Inland Waterways Association of Ireland

Inland Waterways Association of Ireland

Burgee
Ensign
Short name	IWAI
Founded	1954
Location	Ireland
Focus	Canals of Ireland and River navigations.
Website	http://www.iwai.ie

The Inland Waterways Association of Ireland (IWAI; Irish: Cumann Uiscebhealaigh Intíre na hÉireann) is a registered charity and a limited company in the Republic of Ireland and also operates in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1954 to campaign for the conservation and development of the waterways and their preservation as working navigations. As of 2008, the association had approximately 4,400 members which were organised in twenty branches.^{[citation needed]}

IWAI has links with the Scottish Inland Waterways Association (SIWA), with an annual exchange. In 2008, SIWA visited Lough Erne.^{[citation needed]}

Publications

The group publishes a quarterly magazine called Inland Waterway News (IWN).^[1] It contains news about the Irish waterways along with articles from the various branches/ subgroups that make up the organisation.^{[citation needed]}

Activities

The IWAI and its subgroups host rallies over the Summer months annually.^{[citation needed]} These rallies include the Shannon rally, Lough Derg rally and Lough Erne rally. The Shannon rally is the biggest of these rallies.^{[citation needed]} In the bigger rallies, participants may pay a fee to take part.^{[citation needed]} The rallies may include tests of boating skills, rescue exercises, a table quiz, fancy dress competitions, with awards ceremonies at the end.^{[citation needed]} Some of the smaller branches hold small boat rallies with dingies.^{[citation needed]} Branches that hold these are Boyne Navigation IWAI, Newry and Portadown IWAI and Lagan IWAI.^{[citation needed]}

Branches

• Athlone
• Barrow
• Belturbet
• Boyle River
• Boyne Navigation
• Carrick-on-Shannon
• Coalisland
• Corrib
• Cruising Club
• Dublin
• Lough Derg
• Lough Erne
• Kildare
• Lagan
• Newry and Portadown
• North Barrow
• Offaly
• Powerboat Branch
• Shannon Harbour
• Slaney
• River Bann and Lough Neagh

See also

• Canals of Ireland
• Waterways Ireland

References

External links

• Official website
• "Float to the Fleadh launch". Offaly Express. 20 July 2009. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
• "Ireland. IWAI to hold Public Meeting on Ulster Canal restoration campaign in Armagh". BYM News & Magazine. 11 October 2006. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
• Statuary Inland waterways authority in Ireland