BOOKS: The mystery of the Cong Canal

The infamous Cong Canal that wouldn’t hold water has been the stuff of rumour and hearsay in Mayo for more than a hundred years. In his latest book, Peter Dillon, combines local history, canal design and political intrigue to tell, for the first time, the full story of the events that led to the abandonment of the dry canal at Cong.
As famine raged in Ireland in the 1840s, the government organisation known as the Board of Works commenced work on a canal to link Lough Mask in County Mayo to Lough Corrib in County Galway. After six years of back-breaking toil by hundreds of starving labourers, the work was abruptly halted. Three canal locks at the village of Cong, a fully excavated channel through six kilometres of solid rock, new quays and other extensive works at the nearby market town of Ballinrobe were simply abandoned.
The Board of Works claimed that the works were proving to be too expensive and that railways had rendered canals redundant. The local folk memory tells a different story: it says that the engineers failed to take account of the cavernous nature of the limestone in the district and that when they took the dams away and let the water in, it disappeared through fissures in the canal bed.
The abandoned canal has remained an enigma for nearly two centuries. In recent decades as the folk memory has faded, the official explanation has increasingly gained traction.
Now, following meticulous archive research, Peter Dillon has unravelled the mystery of the Cong Canal. In this well-written account, he sets out with outstanding clarity the technical details of the canal’s design and construction – and abandonment, and skilfully weaves the story into the background of a famine-stricken land, political intrigue and government inquiries. His book, ‘The Cong Canal: Mystery of an Abandoned Waterway’, was published on September 1.
Peter Dillon was born in Sligo and has lived and worked in Ireland, England and the United States. He is the author of the novel ‘The Deep Atlantic’. He now lives in Dublin.

• ‘The Cong Canal: Mystery of an Abandoned Waterway’, by Peter Dillon, is published by Kenilworth & Collins. Fore more, visit www.thecongcanal.ie. The book (€19.95) can be ordered from orders@kenilworthcollins.com.