
Originally Posted by
na grohmitÃ*
Well said.
There is a trend in the last 30 years, maybe longer to close operating ports and convert their quaysides to waterside apartment blocks, devoid of usable berthage. I can remember when the Guinness ships and usually one of the ILS vessels could be seen tied up downriver from the Custom House, towards the Gasometer. During the Boat show at the Point Depot, visiting merchant ships would jam the working quays outside on the North Wall. Now the best you can hope for is a solitary naval visitor on John Rogersons Quay. The quays have been gentrified, at the expense of working ships. The same is happening in Grand Canal Dock, once a working dockside, now trying to eradicate anything resembling a working watercraft from its environs. Former dockside warehousing and silos are let go derelict, then demolished, without any relocation of such warehousing.
Similarily, in Cork, the Tivoli docks area is in the process of being shut down. Reclaimed from the sea in the 60s, by the 70s it had a Container terminal, a RORO ferry berth, a bulk loading jetty and seperate jetties for Oil products and LPG, with the specialised storage tanks these products require. The Oil jetty was shut down about 20 years ago. The storage tanks removed 10 years ago. The Bulk loading terminal closed down 5 years ago, and its cargo handling equipment was sold to the highest bidder. The ferry terminal moved downstream in the 80s, but the ramp remains. With the expansion of Ringaskiddy, it is expected that the remaining Container and LPG terminal will be closed by 2020. There does not seem to be any plans for where the LPG terminal will move to though. Presumably back to Whitegate (Near fort Davis) where the current Calor depot is, adding to the Heavy traffic n the unsuitable minor road that links whitegate Oil refinery to the rest of the State.
Look around the coastline. So many former once busy cargo quays out of use, allowed fall into disrepair before being converted into nice expensive waterside apartments, offices and restaurants. Elsewhere in Mainland Europe, and even the UK, similar sized quaysides are fully operational, serving nearby industries such as Pharma or even Construction. Many of these quays are a long way upstream from the sea. In ireland there is a mentality that an upstream harbour is there only for pleasure boating, and serves no other commercial purpose.
In the UK I have been on ships that bring cargo to places like Howdendyke and Goole, near Leeds, and Gunness near S****horpe, both off the Humber. Both about 50 miles from the sea. Numerous harbours off The Wash such as Boston and Sutton Bridge, All capable of handling large cargo ships of all types, in spite of the silting that these rivers are subject to. Most often seen are the types that also operate on the European waterways, designed to fit easily under the many bridges of the Rhine.
But we don't need ports in ireland it seems, because sure nothing we need comes by sea....