water pump

Freestanding cast-iron water pump, erected c.1885, comprising a banded cylindrical shaft with fluted head having fluted spout, ‘cow tail’ curvilinear handle, and a fluted ogee-dome cap with finial over. "Lion Evens" in raised lettering to the cylindrical shaft. Pump set between two rubble stone buttresses with a rubble limestone boundary wall to the rear (south). Plaque to the rear wall commemorates the hunger striker, Martin Hurson. Located to the south side of the main approach road into Moate from the east.

A typical late nineteenth-century water pump, of a standard design encountered throughout rural Westmeath. Water pumps played an important social role in the late nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries by providing a communal water source before the development of mains water supply. This cast-iron pump now serves as an attractive piece of street furniture, aesthetically enhancing the streetscape to the east side of Moate. The rubble limestone boundary wall with buttresses to the rear adds to the setting. A plaque to the rear wall commemorates Martin Hurson, who died on hunger strike in the H Block in 1991.