Category Archives: Uncategorized

Kieran’s Comments on his motion to keep the Community Wardens, Cork City Council Meeting, 26 April 2011

Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

Lord Mayor, I’m a firm believer that in the public service and in terms of work ethic there are  the good, the bad and the ugly.

And if you find the good, a public representative is lucky and it is those public servant employees that should be nurtured, encouraged and inspired.

I think in this economic climate, Irish society has been over harsh on the public servant. There are many who really enjoy their job making a difference and they should be encouraged to develop their talents and not hindered by cuts, cuts, cuts.

I also think in that light, there is way too much emphasis on rebuilding the economy and too little emphasis on rebuilding society after the crash. We are also turning into a society of worriers and of apathy. I happened to be in Germany recently and the headline of one of their national newspapers read that “Ireland has lost its self confidence”.

And so when I look at the danger that this city will lose five community wardens whose job brief encompasses building a sense of confidence in our communities, I am completely appalled and annoyed.

Their work ethic reveals the work of not just five people but probably that of 20 people

One reads in this report of bonfire nights events, clean-ups summer camps, walking groups, summer fun days, voluntary emergency services exhibitions, supporting local youth cafes, patrol of estates, calling to people and businesses, home visits, overseeing the probation and welfare graffiti,painting schemes, local schools work, Muga mornings, driving the community buses and so much more

….and we as a Council are happy to blasé accept that there is no funding there to secure their jobs

They are probably doing the work of 20 or more people, what we get for E.200,0000 their collective wages, we reap dividends in moving the areas they pursue work in …

 I’d like to call upon this Council to write to the relevant minister, bring him to Cork and show him what work is going on and what he is getting in return for these community wardens.

If we don’t secure these jobs, this city will have to pay more to clean up the growing worry and apathy inherent in Irish society.

Grand Parade, Cork

Kieran’s Comments, Progress Report for Cork City Development Plan, Cork City Council Meeting, 26 April 2011

Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

 Lord Mayor,

There are many positives items in this progress report. A lot of work has been done – housing, roads, environment, planning. Many of the directorates have benefitted in particular by a driven and talented director and engineers with a genuine interest in not only their job but also the city and region. It’s not an easy job to head up such large units and credit is due to them.

However, there are darker economic roads ahead that will require much more thinking outside of the box and steady, positive and energetic leadership.

I still think that as a place and region, Cork should fight for more of its share nationally.

The Cork Area Strategic Plan of 2001, ten years ago was commissioned to provide a framework to enable Cork to become a leading European City-Region- globally competitive, socially inclusive and culturally enriched.

I think in a local context, the Council is doing well but in the that aura of European significance, I’m not too sure; I feel we’re not doing enough to secure it.

CASP calls for building upon Cork’s many assets and remarkable strengths. It speaks about its people, environment, transport infrastructure, world class industries and educational establishments. But I still think we’re under selling ourselves.

CASP talks about an additional 19,000 new jobs in the city by 2020 but in 2011 26, 249 are unemployed. CASP talks about reversing population decline in the city centre by creating hubs like the docklands – but where are we now with docklands.

CASP talks about a region interconnected, a city with county nodal points – with a strong proper transport infrastructure plus socially and culturally strong… at the heart of which is a strong and modern European city

CASP talks about a vision for Cork as one of 3 counter magnets to Dublin – to create a southern functional area – its sees the city as an engine for growth through docklands and from 2013 to 2020 that the Docklands would be built.

Lord Mayor, with all those statements, one can argue work done for each one but what has changed is the economic variations.

So moving forward the big question is how can this city move forward in light of the present economic circumstance and become a regional gateway city?

How can this city continue or enhance the idea of innovation in every aspect of its evolution?

How can this city become that strong core for the region? One can now travel on a motorway to Cahir in over an hour and sure if there is a flyer up there saying that there are 100 festival days in the city, I’d be surprised. The city should be ambitious enough to target new markets

Plus there is a strong need to review CASP and build a new future plan where the economic variable and not aimlessly wander on to 2014 and 2020 to the end of the development plan and CASP respectively.

 Parliament Bridge, Cork City

 

Kieran’s Comments on Cork Economic Monitor, Cork City Council Meeting, 27 April 2011

Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

Lord Mayor,

It’s difficult to find comfort in these seasonal economic monitor reports – now a type of doomsday record of the Irish economy’s state – one would like to think that one is bouncing off the bottom of the recession barrel but looking at the figure of 444,299 people signing on the live register, 26, 249 of those in metropolitan Cork; there are years ahead of us in rebuilding the Irish economy plus to bring it back to a sustainable state that even the letters IMF don’t appear in a report such as this.

It would be remiss of us when on such fever infested topic without mentioning the recent Nyberg report, which was very eye opening

Finnish banking expert Peter Nyberg stated that the main reason for the financial crash was the unhindered expansion of the property bubble financed by the banks.

It said the problems causing the crisis were the result of domestic Irish decisions, rather than international factors.

The main conclusion of the report was that the Financial Regulator did not have the bottle to bring Anglo Irish Bank to book over risky lending and stop other banks jumping on the bandwagon.

The inquiry into the cause of the country’s banking crisis has found authorities, including the Central Bank, did not understand the dangers of a property boom.

And it found the cause and scale of the €70bn meltdown was homegrown, while worldwide recession has made it worse.

It also shattered claims, put by the last government, that the collapse of the US bank Lehman Brothers sparked the Irish crisis; that events were already put in motion.

He said the top bank executives paid little attention to risks they were taking through shockingly large lending and chasing Anglo’s growth rates.

The report finds Irish authorities “had the data required to arouse suspicion about trends in the property and financial markets” – but either failed to understand it, or weren’t able to evaluate and analyse the implications correctly.

He says the real problem with the financial regulator was not a lack of powers but a lack of scepticism and the appetite to prosecute challenges.

It is my personal feeling that those findings are pathetic and appalling and never again should such financial responsibility lie with such reckless individuals.

We as Irish people have spent the last ten years obsessed with making money; and even now after the fall, we are still obsessed with money but this time paying it back.

Just three final comments Lord Mayor, the celebration of new retailers in the city centre, , Kuytuchi, Tommy Hilfiger, Emobile, Tour America, Edinburgh Woollen Mills is somewhat justified and sometimes not…they are creating local jobs but most of their revenue is exported plus also they continue to add to the general erosion of the City’s unique and native retailing shops. It’s important that we promote equally international and native retailing experiences, otherwise we’ll just have a city centre of shops which you can find anywhere in the world.

Secondly it’s terrible to see the fall in tourism numbers, a drop of 13 per cent, total overseas visitor numbers fell by 15 per cent, arrivals from mainland Europe fell by 17 per cent. Failte Ireland need to be asked questions about this…

On a positive note, it’s great to see exports up by 18 per cent in the last quarter of 2010. I would like to thank those individuals who are out there in the world, pushing for a better result for Ireland

Lord Mayor, it’s too easy to dismiss such a document – this economic report – we should write to the new government asking for the proposed plan forward for all the difficulties presented within this document. There are no instant solutions but there must be a sustainable plan forged to move forward…

Cork City Hall

Kieran’s Motions and Question to the City Manager, Cork City Council Meeting, 26 April 2011

Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

Kieran’s Motions and Question to the City Manager, Cork City Council Meeting, 26 April 2011

Motions:

That the carpark at the pier head in Blackrock be tarmacademed due to its unsightly and rough appearance (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)

Following up on my previous motion in September 2009, that a review take place of traffic and pedestrian safety at the  junction of several exits onto the Douglas Road, namely Rhodaville, Briar Rose and the Ardfallen complex and that the appropriate traffic & pedestrian safety measures be carried out (Cllr. K. McCarthy)

 

Question to the Manager:

To ask the manager to give a breakdown of the income and expenditure for the recent St. Patrick’s Day Festival? (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)

 

Cork City Hall

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, New Publication, 21 April 2011

Cork City Events, Cork History, Uncategorized

587a. Kieran's new book Royal Cork Institution Pioneer of Education

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent – 21 April 2011

Royal Cork Institution: Pioneer of Education – New Publication

 

 

Royal Cork Institution: Pioneer of Education is the title of my new book. It is published and funded by Cork Institution of Technology. In this volume I try to shed light on an important aspect of the educational heritage of the city which, in the nineteenth century, laid important foundation stones for our twenty-first century education. Although little remembered or spoken of in current day Cork, the Royal Cork Institution was remarkable in its time and the city owes a great debt to those who founded, developed and maintained that institution. Cork Institute of Technology, particularly it’s Science Faculty and its constituent schools of the Crawford College of Art and Design and the Cork School of Music can trace their origins back to the influences of the Royal Cork Institution. This establishment also played a critical role in the movement that led to the foundation of Queens College Cork, later re-named as University College Cork.

 

In the early nineteenth century Cork city, the Royal Cork Institution was the home of cultural life. Based on institutions established in the late eighteenth century, the Royal Cork Institution was founded in 1803 by Rev Thomas Dix Hincks, Minister of the old Presbyterian Church in Princes Street. From small beginnings at premises on the South Mall, the Royal Cork Institution planned and maintained itself as a Westminster government supported research centre for over seventy years. With energetic membership, the Institution served a whole range of educational interests for the citizens of Cork and offered formal education but with no certificates or qualifications. Courses were given along with public lectures on various aspects of science and the application of scientific principles to industry and agriculture. In essence, the Institution pioneered the concept of adult and technical education and became a prominent cultural institution amongst many others in Western Europe, which were all aiming to advance moral and intellectual values of its members.

 

The extant minute books of the Royal Cork Institution provide a lens to explore the human aspects of nineteenth century life in Cork. The Institution was a pioneer in attaining improvements in adult and technical education amongst the general public. Many of its activities were taken over later by the State and by educational institutions, all of which we are now inclined to take for granted.

 

Early records of its activities are not preserved, but from those at our disposal, it would appear that they interested themselves in the general education of the Cork public and technical progress. The non-specialist was given access to new areas of ‘useful knowledge’. Lecturers thought and taught about innovation and ingenuity in the nineteenth century world. The premises on the South Mall also became a site of sociability. It was a centre for the middle classes to mix, to become known and come face to face with culture. On a daily basis, there was a transfer of knowledge as members and subscribers accessed gossip and political knowledge. In a sense, the Royal Cork Institution contributed to technological change and to broader cultural ambitions within local society as well as facilitating rapid cultural change.

Subsequently, in the nineteenth century Cork became known by its European counterparts

as the ‘Athens of Ireland’. The first half of the nineteenth century became a ‘golden era’ in the city’s cultural history, a time when the city itself was alive with artistic activity. This reputation was secured by a group of young men who matured together during this period and later became internationally renowned as artists, sculptors and writers. The most prominent individuals were educationalists such as Rev Thomas Dix Hincks, artists, Daniel Maclise and John Hogan and writers, William Maginn, Francis Mahony, J.J. Callanan, Crofton Croker and Samuel Carter Hall. The library of the Royal Cork Institution helped in the cultivation of knowledge and provided a specialised service to doctors and lawyers. A botanic garden was established at Ballyphehane, now the site of St Joseph’s Cemetery.

 

From its foundation until 1826, the Institution was in receipt of an annual grant from the Westminster Parliament. Compensation for the withdrawal of this grant came in the form of the British government presenting the premises of Cork’s former eighteenth century Custom House (now the Crawford Art Gallery on Emmet Place) to the Institution. This provided greater space for a wide range of activities. The most popular of these included demonstrations in chemistry, electricity, botany and mineralogy. Science had the vibrant appeal of an amateur study plus the curiosity of something new. The Institution’s repository of classical casts also contributed powerfully to the early artistic training of Corkonians. In the decades of the 1830s and 1840s, the Royal Cork Institution influenced the British government, through public appeal, in its decision to establish a university not only in Cork, but in Galway and Belfast too. This book is about what we have inherited from individuals whose contribution has inspired, influenced and now contributes to our modern society.

 

My sincere thanks to former registrar of CIT Brendan Goggin and all at Cork Institute of Technology for their vision with this project. The book is available from Waterstones on St. Patrick’s Street and Liam Ruiseall’s or alternatively email citric@cit.ie for more details.

 

 

Captions:

 

587a. Front cover of Royal Cork Institution: Pioneer of Education by Kieran McCarthy

 

587b. At Kieran’s recent book launch at the Unitarian Church on Princes Street were (l-r) Brendan Goggin, former registrar of CIT, Cllr Kieran McCarthy, Dr. Brendan Murphy, President of CIT and Canon George Salter

 587b. At the recent book launch at the Unitarian Church on Princes Street, Cork; l-r, Brendan Goggin, Kieran McCarthy, Dr. Brendan Murphy, Canon G. Salter

Special Cork City Council Meeting, 14 April 2011, Kieran’s Comments, Death of Cllr Dave McCarthy

Cork City Events, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

Lord Mayor, I wish to be associated with the condolences to the family of the late Cllr Dave McCarthy. I only got to know Dave McCarthy on a personal level in the last year.  Prior to that, I read about Dave in the papers and his many, many contributions in getting the best for his ward and the city. He was a hard and tireless worker and I’m going to miss his contributions, his passion for the people he represented and his love of Cork.

As a city, we are slow to celebrate our local heroes, which we need to do alot more. Dave is a hero. He wielded his interest in the city and its sense of place to inspire, provoke questions and the imagination in building a better city for all Corkonians. Lord Mayor there is so much to learn from Dave, whose memory and legacy will be recounted in the weeks and years.

Crowds will come to pay homage to Dave over the next couple of days. Dave was a confident & proud man, proud of what the city has and will achieve & of his family where our thoughts also ly today. In this world, we need more of such confidence, pride and belief – we need to mass produce these qualities, all of which Dave stood for. This is a sad day for Cork, one of its champions is gone.

Historical Walking Tour, St. Finbarr’s Hospital, 16 April 2011

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

Thanks to everyone who came out to support the historical walking tour around St. Finbarr’s Hospital on Douglas Road and for all the contributions.

Historical Walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Did you know?

·         St Finbarr’s Hospital, the city’s former nineteenth century workhouse, serves as a vast repository of narratives, memories, symbolism, iconography and cultural debate …plaques, haunted memories…

 

·         When the Irish Poor Relief Act was passed on 31 July 1838, the assistant Poor Law commissioner, William J. Voules came to Cork in September 1838 to implement the new laws. Meetings were held in towns throughout the country. By 1845, 123 workhouses had been built, formed into a series of districts or Poor Law Unions, each Poor Law Union containing at least one workhouse. The cost of poor relief was met by the payment of rates by owners of land and property in that district.

 

 

 

·         In 1841 eight acres, 1 rood and 23 perches were leased to the Poor Law Guardians from Daniel B. Foley, Evergreen, Cork; he retained an acre on which was Evergreen House with its surrounding gardens.

 

·         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 (also the 1840s city boundary)

 

·         The Poor Law Commissioners’ architect was George Wilkinson (1814-1890). He was Architect to the Poor Law Commissioners in Ireland from 1839 until 1855. George Wilkinson was born in 1814, a son of W.A. Wilkinson, carpenter and builder of Witney, Oxfordshire.

 

 

·         Nearly all the workhouses, accommodating between 200 and 2000 persons apiece, were designed in a Tudor domestic idiom, with picturesque gabled entrance buildings which belied the size and comfortlessness of the institutions which lay behind them.

 

·         In the workhouse, women and children were lodged in separated accommodation so that families were ruthlessly disrupted and loneliness and anxiety – mortality was high especially among infants.

 

·         A typical day inside the workhouse was to rise at 6am, breakfast at 6.30am, work until 12 noon, lunch break and then work until 6pm. Supper was served at 7pm, with final lights out at 8pm. A roll call was carried out each morning.

 

 

·         Between the years 1847 and 1872 the following contagious diseases raged at different times in Cork many times in Cork many cases of which were admitted to the Union workhouse Fever hospital: Small Pox, Asiatic Cholera, Typhus Fever, and all of them kept recurring.

 

·         The first medical attendant was Dr. D.C. O’Connor. He was the first professor of Medicine at Queen’s College Cork, 1849-1888. He was also the first doctor as well of Mercy Hospital in 1857. He resigned from the workhouse in 1856.

 

·         In 1870 the Board of Guardians invited the Sisters of Mercy to take charge of the Union Hospital with the sanction of Dr Delaney. Eight came from St. Marie’s of the Isle. Besides nursing- teaching of workhouse children – care of unmarried mothers and their children and any other religious or social task.

·         c.1877- further extensions to Cork Union Workhouse was accomplished. State grants were forthcoming for the upkeep of the workhouses in Ireland these were raised by means of an estate duty and a liquor duty

 

·         1898- Workhouse name changed to Cork District Hospital

 

 

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011 

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Kieran’s Historical Walking Tour, St. Finbarr’s Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Cork City Events, Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, Uncategorized, Ward Events

Thanks to everyone who came out to support the historical walking tour around St. Finbarr’s Hospital on Douglas Road and for all the contributions.

Historical Walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Did you know?- Some Historical Points on the early history of St. Finbarr’s Hospital (more historical walking tours to come)

·         St Finbarr’s Hospital, the city’s former nineteenth century workhouse, serves as a vast repository of narratives, memories, symbolism, iconography and cultural debate …plaques, haunted memories…

 

·         When the Irish Poor Relief Act was passed on 31 July 1838, the assistant Poor Law commissioner, William J. Voules came to Cork in September 1838 to implement the new laws. Meetings were held in towns throughout the country. By 1845, 123 workhouses had been built, formed into a series of districts or Poor Law Unions, each Poor Law Union containing at least one workhouse. The cost of poor relief was met by the payment of rates by owners of land and property in that district.

 

 

·         In 1841 eight acres, 1 rood and 23 perches were leased to the Poor Law Guardians from Daniel B. Foley, Evergreen, Cork; he retained an acre on which was Evergreen House with its surrounding gardens.

 

·         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 (also the 1840s city boundary)

 

·         The Poor Law Commissioners’ architect was George Wilkinson (1814-1890). He was Architect to the Poor Law Commissioners in Ireland from 1839 until 1855. George Wilkinson was born in 1814, a son of W.A. Wilkinson, carpenter and builder of Witney, Oxfordshire.

 

 

·         Nearly all the workhouses, accommodating between 200 and 2000 persons apiece, were designed in a Tudor domestic idiom, with picturesque gabled entrance buildings which belied the size and comfortlessness of the institutions which lay behind them.

 

·         In the workhouse, women and children were lodged in separated accommodation so that families were ruthlessly disrupted and loneliness and anxiety – mortality was high especially among infants.

 

·         A typical day inside the workhouse was to rise at 6am, breakfast at 6.30am, work until 12 noon, lunch break and then work until 6pm. Supper was served at 7pm, with final lights out at 8pm. A roll call was carried out each morning.

 

 

·         Between the years 1847 and 1872 the following contagious diseases raged at different times in Cork many times in Cork many cases of which were admitted to the Union workhouse Fever hospital: Small Pox, Asiatic Cholera, Typhus Fever, and all of them kept recurring.

 

·         The first medical attendant was Dr. D.C. O’Connor. He was the first professor of Medicine at Queen’s College Cork, 1849-1888. He was also the first doctor as well of Mercy Hospital in 1857. He resigned from the workhouse in 1856.

 

·         In 1870 the Board of Guardians invited the Sisters of Mercy to take charge of the Union Hospital with the sanction of Dr Delaney. Eight came from St. Marie’s of the Isle. Besides nursing- teaching of workhouse children – care of unmarried mothers and their children and any other religious or social task.

·         c.1877- further extensions to Cork Union Workhouse was accomplished. State grants were forthcoming for the upkeep of the workhouses in Ireland these were raised by means of an estate duty and a liquor duty

 

·         1898- Workhouse name changed to Cork District Hospital

 

 

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011 

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, 16 April 2011

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, History Tour of St. Finbarr’s Hospital, 16 April 2011

Cork City Events, Cork History, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Events

586a. Sketch of former workhouse building, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 14 April 2011

History Tour of St. Finbarr’s Hospital

 

Next Saturday morning, 16 April at 11am in association with Turners Cross Community Association for the Lifelong Learning Festival, I will conduct a historical walking tour of St. Finbarr’s Hospital (meet at gate). In one sense, this article is another aside article to the Lee but that being said, how one attempts to work through a heritage site and what memories should a researcher focus in on the modern world are all issues that again and again frequent my research.

This time round there is also the added issue of me living in the area and the fact that every day of my life, I have passed the 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.

However for all of what I have said I can argue that all of the above memories and mixed histories make these areas places of experiment in their time of creation– the erection of stately red bricked 1880s housing on roads like Cross Douglas Road started a trend to build new suburbs for the middle class just outside the city boundary in the late 1800s. In more recent times I have become more intrigued studying the affects of Free State Ireland and the aspirations of events like the Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair in 1932- those aspirations for creating a better Ireland and in Cork the movement of people from the inner city slums to new housing estates like Capwell. Capwell’s post office and its sign 1926 is of change in that time not to mention Barry Byrne’s designed Christ the King Church, an imposing monument in itself to honour change and also to Cork’s continuously outward looking vision to the world. In this case, go google Church of Christ the King, Tulsa Oklahoma to see what the Turners Cross is modelled on.

Standing at the gate of St. Finbarre’s Hospital reflecting on all the above histories and memories above begs the question on how do you even blend these in to a tour without leaving your audience behind. 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, what has survived to outline the history of the hospital are many indepth primary documents. 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 key feature of this new tour or trail is the story of the hospital and an attempt to unravel its memories. The Hospital serves as a vast repository of memories, symbolism, iconography and cultural debate. It has plaques, ruins and haunted memories. 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.

The walking tour next Saturday is an attempt to unravel some of the memories of the workhouse, how also it evolved into the present day hospital and also connect it into the history of the wider area.

 

Captions:

586a. Sketch of former workhouse building, St. Finbarr’s Hospital (source: Walter Quirke)

586b. Section of Ordnance Survey Map, c.1846 showing the Union Workhouse, Douglas Road (source: Cork City Library)

586b. Section of Ordnance Survey Map, c.1846 showing the Union Workhouse, Douglas Road, Cork

Remnants of Cork Union Workhouse, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, April 2011

Remnants of Cork Union Workhouse, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, April 2011

Remnants of Workhouse Boundary Wall, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, April 2011

Plaque remembering the Cork Union Workhouse on the exterior boundary wall of St. Finbarr's Hospital, April 2011

Section of Ordnance Survey map of Cork Union Workhouse building, 1899

 Google Earth image of St. Finbarr's Hospital, remnants of Cork Union Workhouse buildings at the base in the centre, 2010

Deputy Lord Mayor, Friends of Marymount Hospice, Luncheon, 13 April 2011

Cork City Events, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

 I had the great privilege of deputising for the Lord Mayor at the Friends of Marymount Hospice luncheon today, well done to all)

(below is adapted from my speech notes)

I am a big fan of your organisation, your name goes before you in the Cork region. You are a strong organisation and have strong branches. These branched remain strong with your strong roots or foundations and your belief in what you do, which are regularly replenished by your and other fundraising efforts all in a bid to raise funding for St. Patrick’s Hospital and Marymount Hospice.

It has been 7 years since my own involvement in the book, A Dream Unfolding, which attempted to document the history of the hospital and hospice. It led the reader through a range of experiences and memories about how the various departments came into being. From Dr. Patrick Murphy’s request to the role of the Sisters of Charity to the construction of the hospital in 1870 to the expansion of the hospital in the 20th century. The book finished up at the outset of another dream or aspiration, that of a new hospice, which in the next couple of months will open. Since 2004, alot of things have changed for St. Patrick’s Hospital and Marymount Hospice – the selling of the convent, the moving on of the sisters and the upping of the ante of fundraising for the new facility at Curaheen.

 

But one thing hasn’t changed and that is the ethos of what needs to be done. Finance is essential but something I find very interesting is how so many people engage with the actual process of fundraising, the actual idea of active citizenship, the idea of taking ownership of a situation and trying to resolve it.

Ireland at the moment is going through a very tough economic phase in its evolution. And much effort is being put into rebuilding the economy whereas less effort is being put into rebuilding society. The country, yes, badly needs an economic plan but so do Irish communities.

We need leaders in our communities like yourselves to show us alternatives in our lives – to show part of our lives that perhaps we have never explored – to help us to connect to other people so perhaps each one of use at a minimum is illuminated by advice or a nugget of wisdom… and that we have the ability to be open minded to other people and other ideas. Ultimately, people do need direction, something to work toward.

Ultimately, I reckon when you think about your life, to live a happy productive on a minimum basis and whether we deem a need for them or not- We need to be listened to and to listen… we need to be inspired and to inspire… we need to be encouraged and to encourage… be empowered and to empower… be enabled by action and to enable action … we need to be cared for and to care.

All of us here have experience of those basic actions and their relevance in our own lives.

Our communities need a plan to create a better society, something that is better that what we left during the now mythic Celtic Tiger days. We need to take responsibility for part of this plan

We need realistic steps to achieve that. Friends of Marymount Hospice is a realistic project. All too often we hear about a general vision for Irish community life but ultimately we need engines…drivers like yourselves to move it forward.

Community leaders are like giant spotlights in the sky; they can and will continue to uphold human values for all to see and replicate, they can send out the message that we do need to care – care about something… to do something purposeful…to move yourself forward… to hone our personal talents, which we all have or even seek advice.

Today’s Society needs all of those traits in abundance.

The other thing that strikes me is the move from the old to the new building. There will be I have no doubt be a nervousness and anxiety and alot of patience needed. But I wish to quote Sr. Dolores who I worked with in 2004 on the book who noted in the foreword and I quote:

“There are places that are important to us as we journey through life and somehow they become sacred to us. When we look at the history of St Patrick’s Hospital/Marymount Hospice we sense this sacredness and we are immediately aware of the spirituality of the place. We are reminded of all the people, who, over the years journeyed to this place on the last stage of their pilgrimage in life and the families and friends who visited and supported them.

Today our Sisters and staff continue to keep Mary Aikenhead’s vision alive through the Mission Statement of St. Patrick’s Hospital/Marymount Hospice:

Inspired by Mother Mary Aikenhead:

We continue the healing ministry of Christ by our care

for all entrusted to us;

We cherish the uniqueness and dignity of each person;

We value and foster mutual respect and understanding;

We endeavour to continuously improve all aspects of our mission.”

Over the next couple of months, best of luck in your mission moving forward; another chapter begins, another legacy begins, history is being made but ultimately the need to do something and to care for humanity shines through.

I am delighted to be present at the luncheon.

…Thank you and best of luck going forward.

St. Patrick's Hospital, Wellington Road