Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 9 August 2012

The Sound of Heritage

I’m a firm believer in the power of place. That wherever, you stand, there are multiple stories around you, waiting to be excavated. Over the next couple of weeks, there are numerous heritage events on that testify to this claim. Heritage Open Day (Saturday 18 August) sees over 40 buildings open to the public with a number of tours and lectures. Heritage week (18-25 August) offers a week long celebration on all things historical in Cork.

Both events above offer perspectives on this city’s very rich history, much of which remains fully unexplored by writers and scholars of Cork’s past plus there are the multiple meanings and connections associated with these histories. The histories can present a narrative that makes one stop to listen and reflect on how the story is remembered and recounted, and fills the mind with curiosity and imagination.

Two of the city’s theatres are also presenting two shows, whose plots in part comment on the power of imagination, and on the power of identity and the role of the individuals in the making of that, The Sound of Music and Guerilla Days in Ireland, respectively. With The Sound of Music, I’m lucky to play a part in the musical. Indeed, standing in the dimly lit wings of Cork Opera House, waiting to walk on stage is the start of a leap of faith. The actor’s fourth wall or the auditorium of the Opera House is an abyss of darkness. Being part of a globally well known musical with a talented Cork cast and to thread the boards of the city’s great theatre is a source of pride for any performer.

The Sound of Music has its key characters but is also a huge ensemble piece. A call is set for all of us to come in every night to warm up. In the corridors of the dressing room, a routine plays out every evening; the building becomes full of life, the warming up of voices, people singing scales, costume checks, chats and conversations, nervous anxiousness awaiting the curtain up, the news of the day, the continuous viewing of the multiple pictures the regular time countdowns by Abbie, the stage manager, notes from the director Bryan, the personal successes and failure of the day are recounted. The lights and sets behind the curtain are double checked. A believable place for the audience is made out a blank dark canvas, the stage. The musical is brought to life through a combination of aspects, and through musicality and acting. The human creative side all combine amongst others to create a strong sense of place on the dark stage. In that perhaps is a message in itself that as we rush around for one building to other on heritage open day perhaps it is apt to reflect on how buildings are enlivened through their design, construction and routine functionality by people.

The Sound of Music is a family favourite; something rooted in global popular culture- a piece of culture passed down from generation to generation since it first outing on Broadway in 1959. One has either have either encountered it on stage or on film. It is the personal story of Maria Rainer’s encounters with the Von Trapp family and the subsequent happy ever after, told through the lens of the Nazi occupation of Austria 1938. It is a musical commentary by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein in post World War II America; they were giants of the musical theatre world and in The Sound of Music present a myriad of themes from questions of life and pushing oneself forward to the contrast of the politics of occupation of Germany over Austria. With a multitude of songs, Edelweiss one of act two’s last songs is the character’s Georg Von Trapp’s take on nationhood in Austria.

Over at the Everyman Palace, the story of Tom Barry’s life and times and his role in the evolving nationhood of Ireland are re-enacted. Aspects of Tom’s autobiography, Guerrilla Days in Ireland are acted out and the key threads of Tom’s journey in Ireland’s turbulent War of Independence is passed down and played out on the Everyman Palace’s dark stage. Again, played by a talented cast, they lead the audience through a montage of reconstructed images in Tom’s life, from his life in the British army, through leading brigades, through to his connections with national characters such as Michael Collins and Eamonn DeValera. Tom had a role like many others in a rapidly changing Ireland, one moving towards Independence and part of the fight for Irish identity and nationhood.

Both the Sound of Music and Guerilla Days of Ireland, have that common theme of the importance of identity running through them. Those themes also run through the stories of the buildings opened for heritage open day. Another example is City Hall, which I conduct a tour of in the morning of heritage open day. Mired in politics, civicness, the building presents a lens to study the who and multiple layers of how the city’s own sense of place developed. See Cork Heritage Open Day.ie or my own facebook page, Cork Our City, Our Town for further details.

To be continued….

Caption:

653a. Maria (Carol Anne Ryan) and the Von Trapp Children, The Sound of Music, Cork Opera House, August 2012 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-EMhWOvBsG0

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent,  2 August 2012

Technical Memories (Part 26)

County Versus City

It was Arthur F. Sharman Crawford, who acted as spokesman before Cork County Council in early May 1913. He had been instructed by the Cork County Borough Technical Instruction Committee to appear before Cork County Council to ask for a contribution towards the funds of that committee. His speech and subsequent actions give an insight into the extent of technical education in County Cork plus the relationship between the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute, its city plus its county committees, and Cork Corporation and Cork County Council.

On the 2 May 1913, the Cork Examiner, reported on Crawford’s concerns. The Crawford Municipal Technical Institute educated 2,113 students, of whom they estimated 554, or 26 per cent, resided in Cork County. Cork Corporation struck a rate of 2d. in the pound, which realised £1,440 for the education of those students, but the County ratepayers were contributing nothing towards the education of the 554 students who came to the schools from the County.

Crawford to the County Council noted “if those students [county] did not use the schools it would mean that the county would have to leave them uneducated or else provide schools for them at very large expense”. He proposed that the council should consider a like grant of 18s. per head for their students – that would work out at £500 per year, or one eight of a penny in the pound. He believed that the County Council and the city’s corporation should be working together. Mr Crawford added that he was very proud of the enthusiasm that those students had displayed in connection with the education. He gave the example of a boy from Kinsale, who attended their classes in the institute for a few years, and he rode on a bicycle to and from the city in order to avail of that education. They also had several attending the institute from Mallow, and a large number from other places.

Arthur Sharman Crawford gave a paper on 29 May 1913 at the annual congress in connection with the Irish Technical Instruction Association, which was held in Bangor, Co. Down. Again he commented on the lack of forthcoming funding from county councils; “Many students outside urban, county and borough boundaries enter, enjoying all the advantages of these schools. No doubt, the committees of these schools were in most cases glad to have such students, but find their usefulness impaired by want of funds, owing chiefly to the fact that their resources were crippled by having to pay interest on capital raised for the building, equipment and maintenance of these schools. The town technical schools were the natural centres of institution for the rural districts immediately surrounding them, and without these schools, the county authorities would be compelled to spend large sums to provide education for these students.”

Under the circumstances, Crawford argued that the situation could be improved either by the enlargement of the educational areas, pooling of the funds, and amalgamation of schemes, or by the county authorities paying a capitation fee to the schools used by their students with perhaps a small pro-rata representation on the committees.  From the floor of the congress, Canon Courtenay Moore (historian, writer) said that with reference to the amalgamation spoken of by Mr Crawford, experience had shown that it was not so easy as had been suggested. Dundalk and Drogheda had been in a joint scheme, and had to withdraw from it. He gave three reasons why there should not be amalgamation. The students from the outside area were mostly suburban students, and if they did not pay rates directly they paid them indirectly, in as much as they purchased the “necessaries of life” in the urban district or borough. Secondly, the fees paid and the attendance grant from the pupils more than repaid any outlay on their behalf. Thirdly, the contribution from the Department was much more proportionately than that given to the County Committee. Practically all the County Committees spent up the levels of their incomes and could do no more. County Councils had to rent schools, and in many instances had to build them also.

In a follow up article on the 20 June 1913, the Cork Examiner noted that the Cork County Council was contributing to the county technical education project. The list of classes that were held in the Cork Rural District in 1907-08 comprised domestic economy at Ballyglass, Courtbrack, Matehy and Inniscarra; Lace and crochet at Riverstown, Blackrock, Shanbally and Monkstown; woodwork at Ballincollig, and engineering at Ringaskiddy, Courses in trades, preparatory school, and naval architecture took place at Passage West.  In the 1909-1910 session and onwards into the 1910s, domestic economy classes had spread to Douglas, Ballinora, Ballincollig, Ballinhassig, Firmount, Stuake, Berrings, Dripsey and Leemount; woodwork at Ballincollig, Waterfall and Ballinhassig; Commercial classes were held at Blarney and Riverstown. Queenstown broke away from the County Technical Education Committee and adopted its own system. In the end the matter of the County Council giving substantial funding toward the Technical Institute for its County students did not happen.

To be continued…

Caption:

652a. Dressmaking and millinery workshop, Crawford Municipal Technical Institute 1912 (source: Souvenir programme, 1912)