Chapter 11
Infrastructure that brought us out of the Dark Ages
ELECTRIC POWER IS OFTEN CALLED  "MAN’S MOST USEFUL SERVANT"

We a re now living in the best times ever despite all our problems but up to the year 1950 or thereabouts we were backward, poor and underdeveloped country  the bad old days for those who remember.

The “Free State” was established in 1922 and the first major project undertaken by the new Government was the harnessing of the waters of the river Shannon, to provide power for our budding industries and electricity  for our homes. At the time, some sceptics called it “Cosgrave’s White
Elephant” Willie Cosgrave was Taoiseach at that time.              
This scheme was undertaken in 1926 by the German electrical firm Siemens but it took another 30 years or more before the tentacles of this scheme had penetrated to the remotest parts of rural Ireland. This was due to the local upheavals in the 1930’s and the subsequent 1939-45  World War.
Urban areas were the first to be catered for. Boherbue village, for some reason, benefited early on - in the mid- thirties. Being adjacent to a Main line and to the  Power house at Clonbannin, probably helped us.                                         
The 1940's, the war years, were years of poverty and misery, remembered in rural Ireland as the time of Ration Books, Free Beef, the scourge of T.B and Compulsory Tillage.
The Post war years in Ireland, up to the mid fifties, were years of depression and emigration, emigration especially to England as it was Boom Time for workers of every description in that country, re-building war ravaged cities and towns. The technological revolution had begun world wide and today, nearly fifty years later, it is still going on.  God only knows where it will end.
In spite of all the gloom and doom of those post war years, we in Ireland were doing our bit preparing for this technological revolution. Our first major project was to bring Electrical Power to every corner of the country. This scheme was called RURAL ELECTRIFICATION.
" I hope to see the day that when a girl gets a proposal from a farmer, she will enquire not so much about the number of cows but rather concerning the electrical appliances she will require before she gives her consent including, not merely electric light but a water heater, an electric clothes boiler, a vacuum cleaner and even a refrigerator."
The above prophetic words were spoken by Séan Lemass in the Senate on March 7th, 1945, exactly two months before World War 2 had ended.
Work on this project in the  Boherbue area commenced in 1954, after an intensive survey had taken place to determine the number of customers who were willing to accept. A total of 99% of householders gladly accepted.   The 1% who did not accept, had some very amusing reasons for not accepting, too dear, too dangerous, especially where you had a thatched house, farmers objected to poles in their land, cattle and fowl disorientated by night and Privacy would not be private anymore. The last reason is rather vague but some local “Wags” made great capital out of it.
I remember that period very well. The village was like a boom town in the old Wild West as it was the headquarters for E.S.B engineers, linesmen and gangs of local and migrant labourers. It was “good times” for the local economy, as lodging houses, shops and public houses, all benefited from the
influx of people.  And it did not stop at that because when these men had their contract completed, “Electrical Contractors” --- some qualified, some handymen and many “chancers”, moved in to bring the much needed power or light as they called it, to the countryside.
And now, with the pressing of a switch, Dwelling houses, animal houses of every description, front yards, back yards etc, etc were moved into a new era
Yes, indeed, a new era. It marked the end of the Tilly Lamp, the Storm Lantern, the Candle etc etc ---------------.   The atmosphere for the Ghost Story was gone and the Fairy became a legend. Spiders and crickets and other “creepy crawleys” had to move elsewhere as their dwellings were now exposed.  And the technology that came along with the Power, levelled the playing field, as it were, for society. No more Country Boys and Girls.
The older people found it hard to come to terms with some aspects of this “modern magic”. The former principal of the girls’ national school now advanced in years could not come to terms with the fact that the same socket on the wall could be used on the one hand to boil the kettle and then, also to freeze the food in the Fridge. Indeed, forty plus years later, most of us still don’t understand but we do know that “Electricity is man’s most useful servant”      We can safely say, that modern Ireland began with Rural Electrification.

Water and Sewerage:-
Water is the most common substance on earth. It fills the oceans, rivers and lakes and is in the ground we walk on and in the air we breathe. Without water, there can be no life. Every living thing, plants, animals and humans need water to survive. Throughout history, water has been man’s slave and his master. Great civilizations have risen where water supplies were plentiful. They have fallen when these water supplies have failed. Going back to Pagan Ireland, we find that amongst other things, the people adored water, they equated it with God, the Supreme Being who created water, to assist in the provision of their food .They worshipped rain gods and prayed for life- giving rain. A good supply of water meant survival.
The people of modern times also know the value of water and to quote the proverb "You never miss the water until the well runs dry"
Only, too true, as can be seen from all the many water related human tragedies that have occurred throughout the world. Indeed not so long ago, before the advent of piped water, the people placed great emphasis in the maintenance of their water sources and in the collection, the storing and the careful usage of water. Spring water or drinking water (fíor uisce) was most important, the sources of the spring water were very well attended to and the person who could discover these sources - The Diviner - was a very important man and held in high esteem in the locality.

Collecting water from roofs and storing it in troughs and barrels was another exercise that had to be attended to, to keep a water supply for cattle, washing purposes etc. People living adjacent to rivers had a great advantage. The fine Summer although much appreciated, often brought worry because of low levels of water in springs and rivers
Spring water sources were known as Tobars and Suleens in Gaelic and Wells in English. The Tobars or Wells were man made but the Suleens were just shallow little pools where the Spring water broke through the surface. Many of these Tobars often had specific names. Locally, we had Tobar na gCloc Deirg, “the well of the red stones”, in Ruhillbeg and Tobar mo chroí in Ruhillmore. We had Roche's well in Keelnahulla and Healy's well in North Gneeves. We have a townland called Doire na Tiobraid.
Joyce's book of Place Names has many “Tobars” or “ Tobers” e.g. Tobermaing in Kerry, Tobernashee in Mayo, Toberdawn in Roscommon etc.
Some of the Tobars were privately owned and this ownership denoted wealth. In former times a"strong"(wealthy) farmer was defined thus - having - a priest in the family, a pump (water supply) in the yard and owning a bull. Some wells were shared and more were publicly owned. Some were deep and had their walls skilfully lined with stones. The little Suleens were just shallow little pools surrounded with stones for users to kneel on when drinking. Some of these Suleens were often on the roadside and used by the community for domestic or for pastoral purposes. More, were often, the cause of bitter disputes between neighbours. All these wells had their own specific mineral qualities, either of lime, oxide or peat etc. depending on the Geology of the area. Many were supposed to have curative powers.
Going to the Pump or Well was a daily task and various methods were used to extract the water, depending on the depth of the well. The Suleen was the easiest to manage but to extract the water from deeper wells needed a Turn-tree and rope - an interesting but tedious exercise. As time went on and especially where the water usage was great the Hand Pump became very popular for obvious reasons, speed, safety and especially hygiene.
Here in Boherbue, the village pump was situated in the square, roughly where the island flower- bed is today. It was in an alcove in front of and attached to the barrack lawn and surrounded by a wall .The pump, as it was locally called, supplied water to generations of villagers and indeed to people in the hinterland during the Summer because our well never ran dry. Its water which came from the bowels of the earth, was crystal clear, cold, hard and invigorating, with traces of oxide. People carried water from the pump in large jugs, tin gallons and buckets, enamel gallons and buckets, barrels and 20 gallon (90litre) churns. I can remember the local bakeries wheeling their churns to and from the pump, tilted sideways on rim, one hand holding the cover and the other hand creating the momentum --- it was an art that called for great skill and dexterity.

The well in the square was 19feet deep.
People met at the pump and like the local forge, it was an assembly place, especially during the long summer evenings. Great discussions took place there. Political discussions and debates never came to any conclusions but many a football game, hopelessly lost in the field of play, was replayed there and indeed often won. Young girls often found excuses to go to the pump and indeed often dressed up for the occasion, the reasons of course being obvious. In winter, when the hard frost froze the pumping apparatus, the local, adjacent smith generally came to the rescue, de-icing and doing the necessary repairs.

The early 1950,s saw the gradual decline and final demise of the Village Pump because the expansion of the village deemed it necessary to provide a modern and more sophisticated water system. So, the new Boherbue Water Supply Scheme catering for village and suburbs was laid down by Johnny Feehan, contractor, Boherbue and Newmarket. The scheme was completed in the Spring of 1953.
Eddie Bradley was appointed Water Curator and maintenance man of the Sewerage scheme that followed
The Sewerage scheme automatically followed it started in 1954 and completed in a few years. It replaced an old system which catered for the east end of village. The new system, like the water system catered only for the village and suburbs. A west of Ireland firm from Mayo Garvey & Solon, were the contractors and the foreman was a man named Gannon.

Like the Rural Electrification scheme, the next few years were boom years for Plumbers bringing water on tap and installing bathroom and toilet facilities into houses Unlike the water system, the sewerage system has not extended one metre since the 195O’s.
The source for the original water scheme was a tiny little well near the sandpit in the lands of the late Paddy McAuliffe, T.D, M.C.C, Keelnahulla. This little well was known locally as Roche's well and the water from there was pumped to a Tower in upper Gneeves ---- capacity of tower =36,700 gallons.
The first stage of the development was the laying of the pipeline which extended as far as Teach Nóni. Shortly afterwards, it was extended to the O'Connell, Clancy, Galvin terrace. Now, an additional source had to be found as the demand was increasing. Another well, known as Healy's well in the lands of Pat O'Sullivan, Lower Gneeves and very near Roche's well was piped into the main supply. The pipeline crept on to Ballyhoolihan cross roads. In the Spring of 1959, another extension took place from the water tower to Lomanaugh Cross .
As both wells were now coming under pressure from the increased human usage and now animal needs, a well, found in the lands of David Fitzgerald, Ruhillmore known as Tobar mo Chroí meant that the pipeline crept on from Lomanaugh Cross.
A fourth well opened in the lands of John O' Connor (Sonny the Dairy), enabled the water supply to reach the Ballyhoolihan \ Derrishal area. Other extensions took place, either through group schemes or privately financed schemes and very shortly most of the parish was being catered for.
Apart from the ever increasing human needs in the homes where water was needed for cleaning, cooking, bathing and disposing of waste, the pressure on Dairy farmers brought about by the strict hygiene regulations governing the production of milk meant that they had to have a decent water supply.
The piecemeal approach, to the extension of the water supply scheme, to say the least, was very unsatisfactory and the constant search for good and suitable sources was a constant worry for officials. This situation was rectified in 1982, when the schemes at Newmarket, Boherbue, Dromtariffe and Derrinagree were amalgamated and the source was to be at BALLINATONA, near Meelin and the four existing water sources in Boherbue were closed in 1982. In 1986, Eddie retired and was replaced by his son, Eddie Patrick.
Our tobars, suleens, wells and water diviners were great in their time but can you imagine the modern house without piped water.
Yes indeed, throughout history, water has been man’s slave.
My Thanks to Eddie Bradley for helping me with this article.