Kieran’s Our City, Our Town article,

Cork Independent, 23 December 2010

Redevelopment of Beamish & Crawford Site

Planning permission was recently lodged with Cork City Council for the redevelopment of the four acre Beamish and Crawford site on South Main Street. The plan encompasses a 6,000 seat event centre, a ‘brewing experience’ visitor centre, 30,000 sq, feet of office space, 250 student beds, a viewing tower, cinemas, shops and  restaurants.

I have been open in my concerns about the re-development of the Beamish and Crawford site. This site has enormous cultural and tourism potential. I am not happy with the scale of the proposed development and I am annoyed because this is where Cork began and a developer is going to put apartments and office blocks on the vast majority of it.  I have been open and tolerant to many modern developments in our city during the boom years but not with this one. I do not want an office block style development destroying the foundations of the civic memory of the city.

Way back in the early 1980s, Cork Corporation made the great decision to create Beamish Lucey Park – providing a space to showcase the city’s medieval past in terms of the incorporation of the foundations of the town wall and highlighting Cork 800 and the city’s charter in 1185 through John Behan’s sculptured eight swans on the fountain; sculptural pieces by Seamus Murphy were added in as well as the old Cornmarket Gates that once stood in the backyard of Cork City Hall. The Beamish and Crawford site can be a similar cultural project.  This is where over 1000 years ago, someone physically ‘broke their back’ whilst sinking their wooden materials into a swamp to start the process of reclamation and what we know as Cork today.  Possibly this is where Dún Corcaighe, the Viking fort, which was attacked in 848 AD by an Irish chieftain, once stood. Recent excavations on the Grand Parade City Car Park site revealed that the people living in the 1100s actually moved the river channel that ran through the site to allow for timber housing and thus created the present south channel in the area. In one pit dug by archaeologists they found a wooden quayside dating to 1160 and in another found the remains of four houses, each demolished to make way for the next one over the space of 50 years between 1100-1150 AD.

Cork is the only settlement in Ireland that has experienced every phase of urban growth. Hence I could go and in depth mention the creation of South Main Street in the era of the walled town, the foundation of the Beamish and Crawford brewery in 1792 and the businesses that lined the adjacent street during the centuries. This is a  place of tradition, of continuity, change and legacy, of ambition and determination, engineering ingenuity, survival and experimentation. But it is not a place I strongly feel for student accommodation and office blocks.

I’m always very disappointed when the city’s early heritage is discovered and for the most part is covered over. For example Queen’s Castle, the tower shown in the city’s Coat of Arms, was excavated and encased in concrete in 1996 and still lies under Castle Street.  One had the Crosses Green apartment complex, the remains of a Dominican Friary were discovered in 1993 but no remains were incorporated.  I am reminded at this juncture if you go to places like Galway, they have successfully incorporated the remnants of their town wall into Eyre Square Shopping Centre, they have also incorporated their built heritage into Eyre Square. Or venture further afield to York where they have developed a Viking interpretative centre on the site of their old Viking town or go to Munich city centre where they have an enormous transport and science museum/ centre.

There seems to be a sense to certain developers in this city that heritage is something that cannot be harnessed or that it is not something unique or exciting or maybe that generally people want to live in a place that looks the same as some other cities in the world.  I can say the following from giving walking tours of this city for 17 years that people don’t come to Cork or Ireland because it is the same as other places. Tourists want to come here to see something different and to learn something new. Despite having great venues such as the Lifetime Lab or Blackrock Castle, there is no venue in the city centre that tells the story of Cork’s evolution, revealing the city’s sense of place, pride and identity. I also feel that the promotional heritage frameworks that are in place are not good enough for a city that has a European Capital of Culture and a Lonely Planet accolade ‘under its belt’.

I honestly believe we need a new framework for the harnessing of our built, cultural heritage, our very identity. In an age of the recession, there is an opportunity through the Beamish and Crawford site to foster our tourism and cultural sector which I feel has not been adequately opened up. There is an enormous cultural and economic opportunity to be missed if this re-development of this site is messed up.

Happy Christmas to readers of this column and thanks for your continued support…

Caption:

571a. Interpretation of the past; area around South Main Street, c.1000 AD (drawing: Claire Flahavan from Kieran’s book, Discover Cork)

571b. Section of walled town of Cork , c.1575, Beamish and Crawford site is in top left, from the Pacata Hibernia (source: Cork City Library)

KIeran’s Our City, Our Town Article, Cork Independent,

 16 December 2010

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 241)

A Munster Line Out

Continuing the walk through the Hall of Industry at the Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair in Cork in 1932, stands number 30 to 32 were occupied by Joseph Hosford of 62 North Main Street, Cork. The Hosfords had a complete working exhibit showing the manufacture of jellies which were one of the principal products of the firm. Their general display of confectionery also included sponge rolls, slab cakes, barn bracks, boxed goods, silver wrapper cakes, corn flour and self-raising flour.

Stand number 33 and 34 were occupied by F.C. Porte & Co., 27 Marlborough Street, Cork, who exhibited electric lighting type crude oil engines as well as petrol paraffin engine and neon tube signs. Neon became very popular for signage and displays in the period 1920-1940. Neon lighting became an important cultural phenomenon in the United States in that era.

A number of strong Munster companies were also in the adjacent stand line-up.  The display of Cork Distilleries Co. Ltd. was similar to that shown in previous international exhibitions at Philadelphia in 1876, Paris in 1878 and Sydney in 1879. It was in 1825 that the Murphy brothers founded the Midleton, Co. Cork. Distillery. That eventually became the home of all of the Company’s manufactured whiskeys, especially after they installed the world’s largest pot still with a capacity of 33,000 gallons. In 1867, the Cork Distilleries Company was set up when the Midleton Distillery amalgamated with four distilleries in the city. In 1880 over 400 brands of Irish whiskey were on sale around the world and more than 160 distilleries were in full production to meet the demand. In 1882 Paddy Flaherty joined the Cork Distilleries Co. Ltd and created the legend of “Paddy’s whiskey.” From 1919 to 1933 the Prohibition Laws in the USA decreed that all production, importation and trade in alcoholic beverages was forbidden. This had a devastating effect on the Irish whiskey industry.  In 1921, the economic war with Britain meant that trade sanctions are imposed on Irish whiskey sales to the British Empire. Many Irish Distilleries closed as a result of this trade embargo. 

Next to the Cork Distilleries Co. was Henry Denny & Sons of Waterford. They showed bacon, hams, sausages, lard, puddings, cooked hams, luncheon sausages etc. Henry Denny started trading as a provisions merchant in Waterford in 1820 when he entered a partnership with a long-established general merchant. In 1880 Henry’s youngest son Edward set up Edward Denny & Co. in London and began expanding internationally.  Between 1885 and 1900 it had operations in Germany, Denmark and America. A defining moment in the brand’s history arrived in 1933 at an International food fair in Manchester. Denny was awarded a gold medal for making the finest sausages. This accolade gave birth to the Denny Gold Medal brand.

W. & H. Goulding, Ltd., The Glen, had stand number 39 and exhibited sulphuric acid, superphostate and compound fertilisers, all manufactured in Cork. Goulding started making phosphate fertilizers in Cork in 1856. In 1969, the Glen was presented as an amenity area to Cork City Council by Sir Basil Goulding and is one of the best natural parks in Cork.

At stand number 45 was J.W. MacMullen & Sons, Ltd, George’s Quay, Cork. They staged an exhibit of their speciality “Parata” cooked maize. The fair catalogue notes that the George’s Quay plant had one of the most modern and up-to-date plants that could be divided for the manufacture of cooked maize. Messrs. MacMullen, in conjunction with their associated firm Messrs. Webb Ltd., of Mallow, were the sole contractors to the Co. Cork Poultry Keepers’ Association for poultry foods.. All information regarding different grades of foods was given. Both firms, MacMullen and Webb were also joint contractors to the Dairy Shorthorn Breeders Society for a specially prepared balanced ration. That was known as “Golden Cow” dairy ration, so blended in an effort to produce the highest possible output of milk.

In the Hall of Commerce, J.W Dowden & Co. had stand number one there. Their shop was at 113, Patrick Street, Cork. Originally a linen merchant, John Dowden had established a shop on Patrick Street by 1844 and the firm continued for well over a century. Members of the Dowden family were active in Cork life and in academic and church circles. Their exhibit at the fair comprised Irish linen products from bed spreads to dress linens and coats, costumes and dresses made to order. The men’s department exhibit comprised shirts, collars and pyjamas.

The Hall of Commerce was also the place where one saw a key enterprise from Limerick City. The Cleeves confectioners (Ireland) Ltd. Limerick took over six stand spaces. They were manufacturers of condensed milk, toffee and caramels. In 1860 Thomas Cleeve, a Canadian, travelled to Ireland to stay with his mother’s relatives who ran an agricultural machinery business in Limerick known as J.P. Evans & Company. Young Thomas decided to remain in Ireland and eventually assumed control of the business. In 1883, Cleeve started a new enterprise, the Condensed Milk Company of Ireland, in conjunction with two local businessmen. The business expanded to become the largest of its type in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

To be continued…

Captions:

570a. Advertisement for Denny’s, fair catalogue, 1932 (source: Cork Museum)

570b. Advertisement for Paddy’s Irish Whiskey, fair catalogue, 1932 (source: Cork Museum)