Hi Darren
You are welcome - it was a pleasure. I went “all around the houses” with that query and found the answer by a pure fluke when I was looking at a few of those on-line wills.
You mention the reference to Smith’s Island in the Clare Journal of 1850 and I’m giving the context below* because I found it an interesting example of one of the many engineering projects presented to the Clare Grand Jury, but never fully realised: the navigation of that part of the river Fergus between Clarecastle and Ennis was destined to remain a gleam in the eye of the engineer.
I mentioned Green Island at one point, and just want to say that I found Green Island in the river Shannon. It belongs to the townland of Moyhill in the parish of Kilfintinan, and the Green family continued to live there for many years. Kilfintinan civil parish lies in the Catholic parish of Cratloe. The 1901 census for Green Island shows Honoria Green aged 50, a widow, and her son James aged 19, a Fisherman, and her daughter Mary aged 23. This James was born in Green’s Island in 1882 to John Green and Honora Molony. I think John must be a brother of "our" James. John died in 1899, aged 75. The Cratloe baptisms show the baptism, on 28 Jun 1831, of a Margaret Green of James Green and Julia Connellan. Margaret must be a sister of James and John (Julia is the same name as Judith and Johana).
Darren, your article on the acts of plunder sounds interesting (I associate plundering with the middle ages!), and I wish you well with it.
Sheila
*
Clare Journal, Thur 4 Apr 1850:
Navigation of the River Fergus up to the Town of Ennis.
This project has been so long in contemplation […..]. We advert to the subject now in order to induce the people of Ennis to raise themselves from their apathy and make one prompt and united effort for attaining the end desired, and we have little doubt but they shall succeed.
A very able and lucid report on the subject, accompanied with plans, has been already drawn up by J. W. Kelly, Esq., the very intelligent engineer at present in charge of the Fergus Drainage in this district, and in which he describes the practicability of improving the Navigation of the Fergus from the Shannon up to the village of Clare, and extending it thence to Ennis, at a probable cost of about £25,000. Reference is made in this report to the great advantages which the undertaking would confer on every part of County Clare, as well as on a portion of the County Galway; and it is to us a matter of astonishment as well as regret, that (to use the words of Mr. Kelly) “notwithstanding the great importance to the town and adjoining country of making Ennis a seaport, and the trade and industrial enterprise that may be expected to follow, as in the case of several of the English and Scotch, as well as Irish towns, which were likewise comparatively insignificant, until navigations were improved or opened up to them, yet the fine river and estuary of the Fergus remain up to the present time in almost a state of nature.”
Mr Kelly states that the only obstacle of importance to the improvement of this fine estuary is a ledge of limestone rock, called the “crow-bar,” crossing it about three miles below the town (immediately above the quay of Clare,) with deep water above and below it sufficient for all purposes of maritime commerce. Through this ledge of rock Mr. Kelly proposes to cut a channel of 80 feet in width in the narrowest part, and to the level of low-water of spring tides, by which would be afforded a depth of 13 feet of water at neaps, and 18 feet at high water of ordinary spring tides, the cost of which he estimates at somewhat less than £16,000. But as a depth of five foot of the crown of this shoal will be removed under the drainage operations now in progress, the expense for which (about £2,200) will be charged upon the lands drained, the cost of this part of the work would be consequently reduced to £13,800. There are but two other parts of the work which would incur any great amount of expenditure. First – the erection of a new bridge at Clare, consisting of two stone arches of 40 feet waterway each, and a cast iron swivel arch of similar waterway for the passage of vessels. This could be effected at a cost of about £3,600, and would effect a great and needful improvement in the line and level of the roadway at the village of Clare; the present bridge at that village (which Mr. Kelly justly terms “a public nuisance,”) to be removed, on the completion of the new one. The cost of raising the two 40 feet stone arches and appurtenances – about £, 800 (one-half of the entire expense) – would be chargeable to the county at large. Secondly – the Quay wall at Ennis, including the formation of wharf, &c. It is proposed to make the Quay wall and basin for the greater part in a new channel, through the point of land stretching from the Ennis Brewery towards the Currovaurin stream, and to fill up the old channel on either side. The Quay wall to be 600 feet in length, and the basin in front of it 200 feet wide. This part of the work could be effected for about £3,000. All the other expenses connected with the project, including cost of superintendence, would not amount to more than £5,000.
The river Fergus, at its line of junction with the Shannon, (about 43 miles above the junction of that river with the Atlantic,) is four statute miles in breadth at high water, and continues so, interspersed with several islands for about 6 miles upwards, thence it gradually contracts, and about five miles farther up becomes diminished to half a mile, and at the village of Clare, about 3 miles still farther up, its principle channel is 200 feet in width. At low water, the channel of the Fergus is about a mile wide at the junction with the Shannon. From Clare to Ennis, (3 miles) the river is uniformly about 120 feet wide. Vessels of any size or tonnage have at all times of tide sufficient water to come up the Shannon and up the Fergus, as far as Smith’s Island, which is four miles from the junction. Here there is good anchorage ground, and if the navigation were extended, vessels could easily proceed thence and arrive at Ennis with the flowing tide.
The large space on either side of the channel up to the line of high water, being a deep mud bank or “slob,” the level of which is generally about that of half-tide, offers peculiar facilities for being embanked and reclaimed from the sea. The extent of land that could with facility be enclosed, amounts to 3,870 statute acres. Mr. Kelly describes in his report the manner in which the embankments could be effected, and the probable cost, and states that he has not the least doubt, eight years’ net produce of the lands would pay off the whole outlay. If the embankment were undertaken in conjunction with the navigation, the rock cutting at Clare would furnish a sufficient quantity of stones, which, in excavating, could be thrown into flat-bottomed barges, “dropped down” by the tide, and discharged along the seat of the embankments, thus effecting a saving of nearly £4,000.
The unfinished metal bridge at present erected over the river on the new but unfinished road to Quin, should of course be removed, and being public property, might be made useful in some other part of the County. The removal of this bridge would be no loss whatever, as another road to Quin, branching from the already formed new road, and with a better entrance into the town, can be made for the sum which would be required to finish the metal bridge; and it would not increase the distance to the centre of the town more than an eighth of a statute mile, while it would make the distance even less that by the present metal bridge to the Poor-house, the New Court-house and the County Club House, as well as to the proposed terminus of the navigation. It is quite clear, therefore, that the expenditure already incurred by this metal bridge and new road, cannot be urged as any objection to the proposed extension of the navigation of the river. We are glad that the Grand Jury, at last Assizes, declined to present any sum for completing this bridge, and we fervently hope that it may never be completed on its present site.
The manner in which it is at present sought to carry out this desirable project, is through the powers conferred by the Drainage Acts, particularly by the 32d and 33rd sections of the 9th Victoria c, 4. The 32d section provides, that if it be found, after the commencement or completion of works of drainage, that by some additional works a useful navigation can be made, &c; and the 33d section enacts that in cases where a moiety or more of the expense is granted under the authority of Parliament, the other moiety or residue will be charged over the district declared by the Commissioners of Public Works to be benefitted by such navigation, and that thenceforth the port shall be open to the public, FREE OF TOLLS OR DUES, excepting such as may be required for the maintenance of the works.
We would suggest that a public meeting of the inhabitants of the town of Ennis should be convened at the earliest opportunity in order to take such steps as may be judged best calculated to effect the object in view. The matter should certainly be pressed upon the attention of Parliament by our representatives; and it might be well also to adopt a memorial to the Lord Lieutenant on the subject, and appoint a deputation to present it. We have every reason to think His Excellency would favour the undertaking, and that it only requires suitable exertion on the part of the people of Ennis, in order to have this reproductive and permanent improvement effected.