Community involvement key to Athlone canal restoration

There was a large turnout for Monday night's meeting on the restoration of the canal at the Prince of Wales Hotel. Such was the attendance that extra seating had to be added as people turned out to hear what was planned for the waterway on the town's westside. Organised by Cllr Aengus O'Rourke, the meeting heard from Dave McCabe of Inland Waterways, Tom McLoughlin of the Boyne canal restoration group, Gearóid O'Brien, who gave a history of the canal and botanist and environmentalist Éanna Ní Lamhna, who spoke about the environmental benefits of restoring the canal. Opening the meeting Cllr Aengus O'Rourke said the project must be a community one and could not be done by a committee of five or six people. He said the benefits of restoring the canal included generating tourism; safeguarding and conserving our heritage; enhancing the canal's green corridor and wildlife; restoring the waterway for local recreation; stimulating canal-side regeneration; stimulating inward investment; increasing the property value in the locality; generating jobs and economic activity; encouraging active lifestyles and creating pride in our local area. "The community can take ownership and when they take ownership they will work harder to maintain it," he said. He said the canal was just over two kilometres in length, making it a baby in terms of canals, pointing out that the Shannon-Erne is 65km in length and the Boyne is 20km in length and both have undergone renewal schemes in recent years. Cllr O'Rourke said work would be broken into four sections. The first is the Talbot Avenue section, which he said is the best maintained part of the canal at present, but added there are opportunities to introduce high quality jetties and moorings that would open up a lot of potential benefits for the area. He said Waterways Ireland would be the key to making this work as this body is responsible for all navigable parts of the river. Phase two would see work carried out on the section from the Galway Road Bridge the Battery Bridge. He said the key players in this phase were Athlone Town Council and Westmeath County Council. He said phase three, stretching from Battery Bridge to Mick McQuaid's Bridge, presented its own challenge in that 25 yards of this stretch are filled in and the area currently holds a playground. "I'm not talking about doing away with the playground, but we could have a waterside play area," he told the crowd. The final section, running from Mick McQuaid's Bridge to the river, is the bit that looks most like a canal, he said, but added that it needs to be dredged and some work could be done on landscaping. He added that this part could also be navigable. Cllr O'Rourke said the community would need the support of a number of agencies to make this project viable but added: "To invest in this canal in such a fashion would be to invest in the town and in so many generations ahead to allow them to enjoy it." Next to speak was Dave McCabe, chairman of the local branch of Inland Waterways, who said the key to restoring the canal had to be community participation. "It doesn't mean you'll all be asked to get a bucket and spade, but to show your enthusiasm for the project. When you look for funding they look to see if people are interested, to ensure that it'll be maintained," he explained. Mr McCabe said community involvement and enthusiasm was what it was all about and said public representatives and funding bodies needed to see 'buy in' from the local community. Tommy McLoughlin of the Boyne Restoration Canal Group said these projects didn't happen overnight and you had to be in it for the long haul. He said one of the key things for such projects was health and safety. Gearóid O'Brien was next to speak, outlining the history of the canal, explaining that the first mention of a canal in Athlone was in 1757 and 325 were employed to cut out the canal through a labour scheme to employ the poor. It cost £30,000 to cut out the canal. Mr O'Brien explained that there are now five bridges on the one and a half mile stretch of canal, but at first there was only one bridge - the Battery Bridge. He said there was also a harbour, a guard lock and a lay-by at Talbot Avenue. He added that people leaving Athlone during the Famine era probably left from the harbour on Magazine Road. Mr O'Brien explained that by 1849 the canal was obsolete. "Hopefully we'll be able to talk about the history of the canal as an amenity for the next 200 years," he said. Speaking after the meeting Cllr O'Rourke said: "We need to move this from being a proposal to a detailed professional plan with specific objectives, targets and timelines," he said. "Our ultimate aim is to develop the canal into a high quality liner public recreational facility. The canal will become a key natural piece of recreational infrastructure in this town and it will be there for many generations to enjoy in the years ahead. This work will have a very positive impact on the westside of Athlone."