New Britain herald., 1930-01-21
SHANNON BECOMING EVEN MORE NOTED
Great Dam Will Make Famous Stream Power Reservoir

Ulpdl Ddlll Wlll Mdkt TdulOuS
 Stream Power Reservoir
 Washington, D. C.. Jan. 2l.-"The River shannon. famous in Irish song and story. will become lreland's main electric power house when the dam on the river above Limerick is completed" says a bulletin from the Washington. r. (. headquarters of the National Geographic Society.
 More than fifteen million dollars worth of cement, steam shovcls, 'dnky' engines. steel rails and other kinds Of machinery that go to build plant 10 supply electricity for the Irish Free State, have transformed the quiet Limerick harhor into bustlng receiving port.
 Ircland's Longest stream
 Irish tenors have endcared the Shannon to the hearts of the world, fairy tale writers have used the shannon Valley as the locale of their stories. a plentiful supply of salmon and trout has made the river an anglers paradise. The Shannon is 1rcland's longest river; it's silvery stream flows into the Atlantic; the Dancs and Normans once claimed it as their river, and, if 25 mile canal were dug from its source in Leitrim county to Donegal Bay Connaught province, the huge middle western portion of the Emerald Isle would be an island.
 The Shannon begins at the so- called shannon Pot in Leitrim, flows southeaStW ard to the cnvirons of Limerick. and then almost due west ward to the Atlantic. Frequently the river Widens out into lakes from three to eighteen miles in length. Athlone. home of John Mccormack, the Irish tenor, is one of many quaint Irish towns along the river.
 Cascades Defy Oarsmcn
 "A placid river flows under many Of tho Shannon River bridges so that ? traveller must follow the river bank to realize its other aspects. From shannon Pot to the rivers mouth. there is a drop of nearly 150 feet Some of the cascades in its course defy the most intrepid oarsmcn.
 Once the Shannon was navigable only 10 Limerick. head of tidewater, G. miles from the sea. But short canals around the cascades have made it possible for small vessels to reach Lough Allen. Larger canals, such as the Grand and Royal canals, connect the Shannon with Dublin, and the Ulster canal connects it with Belfast.
 Limerick, the Shannon's most inn portant city, normally has 36 900 in habtants and ranks next to Cork in population among southern Ire land cities. Limerick street crowds however now are augmented by a portion of the 2,oO0 German and Irish workmen who are building the new power plant.
 Limerick Boomed by Power
 Project
 "Because it was the nearest Amer lea Limerick once had aspirations of being 1reland's greatest port. Ship ping, however. drifted 10 the other side of the island and Limerick methodically operated it's flour mills, dstilerics. crcameries and bacon curing, leather tanning and lace making factories, and it's tobacco factories, featuring fine Virginia leaf. The city did not excite the attention of the outside world until the arrival, a few years ago, Of men and supplies for the great concrete barrier. It's harbor, into which only a few small passenger and freight boats drifted, now is busy ship ping center.
 Imagine smiling but wrnkled Mother Machrcc' of one of Ireland's remote, -emboWercd, matched roofed cottages, nicking an electric switch 10 light her living room or plugging in her carpet sweeper: or a happy Irishman. with his clay pipe, sitting before an electrically operat- ed radio while toasting his toes be- fore an open fireplace near an old fashioned spinning wheel, one of the Irish cottages fixtures Imagine the streets of the villages that have here tofore been dark after sundown. lighted brightly by the pull of a single switch. and the village work shops. now operated by hand, hum- ming with electric machines. These things will be possible when the great network of power wires are stretched across the Irish Free State from the Shannon's power site. Even Dublin and other large cities of Ire land which already glare under cleo trlc lights will use Shannon power"