Madam, - I was intrigued to read Niall O'Carroll's letter of August 3rd on the Corrib/Mask canal. Like many people, I had always assumed that the reason for abandonment was the structural limestone problem rather than plain economics due to the coming rail competition.
I was involved with the saving of the Grand Canal in the early 1960s as a committee member of the Dublin branch of the Inland Waterways Association, under the inspired leadership of the late Dr Peter Denham.
At that period, Dublin Corporation were planning to use the Dublin section of the Grand Canal as both a sewer and a roadway. Fortunately the objectors' arguments won the day.
Since then the Royal Canal has been 80 per cent restored and the Shannon/Erne link re-opened, with studies now being carried out on the Ulster Canal from Monaghan to Lough Neagh.
The Corrib/Mask is a relatively short distance, Lough Corrib is navigable except for the exit to the sea at Galway city. So I agree with your writer's sentiments and hope the sea link is restored. - Yours, etc.,
LIAM O'FLANAGAN, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath.