€100 reward offer as historic Cork city fountain goes missing

A city councillor has offered a €100 reward for information leading to the return of an historic 19th-century fountain gifted to the people of Cork but which officials admit has been lost.

Cllr Ken O’Flynn urged anyone with information on the whereabouts of the Dunscombe fountain, which was installed in the late 1800s at the bottom of Shandon St and remained there for almost a century, to come forward.

“If someone has it or knows of its whereabouts, I would like to open a line of engagement with them to secure its return to the people of Cork,” said Mr O’Flynn.

He offered the reward yesterday after quizzing officials during Monday’s city council meeting about the fountain’s whereabouts.

He also asked if they had any plans to reinstate the “important part of Cork history” back into the public realm.

However, in a written reply, the council’s head of roads, Gerry O’Beirne, said: “The location of the Dunscombe fountain and gas light structure is unknown.”

Mr O’Flynn said he was baffled at how such an important piece of the city’s heritage could simply vanish. He also criticised city management for their “apparent indifference” to the loss of such an important piece of the city’s history.

“This is not just a case of missing furniture. This is an important historical and cultural item,” he said.

He called for a city-wide audit of similar heritage pieces to discover what else may have been “lost”.

The fountain was gifted to the city in the late 1800s in the name of Reverend Nicholas C Dunscombe — a leading Protestant clergyman and a founder member, along with the Apostle of Temperance, Fr Mathew, of the temperance movement in Cork.

Irish Examiner archives show how friends of the late Rev Dunscombe established a committee to oversee donations to fund the construction and erection of the fountain in his native city.

A testimonial, published on page two of the then Cork Examiner on June 23, 1877, reads: “Several friends of the late philanthropic gentlemen wish to perpetuate his memory by the erection of a drinking fountain in some suitable place in this, his native city”.

It included a list of “gentlemen” who had “kindly consented to act as a committee” and who had agreed to “receive subscriptions for the purpose”.

The fountain was cast in the George Smith & Company Sun Foundry in Glasgow.

While archives show it was in place by 1880 in an area known as Brown’s Square at the bottom of Shandon St — an area created following the demolition of several small houses and shops — further records show it was given to Cork Corporation in April 1883.

The area around it was used by the shawlies, or street vendors, who sold clothes as well as holly and ivy at Christmas.

In his written answer to Mr O’Flynn, Mr O’Beirne said historical records suggest the foundation was removed from the street sometime before the 1980s, and that another fountain was installed on Brown’s Square as part of the Cork 800 celebrations in 1985.

That fountain was removed in 2003 ahead of the Shandon St renewal scheme.

Mr O’Flynn said he would like to trace the original Dunscombe fountain and return it to the people of Cork.