River boats gather for rally

A flotilla of river boats began gathering on the Grand Canal in Dublin yesterday, after Waterways Ireland hastily repaired three locks vandalised on Saturday morning.

An expected 40 boats including a number of barges, some of which were originally commercial vessels of the Grand Canal, will be in the city until May 26th for the annual Inland Waterways Dublin Rally. The event is also timed to coincide with the first World Canal Conference in Dublin Castle from May 16th to 18th.

However, plans for the rally nearly came unstuck when boats, having gathered at the 12th Lock in Lucan on Friday evening, discovered at 7 a.m. on Saturday that the key fittings on sluice gates were damaged on a number of locks. Graffiti had also been painted on some lock gates. However, personnel from Waterways Ireland restored the locks to working order within a few hours, and the flotilla was able to proceed.

One of the first to arrive was Mr John Joly and his family on his boat Glare of Light. Mr Joly joined Mr Paddy Hatton on Mr Hatton's boat Ferag and provided a diversion for strollers on the canal bank as they lowered the boat through locks at Portobello, Leeson Street Bridge and Mespil Road.

At Portobello a jazz band was set up on the "party barge", a floating restaurant which plies its trade along the canal, and many boaters sat out on their decks sipping glasses of wine, much to the envy of Dubliners out for a walk in the afternoon sunshine.

Mr Sean Murphy and his wife, Marie, had travelled up from Portumna in east Galway on their boat, Rayian. A former Dublin City fire-fighter, Mr Murphy paid tribute to the Waterways staff who, he said, "did two weeks' work on the lock gates in two hours".

During the week the boaters are hoping to organise a parade on the Liffey, and many of them will be travelling to Belfast when the canals conference transfers there on Thursday. Co-hosts of the conference are the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, and the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure in Northern Ireland.

In Northern Ireland delegates will be welcomed by the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure, Mr McGimpsey.