Ireland

The Kerry Foods dairy products site at Limerick was branded for Golden Vale Dairies when I took this photograph in 2009. The site has a long history as textile and flour mills before being bought in 1883 by Thomas Cleeve who established the Condensed Milk Company of Ireland and produced tinned condensed milk and later butter and cheese. There was also production of Cleeves Toffee for many years. The history of the Condensed Milk Company of Ireland is here .

Loading bunkers at the Platin works of Irish Cement.

At the back of the former Great Northern Railway of Ireland twelve road locomotive shed at Clones in County Monaghan. Built in 1925 it closed with then railway in 1959 and the premises were subsequently modified and used by a company that constructed tank containers. Around 2003 this business got into financial difficulties and the works has since been used for steel fabrication although that appears to have come to an end in the loco shed building. At the back of the roundhouse the steel fabrication work was extended into this corrugated lean-to structure. The pipework is for extraction from the bays that were used for paint spraying and shotblasting.

Aughinish Alumina is the largest alumina refinery in Europe and the largest of the alumina facilities operated by UC RUSAL. The current annual capacity of the refinery is in excess of 1.8 million tonnes of alumina from bauxites by the Bayer process. 70 % of the bauxite arriving to the plant originates in the Republic of Guinea (West Africa), the rest coming from Brazil. The plant’s terminal also provides facilities for exporting the alumina to smelters in Europe and Scandinavia. . To satisfy the refinery’s demand for energy, a 150 megawatt Combined Heat & Power Plant operates on the site

Moneypoint on the Clare side of the Shannon estuary is one of Ireland's largest generating stations. Commissioned in 1985, It is coal fired and produces a maximum of 915 megawatts. It consumes two million tonnes of coal per year.

Concrete batching plant and blondin system in use during the construction of the Ardnacrusha hydroelectric scheme on the Shannon. The project was run by Siemens and during construction, 5,000 men were employed, 65 miles of railway, including a line up from Limerick, were built, four major bridges were constructed and nine rivers and four streams were diverted. Postcard view c1928.

Peat fired power station of the Irish Electricity Supply Board at Shannonbridge on the River Shannon. This 150 megawatt West Offaly station is supplied with around 1 million tons of peat annually by Bord na Mona. The old station which stood adjacent was demolished in 2008/9.

The former Palais cinema in Belturbet is up for sale with permission to build a retail unit and eleven apartments on the site. I suspect that in the current economic climate it may well remain in its disused state for some time.

Another trainload of peat arriving at the Edenderry power station in County Offaly.

The Shannon hydro-electric scheme was constructed between 1925 and 1929 to harness the power of the river where it underwent a fall of nearly 35 metres in the final stages of its route to tidal waters at Limerick. The civil engineering works were undertaken by the German company Siemens-Schuckertwerke and on completion the power station at Ardnacrusha was the largest hydro-electric generating plant in the world. Initially there were three vertical shaft Francis turbine generators installed and in 1934 a single vertical shaft Kalan turbine generator was added, giving a total output of 85mw from an average head of 28.5 metres.

I have always loved to see historic boats in use on the waterways. This is the Phoenix which was built in 1872 to the design of Andrew Horn at the Neptune Iron Works, Waterford (Malcolmson Bros.) The boat was built for Francis Spaight of Derry Castle on Lough Derg, possibly as a wedding present for his son, William. For most of its life the boat has been based on the Shannon and around Killaloe in particular. The steam engine was replaced by a two-cylinder, two-stroke diesel engine, made by Ellwe of Sweden. It had a compressed-air start mechanism and developed 36ihp at 475rpm. In 1966 the Ellwe engine was replaced with a Perkins S6. Still based at Killaloe the Phoenix is seen here leaving Dromineer on Lough Derg after a regatta. More history of this vessel can be found at iwn.iwai.ie/v26i2/phoenix.html .

Edenderry Power Station is a peat fired plant producing 120mw of electricity and burning 1 million tonnes of biomass a year. This is mostly peat, supplies from nearby bogs via narrow gauge railway, but 7% of renewable biomass is burned, with plans to bring this up to 30%. In operation since 2000, it supplies around 3% of Ireland's national requirement. It is ireland's first privately owned power station and is operated by Edenderry Power Limited. In 2006 Bord na Móna paid €80m for Edenderry power station from E-On.

The 102ft fall at the Ardnacrusha hydro-electric power station on the Shannon is overcome for navigation by a two-rise staircase lock. The falls are 68ft and 34 ft. Looking up from lower chamber as the water begins to flow out the steel guillotine gate from the upper lock can be seen whilst the curved concrete wall above gives an idea of the height of the first chamber.

The building of the Shannon hydroelectric scheme in the late 1920s required navigation to be maintained down to Limerick after the Parteen Weir cut off the old route via O'Briensbridge. This was achieved by building a double staircase lock at the Ardnacrusha power station. Taken from the top level this shows the lower lock which has a fall of 34ft whilst the top lock has a fall of 68ft. This is the deepest lock in Britain and Ireland.

Platin Cement Works two miles south-west of Drogheda was developed on a site where cement had been manufactured since 1938. In 1972 a single kiln with an annual capacity of 400,000 tonnes was completed and this was increased to 1.4 million tonnes when a second much larger kiln which was completed in 1977. The works supplies cement across the northern and eastern parts of Ireland.

The destination of the different three phase lines is marked on the wall of the generating hall at the Ardnacrusha hydro-electric power station.

It is only in the past couple of years that the control room at the Ardnacrusha hydroelectric power station has been taken out of use. Generation is now controlled remotely, but the Siemens built 1929 vintage equipment remains in situ.

All was quiet when I called at the Portarlington peat-fired power station and the Ruston diesel was standing with a wagon loaded with boiler ash ready for a Monday morning trip to the tip on the worked out bog. Thanks to Ted McAvoy for help with the explanation.