Posted by Magnolia Mary on January 16, 2001 at 00:17:33:
In Reply to: Cong:: A virtual visit posted by Muirsín Durcan on January 15, 2001 at 22:43:47:
Great pictures Muirsin!Brings back a lot of memories for me too,visiting my grandmother,my uncle and family and later just visiting with my mother and aunts.My favorite place would have to be at the monks fishing house and the bridge there.I remember Teach Aille,Pigeon Hole.Kelly's Cave.The grounds at Ashford are beautiful.The old Catholic Church had beautiful stained glass,which I believe survives in the new church.The Abbey grounds are also fascinating,also the old graveyard.
I agree with Jean and Bowser about the dry canal.I believe work was done on the canal for 5 years.The money people earned probably kept them alive during the Famine.As Bowser said, with the building of the railways in Ireland,experts at the time advised not to invest any more money on the canal.The canal bed was also porous and would have to have been lined to hold water.The canal was built to connect Lough Mask with Lough Corrib,the idea being to sail boats from Ballinrobe all the way to Galway.Beautiful village Cong,beautiful pictures Muirsin.Go raibh mile maith agat!