Celebration combined with a strong sense of nostalgia greeted the weekend's reopening of the Royal Canal. As traditional barges and cruisers made the crossing from the Grand Canal to the Royal via the Liffey at Ringsend Basin, loud cheers as well as looks of surprise were on offer from watching citizens.
The Millennium Waterways Rally, organised by the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland and the Royal Canal Amenity Group, provided far more than an attractive photo opportunity for tourists with cameras at the ready. It drew long overdue attention to an astonishing feat of 18th and early 19th-century engineering. Above all it is a chapter of Irish social history.
Side by side with the passive waters of the canal is a wealth of architectural features - including magnificent masonry work - as well as the timber-and-steel lock gates which have been repaired and are overseen by the locals, and the wildlife which lives on the water and along the canal banks.
The Royal Canal begins at Spencer Dock on the north bank of the Liffey. Some of the area was in-filled in the early 1970s and resulted in the narrowing of the canal. Up the canal from the first lock at the North Strand stands Croke Park.
Almost half a century has passed since barges moved along the canal. Stalwarts of the restoration movement had to wait 46 years until they were rewarded by Saturday's events. An elderly man remembered the war years when fuel rationing brought horses out along the towpaths to pull the boats.
Despite the celebrations, however, it was difficult to ignore the absence of young people. Even more serious is dumping.
The rally had begun in Co Kildare a week earlier on the Grand Canal as boats from Rathangan and Robertstown, and others from Tullamore, Co Offaly, had begun making the slow journey through time to Dublin under a succession of beautiful stone bridges.
Once free of Baggot Street and the Lower and Upper Mount Street bridges, the scene opens into a wide view of the rundown warehouses and wharves of the Ringsend Basin where the derelict buildings are beginning to be challenged by trendy apartments.
Through the sea lock, a giant version of the canal locks, the boats pass on to the tidal waters of the Liffey.
First begun in 1790, the Royal Canal was initially perceived as a rival to the Grand, and early plans for its construction were scuppered. The Grand Canal scheme was begun in 1756.
Next year Ireland hosts the World Canal Conference.
