Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, Historical Walking Tour of Blackrock, 27 July 2013

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Events

700a. Dunlocha Cottages, 2013

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 18 July 2013

Historical Walking Tour of Blackrock, 27 July 2013

 

On Saturday 27 July 2013, I am running a historical walking tour of Blackrock Village (free, meet 2pm, Blackrock Castle, approx two hours). Within the story of Blackrock and its environs, one can write about a myriad of topics from its connection to the river and the harbour to its former mini demesne type landscape in the nineteenth century to its heart of a small village of hard working labourers and fishermen who struggled to survive.

This year as well, the residents of Dunlocha Cottages are celebrating the centenary of the cottages being built in 1913. They plan to host an event on Saturday 24 August to mark it. The cottages were developed by the Cork Rural District, which existed through Public Health Acts of the late 1800s giving them authority to improve public health in the areas they represented and Labourers Acts of the late 1800s, which them authority to clear slum like areas and build new houses for the poorer classes.

            Searching through newspapers and Cork street directories reveals that the Cork Rural District comprised 65 representatives from 30 areas in Cork’s metropolitan area (averaging two representatives per area). Their work was funded by a portion of the rates of ratepayers in the city and county. On two of Dunlocha Cottages are two plaques to Richard Wallace and Daniel Coakley, which serve to remember the two councillors involved in pushing for the creation of the cottages. According to the census of 1911, Richard Wallace lived in Blackrock and was a reputable carrier agent for the Cork Macroom Railway with his office at Marlboro Chambers, (that lovely red bricked building with YMCA inscribed on it). He was 37 years of age, was 13 years married to Elizabeth with three young kids, 11, 9, and 3.  In 1911, Daniel Coakley, lived in Ballinure, was 58 years of age, 35 years married to Hannah, with six grown up children in their twenties. Daniel was a market gardener in Ballinure in Mahon. The Blackrock rural district area was a large one and extended from Mahon through Blackrock, Ballintemple and Ballinlough to the Cross Douglas Road.

            Both Richard Wallace and Daniel Coakley were busy public representatives. In the three years previous to the opening of the cottages, Wallace was a member of the Board of Guardians in the Cork Union on Douglas Road and was quite well aware from that as well what was needed to improve the poverty of his constituents. Daniel Coakley was the same through his work as a hard slog market gardener. In 1913, at the heart of Blackrock Village and environs was a slum-like centre. Over 2,500 people lived in over 400 houses. Several decades earlier ninety families are recorded as living in one roomed cottages, 260 in two rooms and just over 200 in three or more rooms, the average number of persons to a bed were three. The census of 1911 shows a tight knit community with a myriad of occupations, 64 registered fishermen, and several involved in agricultural labour, shipping, carpentry, smithies. In other words there was a hard working population who strove to provide for young families. The average age of heads of households of Blackrock in the 1911 census was between 40 and 45.

            As early as April 1910, Daniel Coakley remarked at a district council meeting that land needed to be bought in Blackrock to provide spaces for new houses to relieve some of the conditions. However, buying property was expensive and the proposal to buy a field called Jameson’s Field in Blackrock was expensive. From 1910 through to the end of 1913, the field was to be a common item on the agenda of the District Council.

            The field was named after Richard Longfield Jameson who had leased the property from the Chatterton family of Castlemahon in the nineteenth century plus then sublet it again; both the Chattertons and Richard lost their lands through the collapse of their rent schemes during the time of the great famine. The Chatterton family suffered financial problems and lived more frugally in Dorset and, from 1852 at Rolls Park in Essex. However the name of Jameson stuck. The lands were sold off by the Encumbered Estates project in the post Great Famine years. Richard Longfield Jameson had several valuable houses, and premises, situated on the South Mall, Morrison’s Island, Queen Street and Logan Street in the City of Cork. His property was sold in fifteen lots. By 1910, the lands in Blackrock were the property of Dr Edward Magner, a medical doctor, living in Ballinure, who had a practice on the South Mall. During 1910 at various meetings of the district council, the protection and enhancement of people’s lives seem to fuel the passion of Richard Wallace and Daniel Coakley.

            By the time Dunlocha cottages were built, the number of cottages the Rural District Council had built in previous years was nearly 1,400 and they had 85 in hand including the Jameson Field project. In the bigger picture, nationally, since 1866 5,500 houses had been built accommodating 4,600 families at a cost of £700,000 or about E.45m in today’s money. In otherwords, the Cork Rural District Council was a key runner in Ireland in the provision of new cottages.

 

Caption:

700a. Dunlocha Cottages, 2013 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Articles, 11 July 2013

Cork History, Uncategorized

699a. City of Cork VEC administration staff posing for official photograph, Crawford Art Gallery, 27 June 2013

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 11 July 2013

Technical Memories (Part 59) – Serving a City

 

Standing recently in the sculpture gallery of the Crawford Art Gallery, the William Crawford statue provided the podium setting for the final public gathering to mark and remember the work of the work of the Cork City Vocational Educational Committee. As this column works through the work of the former Crawford Municipal Technical Institute and its connection to the VEC through the years, it is also appropriate to mark the end of the VEC era this week.

After 84 years of service to communities across Ireland the 33 remaining VECs finally ended their long and illustrious journey on 1 July 2013 when they ceased to exist and were replaced by 16 Education and Training Boards (ETBs).  Standing under the William Crawford statue in the sculpture gallery, the City of Cork VEC Ted Owens introduced the speakers for the event. Perhaps what was apt was that the William Crawford statue came from the boardroom of the Cork Savings Bank in February 1958, the same month the VEC opened offices in the Crawford Art Gallery.

Lord Mayor, Cllr Catherine Clancy, commented on the interconnections between the past and present functions of the Crawford Art Gallery.  The building has been built over the past 300 years in four different sections, for different functional reasons. Yet it still manages to be married seamlessly into one coherent unit. Higher education establishments grew out of the building. In 1827, the old Custom House was given to the Royal Cork Institution, with the object of “diffusing knowledge and the application of science to the common purposes in life”. The institution campaigned for and was successful in seeing Queen’s College Cork established and opened by 1849.

Part of the custom house became a Government School of Design in 1850 and a magnificent extension, housing studios and galleries were added in 1884 to accommodate the growing number of students. The school was re-named the Crawford School of Art under the stewardship of the Technical Instruction Committee in 1899 and in another part the Crawford Art Gallery opened.

In 1930, the Technical Instruction Committee was replaced by the Vocational Education Committee, and the City of Cork VEC continued to operate the School of Art until 1979, when the transfer of the Old Crawford Technical Institute to the new Regional Technical College (RTC) in Bishopstown allowed it to move to Sharman Crawford Street. In 1993, the VEC was divested of the RTC, College of Art and School of Music to create another third-level educational body, the Cork Institute of Technology. Over the next six years, the committee, despite falling second level enrolments, managed to nearly double its full-time enrolments to almost 6,000 students by offering a range of new and exciting Further Education Courses. So successful had the VEC been in the this area that the first purpose further education college in Ireland was St John’s College of Further Education College. In 2000, the Crawford Gallery further expanded its gallery space by creating a new exhibition wing. Continued staff growth had meant that the VEC administration was scattered over a number of locations in the city and in 2006 also, these were combined in new headquarters in Lavitt’s Quay, freeing up more space for the gallery.

Cllr Jim Corr, the key note speaker, spoke about the ongoing and progressive contributions of the VEC to the provision of diverse aspects of education and training for all sections of the city’s communities. He noted that: “the records of this VEC show that a great cross-section of people; from the world of politics, teaching, commerce and community development have been members of this committee and have promoted progressive initiatives, designed to enhance the personal lives of individual people and to advance the economic, social and cultural life of our city”.

Cllr Corr has been a member of the City of Cork VEC for 39 years. He detailed that when he joined the committee, it was in the process of purchasing an expansive 44 acre site in Bishopstown for what today is the Cork Institute of Technology. In time new second level schools were built – for boys on Tramore Road called Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa, the Nagle College in Mahon and for boys and girls in MacSwiney College in Knocknaheeny. A Gael Colaiste, Colaiste Daibhéad, was established, which had numerous homes but is now located just off the South Terrace. Outreach centres were established for early school leavers, a school for the training of the travelling community, educational services in Cork prison and the committee assisted in the establishment and operation of youth and sports centres throughout the city. They also put in place provisions to assist people who were experiencing problems with literacy and numeracy. They were also one of the first pioneering VEC’s to introduce the concept of “Further Education”. The concept is about to become an independent sector in the overall national provision for education and training.

Cllr Corr also praised the work of former CEOs, Paddy Parfrey and Dick Langford and current CEO Ted Owens and former and present day administration and teaching staff. He wished that the “spirit of co-operation and commitment to people” and their educational and training needs would be characteristic of the new Educational Training Boards.

To be continued…

 

Caption:

699a. City of Cork VEC administration staff, posing for an official photograph, Crawford Art Gallery, 27 June 2013 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Motions and Question to the City Manager, Cork City Council Meeting, 8 July 2013

Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

Question to the City Manager:

To ask the City Manager again why BAM construction have still not removed their hoarding erected on Penrose Quay? (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)

 

Motions

As per previous motions, to ask the planning directorate, when is the area around the town wall, a national monument, under the ramp under Kyrl’s Quay going to be cleaned up? (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)

To add the overgrown plot of land at the corner of the entrance to Avonlea Court on Church Road to the site’s derelict register (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 4 July 2013

Cork History, Uncategorized

698a. Sean O Coilleain's full course diploma document,1938

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 4 July 2013

Technical Memories (Part 58) – Everybody has a book in them

I met Seán Ó Coileáin, last year during research for the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute. He attended the institute from 1934. In recent years, he has penned a memoir on his own memories of the city at that time, part of which is a memory of the Crawford tech. I publish some of his memories again this week.

“Mr Madden, who had an M.Sc (he used to give chemistry lectures through Irish at UCC), made an effort to teach us the elements of physics through Irish, but of course had to revert to English, when topics became difficult. After the lecture, we’d adjourn to the laboratory for practical work in elementary chemistry. 

We finally got around to our first brush with electricity in electrical engineering practice in the electrical laboratory, where the teacher George McIlwraith gave us a secondary cell to experiment with. We tried to electrocute a blue bottle, but only succeeded in burning a hole through the unfortunate insect. The following morning we got our first lecture on the subject and it was a revelation to me. The lecture room had rising tiers of desks, and the teacher, Johnny Higgins, was possibly the best teacher I ever met. He began with a talk on magnetism. Until then, I had thought that all that was to be known about magnetism was what I already knew – that a toy horse shoe shaped magnet could pick up pins. Until then, I’d never heard of magnetic fields, or magnetic poles, or all the other various properties of attraction or repulsion of natural and artificial magnets, and electro-magnetism and the principle of the magnetic compass. Mr Higgins made it all so interesting and I enjoyed each one of his lectures on the basics of magnetism and electricity, which opened up a whole new world to me.

He told us on the first day, that when he was a student at university, there was a big glass container in one of the lecture theatres and he couldn’t resist the temptation to let fly at it, and burst it with a well-aimed missile. At the subsequent enquiry, Johnny owner up to the deed, and he made the point that people should stand over their actions. He used also give us lectures on mechanical drawing in a small lecture room off the electrical lab. One day before he came in, we were making a terrible racket, kicking the table etc, Johnny came in and wanted to know who was creating all the racket, only to be met with a dead silence. Eventually I owned up and instead of being told off as expected, he held me up as an example to the rest for owning up, to my great embarrassment. At the end of first year, one day before the advent of the Department exams, we were all sitting at a long table at the end of the electrical lab, Johnny was pointing out the weak points to each person in the class and giving some final advice. When he came to me, he said ‘Collins, keep up the character, smile and you’ll be ok’.

In second year, we had Johnny for heat engines, theory of machines. However, the course needed to be changed when it came to electricity. We were taught about direct current (DC) generation and distribution, which had been superseded by alternating current (AC) with the advent of the ESB. Cork City was still DC and gradually being converted to AC. There were in those days, two giant rotary convertors in Caroline Street for converting AC to DC to supply the existing city DC installations.  I struggled to come to grips with AC but did get a grind of sorts one day from Johnnie Higgins. He was an outstanding teacher. He died a few months afterwards.

In first year we had classes in Irish (Lucy Duggan), woodwork (Mr Hurley), metalwork (Mr Barry), science (Mr Madden), mechanics (Mr King, Teddy Murphy, Martin Black), Drawing (Johnny Higgins), maths (Mr Good), electricity (Mr McIlwraith, Johnny Higgins, Toddy Sullivan), physical training (Mr O’Sullivan). Added to those subjects in second year were heat engines (John Higgins), theory of machines (John Higgins) and materials and structures (Mr Daly, who also taught maths, design (John Higgins) and in third year, electrical design (Mr McIlwraith).

At the end of each year the sessional exams took place. One third of marks were given for attendance (I never missed a day), one third for exam results and one third for homework. But the main thing was the exam and out of 100 marks, 34 would get you a pass. I got through all the exams in first year except mechanics and so I was allowed into second year. The following year I got first prize in Ireland for engineering science (elementary). I well remember cashing in the cheque in Kildorrey and the clerk congratulating me.  I bought a wrist watch with the prize money. I completed my three year course of the Tech in September 1938 and some months later began a job with the Post Office engineering services on Cook Street”.

To be continued…

 

Caption:

698a. Seán Ó Coileáin’s full course diploma document, 1938 (source: Seán Ó Coileáin)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, Cork Independent, 27 June 2013

Cork City Events, Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Events

697a. John F Kennedy's motorcade travels through St Patrick's Street, 28 June 1963

 

Kieran Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 27 June 2013

Freedom, Hope and JFK

“There was a great assembly from all parts of Cork when President Kennedy visited the City yesterday on his Irish whirlwind visit and it will go down as one of the most memorable receptions so far. From an early hour spectators began crowding the sidewalk and streets gaily decorated with the entwined flags of the two countries” (Journalist, Irish Independent, 29 June 1963).

On Friday 28 June, I’m giving a tour of Cork Docklands leaving from Kennedy Park at 7pm (free). The tour aims to mark the visit, fifty years ago to Cork, by US President John F Kennedy. On 28 June 1963, he spent the morning in Cork where he received the Freedom of the City. He later left the city by helicopter from Monahan Road and from what in time became known as Kennedy Park. I was not around in 1963 but walking around Cork City Hall, there are several memorials to him. His visit to the city can be explored in the newspapers from the time and in film (google the youtube footage “John F. Kennedy in Cork, Ireland, June 28th 1963”),

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDbsxWGsebc.

A recent debate in Cork City Hall’s council chamber provided food for thought as Kennedy’s legacy was spoken about. In his trip to Ireland, he was just coming back from Berlin where on 26 June, 1963, he gave a historic speech to a crowd in front of the Berlin Wall. The speech was given in response to the Cold War and the tension between the non-Communist countries and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union built the Berlin Wall as a way to keep people from fleeing to non-Communist countries, mainly West Berlin. Kennedy praised the character of the people of Berlin in their pursuit for freedom.

JFK took office during one of the most turbulent times in American history. The Cold War between democracy and communism was becoming more confrontational, and the United States and the Soviet Union possessed enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world many times over. In American cities, racial tension was rising. Growing numbers of black Americans had begun to demonstrate for equal treatment under the law, and white segregationists promised to deny these rights, using violence if necessary. As he struggled with the complexities of foreign and domestic politics, Kennedy sometimes fell short of his idealistic rhetoric. A self-proclaimed supporter of civil rights, he moved forward slowly on the issue until 1963, when racial violence forced his hand. An advocate of peaceful development abroad, he hastened America’s descent into the Vietnam war, a conflict that would end countless lives and bitterly divide his nation. His assassination on 22 November 1963, in Dallas, Texas, marked a bloody conclusion to his presidency, but accelerated his coronation as a martyred prince of American politics. In death, he became a cultural icon. The idealism that Kennedy evoked did not die with him. Although Kennedy failed to realize his promise, he left a legacy of hope.

Perhaps it was a message of hope that he carried on his visit to Ireland and to cities such as Cork on his way back to the US from Berlin in June 1963. Indeed, he received the freedom of Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Wexford. President Kennedy’s itinerary meant that helicopter was his means of transport on trips through the country. The Minister for External Affairs, Mr Aiken and the American Ambassador, Mr McCioskey travelled in the President’s helicopter. The Minister for Industry and Commerce Jack Lynch travelled in another helicopter and visiting pressmen and officials travelled in two similar craft.

The rain, which had been threatening during the morning held off for the commencement of his visit. As the President alighted at Collins Barracks, a pipe band drawn from the 4th Batallion, Limerick under Sergeant Walter O’Sullivan. The President gave the crew cut White House security men an unexpected problem when he arrived in Cork. Flanked on both sides by security men, he suddenly changed course and went to a window at Collins Barracks where a group of Army nurses were waving frantically and calling “Mr President”, Mr. President. With a broad grin he strode across to them and with an outstretched hand greeted them individually.

Half an hour before President Kennedy arrived in Cork, an emergency call went out from the secret service that one of the two open cars to be used in the procession had broken down. Twenty minutes later a Cork firm had supplied a black 1937 Rolls-Royce. As the motorcade progressed towards the city centre the crowds thickened. Again and again his car had some difficulty in getting through and had to stop more than once. The effective crash barriers in Parnell Place stood up well to surging crowds and all Cork wanted to get a glimpse of the smiling young President as he was brought through the streets.

In McCurtain Street a large banner erected by the ITGWU spanned the roadway issuing ‘céad míle fáilte’ to the President. One of the biggest crowds was the foot of Patrick’s Hill where Gardai had trouble holding back the crowds. On more than one occasion thousands surged forward in an attempt to reach the President’s car but the Gardaí succeeded in maintaining a narrow passage, which was just big enough to allow the procession through.

At Cork City Hall the Cork Lord Mayor, Alderman Seán Casey, TD, opened his address to Kennedy by noting “You stand for the weak against the strong, for right against might”. Continuing the Lord Mayor noted that Kennedy was receiving the honour “in token of our pride that this descendant of Irish emigrants should have been elected to such an exalted office and of our appreciation of his action in coming to visit the country of his ancestors; as a tribute to his unceasing and fruitful work towards the attainment of prosperity and true peace by all the people of the world, and in recognition of the close ties that have always existed between our two countries”. The Freedom of Cork casket was decorated with celtic designs and on the lid the arms of Cork were engraved. On the front was the American Eagle Crest and on the back of the crest of the Kennedy family.

In a well measured speech, one of Kennedy’s key points referred to Ireland’s hope and mission for freedom through the ages: “So Ireland is still old Ireland but it has found a new mission in the 1960s and that is to lead the free world to join with other countries in the free world to do in the 60’s what Ireland did in the early part of this century and indeed has done for the last 800 years and that it associate itself intimately with the principle of freedom”.

As the crowds swelled outside City Hall to get a glimpse of the President, Kennedy’s motorcade struggled as it made its way to Monahan Road to reach his helicopter for his return flight to Dublin. Despite the troops drawn from Collins barracks and Sarsfield Barracks and the 1st Motor Squadron, the public seized their opportunity here and swarmed around the presidential helicopter and gave him a send-off that equalled anything he received to that date on his Irish visit.

Links, more information and more pictures on this story can be seen at my blog www.kieranmccarthy.ie

Caption:

697a. John F Kennedy’s Motorcade travels through St Patrick’s Street, 28 June 1963 (source JFK Presidential Library, USA)

 

Further information:

http://www.jfk50ireland.com/

http://www.jfk50.org/

Kieran’s Farewell to Lord Mayor Speech, Cork City Council AGM, 21 June 2013

Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

Fate, Faith and Freedom

 

Lord Mayor I would like to start with a quote:

“So Ireland is still old Ireland but it has found a new mission and that is to lead the free world to join with other countries in the free world to do what Ireland did in the early part of this century and indeed has done for the last 800 years and that is to associate itself intimately with the principle of freedom”. John F Kennedy, Friday morning 28 June 1963, Concert Hall, Cork City Hall.

Congratulations on a great year Lord Mayor. Congrats on your mission. In a building filled with memories of what it means to be free, in a room filled with artefacts and documents about freedom, and with a chain made to represent the identity of its citizens perhaps the word freedom pervades your year in office.  I was struck by the concept of freedom and citizenship even more at the recent freedom of the city event and your comments in framing the position of the arts in the city and region and its multiple connections to the concept of the freedom of expression.

In your year of office you strongly championed the freedom to express oneself in the arts and in education. You initiated discussions directly and indirectly into the power of freedom – in your well researched and recent Freedom of the City speech, you alluded to freedom as a force that has the power to stop, impress, make one question, wonder, dream, remember, be disturbed, explore and not forget.

There is a faith in the freedom attached to the symbolism of the chain you wear and the symbols within, a faith in the ss links symbolising a sacred office and a faith connected to a symbol of a maritime gate, the city medieval water gate, which for centuries many years served to welcome the Corkonian home or welcome the stranger to a place of not only commerce but one of freedom, ideas and hope.

As a building, its cultural foundations are haunted by the principles of its martyred Lord Mayors, Tomas McCurtain and Terence McSwiney and these echo through the ages. Lord Mayor Cllr MacSwiney in his book Principles of Freedom spoke about people gifted with certain powers of soul and body. That it is of vital importance to the individual and the community that one be given a full opportunity to place a value on developing one’s talent, and quote “to fill one’s place in the world worthily”.

In your own speeches during the year, you alluded to many many people beavering away for no reward but for the advancement of their community and the Lord Mayor’s place to seek out these corners and shine a spotlight of hope on them. McSwiney in his book speaks about the citizen:

Quote: “The citizen will fight for that ideal in obscurity, little heeded–in the open, misunderstood; in humble places, still undaunted; in high places, seizing every vantage point, never crushed, never silent, never despairing, cheering a few comrades with hope for the morrow. And should these few sink in the struggle the greatness of the ideal is proven in the last hour “. End quote

 

We’ve seen during this year and even this evening, the hope of freedom during protests – that the chain has many faces, some bound up with the idea of Cork identity and citizenship and the other with the chain of politics, sometimes working in tandem with each other and sometimes jarring with each other.

The chain has witnessed it all in its almost 230 year history; it has seen the best and worst of times in this city, its rise and falls and will continue to see the rises and falls. Whether or which the concept of freedom associated with the chain is that of a thriving and resilient space-a space of aspiration for change. The chain seems to carry all of those mixed symbols.

Nearly fifty years ago, this day next week the Cork Lord Mayor, Alderman Seán Casey, TD, opened his address to John F Kennedy by noting “You stand for the weak against the strong, for right against might”. JFK wove his concerns about the cold war and the search for freedom into the story of the Irish War of Independence and Ireland’s inheritance of freedom. And the idea of freedom and its power to transform individuals and society.

During your year, you also spoke at length about how the freedom of one idea can transform a community, can re-invent, can re-imagine and represent a community. It’s amazing how one idea can create new possibilities, new opportunities can create self determination, people of vision, create more ideas, teach new skills, can explore and respond to social and cultural needs. Certainly this is a time which necessitates vision and ideas to support the surrounding community in a time of need and once more a time of change.

I would also like to congratulate the Deputy Lord Mayor Cllr O’Halloran on his work; Cllr O’Halloran also wove aspects of the importance of civic pride, education and building communities in our city, and that even the smallest events in our midst make a difference in our lives.

To conclude Lord Mayor, in his nomination acceptance speech in July 1960, John F Kennedy noted: “Can a nation governed such as ours endure? That is the real question. Have we the nerve and the Will?”.

Certainly during the year Lord Mayor, you carried forward this city with confidence, with passion and even wit in your leadership, courage in your illness and all of that bound to the the city’s hopes and dreams, which burn brightly for the future. This great city keeps moving and the tests of our time demand continuous action.

I wish you well for the future and look forward to your healthy return to the political gladiator arena. Go raibh maith agaibh.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 20 June 2013

Cork City Events, Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Events

696a. Recent sunset on Douglas Road highlighting the workhouse memorial plaque

 

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 20 June 2013

Workhouse, JFK and Docklands Tours

 

Aside from the summer city walking tours running at the moment, I have two suburb walking tours coming up across the next week. Next Saturday morning, 22 June at 12noon in association with the summer garden fete of the Friends of St Finbarr’s Hospital, I will conduct a historical walking tour of St Finbarr’s Hospital with special reference to its workhouse and Great Famine history (meet at gate, free, as part of my community work in the south-east ward). The second tour is the following Friday evening, 28 June at 7pm of Cork Docklands (free) at Kennedy Park, Victoria Road. Special focus will be given on marking the fiftieth anniversary of John F Kennedy coming to Cork and getting Freeman of the City on 28 June 1963. He left Cork by helicopter from the park now named after him. The tour will also take in Albert Road/ Jewtown/ Hibernian Buildings and the city’s docks.

On St Finbarr’s Hospital, I have always admired the view from the entrance gate onto the rolling topography extending to beyond the southern boundaries of the City. Here also is the intersection of the built heritage of Turners Cross, Ballinlough and Douglas. These are Cork’s self sufficient, confident and settled suburbs, which encompass former traditions of market gardening to Victorian and Edwardian housing on the Douglas Road. Then there is the Free State private housing by the Bradley Brothers such as in Ballinlough and Cork Corporation’s social housing developments, designed by Daniel Levie, on Capwell Road. Douglas Road as a routeway has seen many changes over the centuries from being a rough trackway probably to begin with to the gauntlet it has become today during the work and school start and finish hours.

With mid nineteenth century roots, the hospital was the site of the city’s former workhouse but as such here is one of Cork’s and Ireland’s national historic markers. Written in depth over the years by scholars such as Sr M Emmanuel Browne and Colman O’Mahony, many in-depth primary documents have survived to outline the history of the hospital. What shines out are the memories of how people have struggled at this site since its creation in 1841. Other topics perhaps can also be pursued here such as the history of social justice at the site, why and how society takes care of the vulnerable in society and the framing of questions on ideas of giving humanity and dignity to people and how they have evolved over the centuries.

The Hospital serves as a vast repository of memories, symbolism, iconography and cultural debate. Standing at the former workhouse buildings, which opened in December 1841, there is much to think about – humanity and the human experience. The architect to the Poor Law Commissioners in Ireland from 1839 until 1855 was George Wilkinson. Nearly all the workhouses, accommodating between 200 and 2000 persons apiece, were designed in a Tudor domestic idiom, with picturesque gabled entrance buildings which contracted the size and comfortlessness of the institutions which lay behind them. By April 1847 all 130 workhouses were complete, the Douglas Road being one of the first.

With its association with the memory of the Great Famine, there are also many threads of the history of the hospital to interweave – the political, economic and social framework of Ireland at that time plus the on the ground reality of life in the early 1800s – family, cultural contexts, individual portraits. In the present day history books in school, the reader is drawn to very traumatic terms. The recurring visions comprise human destruction, trauma, devastation, loss. One can see why the Great Famine is more on the forgetting list than on the remembering one.

At the same time as the development of the workhouse on Douglas Road was struggling, the city continued to extend its docks area. In the late 1800s, the port of Cork was the leading commercial port of Ireland. The export of pickled pork, bacon, butter, corn, porter, and spirits was considerable. The manufactures of the city were brewing, distilling and coach-building, which were all carried on extensively. I’m a big fan of the different shapes of these wharfs, especially the timber ones that have survived since the 1870s. A myriad of timbers still prop up the wharves in our modern port area, protecting the city from the ebb and flow of the tide and also the river’s erosive qualities. The mixture of styles of buildings etch themselves into the skyline, Add in the tales of ships over the centuries connecting Cork to other places and a community of dockers, and one gets a site which has always looked in a sense beyond its horizons. Indeed, perhaps the theme that runs through the docklands walking tour is about connections and explores sites such as Jewtown, the National Sculpture Factory, the Docks, the old Park Racecourse, and the early story of Fords. All these topics are all about connecting the city to wider themes of exportation and importation of goods, people and ideas into the city through the ages. I hope to have a page on John F Kennedy’s visit to Cork in 1963 next week.

 

Captions:

696a. Recent sunset on Douglas Road highlighting the workhouse memorial plaque (source: Kieran McCarthy)

McCarthy’s Walking Tours, June 2013

Cork City Events, Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, S.E. Ward Local History, Ward Events

 

Kieran McCarthy’s summer walking tours of Cork City centre will take place during the month of June, on Tuesday evenings (18th, 25th). The tours begin at the National Monument on the Grand Parade, at 7pm on those evenings and explore the City Centre’s early development on a swamp. The tour costs e.10 per person and children under 12 are free. No booking is required, just turn up on the evening. Further information, if needed, can be attained from Kieran at 0876553389.

 

On Saturday, 22 June, the Friends of St Finbarr’s Hospital will be holding its annual garden party from 1.30 to 4.30 pm. As part of a whole series of events planned, Cllr Kieran McCarthy invites the general public to take part in a historical walking tour of St. Finbarre’s Hospital at 12noon.  (meet at gate; the event is free as part of Cllr McCarthy’s community work). The workhouse, which opened in December 1841, was an isolated place – built beyond the toll house and toll gates, which gave entry to the city and which stood just below the end of the wall of St. Finbarr’s Hospital in the vicinity of the junction of the Douglas and Ballinlough Roads. The Douglas Road workhouse was also one of the first of over 130 workhouses to be designed by the Poor Law Commissioners’ architect George Wilkinson.

 

To mark the day of the actual fiftieth anniversary of John F Kennedy receiving the freedom of the city and taking off by helicopter from what is now Kennedy Park, Cllr Kieran McCarthy’s tour of Cork Docklands will take place on Friday, 28 June leaving at 7pm from Kennedy Park, Victoria Road (free, 1 1/2 hours).  Some of the themes covered in the talk will be John F Kennedy’s visit to Cork and the development of the areas surrounding Albert Road and the Docklands itself.