Anybody out there interested in the Irish canals? Just have heard relatively reliably that the Royal Canal will be completely restored by (early) 2008. This would mean that using a bit on the Shannon one could do an Ireland ring incorporating Dublin - if one has a canal boat, the Shannon cruisers would fail at the bridges. Wide beam is OK.

Just wondering how many fans there might be. Anybody using this board more interested in Irish canals I'd be happy to hear/read from them here or by way of the a.m. mail address.

Hello Chris,

Just to let you know that the Royal Canal is currently being restored on the Shannon (western) end and is tentatively scheduled for completion end of 2008. However the canal has also been closed at the Dublin end since 2004. I'm endeavouring to find out the current timetable for re-opening there (the original closure was scheduled to be less than a year). I have severe doubts that it will be opened by end 2008. I too would like to do the ring - I took our boat up the Grand Canal into Dublin earlier in the year.
I'll update our website http://dublin.iwai.ie as details emerge (I'm webmaster for my sins).
You can contact me via the IWAI website
Michael