Lambeg man praised for his voluntary efforts in organising the clearance work on the locks along the Lagan towpath.

Lambeg man Jackson Tinto has received the prestigious 2023 Endeavour Cup from the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland for his voluntary work in organising the clearance work on the locks along the Lagan towpath.

In the past four years he has overseen work parties from the Lagan and Newry branches contributing over 1000 hours of unpaid labour to improving some 10 locks between Belfast and Lisburn.

And, the former quantity surveyor, who’ll be 80 next year, has done a fair share of the heavy lifting himself!

“Funnily, I have very little interest in boats but I have always found waterways fascinating,” he said.

“I’ll not be around in 20 years but hopefully there will be a next generation to carry on the work.”

IWAI President Kay Baxter, who made the journey up from Boyle in Roscommon to make the presentation, said Jackson had been chosen for the Cup “by a landslide”.

Jackson’s first involvement came in 2013 when Lisburn Council decided to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the opening of the Lagan Navigation by having a ‘clearance’ party at the Union Locks in Lisburn - a series of four locks which lifted the canal to its summit level before its descent into Lough Neagh.

Unfortunately it is now the last bit of canal before it was filled in by the construction of the M1.

Then in 2018 he was approached by the Department For Infrastructure to embark on a programme of clearing the vegetation from the locks on the Lagan Navigation.

“That work remains ongoing,” added Jackson. “And we are always looking for volunteers to come along and help us out.”

The Inland Waterways Association of Ireland (IWAI) is a voluntary body of waterways’ enthusiasts, founded in 1954. It was formed to promote and encourage the use and development of Ireland’s navigable waterways.

IWAI is the voice of waterways users and enthusiasts. It represents the views of members to governments (NI & RoI), to the cross-border navigation authority Waterways Ireland, and other navigation authorities, to local authorities and the range of statutory and state-sponsored bodies whose activities impinge on the waterways in one way or another.