric, an Arklow schooner, one of many which used to frequent the basin's docks. Waiting to pass under Victoria Bridge to the inner dock, it was blown forward by a sudden gust of wind just as the traffic passed. Some 16 years later, when the tram passengers were still cracking jokes about their bizarre escape, the Cymric was lost at sea. It was either mined, torpedoed or, sunk by a second World War aircraft. The vessel and crew of 11 were never found.

Stuff of History

Such is the stuff of history associated with Dublin's "for gotten pond" the Grand Canal Basin, which celebrates its 200th birthday this year. Indeed, when the "birth" was celebrated, the party invitations issued by the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland sought 150 "ladies of the first consideration to be selected according to their rank". A sum of 150 guineas was earmarked and the Lord Lieutenant and his spouse, the Countess of Camden, sailed into the "bason (sic)" on board the Dorset yacht, according to a recently published history of the docks compiled by the Dublin branch of the IWAI.

Latterly one of the city's best kept secrets, the Ringsend Basin was built on 24 acres in the 1790s by the Grand Canal Company. The aim was to link the canal terminus at James's Street Harbour with the River Liffey and accommodate about 150 seagoing vessels. The great mound of soil unearthed at the Dodder mouth became a refuge for the homeless during the Famine years and earned the nickname "Misery Hill".

Three locks at the entrance were named after lord lieutenants Camden, Buckingham and Westmoreland. The celebrated French traveller, Jacques Louis de Bourgrenet, Chevalier de Latocnaye, witnessed the initiation. The Viceroy was rowed from one end of the dock to the other in an "elegant barge", he wrote.

"In all countries, the populace is easily electrified by the sentiment of public joy, especially when there is reasonable motive for it", de Latocnaye added, noting that the enthusiasm of the crowd was such that he found himself just a mite too close to the water's edge.

The basin was to have a colourful history. Visiting ships included convict transporters, which were required to give "special notice" to the officer in charge in case offenders' might escape. In the 1820s, an average 300 ships a week berthed, but the "docks" were never really viable, according to the commemorative history edited by Ruth Delany. Dry dock facilities and ship and barge construction helped to pay the bills, but in 1918 the large dry dock was filled in and the land was leased to Heiton's as a coal yard.

Feast of Coconuts

In February, 1883, the Grand Canal Company agreed to a police request to drain the docks for a search of weapons, "allegedly dumped by the Fenians'. In May of the same year, the history says, a ship arrived from Trinidad bearing a cargo of sugar and coconuts. "It was reported that a mob of 200 to 500 attempted to storm the vessel and stole some 4,900 coconuts, despite the efforts of the captain and crew and police reinforcements."

It was in the 1950s and 1960s that the basin became a backwater, when commercial traffic on the canal ceased. The dockmaster, Mr George Brierly, who tends the granite quays and locks inscribed with the date "1796", has witnessed that decline. He has also participated in the current revival, including the automated Buckingham Lock. Now yachts, wind surfers, cruisers and old craft like the Aran island ferry, Naomh Eanna, and the Ballycotton lifeboat, Mary Standford, have taken over the berths, and the basin is a focus for the ship wright and sea craft skills of the Ringsend, Irishtown and East Wall communities.

During the recent bicentenary celebrations, the US Ambassador to Ireland, Mrs Jean Kennedy Smith, poured champagne over a replica of the 38 foot Bantry long boat, built by the Ringsend Community Training Workshop. It is designed to participate in the Atlantic Challenge international long boat competitions in Bantry this summer, which Ireland won last, time, round. As this State already has one entry, the Ringsend craft intends to fly the flag of the United Nations. The predominantly Irish "UN" crew", is said to have press ganged a Croatian and two Poles. "Flag poles", someone quipped at the launching if the long boat.

Surrounded now by new apartments with security coded, entrances and high steel gates there are worries about the local community's stake in the water way. The basin is largely the responsibility of the Office of Public Works, but it is thanks to the voluntary Irish Nautical Trust, its "subset", Ship watch, the Surf dock sailing school and, members of the Ringsend community that it hums so happily today.

The Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Mr Higgins, who published a corridor study of the Grand Canal in July, 1994, set up a task force chaired by Mr Pat Magner, a Labour senator, in January, 1995. Part of the plan includes a marina for Ringsend.

Partners Sought

Active private partners are being sought, but the emphasis will be on working with the indigenous community, Senator Magner says. Much also depends on the findings of another task force that established by the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, for the 1,300 acre dock lands.

Then there's the interest expressed by Dublin Corporation. "There are three or four different plans, but no firm decisions as yet", Senator Magner comments. "Any change must take place in a coherent fashion."

Senator Magner regards the basin as something of a "leisure treasure", but says he does not envisage a development with manicured locks, gleaming bollards and expensive waterside cafes. "The basin is unique, a key to our inland waterway system. But it has a skill base, there's a living community there. It has to be involved."

"Nothing is set in stone", Senator Magner says. As the property developers close in on Ringsend, he can be sure he'll be held to that.

A Short History of the Grand

Canal Docks 1796-1996, edited by Ruth Delany and published by the IWAI Dublin branch (Pounds 4.95), is available from the Waterways Visitors' Centre, Grand Canal Quay, Ringsend.