Bubbles about Dublin – Fountains
30 Jan 1927Ancient Water Supplies ‘By ” TOMAS S. CUFFE
WATER , in our Niobe of a nation,forever a seasonable subject. As early as the year 1254 water was conveyed to Dublin from the Dodder by an which still exists. Passing by Templeogue the course is later swelled by a stream called the Poddle, which : owes its rise to a spring at Tymon.
The Cistern of Cornmarket.Affecting this subject there is an interesting announcement in Camden’s Annals. It relates:—
“In this year (1303) a noble cistern was made to receive the water from the conduit head (the city watercourse) in Dublin (such as was never seen here) by the Mayor of the city, John Le Decer, and aid at his own expense.”
This useful structure stood at Cornmarket. Engravings of it are still extant. An illustration appeared in the second volume of the “Dublin Penuy Journal.” It was the copy of the then Ulster King-of-Arms, Sir William Betham, whose office contained a very ancient facsimile. A/rain, it should be asked when will a great benefactor of our capital, Le Decer, be commemorated in our street nomenclature?
“Liberties” Luckier Than City.
In its earlier evolution our watercourse is frequently mentioned in olden records. For centuries a proprietorship in it was vested in the Corporation of Dublin by the Earls of Meath, as lords of the Liberties of Thomas Court at Donore. The population of the latter locations was then bigger than that of the city proper.
Much power was also required for driving the wheels of their mills and aiding the industries of the Coombe. Thus (the stream was brought by way of Kimmage and Larkfield to the “Tongue,”where two-thirds of it composed the classical Poddle and the other third circulated to the city reservoir about Mount Brown.
During the year 1760 an Act of the Irish Parliament (6 Geo. I.) empowered the Corporation of the City of Dublin to lay down mains, branches, cocks, fire-plugs, etc., through the various thoroughfares. Commencing with (he old elm mains and until the construction of the cast-iron metal mains, the oddest ways were adopted for the distribution of required water. At times the “old goose quill tubes” were the gauge for the supply to a house. Then came small lead service pipes of about an inch in bore
The privilege was also granted for the construction of additional reservoirs of two acres each. These were placed at Portobello and the northern end of Blessington street. Lamentably enough after the1 new pipes were laid it was discovered that they were without flanges. No security from leakages was therefore forthcoming. Consequently the new system had to be taken up and recast. The cost £100,000 for years harassed; Dublin’s unfortunate householders with an awful water-rate.
A Domville ..Defies Dublin.
Despite the last financial millstone matters were mending. Our ancestors were gradually leaving an era when -water was as scarce as light. It. was no longer possible for the citizens to be compelled to parch when a Domville was annoyed by the Corporation. The water supply of Dublin long passed through the lands of this family at Templeogue. Thus when they willed they could cut the current. Upon a certain occasion it was deemed necessary that the Lord Lieutenant should despatch a force of horse and foot to beat back the Domvilles’ retainers from their attacks on the city’s water needs. Again there is the tale of a Compton Domville defeating the “aims-of-justice”. His nephew. Lord Santry, had been sentenced to death for Ihe murder of a poor man named Loughlan Murphy. But the irate Sir Complon saved his relation by the threat that if he perished the people of Dublin would thirst. Repetitions of this performance of 1739 were no longer possible when the Grand Canal commenced its supply in 1775.
Fountain Before Nelson Pillar.
Affairs had to await real correction until the advent of our Vartry system. In 1867 its introduction to the Liberties cost the Corporation £5,000 in compensation to the Earl of Meath. What had previously lightened privations wero public fountains. The young Duke, of -Rutland was bibulous and assuredly he sowed seeds of discord amongst Volunteers, but for others he was a believer in the water cure.
The first creation he proposed was opposite to the Rotunda at the northern end of O’Connell (Sackville) Street. He was dissuaded from his purpose by the Right Hon. Luke Gardiner, subsequently Lord Mountjoy, who was then prospecting the improvement of O’Connell Street, by the removal of its Mall. Two years later, in 1787. Dublin’s third public fountain was raised adjoining the statue of Lord Blakeney. Both it and the monument to the soldier were removed to make way for Nelson’s Pillar in 1808.
[Omitted rest of article due to it be irrelevant]