The Royal Canal

The Royal Canal is the second of the canals that reach the Shannon River from Dublin, and was opened in 1817 some thirteen years after the Grand Canal. Work began in 1790 and the total cost of construction was £1,421,954.

It is 90 miles long and there are 46 locks to navigate. On its way from Dublin it passes through Maynooth, Enfield, Mullingar and Ballymahon. At the Dublin end it passes by Croke Park, where the terrace close to it is called the ‘Canal End’ before it reaches Spencer Dock then the Liffey, and the Dublin Bay beyond.

Brendan Behan memorial at Whitworth Road

The canal was constructed for the dual purpose of freight movement and passenger transport to-and-from the centre of the country. It was very popular and profitable for many years before being slowly undermined by the introduction of the railway, and later by road haulage. And by the 1970s it had fallen into disuse and plans were considered to fill in sections of it and construct a road. These, thankfully, were challenged, and work by the Royal Canal Amenity Group and Waterways Ireland saw the canal fully reopened in 2010.

Broome Bridge, near Castleknock, has a special place in Irish and scientific history. For it was here, on the 16^th October 1843, that mathematician William Rowan Hamilton, who lived in Dunsink Observatory, in a moment of inspiration, realised the solution for quaternions, a problem he had been working on for some time. Excited by what he had discovered, he scratched the solution on the bridge with his penknife. This moment is celebrated annually at the bridge on the 16^th October, now known as Broome’s Day.

The canal has featured in a famous song from the play The Quare Fellow by Brendan Behan. It is set in Mountjoy Gaol where Behan had spent some time, and refers to the metal triangle that was beaten to waken inmates.

And the auld triangle went jingle-jangle

All along the banks of the Royal Canal

(Photo: Dennis Fisk)

Brendan Behan

Brendan Behan was born 9 February 1923 in Holles St. Hospital, Dublin, the eldest of five children of Frank Behan, a house painter, and Kathleen Behan. His father did not go to the hospital as he was in gaol, serving time for Republican activities. And Kathleen’s brother was Peadar Kearney who wrote the lyrics of ‘The soldier’s song’, which in 1926 was adopted by the new Irish Free State as the National Anthem.

Brendan Behan

Beginning in 1928 Behan attended St Vincent’s School in North William St. before later attending St Canice’s CBS on the North Circular Road. Aged fourteen he was apprenticed to his father’s trade and studied in Bolton St. technical school.

It had been noted from an early age that he had a talent for telling stories, recitation and singing. He did manage to get work as a painter, but his ambition was always to become a writer.

Aged 16 he went to Liverpool where he was arrested while in possession of explosives and was sentenced to three years’ Borstal detention. Back in Dublin in 1941 he was again in trouble, for trying to shoot a policeman, this time being handed a fourteen-year sentence, of which he served only five years.

Soon afterwards he had some poems and short stories published, and in 1954, the year that was married to Beatrice Salkeld, his play The Quare Fellow met with international success. Although acclaimed for his writing Behan also liked to be seen as a hard-drinking, fun loving character, something that he enjoyed but which took him away from his beloved writing.

In 1958 his most famous work, Borstal boy, was published to great acclaim, and this, sadly, was his final completed work. The sadness of his last years was tough to handle being as they were spent so much in the public eye. Not devoting himself to his writing made him feel bad, leading to more heavy drinking. And as a diabetic he knew only too well how it all would end.

He died in the Meath Hospital in Dublin on 20 March 1964.

Brendan Behan memorial beside the Royal Canal (Photo by Dennis Fisk)