The pioneering travel book on the Irish canals was Green and Silver (London, 1949) by L.T.C. Rolt (1910–74). Tom Rolt made his voyage of discovery by motor cruiser in 1946 along the course of the Grand Canal, the Royal Canal (fully open from Mullingar to the Shannon, until 1955 and thereafter from 2010), and the Shannon navigation from Boyne to Limerick (happily now navigable up to Lough Erne). The Delanys writing in 1966, considered Rolt’s book to be the most comprehensive dealing with the inland waterways of Ireland.[1]
During the 1940s, and up to the early 1970s the canal candle was flickering but was kept burning by enthusiasts in England and in Ireland. Among these were the late Vincent Delany and Ruth Delany whose book on the Irish Canals in 1966 was a seminal work. As pointed out in the Irish Times in November 1993 Ruth Delany is the most prolific author on the subject of the Irish canals and herself acknowledges that Green and Silver had a profound influence on her. Other writers were Hugh Malet and Colonel Harry Rice – the latter largely founded the Inland Waterways Association. In 1973 Ruth Delany extended the 1966 book with a full-scale study of the Grand Canal which was reissued in 1995 with an update on the previous twenty years.
Tom Rolt was born in Chester in 1910 and after working in engineering and with vintage cars he became a full-time writer in 1939. Some of his many books are shown in the attached illustrations while ‘his biographies of great engineers, such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859), are still highly regarded. As a campaigner, activist and champion of industrial heritage Rolt is best known for his involvement with the Inland Waterways Association, the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society, the Newcomen Society, and the Association of Industrial Archaeology.’[2] On his marriage in 1939 to Angela Orred, daughter of a retired army major. They went to live on his house boat Cressy and in 1944 published Narrow Boat, a passionate evocation of the British canals and those who worked on them. His wife left him in 1951 to join the Billy Smart circus. Two very focused people.
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