Wells may hold a risk

THERE was a time in Ireland when country people felt their drinking water was safe when it came from spring wells. But that was long ago.

It was an era when every house did not have a septic tank and when farming was far less intensive, with no slurry to spread on fields or to escape from pits. It was also a time when rivers were clean and full of trout, as we remember from days of youth.

There was nothing quite like slaking your thirst on warm summer days from those wells all around the countryside, some with stone walls and steps leading down to them.