| Chapter 1: | Water Supplies |
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described, repeats itself indefinitely. Quite a small hydraulic ram can be used to pump domestic water supplies, as the following data indicate. With a head, or fall, of 4 feet and a supply pipe of 1.5-inch diameter, 12 gallons of water are used per minute to deliver 600 gallons to a height of 90 feet every twenty-four hours.30
In the years leading up to the Great Famine, the area to the southwest of Strokestown, County Roscommon, was low-lying, swampy, and given to flooding. Many landless and poor people gravitated there and lived in such unhygienic conditions that concerns were raised about potential health risks from polluted water supplies. The landlord at that time, Major Mahon, decided to install a hydraulic ram pump to provide clean water supplies for Strokestown Park House in 1845, and funds for this purpose were obtained from Lord Hartland's estate.31 Strokestown River had been diverted from its course to pass the house for scenic reasons in the 1780s, and, so, the pump was situated “behind the north-west wing of the house, where the flow of water was particularly strong”.32 By the mid-1870s, however, when the new Rural Sanitary Committee for Strokestown Union was allowed to “adopt the water turbine” to supply the town, the previously mentioned 1845 hydraulic ram pump had become a pump powered by a water turbine.33 It is not clear why or when the changeover took place, but H. Kennedy & Son of Coleraine manufactured water-driven turbines in Ireland from 1870. A water turbine is like a miniature waterwheel within a casing and is a more efficient means of deriving power from a head of water. In this case, the turbine drove a pump, but examples of turbines that drove an electricity generator and a mechanical line shaft can be seen in plate 72 and plate 84, respectively. The town water supply continued to be provided from this source at the big house until 1925. Lack of proper maintenance of the pipework and outlets in the town, together with greatly increased demands, partially due to flushing water closets, resulted in intermittent water shortages and, ultimately, a completely new system being installed at another site.34
Turlough Park, County Mayo, stands on a hill about 350 yards (320 m) from the Castlebar River that flows past the grounds near the entrance