Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 15 September 2011

The Fruits of Sacrifice

“The opening of the City Hall-took place at 4pm. The building was packed in the gallery and on the main floor, while the attendance overflowed into the isde and amny were unable to gain admission. When the President walked through, the gathering rose to their feet and cheered vigourously. He was preceded by the Lord Mayor of Cork and members of the Corporation, in their official robes, the Corporation in their official robes, the Chairman and members of the Cork harbour Commissioners, the visiting Mayors, and many well known citizens of Cork. It is estimated there was close on 3,000 people in the hall when the opening ceremony took place.” (Cork Examiner, 9 September, 1936)

It was in Cork City Hall’s new Concert Hall on 8 September 1936 that the Lord Mayor, Sean French introduced the speeches section at the official opening ceremony of the building in front of over 2,000 guests. He was a city merchant and was Lord Mayor of Cork from 1924 to 1929 and again from 1932 until his death in 1937. He outlined that the former City Hall building (opened 1890) had been revamped in the early years of the twentieth century and officially opened on 4 October 1906 but then fell victim to its burning in December 1920. He noted that the Corporation in contemplating a new City Hall decided to invite designs from architects living and practising in Ireland.

A large number of designs were received and the adjudicator Lucius O’Callaghan, President of the Architect’s Association of Ireland, awarded first to Messrs. Alfred Jones and Stephen Kelly, architects, of Dublin.  The Irish architectural online archive noted that Alfred Jones was a man of wide interests. For the last eighteen years of his life he was engaged in compiling a biographical index of Irish architects and engineers and in transcribing relevant material from the Irish Builder and other sources to that end.

In the early 1930s, Messrs. Sisk and Sons were accepted as the builders. Established in 1859 by John Sisk, in his native Cork, it is as builders and contractors that the founder and subsequent generations have primarily built their reputation in business. As part of the City Hall project, they had to peg out 900 piles as foundations for the building to begin with.  Their specially designed new offices were located on, Douglas Street, into which the Sisk firm moved into in 1933. The classical styled Cork City Hall building is faced with dressed limestone, which was quarried locally in Little Island.

When Eamonn DeValera rose in the new Concert Hall to reply to speak, he spoke first in Irish and then continued in English. He noted of the sacrifices of Tomás MacCurtain and Terence McSwiney; “They united the people in Ireland and throughout the world as they had never been united before and steeled their resolution to make good their right to govern themselves; no matter what sacrifice it might entail. The people of today are enjoying the fruits of the sacrifices they made, the Irish nation is being restored and developed, and it lies with the young people  of Cork who are now growing up to see that the future is in every way worthy of the past.” Eamonn DeValera also paid tribute to Cork craftsmen plus concluded by noting; “The people of this city have clung tenaciously to their nationality with courage and hope even in the darkest hours. Surely that courage and hope will not fail them now when the dawn is at hand. In declaring this hall opened, I do so in the belief that it is a symbol of the resurrection of the Irish nation and that it will mark a new era of progress for Cork and its people.”

Shortly after Eamonn DeValera had commenced to speak, a young woman in the hall stood up and attempted to speak. She shouted “We protest” and “it is an insult”. Gardaí took the girl outside. At the conclusion of his speech another woman attempted to speak but was not heard due to the prolonged applause. She was also removed by Gardaí. Both women had attempted to voice their concerns that City Hall should not have been rebuilt until Ireland was fully united, that it was a betrayal of the memory of the two former Lord Mayors MacCurtain and McSwiney.

The article in the Cork Examiner also shows a montage of ads surrounding the news story of the official opening. These showcase the local craftsmen involved in the project.  W.J. Hickey of Maylor Street, Cork, supplied approximately 2,000 tons of cement used in the construction of Cork City Hall.  Barry & Co., Broad Street, Cork completed the terrazzo floors and tiling. Haughton’s Ltd., South Terrace, Cork, supplied the timber builder materials. John Buckley & Sons, Half Moon Street, Cork, provided the wrought iron balustrades. Cash & Co. Ltd, Cork, provided the Lord Mayor’s Chair, Council and Press Chairs. The Munster Arcade, Cork, furnished all the seating and carpets. J.S. McCarthy, 23 & 24 Castle Street, Cork, did all the painting and decorating. Brightside Engineering Co. (Ireland) Ltd provided the Central Heating System. Cork Iron & Hardware Co. Ltd. provided building materials such as re-inforcing bars, girders, wire, cut nails, expanding metal, sheet lead etc. The Typewriter Company (Ireland) Ltd., 28 Marlboro Street, Cork, equipped departments with Royal Typewriters. The South of Ireland Asphalt Company, Victoria Road, Cork supplied the mastic asphalt roof.

Fitzgerald & Co., 74 Grand Parade, Cork, installed the comprehensive electrical installations. The switchboard and distribution boards came from Siemens Electric Lamps and Supplies Ltd. Dublin while the three miles of steel conduit and seventeen miles of cables and twenty water heaters came from Siemens Schuckert, Dublin. Strand Electric, Covent Garden, London, supplied the stage lighting equipment for the Concert Hall. The tower clock, chimes and Master Clock was by Gillett & Johnson, Ltd. Croydon England. Research by Cork City Hall electrician John O’Sullivan in the current hall revealed that the clock was meant for an Indian palace but was bought by Philip Monahan due to its suitability for the top of Cork City Hall.

To mark the 75^th anniversary of the official opening of Cork City Hall, I have a small exhibition entitled Rebuilding Cork City Hall, 1920-1936 on display till 25 September in the foyer of the new building. A second exhibition on the 1930s design and plan of Cork City Hall has been compiled by Cork City and County Archives and this is on display outside the Council Chamber.

Captions:

608a. A floodlit Cork City Hall; it was floodlit in September 1986 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of its official opening (pictures: Kieran McCarthy)

608b. Concert Hall, Cork City Hall

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town,

Cork Independent, 1 September 2011

Planning a City Hall

In an effort to mark the upcoming 75^th anniversary of the official opening of Cork City Hall on 8 September 1936, I wish to note some interesting histories about its evolution before its opening. Three years after the arson attack on the building (1920), a town hall competition looking for architects took place in July 1923. Plans were put up for public inspection in the Cork Municipal School of Art. On the 29 March 1924, Jones and Kelly architects were the chosen winners of the competition. The architectural partnership, between Alfred Edwin Jones ALFRED EDWIN and Stephen Stanislaus Kelly was formed in Dublin in 1919. The following year they won the competition for Ballymena Town Hall and in 1923 gained wider recognition as the winning entrants in the Cork City Hall competition. A contractor was then sought. Tenders were sought in November of that year.

However, in 1923 and 1924 the Irish Government found it necessary to remove the members of several local authorities and replace them temporarily by paid commissioners. Among the bodies removed were the Dublin and Cork city councils. Cork Corporation itself had been dissolved in 1924 after an investigation into its activities demanded by the Cork Progressive Association (which was founded in 1923). After some experience of the work of the commissioners in these cities there was a body of opinion in favour of retaining the commissioners after the elected councils were eventually restored.

The priorities of Cork Commissioner Philip Monahan were not in the rebuilding of City Hall. Housing and slum clearance became his priorities. a local committee of commercial and industrial interests was formed in Cork in 1926 to consider a scheme of city government and it appeared that the council-manager plan of city government would be acceptable. After discussion between the Minister and local representatives, the Minister, Richard Mulcahy, introduced as a Government measure the Cork City Management Bill, 1929 and it became law despite at times, vehement opposition to it. Dublin city got its Management Act in 1930 and was followed by Limerick in 1934 and Waterford in 1939.

With the return of Cork City councillors in 1929, focus was again on the rebuilding of a city hall. In April 1929, a sub committee was appointed to look at the costs of a new building. Connected with that, public discussions also took place in local and national newspapers in the ‘letters to the editor’ pages. One such discussion took place in late April 1929 when writer Daniel Corkery proposed a site for the new City Hall near Cork’s Coal Quay. He argued that the old City Hall site was not the way forward for a new building because of its close proximity to deep water quayage, the Customs House and Harbour Offices, the heart of City’s industrial and commercial activities. His proposal took in a semi-circular area extending from the corner of Kyrl’s Street, Cornmarket Street and looking down Lavitt’s Quay towards St. Patrick’s Bridge and swinging round Kyrl’s Quay to the northern end of Kyrl’s Quay.

At a Council meeting near the 23 October 1929, the Lord Mayor, Alderman Sean French noted that an agreement had been arrived at with regard to the site of the City Hall. The City’s Town Planning Association had agreed to the old Anglesea Street site but suggested that the main entrance should be on Anglesea Street and not on the quayside. With the councillors pushing the project, further discussion appeared in the makeshift council chamber in the Crawford Art Gallery.

In mid January 1932, the Corporation decided to ask the Minister for Local Government for his consent to go ahead with the job, on the assumption that they would get a £40,000 loan, plus cash on hand amounting between £12,000 to £15,000 and leave the borrowing of the balance of an estimated total of £150,000 to a future date. At a Council meeting in early February 1932, it was reported that three tenders had been received for the erection of the new City Hall. The City Manager noted that the three tenders did not conform to the terms of the advertisement, in regard to prices or to the construction time limit. It was noted that if the furnishing was taken out of the bill, the price for the completion of the building at least could be paid for. Hence the tender of John Sisk and Sons, Cork at £139,870 was accepted and in the last week of March 1932, the contract for the rebuilding was signed. In the event of certain provisional items being included, an extra £11,000 would be added.

The foundation stone was laid on 9 July 1932 by President of the Executive Council, Eamonn DeValera. In previous articles I have written about this. The foundation stone bore an inscription in Gaelic to the effect that on that day DeValera had laid it. He spread the mortar with a silver trowel and announced in Irish that the stone was well and truly laid. He added in English that he hoped that the new building would be “symbolic of the prosperity and the future glory of the country, to come as a result of the sacrifices, which had been made by the men like those to whom the Lord Mayor had referred to, Terence MacSwiney and Tomás MacCurtain”.

To be continued….

Captions:

606a. Ruined old Cork City Hall Building (pictures: Cork City Library)

606b. Cork City Hall under construction, February 1935

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 25 August 2011

Lecture: Creating an Irish Free State City

Continuing with the showcasing of some of the work I am pursuing for heritage week, there are two events over the next week, which engage with aspects of Cork’s development in the 1920s and 1930s. The first event is a historical walking tour of Cork City Hall on this Saturday for Cork Heritage Open Day and the second is a lecture on Cork in the 1920s and 1930s for the South Parish Historical Society.

It’s difficult not to be enthused by what was achieved in Cork during the 1920s and 1930s. I have documented aspects of this era in this column over the last number of months by exploring the twentieth century heritage on the Carrigrohane Straight Road. However, there is much I am still researching and trying to come to grips with. Indeed, the City is blessed with an enormous newspaper clippings archive in Cork City and County Archives in Blackpool, where 90 years ago someone cut hundreds of columns out of Cork Examiner newspapers to create scrapbooks. Negotiating ten years of them one begins to see one strong element shining through – the strong vision and ambition that the management of Cork Corporation had at that time. The opening of City Hall 75 years ago on the 8^th September may seem a pinnacle of success in those times but there were in my opinion other impressive strands to the Corporation’s work.

The slow rebuild of the half burnt St. Patrick’s Street is evident in the archive’s collection of letters from the Corporation asking for updates from the shopkeepers. The debate by City councillors to rebuild the burnt out City Hall also echoes strongly in the stream of debate in the makeshift Council Chamber in the lecture theatre of the Crawford Art Gallery. However, with the dissolution of the Council in 1924, the young national government appointed a city commissioner in the form of City Administrator Philip Monahan.

Philip Monahan was appointed in November 1924. In the early 1920s, he had being Mayor of Drogheda and a member of Louth County Council. He was also a commissioner in Kerry by 26 years of age. Finding his feet quickly in Cork, by the following March 1925, he was talking to the press and setting out his goals; Using some of Westminster’s compensation package for the burning of the city, he sidelined the rebuilding of City Hall, not all of it, he did set about getting new designs; However, he was to set aside £25,000 for the installation of a new filtration plant at the waterworks, invested £50,000 for asphalting 68,000 square yards of streets, pushing for the completion of St. Patrick’s Street, the  re-building of Parnell Bridge, the purification of the city’s sewage schemes, the replacement of the eighteenth century culverts under St. Patrick’s Street to create new sewers, strove to create a new cattle market for the city and took over of management of what the press called the ‘Mental Hospital’ in Sunday’s Well.

Being invited to lecture on aspects of democracy and local government in the new Irish Free State, Philip Monahan called for the adoption of Cork: A Civic Survey. In 1926 the Cork Town Planning Association produced the latter document, which provided a debate template on the City’s slum conditions. The founding of the Cork Town Planning Association in 1922 marked the beginning of a serious attempt to deal with the problem of the dreadful housing conditions in parts of the Middle Parish and the areas around Barrack Street, Shandon Street and Blarney Street. Indeed in March 1925, Monahan pitched that he would invest £70,000 for the provision of 200 houses in Turners Cross in the immediate interim. He also put down his marker that he was to build efficiency in the local public sector. Indeed with the threat of using direct labour, he pursued an agenda to reduce the wage of Corporation workers to 4s. 6d. per week.

In an age of a non welfare state, it is also interesting to read of work of the Corporation Schools Medical Officer Dr. Annie O’Sullivan. By 1930 arrangements had been put in place for the treatment of ear diseases and defects and diseases of the eye, nose and throat. In 1933, 8,139 children had been checked at clinics at city schools. School meals were given of hot cocoa with bread and butter or jam or currant buns with milk in some schools. The Cork Children’s Fresh Air Fund, established in 1932, helped 500 children. In 1933, 442 children, 229 girls, 213 boys (5 to 14 years of age) were sent to Rostellan, Rathcormac, Ringaskiddy and Youghal and housed there for a fortnight. The initiative was funded by concerts, flag days and garden fetes. These were difficult and stressful times and also times where people worked harder to mind their families and survive. But certainly the array of ideas put forward by Monahan and his team makes for interesting reading in revealing their determination, realism and ambition in making the City a better place to live and work in.

Kieran’s Events:

Saturday, 27^th August 2011, 1.30pm; History and legacy: A historical walking tour through Cork City Hall, meet at Cork City Hall, Anglesea Street entrance. Booking at 021 4924717.

Wednesday 31^st August 2011, 8pm; Creating an Irish Free State City, Cork in the 1920s & 1930s in association with South Parish Historical Society, South Parish Community Centre.

Captions:

605a. The imposing Christ the King Church in Turners Cross opened in October 1931 overlooking Capwell Road houses, which got their first Corporation tenants in April 1928 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

605b. Photograph of Philip Monahan, City Manager in a late 1920s Cork City Hall diary (source: Cork City Library)