Extensions of the Shannon navigation to Boyle in Co Roscommon and Ballinasloe in Co Galway will open this month, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, announced yesterday. The new Boyle Canal, developed over the past two years, opens tomorrow. Access to Ballinasloe via the River Suck opens a week later.
Addressing the opening session of the World Canals Conference in Dublin Castle, Ms de Valera outlined progress on the reopening of the Royal Canal between Abbeyshrule in Co Longford and the Shannon; the Ulster Canal between Lough Erne and Lough Neagh, traversing Fermanagh, Monaghan and Armagh; and improved navigable access to Limerick city. She also acknowledged the "outstanding restoration" of another cross-Border canal, the Shannon-Erne Waterway.
More than 200 delegates, about 125 of them from North America, are attending the conference.