The Long Level

THE LONG LEVEL - In this weeks episode of Waterways - Dick and the crew of Rambler enter the Long Level - the stretch of the Royal Canal between the seventeenth and eighteenth locks that's 32 kilometres long. At Cloncurry, Dick disembarks to pay his respects to Teresa Brayton and stroll along the 'Old Bog Road' - the famous road that inspired her nostalgic poem of the same name. On a nearby commemoration sign, Dick notes that Teresa Brayton is buried in the Cloncurry Graveyard. President Eamon de Valera unveiled a memorial to her there in 1959. She was a strong Nationalist and this motivated her to do something quite unusual in the emigrant experience. After Independence she returned from America to support the new State and lived here for over twenty years until her death in 1943 at the age of 81. In the graveyard Dick notices signs of unauthorised exhumation - rabbits have been excavating. The nearby Motte reminds Dick that rabbits were Norman animals. They were brought here by the invaders to provide them with food and fur - and then escaped into the Irish countryside. The men who looked after them were called warreners, after the rabbit warrens they were kept in. And Warrener became a surname and was shortened to Warner, so Dick ponders, the presence of wild rabbits in Ireland is the result of the inefficiency of his direct ancestors. Back on Rambler Dick and the crew approach Enfield Harbour beneath a canopy of trees. Enfield Harbour is tucked into its own little world, quite separate from the village and the busy motorway. Dick meets Brian O'Donoghue active member of the Enfield Royal Canal Amenity Group. He tells Dick about this secret place that was created over many years by dedicated people from the local community. Ten year old Lea Sutton enlightens Dick about the competitive angling that takes place on the banks of Canal near Enfield. Waterways Ireland engineer, John Mc Keown talks to Dick about how the original Royal Canal engineers, over