Beginning – WPhotoC

Let’s keep the Irish canal theme going for a day or so longer. Cheri’s WP challenge this week is, as she herself puts it, obvious. Yes, it is the beginning of the new year… the beginning of new adventures or just another day on the calendar. However, there is always a beginning or an end. Back to the Irish theme. Yesterday, while showing you two different statues of Irish Poets seated on benches along the two canal beginning in Dublin the beginnings of the thoughts for this post began… ok, enough.

The Grand Canal was the first to be conceived and the first to be dug. That means it’s only natural to start here… the “Sea Locks” are just visible in the right of the photo… once you’re through them you’re at the beginning of your Grand Canal journey.

A few years later those in power and those carrying sway thought it good to get the Royal going… as competition. Why have one canal from Dublin to the Shannon in the west when two ditches could be dug? This photo shows friend JT steering 4E safely beneath the now immobile lifting bridges into the Liffey… look just behind 4E and you’ll see another barge in the Royal’s “Sea Lock,” the beginning of the Royal Canal on Dublin’s Liffey…

Then a thought struck. Yes, you’ll have to agree the beginnings of the digging happened in Dublin… but, if you want to get to Dublin and you’re cruising around on the Shannon then your opinion is that the beginnings of the canals are on the Shannon… so, who am I to argue? One man’s beginning could well be another man’s end… and visa-versa. Therefore… here’s  the sign you’d see if you’re heading down the Shannon toward the Grand…

The Royal’s Shannon entrance isn’t quite as easy to spot… first you have to find the Camlin River’s entrance and then onto the lock at Richmond Harbour…  look to the left of the moored boat… you’ll see the lock gate boom… that’s the Shannon entrance to the Royal. There you have it… four separate beginnings… linking two canals to two rivers… the Liffey and the Shannon. Begin where you may!!