Donal Boland, heritage boat owner and chairman of the Heritage Boat Association of Ireland, lives in harmony with nature. A self-employed underwater archaeologist, he lives on his barge near Portumna, Co Galway, during the winter and travels around the inland waterways of Ireland in the brighter months.
He attended the Jamestown Heritage Festival in Co Leitrim earlier this summer where more than 30 heritage boat owners gathered to celebrate the art and craft of maintaining heritage barges and the strong sense of community that lies therein.
Life off-grid
“A lot of us are off-grid, with solar panels and generators to supplement power in the winter months,” said Boland, whose latest project has been to renovate a bomb scow, a flat-bottomed barge which carried bombs under the wings of seaplanes during the second World War.
He is proud of having given new life to another heritage boat which might have otherwise been left sunken underwater or taken apart for scrap materials. His other larger houseboat, a so-called Humber keel Sheffield class barge whose original job was to carry steel up the rivers of Sheffield, is currently moored near Portumna.
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“I wouldn’t live anywhere else,” said Boland. “I have a house but I can’t live in it. Living on a boat is very natural. There is great peace of mind and ease to it.”
Boland, who is chairman of the Heritage Boat Association of Ireland, goes to bed with the light and wakes with the light, taking the weather as it comes; there is great peace of mind and ease to such a lifestyle, he believes.
“No weather freaks us out. This past winter has been long, cold and wet and now it’s like summer has come early. We have a calendar that equates to the seasons and if the weather doesn’t follow the calendar, people get confused. But if you live close to nature, you just interact with it.”
Travelling on the inland waterways attracts all sorts of people and can be very relaxing for those in highly stressed jobs, he said: “You fit in with nature. It doesn’t mean that you fit in with everyone else. You can be looked on as an oddity, out of step with a lot of people. But you are in step with nature.”
Members of the Heritage Boat Association have saved and given new use to about 100 former cargo barges from England, Ireland, the Netherlands and beyond. Guinness barges, originally used to transport wooden barrels of beer between the brewery and Dublin Port and throughout Ireland on the canals, have been popular for conversion to house boats. In fact, it was the owner of a Guinness barge who started the Jamestown Heritage Festival, which has taken place every six years since 2006.
Shared expertise and DIY skills essential
“People put time, energy, and money into maintaining this floating heritage. There is a responsibility to it because there aren’t any grants. We become the custodians of these diesel-engine barges for future generations – but you couldn’t maintain these boats without being a DIY type of person,” said Boland.
The shared expertise of members of the Heritage Boat Association also means that other houseboat owners pitch in with their knowledge and practical support when needed.
Chatting to heritage boat owners is relaxing in itself. You quickly realise the attraction to this hobby is the slow and respectful pace of life that travelling on the inland waterways engenders in those who enjoy it. There is a respect for the shared love of slow travel along the rivers and canals of Ireland, a respect for the dedication and determination it takes to look after these repurposed industrial barges and a respect for the camaraderie between people of all ages and diverse backgrounds along these lesser-travelled routes.
During my visit to the Jamestown Heritage Festival, Jimmy and Linda MacFarlane showed off their stylishly renovated Dutch barge, the Paradijs Vogel (Bird of Paradise). The family bought it 20 years ago and have spent their summers cruising along the rivers and canals of Ireland ever since.
“It was a sailing barge originally and it carried turf, bricks, sand and manure on the Dutch canals,” Jimmy explained.
He said he had learned so much from the community over the years: “You need good friends. If somebody has a problem, you’ll have half a dozen fellas looking down into a hole, offering advice. I have had the experience of doing things that I didn’t have 20 years ago out of practical necessity.”
Barge owners also have to manage all their own domestic services on board, so conserving resources – and water, in particular – becomes second nature. The boats have holding tanks for wastewater which must be discharged at pump-out stations and the contents of composting toilets put on designated compost heaps. They also must find a spot to moor their boat when not in use and can pay fees of about €2,000 a year for a place in a marina along the Shannon.
The Paradijs Vogel sprang a leak and sank in 2018, after which it had to be gutted, repaired and entirely refurbished. Stepping down into the barge, Jimmy showed me around the smartly kitted out kitchen-cum diningroom, two cabins with double beds and a shower/toilet. Sharing spaces with family and friends at such close quarters requires a certain amount of discretion but the rewards seem to outdo the inconvenience.
“It’s great character building,” said Jimmy. “The children find themselves interacting with people of all ages. They learn to be responsible and respectful of themselves and others.”
Linda MacFarlane told me she used to come to the lakes of Leitrim as a child and took to spending holidays on a barge immediately. “We spend all our summer holidays meeting up with friends we have made,” she said. “Our children grew up together and now they are back with us and have a love of it.”
In the evenings at the festival, musical sessions often erupt spontaneously when barges gather together at events where old friends meet up and new acquaintances are made.
Back on the quayside was Aoife Burke, who bought her heritage barge almost 10 years ago and is still restoring it.
“I feel that I was genetically engineered into needing to own a barge. My parents got one when I was two and I travelled with them on it during the summers. Now, my friends love coming out with me on it,” she said.
Tom Doheny has had five boats in the past 20 years or so, he said: “I like the water. I have a house in Tullamore, 100 metres from the harbour, although I lived on a barge for six years. I worked in London as a catering manager on the river Thames and that gave me a liking for the water. I have two granddaughters now and they love coming out with me.”
While extolling the joys of spending time on the inland waterways, the heritage boat owners were also keep to stress how the locks need to be kept in good order and greater access provided for those who need to bring their boats to dry docks for maintenance.
“I’d like to see more facilities for people to maintain their boats and more frequent access to dry docks when it is needed,” said Jimmy MacFarlane.
Heritage boats on the Irish inland waterways
The Heritage Boat Association defines a heritage boat as a boat over 25 years old which is of significance because of its intrinsic construction or because of its association with the commercial, cultural, economic, industrial, military, political or social history of its country of origin.
These boats, which have since been converted to leisure barges or houseboats, started their life as Dutch motor or sailing barges, steam boats, horse-drawn boats or barges carrying barrels of Guinness along the Grand Canal.
The Heritage Boat Association plans to run a trip to promote the Grand Canal during National Heritage Week 2024. A fleet of vessels will start their journey from the military barracks in Clonony, Co Offaly, and travel slowly to Tullamore, Co Offaly, stopping off at Belmont, Ferbane, Pollagh and Raghan along the route. For further details visit heritageboatassociation.ie