Madam, - Charles Haughey, as Taoiseach, encouraged and promoted the restoration of the Ballinamore- Ballyconnell canal. Perhaps the present aspirant taoisigh would take an interest in a canal project in their own native territory: the completion of the canal linking Lough Corrib and Lough Mask - the Cong canal. Its original dual purpose was to drain the Lough Mask basin and to provide a navigation channel for commercial traffic.
Construction work took place from 1848 to 1858.
The prevailing impression is that the original planners and builders were so ignorant of the nature of the local limestone that they abandoned the project when it was found that the water escaped through the porous rock. This was promulgated by such scholars as Sir William Wilde and Robert Lloyd Praeger, and is constantly repeated in current publicity.
But research carried out and published by the late Maurice Semple of Galway showed this was not the case.
A report of 1846 refers to a "staunch" canal, and the estimated cost included an item for "puddling". But a report of 1855 pointed out that the spread of railways would soon render canals redundant. The cost of labour had also risen considerably, and it recommended that that work should be suspended until there was a prospect of sufficient traffic to induce local interests to complete it.
The Board of Works issued instructions in April 1854 to suspend all navigation works; only work related to drainage was to be continued.
A local submission of 1859 asserted that the canal had not been completed "through lack of funds". In 1956 an engineer reported that the canal could be made watertight and used for navigation purposes. He also raised the possibility of using the difference in levels between Loughs Mask and Corrib to generate electricity.
A visitor to Cong today need walk only a short distance to see a complete but dry and gateless cut stone lock chamber. With the present importance of tourism as a major industry and the environmental importance of reducing dependence on fossil fuels for power generation, the belated completion of this project is surely justified. Are there EU funds still available for such projects, or have we now missed that bus also? I am not an engineer but I have no doubt that someone will write in to ridicule this suggestion.
Let them. - Yours, etc.
NIALL O'CARROLL, Ballinrobe, Co Mayo.