NEW Season 3, Waterways through Time with historian, Turtle Bunbury

In the NEW SEASON 3 of Waterways through Time, historian Turtle Bunbury further explores the rich history of Ireland’s waterways. With an instinct for quirky details, Turtle turns his attention to the creation of the Grand Canal and the Royal Canal, and how they affected the evolution of the Shannon and Barrow River systems. Full of fascinating and lesser-known facts, this Season includes interviews with Gwen Wilkinson, who named her homemade boat ‘Minnot’ before setting out on her 400 km journey; Patsy Cummins, retired lockkeeper of the Grand Canal’s 29th lock; Joe Gillespie on the rebuilding of the Shannon-Erne Waterway and County Fermanagh storyteller Seamas McAnnaidh, bringing insights to writers and their influences on the water.

NEW Episode 8, Season 3, The Navvys 07/18/2024

NEW Episode 8, Season 3, The Navvys Turtle is joined by Ultan Cowley who shares his insights into the daily lives, motivations and semi-mythological reputations of the Irish navvies who built the canals, and how their successors built Britain’s railways, motorways and the Channel Tunnel. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/32202712

NEW Episode 7, Season 3, The Royal Canal 07/11/2024

NEW Episode 7, Season 3, The Royal Canal Started on the eve of the French Revolution, the Royal Canal is Ireland’s longest manmade waterway running for 145 km (90 miles) from Dublin to the River Shannon. Here Turtle tells the colourful story of its founders Long John Binns and William Cope, and looks at why it took almost 30 years to finish the project. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/32096967

NEW Episode 6, Season 3: 30 Year Anniversary of the Shannon-Erne Waterway/ 07/04/2024

NEW Episode 6, Season 3: 30 Year Anniversary of the Shannon-Erne Waterway/ It is now 30 yrs since the completion of the Shannon-Erne waterway, linking the Shannon and Erne river systems. It was a pioneering project in many ways, not least as one of the first major collaborative efforts between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Turtle talks with renowned engineer Joe Gillespie, the main OPW representative on the project, for a reflection on how the transformational waterway came about. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/32017132

NEW Episode 5, Season 3: Writers on the Erne 06/27/2024

NEW Episode 5, Season 3: Writers on the Erne Irish language novelist and historian Séamas Mac Annaidh discusses his childhood on the island of Enniskillen, as well as the monks who compiled the Annals of Ulster on Belle Isle, the school where Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett studied, and a poem about American GIs playing baseball amid the ruins of Devinish Island. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/31920132

NEW Episode 2, S3 Genesis 06/20/2024

NEW Episode 2, S3 Genesis Featuring cameos by James Joyce’s canal-building forbear and Black Tom Wentworth, we learn how the desire to drain and improve Ireland’s boglands led the industrious Georgians to slowly (very slowly) construct some of the island’s earliest canals and waterways. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/31620522

NEW Episode 4, S3, The Grand Canal 06/20/2024

NEW Episode 4, S3, The Grand Canal Turtle charts the twists and turns of the long-running project to connect Dublin to the River Shannon. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/31828332

NEW Episode 3, S3 THE 29th LOCK 06/18/2024

NEW Episode 3, S3 THE 29th LOCK Patsy Cummins is the third generation of her family to work on the Grand Canal. Having been keeper of the 29th lock near Tullamore, she talks of the friendships she made along the way and explains how a tragedy at Shannon Bridge brought her family east to Ballycowan. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/31737952

NEW: Episode 1, S3: Paddling the Waterways’ 05/30/2024

NEW: Episode 1, S3: Paddling the Waterways’ Dive into this gorgeous interview with Gwen Wilkinson, who named her homemade boat ‘Minnot’ before setting out on her 400 km journey from the shores of Lough Erne to the tidal waters of the River Barrow in Ireland. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/31384712

Hidden Treasures of the Waterways 05/12/2023

Hidden Treasures of the Waterways Turtle talks with marine archaeologist, Dr Connie Kelleher, about the exciting revelations of underwater archaeology on Irish waterways from Neolithic logboats to battle debris to the treasures of the modern age. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/26821131

Boating on the Barrow 05/12/2023

Boating on the Barrow Boating guru Cliff Reid of www.boatrips.ie discusses the glorious historical, geographical and natural elements of the River Barrow, the second-longest river in Ireland. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/26821092

The Maguires, Kings of Fermanagh 04/18/2023

The Maguires, Kings of Fermanagh The Maguires, Kings of Fermanagh, were once among the most prominent dynasties in the north-west of Ireland. At their peak, their fleet of white sail boats gave them complete dominance of the waterways in and around Lough Erne, where they built the first castle at Enniskillen. This is the story of their rise and all. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/26574534

The Voyage from St. James’s Gate 04/18/2023

The Voyage from St. James’s Gate Turtle talks with historian, Cathy Scuffil about one of the most iconic aspects of the Canal Age – the sight of barges laden with Guinness barrels voyaging through the Irish countryside. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/26574522

The Normans 04/18/2023

The Normans This episode tells the tale of the Anglo-Norman invasion through the men who built the castles of at Athlone, the Rinndown peninsula, and McDermott’s Castle on Lough Key, as well as along the Barrow, featuring a cast of warrior-bishops, Flemish wool traders and Knights Templar who dominated the waterways. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/26574510

Turlough O’Connor, King of the Water 04/18/2023

Turlough O’Connor, King of the Water The extraordinary story of the O’Connor king who ruled Ireland for 35 years, during which time his extensive fleet took control of the Shannon and the Erne, built bridges and castles along the waters, and reshaped a large stretch of the Shannon region to build a new border against his enemies to the south and east. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/26574498

45 M 04/18/2023

45 M Susie Coote, owner of the 45M barge, tells the story of the boat that sank on Lough Derg in 1946 with the loss of 3 of their crew, and how it was raised in 1975 by the late Donnacha Kennedy and purchased by her late father David Coote. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/26574486

The Vikings 04/18/2023

The Vikings The golden age for Christianity in Ireland comes to an end as Vikings arrive on Irish shores and nudge their longships up the rivers to plunder the Irish interior. This episode charts the impact of the Vikings on the Shannon, the Erne, the Barrow and the Bann, with a focus on the warlord Turgesius, who ruled over Lough Ree, and the rise of High King Brian Boru. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/26574477

8: The Grand Canal Interview 02/06/2022

8: The Grand Canal Interview A potted history of the Grand Canal and the Barrow Navigation, as told by Alan Lindley, whose family have been on the locks at Rahan, County Offaly, since the canal was constructed in the 1790s. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/30132658

7: The Shannon Interview 02/06/2022

7: The Shannon Interview One of Ireland’s three lady lockkeepers discusses her unusual experiences on the Shannon, where she looks after the Albert Lock in County Roscommon, with some background on the area that she patrols and manages. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/30132663

6: The Barrow Interview 02/06/2022

6: The Barrow Interview The life of a lockkeeper on the Barrow Navigation as told by John O’Neill of Slyguff, County Carlow, who recalls the life of his late aunt Maggie Gorman, and how his father used to row across the river to work. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/30132668

5: Spiritual Waters pt 2 02/06/2022

5: Spiritual Waters pt 2 Homing in on some of the 51 island monasteries on Ireland’s inland waterways, such as Lough Erne, Lough Key and Lough Ree, and telling the story of the hermits and anchorites who lived in such places. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/30132678

4: Spiritual Waters pt 1 02/06/2022

4: Spiritual Waters pt 1 Tracking the early Christian settlement along the River Barrow, and the birth of the famous monastic schools along the Shannon and the Boyne at Clonmacnois, Clonfert and Clonard, as well as others on Lough Ree and Lough Derg. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/30132683

3: Of Glaciers and Crannógs 02/06/2022

3: Of Glaciers and Crannógs A look at the geological origins of Ireland’s rivers and lakes, and the land through which the canals were cut, as well as the archaeological legacy of the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age periods which gave rise to burial tombs, log-boats and crannogs along such waterways as the Shannon, the Barrow and the Erne. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/30132688

2: Goddesses of the Water 02/06/2022

2: Goddesses of the Water Nearly every Irish river and lough is named for a deity from the annals of Celtic mythology. Most are goddesses of the Tuatha de Danaan, while others involve the likes of Finn MacCool, the Fir Bolg and the Children of Lir. Turtle tracks the origin of each name and provides a colourful retelling of the associated legends. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/30132693

1: The Flow of Time. 02/06/2022

1: The Flow of Time. An overview of what the series is about, including an introduction to the various rivers, lakes, and waterways, including the conception of the canal network in Georgian Ireland. /episode/index/show/663ba4ab-c58d-44e5-8c73-d7d9d92c9d05/id/30132698

NEW Season 3, Waterways through Time with historian, Turtle Bunbury

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