The Shannon, Vicki May & Recent Quietness

Yes, I’ve been very quiet for the last week.  Busy at work, Labour Party meetings most evenings and away on the Shannon for the weekend.  I’m back now.

I spent Saturday and Sunday on the Shannon moving my Dad’s boat, Vicki May, from Shannon Harbour (on the Grand Canal) through Shannonbridge back to base in Glassan, Co Westmeath, where she’ll stay for the winter.

Vicki May (photo: HBA)

Vicki May is a 1930s Broads Moors cruiser.  She’s one of not very many wooden hulled boats left on the Shannon.  You’ll generally find her with the barges of the Heritage Boat Association, travelling the full network of navigable inland waterways.

Vicki May (photo: HBA)

Shannonbridge has one of the last remaining old-fashioned ‘pub-and-grocer’s-store-in-one‘ pubs left in the country, Killeen’s.  The ceiling is covered with the business cards of tourists dating back years and years. And they stock absolutely everything.  Once things get busy in the evening, the pub overflows into the grocer’s store, and you have people sitting up at the shop counter drinking pints.  Brilliant.