According to the book "Step Together" by mccarron, fort shannon down by tarbert in co. kerry was the only fort built by the irish government. is there any of it still there, and can one get a proper tour of the site? i know the guns are in donegal now btw.
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Fort Shannon
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Last summer I visited the fortification at the Shannon estuary. “Fort” Shannon is an area surrounded by a stone wall - not much higher than 4 ft. Tree pillboxes protect this wall and can even fire into the fort. Two gun-emplacements have a concrete roof, but this sure not bomb proof.
There are underground galleries that connect each emplacement with is own magazine. Two searchlight buildings and a “technical building” are the other constructions on the area. It is hard to get an idea of the fort due the vegetation; it is practically impossible to get more than two buildings on the same picture. A wooden barrack, in the centre was complete destroyed. In Fort, the newsletter of the Fortress Study Group, there was an article about this. I can post some pictures if you would like that.
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Not quite on post, but interesting to see that there were guns on the Shannon at Athlone well in the 20th Century. The guns used to shell Dublin during the 1916 Rising were taken from Athlone to Dublin, where they were reassembled. Apparently they only managed to get two functioning out of the six or so they brought up, which says a lot about the state of the river artillery at the time!
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Pictures of Fort Shannon - 1
Here are some pictures of Fort Shannon. This drawning is no perfect but gives an idea of the "Fort"
FtShannon.jpg is the result of GPS-coordinates.
fts001 = pillbox 3
fts002 = interior of a pillbox
fts003 = the gun-emplacement
fts004 = exterior of casemat 1
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fts005 = searchlight
fts006 = in the searchlight building
fts007 = "electrical powerhouse" (technical building)
fts008 = entrance to one of the casemats
fts009 = view from gate 1 to the powerhouse
I have no pictures of the destroyed wooden hut that served as crew accommodation.
I couldn't find the Fire Control Post.
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