The Rinn River Rally Sun Jun 3rd 2007

On Sunday June 3rd, 2007, the Carrick branch of the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland held their annual rally on the Rinn River in conjunction with the Rinn River Waterway Development Committee. Under Commodore Margaret Murphy’s stewardship, forty intrepid travellers made their way from Lough Forbes in Longford down the meandering Rinn River through the beautiful Leitrim countryside and on to Lough Rinn where a reception was held in the Lough Rynn Castle Hotel to welcome them.

The Chairman of the Rinn River Development Committee Ronan Gallagher and Secretary Mick Kane along with other members of the committee welcomed the rally as they touched land again at the beautiful Walled Gardens on the shore of Lough Rinn at 1pm where a few glasses of Champagne were consumed before the entire party made there way to the Lough Rynn Castle Hotel for some well earned food and refreshments kindly sponsored by Bertie Hanly, owner of the hotel.

Ronan Gallagher welcomed the group and thanked them for their unwavering support for the opening of the Rinn River from Lough Forbes to Mohill. He said that the Rinn River Development Committee’s objective was to have this beautiful stretch of water opened up to connect Mohill and the surrounding area with the Shannon.

He described this as a crucial tourism infrastructure project which, if completed would be of major benefit to the people and business of the surrounding areas of Longford and Leitrim. He reminded people that he himself had undertaken a similar boat journey in 1991 when the ‘Erne Shannon’ canoe rally was organised to highlight the need to redevelop that stretch of water. Four years later in 1994 he travelled the same waterway except this time on an Emerald Star cruiser on a completely redeveloped and restored canal that has since completely transformed the area and been a major boost to the local economy.

Mick Kane presented Commodore Margaret Murphy and her members with a beautiful bronze statuette of a Curragh and thanking the IWAI for their support, said that it was important for all interested parties to co-operate and organise themselves to see this project through. He said that he hoped to have sight of a pre-feasibility study being carried out by Brady Shipman Consultants very soon, but early indications were very encouraging as to the viability and economies of the project. He thanked Bertie Hanly of the Hanly Group for their support for the project and for their very generous sponsorship of the reception. He also thanked Gary Mitten new owner of the Rinn River Marina and Mary Reynolds Publican, Johnston’s Bridge, for their support and sponsorship.

Commodore Margaret Murphy thanked her fellow rally members for making the trip with her. She described the scenery along the river as breathtaking and said that the opening of the Rinn River would make a wonderful addition to an already expanding waterways network. She reminded everyone that waterways tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors in Europe and history has proven that the opening up of new waterways makes good sense for local economies. She also thanked The Rinn River Waterways Development Committee members for their gift and for putting on such a wonderful and unexpected reception in such beautiful surroundings and looked forward to one day soon, arriving on a cruiser on a fully developed waterway.

Ronan Gallagher
Chairman, Rinn River Waterways Development Committee