Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article

Cork Independent, 13 January 2011

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 243)

Print, Lines and Stances

Aside from the main halls, stands also aligned the grounds of the Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair 1932, held adjacent the Straight Road. Stand number one showed an exhibit of Independent Newspapers Ltd. Current issues of newspapers were on sale for readers- Irish Independent, Evening Herald, Weekly Independent and Sunday Independent. The company was formed in 1904 by Cork born William Martin Murphy through the publishing of the Irish Independent.

Research by scholars Dermot Keogh and Andy Bielenberg, of UCC’s History Department, highlights that William was born in Derrymihan near Castletownbere in West Cork. Two years later the family moved to Bantry where his father extended his building contracting business and began retailing building materials. William was educated at Belvedere College, Dublin. On the death of his father, he took over the family business at the age of 19. The company undertook many of the more challenging building contracts in West Cork and Kerry, including church work and public works. William Martin Murphy’s firm became one of the most successful enterprises in the region.

In 1870, William married Mary, the only daughter of James Lombard of Dublin, who had accumulated much personal wealth in the construction of tramways and in the drapery business. William became involved in the promotion, finance, construction and management of tramways and railways. By the end of the nineteenth century, he had developed a range of other business ventures as well comprising investments in newspaper production, the construction industry, hotels and Clerys, the large Dublin department store. William also served as a parliamentary representative (MP) for St Patrick’s Division, Dublin between 1885 and 1892. That put him in a good position to obtain the parliamentary powers necessary to build new railways and tramways. He also amassed a great knowledge of railway law and the law of contracts.

From small beginnings in 1880 as a contractor for the Bantry rail extension to Drimoleague, William became one of the most influential figures in the Irish railway business. Subsequently he went on to construct lines such as Wexford and Rosslare, the Clara and Banagher, West and South Clare, Mitchelstown and Fermoy, Tuam and Claremorris, Skibbereen and Baltimore, and the Bantry Extension. Later in life he organised the construction of railways on the Gold Coast in West Africa from his London sub office. William also became the director of a number of rail lines, being elected to the board of the Waterford and Limerick line in 1885, and when this was amalgamated into the Great Southern and Western Railway in 1901, he was subsequently elected to the Board of Ireland’s premier railway company in 1903.

William’s career experience in railway promotion contributed to his subsequent success in tramways, a business in which he was one of the major entrepreneurs and innovators in the British Isles in the late Victorian era. William built tramways in Dublin, Cork, Belfast, London Southern, Isle of Thanet, Hastings and District, Bournemouth and Poole, Paisley and District and in Buenos Aires, in addition to being one of the pioneers of the use of electricity in Ireland. The Dublin United Tramway Company became one of the first to introduce electrical traction in the British Isles, using the overhead wire and tram-trolley system, which had been initiated in the USA. By 1907, over £2 million had been invested in the system, which covered 55 miles and carried over 58 million passengers per annum. It was one of the best tram systems in Europe.

In 1889, in association with local commercial interests, the Corporation of Cork expressed an interest in electric trams. Hence they planned to establish a large electricity generating plant that would provide public lighting and operate an electric tramcar extending from the city centre to all of the popular suburbs. The site of the new plant was on Monarea Marshes (now the National Sculpture Factory) near the Hibernian Buildings. The Electric Tramways and Lighting Company Ltd, The street track was completed by William Martin Murphy who also became the first chairman of the Cork company. Leading Cork housing contractor, Edward Fitzgerald, soon to become Lord Mayor of Cork, completed the building of the plant. Eighteen tramcars arrived in December 1898 for the opening. Cork was to become the eleventh city in Britain and Ireland to have operating electric trams. They operated until 1932, the year of the Cork Fair.

In 1905, William founded the Irish Independent. A year later he founded the Sunday Independent. He was the principal advocate behind the Irish National Exhibition of 1907 and refused a knighthood on King Edward’s visit to Ireland that year. In 1912, he established the Dublin Employer’s Federation as a reaction to the growing power of organised labour. Worried that the trade unions would destroy his Dublin tram system, he led Dublin employers against the trade unions led by James Larkin, an opposition that culminated in the Dublin Lockout of 1913. With the outbreak of World War I, he supported Irish enlistment in the British Army, but late opposed the idea of partition. William died in 1919. His family controlled Independent Newspapers until the early 1970s, when the group was sold to Tony O’Reilly.

To be continued….

Captions:

573a. William Martin Murphy, a painting by William Orpen (source: National Gallery, Dublin)

573b. Electric Tram on King Street, c.1900, now MacCurtain Street, Cork (source: Cork Museum)

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 212)

The Pearls of Carrigrohane

“At the foot of the limestone rock, which constitutes the base of the building, is a cave, which the peasantry say, extends several miles underground, and communicates with the great caverns at Ovens, four miles distant. The River below this flows deep and darkly. In its waters is frequently found the Mytilus Margaritiferus or pearl muscle. Indeed at the very source of the River at Gougane Barra, large quantities of the fish may be procured, and it is known that the Mytilus may be made to produce pearls by artificial means” (John Windele, 1846, Guide to the South of Ireland, p.255).

I have in passing in my entrances and journeys into the countryside of the Lee Valley admired a number of elements in the Carrigrohane area. Perhaps first and foremost for me the large and imposing number of human monuments such as the castle, church and bridges all reveal a tapestry of enduring stories. These, I feel, are captured and frozen in time between the busyness of Cork City’s western suburbs and the satellite town of Ballincollig. I have also stopped adjacent to the three limestone arched Leemount/ Carrigrohane Bridge at the Angler’s Rest. I have delighted in the swirling of the Lee below and the adjoining and spreading out pastural farmlands on the Lee’s floodplains. From here at different times of the day and year, Carrigrohane Castle appears in a different light continuously provoking the viewer to gaze and cherish.

In this part of the Lee, I have seen many a fisherman cast their line into the water and standing like statues, or as I always think like ambassadors standing to welcome the river to their area. Through the name Angler’s Rest, the pub draws attention to a way of life on the river. The joining of the Shournagh River to the Lee marks another milestone in the geography of the Lee Valley and makes for remarkable scenic views for those as my grandmother used to say who cast “one eye up the Shournagh”.

From historical sources, I have not been the first to stop adjacent Leemount/ Carrigrohane Bridge and reflect on this world. John Windele describes this part of the valley and adds his own colour to the memory of the landscape. He attempts to validate the beauty and sanctity at this spot by drawing on local folklore (p.255); “At a sudden bend of the River, is a deep pool, bearing the fearful name of Poul –an Ifrinn, or Hell-Hole. It is overhung by high limestone precipices, and from its neighbourhood, a highly beautiful view of the Castle is obtained. One of those fanciful eels of the supernatural class is said to inhabit this part of the river; he is of monstrous dimensions, has a mane of hair like a horse and two short feet. He is the guardian of enchanted abodes beneath, containing vast treasures. Heretofore, he often at night, quitted the waters, ad his track might be seen in the morning on the neighbouring grounds, but of late years, his visits have been rare as those of Angels.”

Samuel Lewis in his Topographical Dictionary of Ireland also comments on Carrigrohane. Circa 1835, the area contained 1921 inhabitants. He describes that the parish is situated on the south bank of the river Lee. Over the Lee was a stone bridge connecting it with a new line of road from Cork City into the heart of Inniscarra and eastwards through Magourney in Coachford to Macroom. This seemed to be part of a wider project at the time to improve access to the western approaches of the City. Another bridge was built over the River Shournagh as it enters the Lee. The Lee in Carrigrohane also powered a set of water wheels connected in a flour mill, which manufactured from 350 to 400 sacks of flour weekly. The mills offered local employment as did the Gunpowder Mills in Ballincollig.

Samuel Lewis notes of the land as of excellent quality, and the farms, being in the occupation of people with money, were in an excellent state of cultivation. From the low price of grain, the produce of the dairy and the grazing of cattle had been found more profitable than growing corn. The lands were therefore being converted into dairy farms. In addition Samuel Lewis points out that the parish forms part of the limestone district that extends from near the source of the River Bride, along its southern bank [through Ovens], across the vale to the west of the city of Cork, and passing through its southern suburbs, terminating at Blackrock. Lewis describes that the quarrying of limestone can be seen in the “comfortable appearance” and the improved state of the habitations of the local population.

An impressive structure that has survived the test of time and also one of the keys to unlocking the history of the region rests further is the Church of Ireland monument of St. Peter’s Church. The church in 1837 was a small plain edifice to which the Ecclesiastical Commissioners had granted funding for repairs to the amount of £143. It is said that the original church was built in the seventeenth century.

To be continued…

Captions:

540a. Bridge over the Shournagh River as it enters the River Lee near the Angler’s Rest, Leemount, May 2010 (pictures: Kieran McCarthy)

540b. Leemount/ Carrigrohane Bridge, May 2010