Kieran’s Our City, Our Town,

Cork Independent, 2 June 2011 

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 258)

Constitutions and Agreements, April 1938

On Monday 25 April 1938, the press media reported that approximately seventy thousand spectators saw lap records beaten several times during the International Light Car and Cork Grand Prix at the Carrigrohane Circuit two days previously on the Saturday.

As Cork people read about “the wonderful driving displays” and “speed thrills”, further events with an enormous legacy for the nature of Irish identity were also unfolding on the same day. That weekend the representatives of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, on behalf of their respective parties, agreed to invite Roscommon born Senator Dr. Douglas Hyde to accept the nomination for the presidency.  The provision for a president of Ireland was made in the July 1937 Irish Constitution. The Constitution of Ireland replaced the Constitution of the Irish Free State which had been in effect since the southern state became independent from the United Kingdom in 1933. It established a government under a parliamentary system. It provided for a directly elected, ceremonial President of Ireland (Article 12), a head of government called the “Taoiseach” (Article 28) and a national parliament called the “Oireachtas” (Article 15).

On Monday 25 April, the Cork Examiner also carried the important story that the text of the Anglo-Irish agreement was to be signed in London that afternoon. Talks had begun with the visit of an Irish delegation three months previously. Political concerns, defence, trade relations, trade duties and financial position were all topics for discussion. Taoiseach  Eamonn DeValera and  three Irish ministers, Sean MacEntee, Sean Lemass and Dr. James Ryan, together with John W. Dulanty, the Irish High Commissioner, who played a prominent part in the discussions, were to attend an informal luncheon with Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister on Tuesday 26 April. The Prime Minister and Mrs. Chamberlain had only moved into their new residence at no.10 Downing Street a few days previously. With DeValera the secretaries of the four Departments were also present, J.P. Walshe of External Affairs, Sean Lydon of Industry and Commerce, J.J. McElligott of Finance and Dan Twomey of Agriculture.

The Cork Examiner reported on the Monday that the Irish delegation crossed from Dublin on Saturday night and attended mass on the Sunday (24^th) in Liverpool Cathedral before continuing to London. At Euston they were cheered by a crowd who waved two tricolours. Mr. Malcolm MacDonald (Secretary of Dominions and Mr. Dulanty Irish Commissioner in London, cordially greeted An Taoiseach Eamonn DeValera as he stepped from the train. The usual police precautions were taken plus close to DeValera was his so called “shadow”, Inspector Patrick J. Phelan, native of Dingle, who had become known at Scotland Yard as Mr. DeValera’s permanent bodyguard when the Taoiseach was in England.

On Tuesday 26 April 1938, the Cork Examiner discussed the provisions of the new Anglo-Irish Agreement. The economic war between the Irish Free State and Britain was ended with the signing. The agreement provided for the transfer to the Irish Government of the Admiralty, property and rights at Berehaven and the harbour defences at Berehaven, Cobh and Lough Swilly not later than 31 December 1938.

The special duties imposed by each side in the economic war were to be removed and a detailed trade agreement was planned to govern trade between the two countries for the ensuing three years. Irish goods were to enjoy entry into the British market free of duty, except for certain classes of goods, which were subject to revenue duties, i.e. beer, spirits, tobacco, sugar and silks. Eleven classes of Irish agricultural products were to receive preference on the British market. If imports increased to such an extent as to endanger the stability of the United Kingdom “market quantitative regulation”, a duty could be applied. The Irish government was to make immediate reductions in duties on 25 classes of British manufactured goods, but quantitative regulation of such goods could be made if imports increased to such an extent as to endanger Irish industries. Entry free of duty was provided for a large range of United Kingdom goods. Foreign goods that were admitted under licence were to be subject to a duty of not less than ten per cent. Irish protective duties and import restrictions were to be reviewed by the Prices Commission so as to give British producers opportunity of reasonable competition while affording Irish industries adequate protection.

The papers on the 25 April 1938 also wrote in detail about General Francisco Franco and the Spanish Civil War. For the week beginning Monday 25 April 1938, the press outlined his control of two –thirds of Spain’s Rice Fields and some of the country’s best orange grove.  Francisco Franco and the military had participated in a coup d’état against the Popular Front Spanish government. The coup failed and devolved into the Spanish Civil War during which Franco emerged as the leader of the Nationalists against the Popular Front government. After winning the civil war with military aid from Italy and Nazi Germany—while the communist Soviet Union and various Internationalists aided certain forces of the left—he dissolved the Spanish Parliament. The Spanish Civil War began in July 1936 and officially ended with Franco’s victory in April 1939, leaving 190,000 to 500,000 dead.

To be continued…

Captions:

593a. St. Patrick’s Street, Cork, Saturday 23 April 1938 (picture: Irish Press)

593b. Western Road , Cork, traffic jams to see the Cork Grand Prix, Saturday 23 April 1938 (picture: Irish Press)

Kieran’s our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 26 May 2011

Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project 2011

This year marks the ninth year of the Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project co-ordinated by myself. The Project for 2011 culminated recently in two award ceremonies for the project. It  is open to schools in Cork City and County- at primary level to the pupils of fourth, fifth and sixth class and at post-primary from first to sixth years. A total of 40 schools in Cork took part this year. Circa 1400 students participated in the process and approx 220 projects were submitted on all aspects of Cork’s history.

One of the key aims of the project is to allow students to explore, investigate and debate their local history in a constructive, active and fun way. The emphasis is on the process of doing a project. Projects on any aspect of Cork’s rich heritage (built, natural and cultural) can be submitted to an adjudication panel. Prizes are awarded for best projects and certificates are given to each participant. The standard was very high this year. The top prizes, 60 in all, were given to students’ projects, which took a clever approach to the topic. Students are challenged to devise methodologies that provide interesting ways to approach the study of their local heritage.

Submitted projects must be colourful, creative, have personal opinion, imagination and gain publicity before submission. These elements form the basis of a student friendly narrative analysis approach where the students explore their project topic in an interactive and task oriented way. In particular students are encouraged to attain primary material generating primary material through engaging with a number of methods such as fieldwork, interviews with local people, making models, photographing, cartoon creating, making DVDs of their area.

Students are to experiment with the overall design and plan of their projects. It attempts to bring the student to become more personal and creative in their approaches. Much of the work could be published as local heritage / history guides to people and places in the County.  For example two winning class projects this year focussed on the history of St. Joseph’s Cemetery using family connections and the 1901 and 1911 census. 

This year marks went towards making a short film or a model on projects to accompany history booklets. Submitted DVDs this year had interviews of family members to local historians to the student taking a reporter type stance on their work. Some students also chose to act out scenes from the past. Re-enacting is also a feature of several projects. One class filmed a re-enactment of potential ways of life at Drombeg Stone Circle in Bronze Age Ireland.The creativity section also encourages model making. The best model trophy in general goes to the creative and realistic model. This year the best model in the city went to one on the Shaky Bridge, made from lollypop sticks, whilst the runner up engaged in working with a hurley maker in making an actual hurley for their project on a history of Cork hurley making.

Students are encouraged to compare and connect the past to their present and their immediate future. Work needs to involve re-imagining what life may have been like. One of the key foundations in the Project is about developing empathy for the past and to try to link the present to the past – to think about attitudes and experience in the past. Interpretation is also empowering for the student- all the time developing a better sense of the different ways in which people engage with and express a sense of place and time.

Every year, the students involved in the project produce lots of project books and do enormous work getting the information from the local community. This section is about showing and communicating the student’s work to the wider community. It is about reaching out and gaining public praise for the student but also appraisal and further ideas. This year the most prominent source of gaining publicity was inviting parents into the classroom for an open day for viewing projects or putting displays on in local community centres and libraries. Some class projects were presented in nursing homes to engage the older generation and to attain further memories from participants. Students were also successful in putting work on local parish newsletters, newspapers and local radio stations and also presenting work in local libraries.  Mini-websites were also set up.

Overall, the Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project attempts to provide the student with a hands-on and interactive activity that is all about learning not only about your local area but also about the process of learning by participating students. The project in the city is kindly funded by Cork Civic Trust (viz the help of John X. Miller), Cork City Council (viz the help of Mary Doyle), the Heritage Council and the Evening Echo. Prizes were also provided in the 2011 season by Lifetime Lab, Lee Road (thanks to Meryvn Horgan), Sean Kelly of Lucky Meadows Equestrian Centre Watergrasshill and Cork City Gaol Heritage Centre. A full list of winners, topics and pictures of some of the project pages can be viewed at www.corkheritage.ie and on facebook on Cork: Our City, Our Town.

Back to the River Lee next week…

Captions:

592a. View of students from Reenascreena National School, West Cork with their model that accompanied their ‘history of farming’ project (pictures: Kieran McCarthy)

592b. View of winning model by fourth class students of Gaelscoil Uí Riada, Wilton

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 19 May 2011

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 257)

Thrills and Spills

        The Cork Motor Derby of April1938 in all terms was big. The organisers built in a series of aspirations from the sporting side to the event being part of Cork’s economic development, civic boosterism, cultural change and regional interaction with European countries. Newspapers such as the Cork Examiner, Irish Press, Irish Independent and Sunday Independent also carried page spreads of the event. The event was noisy, atmospheric and masses of people wanted to be part of it and wanted something to be proud of.

Thousands of people came out for the practice runs. On Tuesday19 April 1938, a special ship arrived at Cork bringing most of the cross-channel and continental competitors and their cars in time for the weighing in and inspection arrangements. Masses of people stood on Penrose Quay as the Motor Cars were hoisted onto the Cork quays. Some members of the public took pictures of the scenes that were unfolding.  The Prince of Siam, B. Bira had his cars packed in special travelling motor vans, which were accompanied by his mechanics.

In addition, Messrs. Henry Ford and Son, Ltd., Cork celebrated their 21^st birthday in business in Cork and to mark the occasion an open house was held at the works. The factory opened its doors to the public and many of the visitors to the Motor Derby were encouraged to take the tour of the works and see “the latest methods of car production”.

Excursions were run from all parts of Britain and the young Aer Lingus Teoranta (established on May 22, 1936) arranged for “special air liners” to carry passengers from England to the race course. In addition, a number of private aviation clubs sent “machines” as well as spectators from England. Special excursion tickets at a fare of 21/- were issued from Dublin for the 5pm train on Thursday 20 April and for the 7a.m. and 9.30a.m  trains on Friday 21 April. Day trip tickets were also issued on the Friday at a fare of 10/6d from Kingsbridge, Dublin. A special first class train from Dublin was sponsored by the Royal Irish Automobile Club.

Dudley Colley, driving a 1,500cc Frazer Nash that was entered by C.H. Gates of Kildorrey and a member of the Dublin University Motor Cycle and Light Car Club, won the National Motor Handicap. The handicap formed the first of the Irish Derby meeting of the Irish Motor Racing Club at Cork. Colley won by the narrow margin of three seconds.  There were a dozen starters, most of them being in vehicles that were long since familiar features at Irish motor races. Seven of the eight, who completed the course of 52 miles, finished within two minutes of the winner. One of those was the only woman competitor Miss Dorothy Stanley Turner. Second and third places went to Dublin entrants D. Yule (driving a C.M.Y. Special and Charlie W. Manders (driving an Adler), respectively.

For many years, Dudley Colley had been a well known performer in motor competitions in the Dublin area, but it was not until the Phoenix Park race of 1937 that he entered a long distance event.  In that race he came 8^th (with the same car he drove in the Cork race).  The car he was driving in Cork was made by Frazer Nash Ltd. (after its founder Archibald Goodman Frazer-Nash) who came into being In December 1922 and initially produced a sports car before in time making BMWs.

The collective newspapers argue that seventy thousand spectators saw lap records beaten several times during the International Light Car Race and Cork Grand Prix on Saturday, 23 April 1938. Prince Birabongse of Siam or B. Bira, driving an E.R.A. and Rene Dreyfus in a Delahaye, were the respective winners. Both victories were comfortably gained, the winners taking the lead in the second lap in each race and never being passed. B. Bira won the Light Car Race at an average speed of 91.35m.p.h. He broke the lap record three times in succession, his best speed being 95.71m.p.h.

The Grand Prix field was reduced to eight. The winner Rene Dreyfus averaged 92.m.p.h. and also broke the lap record three times, his best being 95.71 m.p.h. Bira was beaten by two minutes and ten seconds in this race, after a great effort chasing Rene Dreyfus. There were also some hair-raising incidents during the day. J.P. Wakefield in a Maseratti had an amazing escape when his car plunged over the banking at hell hole bend in Carrigrohane and fell thirty feet down the slope. He was thrown clear and only sustained bruises and shock. While lying on the ground, B. Bira’s car only missed him by only a foot. In addition, A.C. Dobson had to drive the last three miles of the Light Car Race being sprayed with oil from the gear-box. However, he beat Villoresi, an Italian, by one-fifth of a second for second place.

The prizes were distributed at the Cork Car Race Dance at the Arcadia on the Lower Road.  The Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr James Hickey and Mr. Jack O’Sheehan, Director of Publicity, Irish Hospital’s Trust, made the presentations before almost a crowd of 1,500 people.

to be continued….

Captions:

591a. Rene Dreyfus, winner of the Cork Grand Prix, 1938 (source: W. Fitzsimmons)

591b. Map of Cork International Car Race Course, April 1938 (source: Irish Press, 4 April, 1938, p.9)