Sewer Where Would You Get It?

Oh.

Anne writes:

Memorial in central Dublin I never noticed before. A nasty way to go. Perhaps of interest to Broadsheet readers?

Update:

The Burgh Quay Sewege Catastrophe, May 6, 1905

What kind of man would do that for a fellow man?

Wade through poo smelling foulness we can’t even imagine or maybe we just don’t want to?

Constable Patrick Sheahan was a well known figure in the turn-of-the-century Dublin Metropolitan police force, indeed he may have been the Dublin equivalent of Captain Carrot in Terry Pratchett’s ‘Men at Arms‘ books.

The Constable’s obliging nature and impressive size – 6 foot 4 inches tall and 18 stone in weight – resulted in him being called up for the jobs no one else in the force felt able for, such as – on one famous occasion – wrestling a runaway bull to the pavement of Grafton Street.

He also regularly rescued old ladies from collapsing buildings and received a reward for recovering a city flag from a group of Trinity students in Dawson Street and restoring it to the Mansion House.

Constable Sheahan’s luck ran out in the labyrinthine sewers of Burgh Quay on Saturday May 6, 1905, when – having gone on duty to cover for a friend who had wanted to go to the theatre – he died of suffocation trying to rescue a Dublin corporation workman overcome by deadly gas.

His funeral in Mount Argus was a grand affair and the streets along which the cortege proceeded to Kingsbridge Station – from which his body was taken by train to his native Limerick for burial – were thronged with Dubliners respectful of his courage.