Kieran’s Article, Our City, Our Town,

Cork Independent, 4 November 2010

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 235)

The Market Place of Ireland

“Unnecessary imports of food-stuffs and building materials into Cork, therefore account for an unduly large proportion of Cork’s incoming traffic- the imports of foreign flour alone totalling 22,500 tons for the year ended 31^st July last. The only inference your council can draw from the returns of the imports is that Cork citizens are to a very large extent becoming gradually more and more dependent on the foreigners for food, clothing and shelter” (from annual report, Cork Chamber of Commerce, 1931, as published in the Irish Press, 1 December 1931, p.7).

In their address to the County of Cork Committee of Agriculture in mid August 1931, the members of the Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair committee proposed to hold an exhibition or fair, which would accommodate exhibits and would illustrate native industry in Ireland. The fair committee noted that they were following the example of Denmark and Holland and believed the fair would be of great help in advertising the agricultural products of Ireland. They were also confident that the Department of Agriculture would enhance their efforts by putting up a building showcasing their own promotional efforts. The fair committee wanted the Department to show a farmhouse which would have a ten or twenty acre plot with out-offices and a suitable market garden. They also wished to have a small dairy on display to show cheese production. The fair committee noted that half the butter of Ireland was made by farmers themselves. The information the fair committee had was that much more cream could potentially be turned into cheese and sold. The committee maintained that the experiment was worth trying. It would cost a very small sum of money and if it succeeded it would have a far-reaching influence.

The fair committee were also of the opinion that horticulture should be very much advanced than it was. In 1931, there were £120,000 worth of tomatoes and only £200,000 worth of oranges imported into Ireland. Tomatoes, the committee asserted, could be produced better in Ireland because of climate, than in any other country in the world. The fair committee wanted the Department of Agriculture to co-operate with them in the matter of displaying forestry projects in Ireland. The Department had a forestry station near the city and as the fair committee intended running a road through the fair grounds they were anxious to have a plot in which each kind of native tree would be planted for display purposes. The fair committee praised the attempt to make the Munster Institute on Model Farm Road available to interested individuals who wish to gain in their farming enterprise by taking a personally conducted tour of the operation. The fair committee noted that such tours would be able to show the investment the Irish government had taken in encouraging the production of high quality eggs. The committee also hoped that University College Cork would display parts of its new creamery.

In a press statement on the 29 August 1931 in the Cork Examiner, further details on preparations for the Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair 1932 were highlighted. Over eighty acres of land just off the Carrigrohane Straight were purchased from Mr. T.Corcoran, vice-chairman of the Cork County Council and the enclosing of the site and draining of the land began  The plans of the main industrial hall were approved and tenders were to be invited. Cash and approved guarantees were accepted and these amounted to £15,300. The minimum amount of guarantees had already been exceeded by August 1931 such was the popularity of the proposed event. The lay-out of the grounds was provisionally arranged subject to definite information from the various National Government Departments as to what form which their co-operation was going to take. Approximately 18 acres were put aside for an amusement park and the “concessionaires”, as well as providing the usual plant and machinery, intended to spend £8,000 to £10,000 in material for buildings to be erected in the park.

The fair prospectus, which survives in the archives of the Boole Library, UCC, reveals that whereby the Chairman was George Crosbie, he was assisted by his vice chairman Senator J.C. Dowdall, James Dwyer and W.J. Hickey plus 54 members of committee from political and business backgrounds. The prospectus pitched Cork as “The Market Place of Ireland”. The objects of the fair were set out. The industrial objects were to “display and make known the manufactures and agricultural products of Ireland, and to foster and develop the growing importance of Ireland’s trade and commerce, at home and abroad”. The agricultural objects aimed to demonstrate the “marvellous progress that is being made in agriculture and agricultural methods, and to display the skill and energy of the Irish producer in this direction”. The educational objects aimed to “afford illustrations of the great advance in teaching methods, of the facilities of education, and of the careers open to those who take advantage of them, and of the influence of such educational training on Irish industries and agriculture”. The historical objects aimed “to record the general desire to preserve national memories and to stimulate interest amongst the Irish people for the history and literature of Ireland”.

To be continued…

Captions:

564a. Draft sketch of planned fair grounds (source: Cork County Library)

564b. Advertisement, Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair, Cork 1932 (Source: Nenagh Guardian, 2 April 1932, p.2)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town article,

Cork Independent, 28 October 2010

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 234)

Depressions, Ideas and Spins  

 “I have no hesitation declared Mr. O’Connell [leader of the Irish Labour Party], in stating that this country is facing up to a state of emergency almost as  great, if not as  immediately apparent as that which threatened other countries during the past few months. The practical solution of their difficulties could be summed up in consequence- provide useful and remunerative employment for all who are able to work. It was no small problem, but it was not insoluble. Every person of good will must unite in devising practical methods to bring about such as a re-organisation “(Editorial, Cork Examiner, 5 September 1931, p.10)

At times reading the above, one could replace the year 1931 with 2010. In fact, there are many political commentaries played out in 1931 to question where the country’s economy was going and also to lay the foundations of lobbying the people for a general election in 1932. From the perspective of 2010, one can see the political spin in full form from parties such as Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party in an effort to collapse the Cumann na nGaedheal government. However, what is clear was that the country was in a time of not just recession but a time of great economic depression. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 in New York had seriously hindered trade with Ireland’s best customer, the USA and created an economic depression in Britain as well. The lack of trade also meant that emigration with the intention of attaining jobs in those countries highly difficult.

Cork as a city was no stranger to providing leadership through its national exhibitions in dark economic times. The Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair held in Cork in 1931 and organised by the Cork business people not only put a focus on the importance of building Ireland up within itself but also sent a serious message to the rest of the country to fight morally for itself. Exhibitions had worked before in the city’s history to draw attention to its enterprises. Perhaps because of its port status, the city was open to foreign ideas more so than non maritime cities. It is interesting to note that in the five years leading up to Cork’s 1931 preparations for its 1932 event, several world fairs had played out with objectives to improve its national industries – Berlin (1926), Lyon, France (1927) Cologne, Germany (1928), Long Beach, United States – Pacific Southwest Exposition (1928),  Barcelona and Seville, Spanish International Exposition (1929),  Newcastle upon Tyne, England/  North East Coast Exhibition  (1929) Hangzhou, Republic of China (1929), Antwerp, Belgium (1930),  Liège, Belgium (1930), Stockholm International Exhibition (1930), Trondheim, Norway (1930), International Foundry Exhibition and Congress  at Milan, Italy (1931) and Paris, France (1931).

The Irish newspaper online resource (an access point is available in the Boole Library in UCC) provides a way to search through several newspapers to explore any topic. On the 16 May 1931, the Irish Independent ran a story that a meeting of prominent business men in Cork decided to create an Industrial and Agricultural Fair for Cork in 1932. It was announced that a site had been secured on the Carrigrohane Road and that a guarantee fund had already been assembled totalling £25,000. Mr. George Crosbie was appointed chairman and Sir Stanley Harrington, Sir A. Dobbin, James Dwyer and Senator J.C. Dowdall were vice chairmen. An obituary for the chairman in 1934 in the Irish Press for the 27 November reveals that George was born in 1864 and was educated at St. Vincent’s Seminary, Cork and later at Tullabeg College after which he joined the literary staff of the Cork Examiner. He was the son of Thomas Crosbie, who played a major part in the management of the paper. George was admitted to the Bar (law) in 1890. He stood for Cork in 1909 as Irish party representative but was defeated. He was defeated in the Senate election of 1925 but was elected Senator in 1932. He was the first president of Cork Industrial Development Association, which was founded in 1903. The Association was inspired perhaps in part by the 1902 and 1903 Cork International Exhibition. George Crosbie, in his capacity as President, met Mr. Henry Ford and interested him in establishing a Ford factory in Cork in 1917.

From the initial idea of the fair, the Cork Examiner also seems to begin to roll out a series of columns on the positive work of the Cork Industrial Fair committee, on the 17 August 1931, the Cork Examiner published the minutes of a meeting whereby on the previous day, chair of the committee George Crosbie’s addressed the County of Cork Committee of Agriculture to gain support for the venture and outlined a number of early objectives for the exhibition. The main thrust of Crosbie’s argument was that: “the time had about come when we should make some effort to try and help on the agricultural side of the country…Emigration had ceased and there was only one direction in which the people’s efforts could be directed and in the opinion of the those who were organising the fair, that was the land.”

Captions:

563a. George Crosbie, Chairman, Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair, 1932 (sources: Cork County Library)

563b. Advertisement, 1932

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

21 October 2010

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 233)

Footprints of a Free State

Of all the places, I have passed through in the Lee Valley, one of my favourite sites is the Lee Fields. I have often walked the length of the footpath along the river running parallel to the Carrigrohane Straight Road and marvelled at the natural slow if hypnotic view of the river. To me, the Lee Fields is an important cross-road where the River Lee’s natural wilderness and the urban wilderness of the City collide. 

The contrasts are extensive. One view is of the River Lee and its part of a large flood plain, shown regularly when the fields are waterlogged during Ireland’s rainy conditions or when the dam at Inniscarra is forced to release reservoir water. The other view is of Cork’s and Ireland’s most impressive buildings such as the Waterworks, Our Lady’s Hospital and the County Hall. There seems to be a playfulness here between the scenery versus harnessing the power of the place to construct monuments such as the latter buildings to the serve the people.

The Carrigrohane Straight Road was built circa the late 1830s and early 1840s. Earlier maps such as Taylor and Skinner’s Maps of the Roads of Ireland (1776) or the Grand Jury map of 1811 do not show any track or path in this area. However, the first edition of the Ordnance Survey Map (1841-42) shows that work was in progress on the new road linking Cork City with Carrigrohane and Leemount Cross. The Straight Road seemed to be built by 1842. The section as far as Leemount Cross (including Leemount Bridge) may not have been completed until during the famine (1845-50).

Work by local historian Walter McGrath reveals that the building of the Straight Road and its extension on to Leemount Cross changed the traffic pattern to the west of the city. That required the building of two bridges – one over the tail race of Carrigrohane Flour Mills, the second over the River Lee. Before the Straight Road and Leemount Bridge were built, the Model Farm Road took traffic to Ballincollig and Macroom while the Lee Road led to Blarney, Coachford and Inniscarra. The original surface of Carrigrohane Straight Road was limestone. In 1927, the County Council and Corporation, who both controlled sections of the Straight Road, laid reinforced concrete. The Straight Road was one of the first concrete road surfaces in Ireland and one of the first in Great Britain. The South of Ireland Asphalt Company (S.I.A.C.) was engaged in the surfacing of the Straight Road and the concrete was hand laid.

The earliest known attempt to harness the Lee Fields for a mixture of business and leisure came through the construction of the holding of the Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair in 1932 in the southern section of the Lee Fields, south of the Straight Road. A lesser known exhibition in the history of the Exhibitions in Cork, it became the fourth attempt (1852, 1883, 1901/ 2, 1932) within eighty years to showcase Cork and its assets on a national and international stage.

By 1931, Cork Corporation and business leaders, ten years on from the War of Independence, had invested much to reconstruct the city centre as the burning of Cork in December 1920 had destroyed many buildings. The resulting compensation the Corporation of Cork received for the damage to City Hall they chose to invest in trying to alleviate the poverty of one ninth of the city’s population, 2,400 families who lived in slum like conditions.  A total of 468 social housing units were constructed between 1926 and 1932 in Turners Cross. This was followed by the construction of a further 500 housing units in Gurranabraher. This vision was driven by Philip Monahan who served as City Commissioner and then as City Manager in Cork from 1924 to 1959. Philip Monahan did much to bring the city forward away from the horrors of the War of Independence and Civil War and to address the some of the pressing needs for social reform especially through the provision of social housing.

The need for reinvention though seems to echo through the general history of the early Free State. Dermot Keogh, retired Professor of History in UCC in his works on early years of the Free State, points to a country trying to return to normality and trying to nurture a calmer patriotism. Under the darkness of Michael Collins’s death and bitter memories of the civil war, the enormous task of state-building was begun by William T. Cosgrave and Cumann na nGaedheal. They put down the foundation stones for the establishment of a liberal democracy and of the institutions of the state – parliament, executive and judiciary.  They attempted to achieve rapid and radical social reform but international issues prevailed.

Emigration continued, 220,591 leaving Irish shore for the US between 1921 and 1930. Those numbers were reduced totally only when world depression hit in the late 1920s with the Wall Street stock market crash. The theme of emigration and the need to harness the assets of Ireland inspired the creation of the Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair 1932 on Cork’s Lee Fields, which sought to benefit Ireland’s employment prospects and agricultural progress.

To be continued….

Captions:

562a. Front cover of catalogue of Cork Industrial Fair 1932 (source: Cork County Library)

562b. Lee Fields, 2010, from Cork County Hall (picture: Kieran McCarthy)