Gerard Manley Hopkins called it the "burling Barrow brown" but, for decades, one of Ireland's most scenic rivers has been a victim of neglect.
Once a thriving commercial waterway, the Barrow is at last coming back to life thanks to a major restoration project carried out by Duchas, the state heritage service.
A total of £2.1 million in EU structural funding has been spent on upgrading the Barrow Navigation, a 67-kilometre stretch of the river from Athy in Co Kildare to St Mullins in Co Carlow.
The works carried out include dredging of the navigation channel and lateral canals as well as the provision of new landing facilities, moorings, quays and slipways. As a result, navigating the river is no longer the daunting prospect it was.
Until recently, says Mr Arthur Kettle, chairman of the Barrow branch of the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland, "what you did was try to get out at a bank and struggle up the bank. You had no proper place get off the boat.
"When I first travelled on the Barrow in the early 60s it would take you days to go anywhere . . . You could reach a lock which wasn't operational and you could be held up there for hours or days."
Those challenges remained until the recent past, and the improvements now taking place in the south-east are not confined to the Barrow. In Carrick-on-Suir, for example, new jetties have enabled boats to come right into the town centre. As a result, says the association's national secretary, Rosaleen Miller, "the town is now turning to the river instead of having its back to it as was the case for many years".
This development, and others, are solely down to the dedication of local communities, unlike the Barrow Navigation which, in common with other state-run waterways, was taken over from CIE in 1986 by the Office of Public Works, and subsequently Duchas.
The intention, says Duchas waterways' senior engineer, Mr John McKeown, has been to make the river more accessible and easier to navigate. New gates have been installed at some of the 23 locks while others have been deepened to make them navigable during low summer flows. At Graiguenamanagh and Leighlinbridge, long-neglected quay walls have been restored to their former condition.
The work has been carried out in consultation with local communities and Mr Kettle says there are now up to 120 boats on the Barrow at any one time, in stark contrast to when he began using the river and there were just "four or five" boats on it. "Until five or six years ago I would have known each individual boat owner," he said.
While those on the river today are there for leisure purposes only, the Barrow is again taking on the appearance of former days when steam boats sailed up-river from New Ross with their cargoes of sugar beet, grain, coal and myriad other goods. Grain stores and warehouses still dot the riverside today. Commercial traffic on the river ended in 1960.
The renewed traffic is a boost for local economies, with river users now having the facilities to stay overnight at locations which were previously inaccessible. Private tourism interests are chipping in with development initiatives of their own; in Leighlin bridge, for example, a marina has been built by a local restaurant and B&B owner.
It's not only boaters who benefit from the ongoing developments; Mr McKeown and Mr Kettle both stress the river is there for everybody to enjoy and improved facilities have also been put in place for walkers and anglers. Pollution is also being tackled by the Barrow Catchment Management Committee, which is made up of diverse groups with an interest in the river.
Although funds have yet to be specifically allocated under the national development plan, Mr McKeon says restoration work on the river will continue. With a new North-South implementation body, Waterways Ireland, to be established with headquarters in Enniskillen, the renewal of Ireland's canals and navigable rivers is set to continue apace.