Did you know that the legendary Queen Maebh's habit of skinny-dipping killed her? It appears that a Leinsterman killed her with a slingshot when he saw her swimming in the nude off Quaker Island in Lough Ree.
Queen Maebh used to control the whole of Ireland by keeping a large fleet of boats on the Shannon from which she could subdue her enemies.
A fleet to match that of the great Warrior Queen is being assembled this weekend for the Millennium Shannon Boat Rally, which begins tomorrow.
It will run for a week, concentrating on the upper part of the Shannon, and the climax will be a union with the annual Lough Derg Rally in Athlone over the Bank Holiday weekend.
According to Sean Fitzsimons, the owner of Sean's Bar in Athlone, up to 400 boats and crews are expected in the town for the event.
"We are expecting upwards on 200 boats for our own rally, which will begin up at Carrick-on-Shannon on Friday [tomorrow] night," he said.
"Then in the following week there will be at least 150 more boats coming up from the Derg and they will all be here for the Bank Holiday weekend." He said the gathering of the boats will be a fitting tribute to the people who founded the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland (IWAI) in Athlone in 1954.
He explained that the organisation was founded by the late Col Harry Rice with a number of friends when they discovered that many of the bridges crossing the Shannon were being replaced by bailey bridges, which could not facilitate yachts.
"He and friends from here and all over the country, like Dr Sean Delaney, decided to do something about it and began to exercise their right in law to have the bridges opened to water traffic," he said.
On one occasion, he said, it took the authorities four days to open the swing bridge at Johnstown, Co Leitrim, so the yachts could pass.
Once established, he said, the IWAI went on to achieve virtually all its objectives. "They were responsible for having the Grand Canal and the Barrow Navigation system opened and they turned their attention to getting the Shannon and Erne linked. That has happened too," Mr Fitzsimons said.
"They also refused to believe the Royal canal should be let die and we now see there is a tremendous amount of work being done on it," he said.
He said the canal link to Lecarrow had been reopened and now there was a plan to build a new canal from Lough Ree, along an existing river, into Glasson.
"A lot of us when we are enjoying the next fortnight will not forget the great work they have done down the years and fortunately some of the original people who founded the movement will be with us," he said.
According to Mr Timmy Donovan, the Shannon rally will visit Cootehall on Saturday 29th, Drumsna on Sunday 30th, Rooskey on Monday, Lanesboro on Tuesday , Portrunny on Wednesday, Nun's Island on Thursday and return to Athlone on Saturday August 5th to join with the Lough Derg boats.
The programme of entertainment for the weekend will include a barbecue on Saturday August 5th, cruising on the Sunday with a dinner dance in the Prince of Wales on Sunday night.
On Monday August 7th there will be a cheese and wine reception and a celebration at Sean's Bar followed by evening entertainment in the Prince of Wales Hotel.
"Throughout the week there will be events at every stopover point including a children's art competition, and a book swap from which the proceeds will go to the RNLI," he said.