Julianna Minihan will deliver a talk on the above topic on Saturday, July 27th, 2024, at 10:30 a.m. in the Maldron Hotel, Shandon.

Most of us take water totally for granted, and we never ask questions about where it comes from, how it is delivered to our homes and where it goes. Yet where there is no water, there is no life! It is the very lifeblood of the land and nature. It has been fought over; it has been dammed, polluted and disputed, politicised, and wasted; humans have failed to perfect the cycle of water. Clean drinking water may yet be the oil and gold of future generations, but whereas we can live without oil and gold, we cannot survive without drinking water.

In Ireland, the Environmental Protection Agency has been warning about the growing pollution in our rivers, lakes and seas. Growing controversy from 2013 to 2017 about the privatisation of water supplies and charging for water led to tens of thousands of citizens taking to the streets, arguing that access to fresh water is a basic human right. Uisce Eireann, previously Irish Water, a state-owned company, was established to take over the provision of water and wastewater services, which had previously been carried out by Local Authorities across Ireland. 

The following is Julianna Minihan’s outline of her talk:

“This talk will outline the historical provision of water in Cork City 1760-1900, with some background information on the people of the city, public health, economics, and levels of poverty at the time.  It will consider how the poor of Cork were affected by a part time and inadequate supply of water from a very few public fountains paid for by the City; and how 50,000 poor Cork people were dependent on contaminated water in the 1840’s.  It will consider how just 900 houses owned by wealthy people had a private supply of water (which they paid for) in the 1840’s, and how that came about.

It will consider the supply of water to industry, and will briefly mention waste disposal, the cess collection business, the usefulness of market gardens for utilizing compost, and the importance of tidal flushing of the river twice daily.  It will explain why the City once again took over the water supply around 1860, and why they had once sold shares to businessmen after 1765.  It will provide some information on the people who benefited, the politics, economics, public health, and even the basic need for water for human survival involved in the 1800’s.”

In 1833, one fountain provided water (part-time) for the poor in Cork. It was located on Nile Street (now Western Road). At the time, the company was paying its shareholders 5% dividends, and they complained that the fountain for the poor was built at a great loss to them. They refused to allow other fountains without ongoing payments.

The weir by the water works, originally erected by Mr Fitton in 1765, was known as ‘the Bald Weir’ in an 1845 court case, taken by a mill owner when the height of the weir almost blocked the flow of water on the south channel of the Lee.

Julianna Minihan will speak at the Maldron Hotel, Shandon, on Saturday, July 27th, at 10:30 a.m.

All are welcome. 

The Dunscombe Testimonial Fountain above was donated by the Dunscombe family to Cork Corporation in 1883 as a drinking fountain representing an appropriate memorial for abstinence from alcohol. It disappeared in the late 70s, and Cork City Council say they do not know where it is.  Would any reader know?