Your photos brought back memories.
We did the lower Shannon in borderline flood conditions, about 20 years ago, in a hire boat that had a leaky diesel heater (we wondered why we had rosy cheeks in all the pictures). The ignition key was made of chocolate I suspect, because it twisted apart when turned and we managed to bend a prop blade based on some dodgy navigational advice from the yard on the maiden voyage (yes I know, its always the skipper that takes responsibility for his craft).
Anyway, we survived minus our deposit, but despite all that, had one of our best holidays ever and as always, learnt a lot more about boats in the process, which has stood us in good stead.
Ireland is such a friendly and laid back place.
We kept seeing the same boat of crazy German pike fishermen, who only had two speeds - ramming speed and fishing speed (all engines stop).
I note once more that even when the weather is good in Ireland, the sky still looks angry.