It took 250,000 men to create the Panama Canal; of course they weren’t all working there at the same time. 25,000 died, mainly from rock falls and malaria. The French company that had created The Suez Canal gave up in despair.
The President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, was in despair too; but help was at hand. A little known engineer from a small town in the U.S. took up the challenge. A local G.P. joined forces with him. The engineer decided that cutting a channel through rocky territory wasn’t feasible – he decided to construct a series of locks.
The doctor found that quinine was the answer to malaria. And thus two obscure men succeeded, and confounded the worlds of medicine and engineering.
I would love to see Castleisland’s fountain restored to its modest glory. It wouldn’t take 25,000 men and it wouldn’t cost any lives. I could do it myself with a helper. And it wouldn’t cost a fortune.
As far as I know there isn’t any reason why this cannot be done. It would enhance the Latin Quarter, and a lot more. And I would love to see a plaque on the Tralee Road side of the Market House. It would read: “To the good people of Pound Road”.
The men of the community used to hold their mighty parliament, presided over in the old days by Mikey Conway.
Some of Mikey’s nuggets went into folklore. There was a night away back in 1943 when the future of the world seemed to hinge on the battle of Al Alamein. Now read on!
Thus one night at the Market House parliament a neighbour said to Mikey: “Are you very worried about your son in the middle of all the fighting in North Africa?” And Mikey said: “Georgie is well able to look after himself. Before he went away he spent three years with the farmers.”
I would like to see a statue of Mikey somewhere on a piece of waste ground that was once a part of Pound Road. And of course he would be wearing his cap and carrying his famous bell. He was a great bellman – a town crier he would be called in England.
He had a powerful voice, and he pronounced every syllable of every word. He was very useful when the water was about to be turned off. And on Sundays, he used to be at Molly’s corner as the people came out after last mass. You could hear something like this: “Black and white heifer belonging to Paddy O’Connor strayed from the fair in Castleisland last Monday. If anyone has seen her or her equals, please report to the nearest Garda Barracks.”
Life changes, not all the innovations in Castleisland are unwelcome.
I love the trees in the street: I would like to see lights on them at night. It would brighten the town and would attract small birds to nest, the heat of the bulbs would attract them.
And if the Fountain flowed again, the street would be as attractive as any in Paris or Rome or Madrid.
The fair and Mikey Conway are long gone but the show must go on.
My congratulations to the Basketball carnival, may it go on getting better and better.
Con
Houlihan writes for the Sunday World.
Blitz Programme 06