Launch of book on ending water-carrying drudgery in rural Ireland
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| Leas-Cathaoirleach of Kildare County Council Cllr Tracey O'Dwyer with John Hynes and Christy Sheridan at the launch of John's book. |
It was back to 1982 for Christy and Mary Sheridan last night when they attended a book launch in Keadeen Hotel, writes Brian Byrne. A highlight point in the book was when their home in Calverstown was the 100,000th to be connected to a Group Water Scheme by its author's company.
Who said: “Love, Honour and Carry Water”? — The story behind Ireland’s Group Water Schemes was written by John Hynes, whose company Group Waterworks Ltd opened ground and laid thousands of miles of piping throughout the country in the 45 years from 1968 to 2013. His book tells how, in a nationwide campaign, he garnered the support of community leaders, county engineers, Department officials and politicians, often fighting bureaucracy and yet getting the job done and meeting stringent Department inspections, all at competitive costs and on time.
Nearly 80 installations were in County Kildare, of which 73 were Group Water Schemes. Their arrival eliminated a daily struggle for many thousands of people, mostly women, who previously carried gallons of water by hand in buckets from wells, village pumps or rivers, to cook, wash clothes, and wash their children and themselves.
The book was launched by the eminent Athy-based solicitor and local historian Frank Taaffe, whose weekly newspaper column 'Eye on the Past' has for many years documented the lives and historical heritage of both town and country people in Kildare. He said the book was a 'very important record' of a programme that improved the life of rural communities and he commended John Hynes for his part in that.
Speaking at the occasion, Leas-Cathaoirleach of Kildare County Council Cllr Tracey O'Dwyer noted that there remain to this day areas within County Kildare that still can't connect into mains public water supply and without the introduction of the group water schemes in rural Ireland these communities would just not have been able to continue to function without this most basic amenity that we all take so much for granted. Commenting on the book’s description of the original departmental Group Water Scheme being ‘slow and difficult to organise’ she said little has changed with all the additional layers of red tape since the introduction of Uisce Eireann. "We could do with people like John Hynes on the ground again," she added.
The attendance included former county and departmental officials and engineering staff who had been involved in the provision of Group Water Schemes in many counties during more than four decades. John Hynes expressed his thanks to them, and to the community leaders who had worked with the process to have the water schemes built. He referred to them all as 'unsung heroes' in a mammoth endeavour that, in a similar way to the ESB's Rural Electrification Scheme of two decades earlier, had radically changed for the better the lives of Irish people outside the nation's cities.
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| Author John Hynes with Michelle Byrne and his longtime friends from his motor racing days, Tommy Byrne, Des Donnelly and David Kennedy. |
Also present were Irish motor racing legends Tommy Byrne and David Kennedy, whom John Hynes — himself a keen racer in his younger days — supported when they were starting out.
Who said: “Love, Honour and Carry Water”? is published by Three Sisters Press, and is available initially from Woodbine Books in Kilcullen with further distribution shortly.
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| John Hynes reconnecting memories with Mary Sheridan of Calverstown. |
