The final episode of the current popular RTE television documentary series, ‘Building Ireland’, will look at the Corrib Navigation System and its canals as well as how the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) came to be located in the city.
The episode will air at 8.30pm on RTÉ One this Friday, November 4, and will be the final episode in the six-part series.
‘Building Ireland’ explores and explains how Ireland’s greatest building and engineering achievements came to be, and the impact they had on the development of our towns and cities.
In the final part of the series, presenters Tim Joyce, a civil engineer; geographer, Dr. Susan Hegarty; and award-winning architect Orla Murphy, will investigate the building of Galway’s canal system, and the impact it had on Galway.
When first built, the canals aspired to transform Galway into a major industrial hub.
Engineer Tom Joyce will explore how, 150 years ago, with no coal or iron, water was the only natural resource Galway could harness, and so the decision was taken to build a navigation system linking the Corrib to Lough Mask to provide an important transport route from the interior of Connacht out to the Atlantic Ocean.
Geographer Susan Hegarty will investigate the terrain for canal building in Connacht. She visits Ballymaclancy Cave, and meets Davy Walsh, Lecturer at Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, about the difficulties the Cong Canal encountered.
They will discuss why the Cong Canal was abandoned in 1854, and what made the subsequent Eglington Canal in the city a success, accommodating 300 boats and over 30 water-powered mills.
Architect Orla Murphy will visit the site the of NUI Galway, formerly known as Queen’s College Galway and then University College Galway, to find out how Galway succeeded in having a university situated in the city when major cities of the British Empire such as Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, were without any.
Orla will also discuss how ecclesiastical influences on architect John Benjamin Keane played a part in the design and layout of the college.
The documentary series, which started Friday, September 30, ran for six weeks in total and will conclude with a programmes on Galway’s Corrib Canal.
The series was produced by Esras Films with director Brian Gray for RTÉ, with the help with the help of Sound and Vision funding from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, and with the support of incentives for the Irish Film Industry provided by the Government of Ireland.