For the week before Easter myself, Simon Cornhill, Hilary Greaves, MUSC and HUCC went over to Fermanagh in N.Ireland. We teamed up with some of the locals I know and set about diving several sumps which in some cases hadn't been dived at all and in others hadn't been dived for a long time.

Divers: Chris Jewell (BEC), Simon Cornhill (CDG), Hilary Greaves (OUCC)
Support: Local Irish cavers - Stephen McCullagh, Aileen Connor, Tony Furnell, Stephen Read, Gaelin Ellife + members of MUSC.

Ferry from Holyhead to Belfast, 10 days staying at Gladagh Glen near BlackLion in Fermanagh. Sharing the hut with Manchester Uni Speleology Club and Huddersfield uni - 22 people at its peak!

Shannon
One of the primary objectives of the trip was to dive the terminal sump in Shannon cave. This extensive stream cave was first explored down to the sump in the 80's The before it could be dived a section of cave known as George's choke collapsed. Later in the 90's the main entrance also collapsed. Since then a new generation of Irish cavers began digging in from a nearby cave - Polltullyard. I first visited the cave in November 06 when the diggers were at George's choke and trying to get through. In March 07 I learnt they'd passed the choke and were back at the end - opening up the possibility of diving the sump. During the Spring and Summer of 2007 I flew over several times for a weekend of caving in Shannon. Initially I inspected the sump with a wetsuit and mask and then helped the Irish cavers with a dig they were hoping would bypass the sump - "Balcony dig"

On Sunday 16^th March, Simon Cornhill and I went to dive the sump. I dived first with a pair of 300bar 3lt cylinders, a 5mm once piece caving wetsuit and a 5mm
hooded vest. Beneath the initial arch...

...I followed the passage up a silt slope and along to an airbell. There was no where to tie the line off here so I dived again and continued to lay line forwards over the floor. I secured it in several places with silt screws as there were no other features on the bottom. The visibility was less than 1m but I soon surfaced in a large pot with the sump continuing on beneath me. It was a difficult climb out and but there was a passage heading back in the direction of the sump. I climbed up and tied off the reel before exploring briefly before returning for Simon. Together we then managed to get a strong voice connection with the diggers working in Balcony dig before exploring over 1km of excellent stream passage with several excellent on going leads. When we returned to the others we made a commitment to focus our efforts on making the dry connection before doing any more exploration.       

Thursday 20^th

We made a mid-week trip to carry lots of scaffold down for Balcony dig and between Simon, Hilary and myself we carried 12 x 1m poles and 8 scaffold clips down to the cave. We left 3 poles at George's choke and carried the rest all the way.

Saturday 22^nd

We were back to dive through again and dig from the far side where we'd got the voice connection. Simon and I carried a lump hammer, chisel, crow bar and scaffold pole though the sump which was now named "Young, free and desperate!" On the far side, after a quick search we located a high level chamber where we could hear the others really clearly. I then spotted a small window and squeeze, beyond which he could see the light from the dry cavers on the other side. The connection was down a steep and extremely unstable slope - where digging had been halted. However by working from the top down Simon was able to safely bring down the boulders and shore up the remainder. After about 1 hour of work the "eighteen thirty" connection was made (Irish accents are hard to understand through boulder chokes and I thought he was asking for the time when he was saying "how high?"). We then got the rest of the team through so we could all explore the "Anglo-Irish agreement" extension together. At the end of this new section we found a new and less inviting sump - but also numerous high level passages on route.  

Future plans: Now that the dry cavers are through the locals with be organising the ongoing surveying and exploration with myself, Simon and other cavers flying over for a long weekend to help out. With trips to the end easily taking four hours or more there has also been talk of camping beyond the 18-30 connection. 

Other sites examined:
Pollnagossan - a cave which was explored to downstream sump 10 by Martyn Farr in 1983 We found the original line running directly into a wall - either a severe line trap or a collapse.

Pollbwee - A short cave near the Monastir cliffs which would connect to the upstream section of the Marble Arch system. Amidst the debris of trees we were unable to find the way on. 

Upper Cradle - The "Monastir way" was originally explored by Dave Morris in 1978 and left at the undived sump 3 which ought to be very close to the Monastir cliff resurgence. We partially re-lined sump 1 but ran out of time to progress any further. However this is an easily accessible and convenient site so I'm sure we will return.