Some time in the early morning of Sunday, November 24th last a car mounted the low concrete plinth surrounding The Fountain here in Castleisland and shattered the furniture and shook the cut limestone structure itself.
Bits and pieces of a broken car grill and, more tragically, the shattered cast iron works of the fountain lay in bits around the ground.
The importance of ‘The Fountain’ to the population of Castleisland over many generations can never be underestimated.
In its times of need, and there have been times when it needed care and attention, there has been someone who came out of the fog of anonymity and got it the help it needed.
Hogan’s Lorry in the 1970s
In the early 1970s Hogan’s lorry was parked in front of the once famous hardware shop and it didn’t have its handbrake on.
It had a load of timber and its front wheels were set right on course for the fountain. At some hour on the fateful night / early morning it took off with the fall of ground and shattered the one dependable and vital source of water for the people of the locality.
Of course people had water in their houses and all that. But for the importance of making tea and watering the drop at Monny Mac’s or Paddy Hussey’s there was only the one source for that.
Tops of the Town Topic
The incident became a local topic of conversation and it made the stage at the community centre during the era of the all consuming tops-of-the-town competition.
After that 1970s disaster, it was the late Helen Leane who led the charge and led it from the front and with purpose and vigour.
She went as far as RTÉ and enlisted Frank Hall and made a national news issue of it when local authorities didn’t or wouldn’t listen.
Timothy Murphy’s Photograph
Timothy Murphy’s photograph from the archive of 1973 paints a thousand words on the kind of esteem the fountain was held in those days.
That photograph was taken after Helen’s successful campaign and Barrack Street neighbours, Tommy John A. O’Connor and Jim O’Connor applied their reconstruction skills and the water was flowing again.
Back to today. On November 24th. last, Cllr. Charlie Farrelly rang on that Sunday morning with the news that the fountain had been struck by a car and shattered.
Out of the Fog
But out of that fog from which which Helen and Tommy John A and Jim came all those years ago, a man of like mind emerged this time too.
On that morning last November, Kerry County Council staff member Flor McAuliffe picked up every scrap of the metal of the broken fountain, put them in a bag and took them to Humphrey Horan’s workshop.
The two men painstakingly reassembled the pieces and, as a generation before them did, they put it all back together and Flor put the metal furniture back in its place on a recent Friday morning.
‘There Long Before Us’
As part of his work in putting back the furnishings of the fountain Flor knew that there was more to it in terms of depth.
“There was nearly a foot of it buried below the present day street level and thought I’d dig it out and bring it back to its original height.
“It was there long before us and ’tis up to us now to make sure ’tis there after us,” said the camera shy Flor as he dismissed any suggestions of community heroism for his act of determination, perseverance and civic service.
Cool Fresh Water
In the days when its presence was vital to the business of the area and a constantly flowing source of cool, fresh water, the fountain was also the place to meet and get the local news of the day.
But it had a habit of making the news itself also in days of yore and more recently – as outlined above.
Even before its construction got into its stride at all, the blasting for its foundations and supply pipe caused great commotion in its neighbourhood around Lower Main Street.
Severe Damage to Houses
When these were being excavated, the extent of the blasting was such that several houses on lower Main Street suffered severe damage and the rear two-storey part of Wren’s fell down completely.
The history of Wren’s and the fountain are inextricably linked as the supply pipe ran down from the well or source where St. Stephen’s Park is now and it entered the street on the final leg of its journey under the archway beside Wren’s.
Compensation for Wren Family
This archway is now the gated entrance to Hogan’s Place residential area.
After the blasting and the collapse of the rear of their dwelling and business premises, the Wren family was compensated and the premises rebuilt with thicker walls. The front, three storey part of the house, escaped unscathed without having even a small pane of glass cracked!
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