Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 11 May 2023

Recasting Cork: Meetings with the Post-Master General

On 9 May 1923, Postmaster General Mr J J Walsh TD had a busy set of meetings at Turner’s Hotel on Cork’s Oliver Plunkett Street in receiving deputations and their representative of various interests of the city and region. The minutes of the meetings with the various groups in the Cork Examiner reveal insights into challenges of citizens and the commercial community in Cork in moving away from a dependence on UK markets in particular.

 First up a deputation from County Cork Unpurchased Tenants’ Association attended. They sought completion of land purchase at the earliest possible moment. They were a branch of several agrarian pressure groups in Ireland in the 1910s and 1920s. Under the Irish Lands Acts, many farmers in preceding decades had purchased the freehold to their farms. The branches of different counties represented the remaining tenant farmers. The deputation also expressed their dissatisfaction with the manner in which public administration was being conducted in the county. J J Walsh assured the deputation that free holds would be dealt with. He was also of the view that many public bodies in the country were not doing their full duty so that considerable sums of the people’s money were being wasted through insufficient control and that there needed to be more value for money.

A deputation from the Cork Butter Market Trustees next waited on J J Walsh and called for a highly competent grader, who could act as superintendent in the Market, and a qualified analyst. Ample room could be created in the market for a high grade national brand. The Trustees present recalled that before 1884 the market paid over £10,000 a week in wages and commanded a higher price than Danish butter. An 1884 Westminster Bill permitted unbranded butter to be shipped from Ireland with the result that certain shippers sprang up all over the country and shipped butter of any sort or kind regardless of reputational damage it did. J J Walsh promised to raise their concerns at central government level.

A deputation from the South of Ireland Cattle Trade Association also attended on J J Walsh. The representatives noted that before Independence, Ireland had practically the monopoly of the external supplies of cattle to the English markets. They now found themselves against very stiff competition from Canada. They called on central government to lower freights particularly on railways. As an example, they quoted that the “carriage of a beast” in 1914 from County Cork to Yorkshire was roughly eight shillings with the cost going up to 33 shillings in early 1923. In 1914 a truck of nine cattle from Tralee to Liverpool via Dublin cost just £4 but that cost had risen to £15.  The delegation also drew attention to the fact that post offices ought to be open at 8am in all country towns on the occasion of cattle fairs in order to facilitate traders. J J Walsh agreed with their perspective on the need to decrease costs denoting that; “It is the duty of government to be very wide awake and see that the ground was not cut from under their feet”.

A deputation of flour millers of the County and City of Cork met J J Walsh. Irish millers had been asked by government to consider several proposals. Among them was a proposal to require all imported flour to be placed in bags branded front and back with the name, address, and country of origin of the foreign manufacturer in large block capital letters of a specified minimum size, printed in black ink. England had recently taken a similar step in regard to Irish and other foreign products. The millers supported this proposal. They drew the attention of J J Walsh to the increased import of foreign flour – an increase of over 400,000 tons of flour in the previous twelve months and that every ton of foreign flour was estimated to create a loss of over £4 to the workers of Ireland.

The Cork millers related that the total annual capacity of flour production in England and Wales was 40 million socks per annum, but the consumption did not exceed 30 million sacks. This led to the selling of below cost flour to Irish buyers. The millers also asserted that the milling capacity of Ireland was about seventy per cent of the requirement. J J Walsh articulated that foreign made flour should be plainly and sufficiently branded to enable buyers to see whether the product was Irish or not; “Flour-milling is one of our staple industries, and it is behoved on everybody anxious to maintain such industries to wake up to the grave danger after destruction by carelessness our oversight on the part of the Irish people”.

The commercial community of Cork were the last to meet J J Walsh. They were most anxious to help the government in every way to bring about a better and more prosperous condition for the city and region. They pointed out the serious loss the city had suffered during the previous immediate years. Many subjects were discussed which included the restoration of Mallow railway bridge, the improvement of postal, telegraphic and telephone services, payment of claims for cork burnings, proposed valuation on new buildings, allocation of government contracts in the car carrier, abolition of the Cockett Tax, and collection of income tax by employers.

J J Walsh admitted that in the past Cork had not received its proper share of government contracts but in the previous two months Cork had received not less than a quarter of the total contracts of the Irish Free State. These contracts were given on merit based on the price but never less Cork had been fortunate in securing a big over proportion of the monies at the disposal of the Irish Free State.

On the question of reconstruction of the City Centre over thirty months on from the Burning of Cork event, J J Walsh produced figures that there were 400 rebuilding and property losses claims. A total of 180 claims had already been paid the money – this amounted to £150,000. He noted that the outstanding 200 claims would be cleared. He had also spoken on a number of labour leaders and they assured him that there was no truth in the assertion that Cork workmen were not as able and as willing in the execution of their work as those in any other part of Ireland.

JJ Walsh also met with tea agents and agricultural education groups before his return by train to Dublin.

Upcoming walking tours with Kieran:

Saturday 13 May 2022, The Battle of Douglas, An Irish Civil War Story, meet at carpark and entrance to Old Railway Line, Harty’s Quay, Rochestown; 2pm, (free, 2 hours, finishes near Rochestown Road).

Saturday 20 May 2023, The Northern Ridge – St Patrick’s Hill to MacCurtain Street; Tour around St Patrick’s Hill – Old Youghal Road to McCurtain Street; meet on the Green at Audley Place, top of St Patrick’s Hill, 2pm (free, duration: two hours, no booking required, finishes on MacCurtain Street).

Caption:

1201a. Marina Flour Mills, South Docks, Cork, 1919, from Cork: Its Chamber and Commerce (source: Cork City Library).

8 May 2023, “The council will continue to engage with the representatives, to establish a restoration timeframe.  Mr Reidy was responding to a question submitted by Independent councillor, Kieran McCarthy, who sought an update on the matter”, Plan submitted to Cork City Council on works to repair section of crumbling quay wall, Plan submitted to Cork City Council on works to repair section of crumbling quay wall (echolive.ie)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 4 May 2023

Kieran’s May Historical Walking Tours

Welcome to the 1200^th article of Our City, Our Town. Many thanks to all those who support and read the column. It has been an enormous adventure over its 24 years of existence so far. As with previous years, my summer walking tours of Cork’s historic suburbs and parts of the city centre are back. To encourage engagement, the tours have been free for many years.  There is no booking required. Just show up on the day.

Saturday 6 May 2023, The Marina; Discover the history of the city’s promenade, from forgotten artefacts to ruinous follies; meet at western end adjacent Shandon Boat Club, The Marina, 2pm, no booking required (free, duration: two hours). 

A stroll down The Marina is popular by many people. The area is particularly characterised by its location on the River Lee and the start of Cork Harbour. Here scenery, historical monuments and living heritage merge to create a rich tapestry of questions of who developed such a place of ideas.

Cork’s Marina was originally called the Navigation Wall or in essence it was a guidance or tracking wall to bring ships into Cork City’s South Docks area. It was completed in 1761.

Following the constitution of the Cork Harbour Commissioners in 1814 and their introduction of steam dredging, a vigorous programme of river and berth deepening, quay and wharf building commenced. The dredger of the Commissioners deposited the silt from the river into wooden barges, which were then towed ashore. The silt was re-deposited behind the Navigation Wall.

During the Great Famine, the deepening of the river created jobs for 1,000 men who worked on widening the physical dock of the Navigation Wall. In essence a fine road was constructed, which linked into Cork’s South Docks. To give an aesthetic to the new road, a fine row of elm trees was planted c.1856 by Prof. Edmund Murphy of Queen’s College Cork (now UCC). The elm trees were part of a crop and tree growing experiment.

In 1870, the Gaelic poet and scholar Donncha Ó Floinn put forward to the Improvements Committee of Cork Corporation that the new road of the Navigation wall be named Slí na hAbhann, which means the ‘pathway by the river’. Ó Floinn’s proposal was not accepted. The matter came before the Improvements Committee again in 1872. This time Ó Floinn suggested that the promenade be named ‘The Marina’. He outlined that ‘The Marina’ was the name allocated to a recently reclaimed piece of land near Palermo in Sicily. In July 1872, Cork Corporation formally adopted ‘The Marina’ as the name of the new road or promenade.

Saturday 13 May 2022, The Battle of Douglas, An Irish Civil War Story, meet at carpark and entrance to Old Railway Line, Harty’s Quay, Rochestown; 2pm, (free, 2 hours, finishes near Rochestown Road).

In the early hours of 8 August 1922, the cross-channel steamers SS Arvonia and SS Lady Wicklow, with more than 450 Irish Free State troops on board, sailed into Cork Harbour and berthed at Passage West dockyards.

The Passage West assault was led by General Emmet Dalton. At just 24 years old, he had First World War combat experience, having won the Military Cross while still a teenager. He had led quite large bodies of British troops, and also studied guerrilla warfare during his later IRA service. The Cork city landing contingent comprised 450 soldiers from the 2nd Eastern Division of the National Army’s Eastern Command. Some came from the Dublin Guards battalion, which had participated in the recent Dublin fighting and comprised former IRA veterans.

In the days that followed, prolonged fighting took place as Anti-Treaty forces struggled to curb the advance of the national army troops. Although the precise figure has never been conclusively established, up to twenty fatalities (with many more wounded) are estimated to have occurred during fierce battles in and around Rochestown, Oldcourt Wood and Garryduff.

Saturday 20 May 2023, The Northern Ridge – St Patrick’s Hill to MacCurtain Street; Tour around St Patrick’s Hill – Old Youghal Road to McCurtain Street; meet on the Green at Audley Place, top of St Patrick’s Hill, 2pm (free, duration: two hours, no booking required, finishes on MacCurtain Street).

The tour will speak about the development of the Collins Barracks ridge and its hidden and interesting architectural heritage. The tour that brings the participant from the top of St Patrick’s Hill to the eastern end of McCurtain Street through Wellington Road.

With the MacCurtain Street area, one is dealing with immense scenic perspectives and beautiful architecture– book ended by the epic St Patrick’s Hill view to the west, Summerhill North and Kent Station to the east, and the river and port frontage to the south. There is something to be said about how MacCurtain Street and buildings are carefully balanced and placed on a steep carved out sandstone ridge to the north of the River Lee– an important story of strategic engineering, which appears in earnest behind the waterfall feature behind Greene’s Restaurant.

When the Corporation of Cork of the time invested in planning St Patrick’s Bridge in 1787, it opened up this quarter for development – this was also the decade that brought us the first south docklands plan and the chain the Lord Mayor wears. The 1790s coincided the creation of St Patrick’s Hill – a hill-up avenue from Bridge Street, which aligned with an old windmill now incorporated into Audley House. The decade also coincided with an early MacCurtain Street– back then known as Strand Street and later King Street, and later Summerhill North from 1820 onwards.

Caption:

1200a. St Patrick’s Bridge, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy).

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 27 April 2023

Recasting Cork: The Cessation of Offensive Operations

The 27 April 1923 coincided with frustration and relief in Cork City – and all is one evening. At a meeting of Cork Corporation, the Deputy Lord Mayor, Councillor Ellis, presided. When some business had been disposed of, Councillor Fitzpatrick, said he was sorry to see that the Council had proceeded with the business of the evening, considering that ten men had been executed that week in Kerry. He moved that votes of sympathy be conveyed to the relatives of those executed men and that is as a mark of respect the council would adjourn to the following Monday 30 April.

Alderman Kenneally supported the motion for adjournment come out as he believed that the time had arrived when public bodies should take some steps to stop executions. He noted: “It is admitted that great men had come down on each side – men that the country would certainly require, men of intelligence and men of bravery – and it certainly was a sad thing when one took up the morning paper and read of the execution of such brave and noble men”. Alderman Kenneally was convinced that as long as hostilities this went on that they could not have peace in Ireland. He appealed that personal clashes in the Council Chamber should stop. He advocated that the Council needed to avail of every opportunity to secure call and call for peace and that every practical effort should be taken to achieve such an object.

Councillors O’Neill and Byrne argued for an amendment five minute adjournment instead of several days and that the motion of condolences would also contain two National Army officers who were killed. The Council voted seventeen to 12 in favour of their amendments.

On the same evening as the Cork Corporation meeting of 27 April, a proclamation from Éamon de Valera, and a covering order from Frank Aiken, Chief-of-Staff, ordered the immediate cessation of offensive operations as soon us may be, but not later than noon on the following Monday 30 April 1923. Frank Aiken had just been in the post under a week taking over directly after the death of Liam Lynch. It was declared, as evidence of their good will and in order to consider certain peace proposals contained in the proclamation. In the proclamation, six points were highlighted, which covered sovereign rights of the nation, the legitimate governmental authority of the people of Ireland,  the need for citizen voices on disputed national questions, the inclusivity of citizens in national policy, freedom to express political or economic programmes, and that military forces of the nation were the “servants if the nation” and subject to the elected government.

During the Irish War of Independent Armagh-born Frank Aiken was Commandant of the 4^th Northern Division of the IRA. When Dáil Éireann ratified the Treaty in January 1922, he put his energy into trying to avoid Civil War, but to no avail. He attempted to negotiate a Collins-DeValera electoral pact in the elections of May 1922, but that did not materialise. He tried to convince Richard Mulcahy to halt his seizure of Dublin’s Four Courts in July 1922.

Having no success in his endeavours, Frank returned to his IRA division. They had been held responsible of the murder of six innocent Presbyterians in Altnaveigh in County Down on 17 June 1922. Eventually Frank Aiken and 200 of his men were interned in Dundalk Gaol. On 28 July 1922 Frank led a mass escape of over a hundred prisoners. On 14 August, he then recaptured Dundalk and its military barracks imprisoning the 400 in number Free State soldiers whilst freeing remaining Republican prisoners.

Frank was invited to join the IRA executive but declined it until De Valera established a Republican government in October 1922. In County Waterford in March 1923, Frank supported de Valera’s peace resolution, which was defeated by six votes to five). He was present on 10 April 1923 on the slopes of the Knockmealdown mountains in Sout Tipperary when Liam Lynch was shot. On 20 April 1923 Frank was appointed Lynch’s successor as IRA chief of staff, a post he held until the end of 1925. 

On 27 April 1923 some of the Cork theatres conveyed the information on cessation of offensive operations to its audience whilst others who received the informato went to the Cork Examiner offices on St Patrick’s Street to confirm the news. Days later on Monday 30 April, the suspension of hostilities in Dublin and Cork was not marked by any formality. The Free State lorries containing soldiers with rifles drove through the streets as usual.

On Wednesday 2 May 1923 edition, the Cork Examiner reported on the peace; “So far as Cork city and county are concerned, the terms of Mr De Valera’s order to the irregulars to cease fire seem to be fulfilled. The weekend was one of the quietest for many months, scarcely a shot been fired, while from noon on Monday when the proclamation came into force, nothing has been reported from either city or county to show that there has been any departure from the order given. Of course, people do not anticipate the dying out of the movement without an occasional outburst, but it is believed in well informed circles that should anything untoward occur, it will be the work of irresponsibles”.

Caption:

1199a. The note that ended the Civil War. IRA Chief of Staff Frank Aiken’s order to all units to cease operations, 27 April 1923 (source: National Museum of Ireland).

Saturday 6 May 2023, The Marina; Discover the history of the city’s promenade, from forgotten artefacts to ruinous follies; meet at western end adjacent Shandon Boat Club, The Marina, 2pm, no booking required (free, duration: 2 hours).�

Saturday 13 May 2022,‭ The Battle of Douglas, An Irish Civil War Story‭, meet at carpark‬‬ and entrance to Old Railway Line, Harty’s Quay, Rochestown; 2pm, (free, 2 hours, finishes near Rochestown Road).

Saturday 20 May 2023,‭ ‬ ‭The Northern Ridge – St Patrick’s Hill to MacCurtain Street‭;‬‬ Tour around St Patrick’s Hill – Old Youghal Road to McCurtain Street; meet on the Green ‭ ‬at Audley Place, top‭ ‬ of St Patrick’s Hill, 2pm (free, duration: 2‭ ‬hours, no booking required, finishes on MacCurtain Street).