Forgotten Road

FORGOTTEN ROAD - Dick and the crew of Rambler are now well on their way to reaching the Shannon. At this stage in the journey their relationship with time has completely changed. They’ve adjusted to a much slower pace of life, a pace persisting from some earlier century. They reach Ballynacargy and Dick disembarks to wander around the neatly landscaped and well-maintained harbour. At the local ICA Country Market, Dick meets local food producer John Rogan. John gives him some of his delicious smoked bacon to sample and talks to him about how the banning of eel fishing almost shut his business down, hence he has diversified into smoking meats. At the wonderfully restored 36th Lock House, Dick meets owner and pet sitter June McNulty. She regularly walks her Alaskan malamute dog along the towpath and she talks to Dick about the peace and serenity she and her husband enjoy, living on the banks of the canal. The scenery Rambler passes through now is a flat green blanket patterned with wild-flowers – not dramatic just very pleasant. Michael Kenny from the Irish Peatland Conservation Council talks to Dick about frogs and newts, the ancient native amphibians living in the reeds along the canal. The canal approaches the Shannon near Ballymahon and then veers off to the north. The original engineers thought that if they took the short cut into Lough Ree they would be too close to competition from the Grand Canal and too far from the Arigna coal mines, which they hoped would provide profitable cargo. Rambler travels on into the valley of the River Inny, a major Shannon tributary. And in torrential rain, she gracefully crosses the Inny Aqueduct. The whole essence of canal travel is that it uses the power of water to break the shackles imposed by the laws of gravity so that it takes a very small effort to move a great weight. What one horse used to pull now fills two articulated lorries. The crew tie Rambler up at the peaceful harbour in Abbeyshrule for the nig