Category Archives: Uncategorized
Voices of Cork, Don’t Go to the Butcher for a Haircut, 2 February 2024
Kieran’s Lord Mayor Column, The Echo, 3 February 2024
Honouring Cork People:
Not so often are the deeds of Corkonians are celebrated. Cork can be a proud but humble space. However, last week coincided with the 2023 Cork Person of the Year Award. Cork honoured some of Cork’s greatest human beings and their inspiring stories, work and caring DNA.The deeds of several Corkonians in their own way excelled in their special topic ranging from sport, to comedy, to music, to charities, community activism, to cycling, to missionary work to literature.
Cork is truly fortunate to have this year’s range of monthly award winners championing their craft for the public good. A sincere thank you for being you, enormous goodwill, for building communities of people, and your leadership over many years. Thank you for the journey you have brought us on. Long may you do what you do, enjoy it, and keep moving forward with. And that we in Cork are very proud of you.
The Cork Person of the Month and Cork Person of the Year awards scheme was established in 1993 to celebrate Cork’s greatest asset in City and County – our people. Each month a person or persons are selected and at year’s end, the Cork Person of the Year is chosen from these monthly winners. The general public is invited to nominate anyone for these awards by emailing nominations@corkpersonofthemonth.ie. Check out the website of Cork Person of the Year for more on the awards scheme, Home – Cork Person of the Year
The website outlines that the organisers of the awards do so on a voluntary basis and are proud and honoured to do so. This award scheme not only celebrates Cork people but it also helps to promote Cork as a good place to live, work and play. Over the last thirty years the organisers have honoured some 400 Persons of the Month and 33 Persons of the Year. Some years more than one person receives the monthly and yearly award.
As Ireland does not have a state-backed National Honours Scheme, like most countries do, we have added some extra national awards. The Honorary Cork person award goes to people not from Cork, but to those who may have contributed to Cork and Ireland in some positive way. It has gone to people who Corkonians admire like Broadcaster John Bowman and Rugby Coach Joe Schmidt and to those who promote Cork around the world like entertainers Jeremy Irons and Michael Flatley.
The Frank & Walters Band being crowned as the Cork Persons of the Year for 2023. This esteemed recognition acknowledges the band’s profound impact on Cork’s cultural tapestry and the arts over an illustrious 30-year plus career. The Gala Awards Lunch was held at the Metropole Hotel before an invited audience of 200 guests who represented all sectors of Cork life.
The Frank and Walters are a renowned Cork-based band that have achieved international success with their classic Indie hits, charting both inside and outside Ireland. The Band members are lead vocal & bass Paul Linehan, drums Ashley Keating, lead guitar Rory Murphy and keyboards Cian Corbett. The group’s longevity and the enduring popularity of their music, including the Cork Anthem “After All”, which was voted Cork’s favourite song, showcase their unique position in the music world. The band, known as strong ambassadors for Cork, continue to be a major presence with a vast catalogue of albums and singles that are widely acclaimed and sold globally.
Awards Organiser Manus O’Callaghan commended The Frank & Walters Band, stating, “Their win reflects not only their musical prowess but also their unwavering dedication to Cork’s artistic scene. The Frank & Walters have played a pivotal role in making Cork the cultural hub that it is today”.
The awards ceremony also celebrated Cork’s literary luminary, Alice Taylor, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame by last year’s recipient of the Honorary Cork Person of the Year, broadcaster Mike Murphy. Alice Taylor, celebrated for her ground-breaking contribution, To School Through the Fields, acknowledged as the top-selling Irish published book, persistently captures the spirit of rural Ireland in her prolific literary works.
The Honorary Cork Person Award was presented to broadcaster Dáithí Ó Sé, who co-costs the RTÉ Today Show alongside Maura Derrane from the RTÉ Cork studio for many years.
Honouring Stories of Douglas Community School:
One of the other ideas I keep returning to in Cork is that several of the locations around us possess a strong sense of character, place, and are a source of inspiration. Last week as well coincided with the 50th anniversary of Douglas Community School. Close to 300 people were in attendance including myself. The school’s story from 1974 was retold and its connection its sense of place and character.
As guests arrived, a photographic collage of the five decades of Douglas Community School was playing on the big screen, evoking memories of days gone by – school tour images, team photos, staff versus student soccer matches.
The official ceremony began with the audience led by a blend of speakers and video clips showcasing the development, growth and ethos of the school over the years. Keynote speakers included myself, Tánaiste Micheál Martin, Principal Pat Barry, Chairperson of the Board of Management, Ms Mary Shields, Mr Jim O’Sullivan, representative of the Cork ETB and President of ACS, Mr James Duignan.
A reading about lifelong learning from 5th Year student Michael Morley reminded all those present that “the best thing for being sad… is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails”.
The MC for the afternoon, Deputy Principal, Mr Chris Hickey, introduced a “Video of Time Capsule” which 1st Years had been working on. Several important items featured in the time capsule ranged from a mobile phone to the Douglas Community School’s 50 Year Anniversary publication.
Next up were some oral history chats with retired teachers Mr Jim Maddock, Mr Brian O’Connor and Ms Máire Thomason, past pupil James O’Connor, recipient of Gradam an Phríomhoide and finally Ms Martina Nash, proud parent of five sons who all attended Douglas Community School. James’ closing words on his time in Douglas Community School spoke about equality of opportunity; ”We won’t ever have equality of circumstance but we always have equality of opportunity”.
Check out the website of Douglas Community School for more on their fiftieth anniversary, DCS Celebrates 50 Years🎉 — DCS Cork
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 1 February 2024
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 1 February 2024
Making an Irish Free State City – Lord Mayor Seán French is Elected
Late January 1924 coincided with two new starts for the Corporation of Cork – firstly the final compensation was to be announced for the burning of City Hall and the Carnegie Library arising from the Black and Tan arson attack in December 1920, and secondly the election of a new Lord Mayor in the guise of Seán French.
The Cork Examiner outlines that on 24 January 1924, a meeting of Cork Corporation’s Law and Finance Committee meeting was held. There a letter was read by the City Solicitor notifying that the Compensation (Ireland) Commission had awarded the sum of £73,257 in respect of the burning of the Municipal Buildings and City Hall, of which amount the sum of £58,000 was allocated to be expended on the construction of a new premises. That overall sum was to bear interest at 5 per cent from the 1 January 1924. The letter asserted that the Corporation of Cork should have every reason to be satisfied with the award.
The Compensation (Ireland) Commission was created jointly by the Irish and British governments in 1922. It was held in Ireland under the presidency of, initially, Lord Shaw of Dunfermline, and subsequently, Sir Alexander Wood-Renton. The Commission’s terms of reference were kept to the consideration of claims in respect of damage or injury incurred between 21 January 1919 and 11 July 1921. The registers of claims and papers are now in The National Archives in Kew in London.
The Corporation’s City Treasurer explained that the initial recorder’s or assessor’s award for the municipal buildings from 1921 was £69,324 and for the Concert Hall £7,333 – giving a grand total of £106,657. Hence the overall Compensation Committee award for 1924 was a reduction of £33,390.
In the case of the burned out Carnegie Library the amount awarded by the recorder or assessor in 1921 was £40,000 and for books £9,650 giving an overall total of £49,650. The Compensation Commission’s overall package was £29,850 giving a total reduction of £19,300.
The Law and Finance Committee members asked whether the compensation packages were final. The City Solicitor noted that they were but over the ensuing two months further discussions were held at Corporation meeting level. The outcome was that the compensation figures remained the same and in time financial plans were put in train to rebuild a new City Hall and a new City library.
The context to the election of a new Lord Mayor arose from the resignation of Donal Óg O’Callaghan. He was absent for quite some time and there had been much criticism that he was missing from Cork and the fact he was drawing a salary. The legality of continuing to pay Lord Mayor O’Callaghan’s salary was raised some months previously owing to his absence from Council Meetings for twelve months. The City Solicitor was asked to report on the matter. The outcome was that indeed the Lord Mayor was disqualified and that any further payments to him in respect of his salary would be illegal. The Law and Finance Committee, therefore, struck off the item of £50, which was the Lord Mayor’s salary for a month. Donal’s resignation followed.
A day after the figures for the compensation awards were released for the Municipal Buildings and the Library – on 25 January 1924 – the Town Clerk read a resignation letter from Donal, which was accepted by the body of the councillors;
“A Chairde – I hereby resign Lord Mayoralty of the city. I wish to thank you for the assistance you gave me to fulfil the promises we gave citizens when we were elected. My election as Lord Mayor in 1920 came after Terence MacSwiney’s sacrifice, RIP. It has been a troubled time since. All thoughts and opinions I had when I was elected are the same thoughts and opinions I have today on the question of the Irish Republic. Because of that I have been unable to be with you for more than a year. Because of that I should probably be unable to take part in municipal affairs for some times to come. Wishing prosperity to the city and those who will be working for it, Is mise Domhnaill O’Callaghan”.
On 30 January the scene was set for a Mayoralty election. The Cork Examiner records that the Corporation members met in the Council Chamber, Courthouse, to elect a Lord Mayor, fix his salary, and “select three gentlemen qualified to fill the office of High Sheriff”. A sizeable group of the general public had gathered in the vicinity of the Courthouse long before the time of meeting, but admission to the building was carefully restricted.
The public gallery of the Chamber became well filled. Many of the members took their seats at 11.45am. Amongst the earliest arrivals being Sir Edward Fitzgerald, who got a very cordial welcome from the occupants of the gallery.
The next outburst of applause was when a group of Councillors, which included Messrs. Sean French and Barry Egan, who entered the Chamber. They were to be the two candidates to put their name forward for the office of Lord Mayor.
Barry Egan attained 22 votes and Seán French received 23 votes. Having won the poll, the interim chairman John Horgan declared Seán as the next Lord Mayor. Having signed the role accepting office, he was invested with the chain of office.
The new Lord Mayor delivered a short acceptance speech. In returning thanks, Seán noted that he would not deal with the criticism offered against him. His first act was to try and make them recognise in the first instance that they hugely there “principally and primarily for the progress of Cork”. He had his ideals and he thought that he had been true to them and nothing would change him; “I would say to every individual of the Council that if there was anything he had to suggest that would advance Cork in me I would have a whole hearted friend who would give every assistance”. He asked his councillor colleagues to forget their differences in the interests of the city.
On the motion of Cllr Gamble, seconded by Councillor Sir John Scott, the Lord Mayor’s salary was fixed at the usual amount, £600 a year come on the same days were fixed for the quarterly meetings of the Council. Lord Mayor Seán French was to be the civic face of Cork well into the early 1930s.
Check out more on the life of Seán French through the new book First Citizen, Sean French, Cork’s Longest-Serving Lord Mayor by Dr Aodh Quinlivan and John Ger O’Riordan is available in Waterstones and Vibes and Scribes.
Caption:
1238a. Portrait of Lord Mayor of Cork Seán French, 1924 (source: Cork City Hall).
Lord Mayor’s Tea Dance, 28 January 2024
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town 25 January 2024
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 25 January 2024
Making an Irish Free State City – The Gibson Bequest
The Crawford Art Gallery’s website leads with a focus of the gallery at present being positioned in a series of important heritage buildings, sections of which date back to the early eighteenth century right in the heart of Cork city. The gallery is in need of significant enhancement and upgrading to meet the evolving demands of a “dynamic national cultural institution”. Works are to begin this year to provide significant restoration value, new additional exhibition and public circulation areas, a new learn and explore facility, significant storage for the National Collection at Crawford, a new entrance, and a dramatically improved public realm.
There are many curios in the Crawford Art Gallery – its exquisite set of Antonio Canova sculptures and paintings within its collections make for great viewing and scholarly output. The gallery opened in 1885 and was built on the generous financial support of William Horatio Crawford. The next generous sponsor has for the most part fallen out of Cork memory and that is the name of Joseph Stafford Gibson who provided finance through his will in creating the basis for a fund to buy paintings from 1919 onwards. The year 1924 – one hundred years ago – was a key year where the purchasing plan came into effect for the bequest.
Born near Kilmurray in 1837, Joseph inherited a small income which enabled him to devote his life to art studies. He went to Spain in 1878. and lived a lonely life in Madrid until his death in 1919. He was an artist and a collector of Works of art, and by all accounts had got together a comprehensive collection of paintings, prints, photographs, books, manuscripts, coins, antiques, and curios.
By Joseph’s will read in May 1919 he left £14,790 to the Crawford School of Art in Cork. Most of the legacy was to be spent in buying works of art for the Cork galleries, and to assist art students of special promise, who were of Munster birth, to travel and study in Europe. With this bequest, under wise direction from Irish experts, more than a hundred paintings in oils or water colour, and many drawings and sculptures have been acquired for the Cork gallery and are now on view there.
The Irish War of Independence and Civil War initially slowed down any processes of acquisition being put in place. It was to take almost five years before a strategic acquisition programmed was put in place.
One hundred years ago, on 15 January 1924 the Cork Examiner published the minutes of the Gibson Bequest sub-committee meeting of 14 January 1924. Draft regulations had been prepared by the Chairman Mr J J O’Connor setting out the procedure concerning the purchase of works of art under the terms of the bequest be approved. Enquiries had already been made regarding the acquisition of pictures by Jack Butler Yeats and Seán Keating. A painting entitled Sasha Kropotkin by Gerard Kelly of the Royal Hibernian Academy was to be purchased for £250. Gerard Kelly was an English painter in oil of portraits and landscapes. During his travels he painted some of his most characteristic figure studies. He became renowned for his portraits of elegant women, his technical genius and colourful, extensive subject matter. Sasha Kropotkin was the daughter of the anarchist, Prince Peter Kropotkin, and wife of the Russian revolutionary Boris Lebedev.
The draft Gibson Bequest regulations regarding the purchase of works of art were set out as follows: Purchases needed to be confined to the original works in the following: (a) oils, (b) water colours, (c) pastel, (d) drawings or studio» in chalk, pencil, crayon or pen and ink, (a) etchings, (f) wood cuts, (g) silver point, (n) dry point, (i) mezzotint, (j) sculpture, but that it be the rule not to purchase works in plaster, unless in exceptional circumstances, on account of intrinsic merit, and then only with the intention of having them cast in permanent material; (k) decorative art, e.g. goldsmiths and silversmith’s work, stained glass and wood-carving.
No purchase could be made by the committee which was not approved by selected advisers or a majority of such. Such advisers could be selected for the special purpose to be sent to exhibitions at the great art centres to select works for purchase under the terms of the bequest. Advisors were to submit a signed report with all recommendations for the purchase of works of art. Purchases were to be as far as possible in sequence, as portrait, subject picture, landscape, and sculpture. The recommendations of the advisors with respect to any purchase were to be subject to the approval of the Gibson Bequest sub-committee.
The Chairman J J O’Connor noted at the meeting that the intention of the committee was to make their gallery a real first-class art gallery through making purchases of first class specimens.
As the years progressed, paintings from British and French contemporary artists were bought and now form part of the core of the collections of the Crawford Art Gallery. Local artists were also enabled to travel afield to such artist hubs such London, Madrid, Paris and Rome.
Indeed, an article the Cork Examiner for 27 June 1928 notes the acquisition of many works arising from the Gibson Bequest from artists such as William G Barry, Philip Connard, Hughes de Beaumont, John Arnesby Brown, James Humbert Craig, Edward Montgomery O’Rorke Dickey, Norman Garstin, Nathaniel Grogan, Paul Henry, Nathaniel Hone, Seán Keating, Gerald F Kelly, Frank McKelvey, Sir John Lavery, William John Leech, Daniel McDonald, David Muirhead, Diarmuid O’Brien, Walter F Osbourne, Miss Annie St J Partridge, David Richter, Algernon Talmadge, Henry Jones Thaddeus, David Albert Veresmith and Leo Whelan. Many of the artists above were household names in the early twentieth art world in Britain and Ireland.
Caption:
1237s. Cabinet of Gibson Bequest Curiosities, May 2019 (picture: Crawford Art Gallery, Cork. Photo: Jed Niezgoda).
Voice of Cork, SALAAM, January 2024
Voices of Cork, Artwork to the Swifts, January 2024
Voices of Cork, Like Grandparents in Fairytales, 21 January 2024
Kieran’s Article, Place Matters in Cork, Irish Examiner, 21 January 2023
It is thirty years since I gave my first walking tour across the flat of Cork City and penned my first history project on the city. Cork is a great story to research and to tell. One cannot but be pulled into the multitudes of narratives, which have framed Ireland’s southern capital. I have really enjoyed researching and promoting Cork’s story.
Cork’s place and story has been carved over many centuries and all those legacies can be found in its narrow streets and laneways and in its built environment. The legacy echoes from being an old ancient port city where Scandinavian Vikings plied the waters 1,000 years ago – their timber boats beaching on a series of marshy islands – and the wood from the same boats forming the first foundations of houses and defences.
We will never know and will always speculate upon their raison d’être to construct such a settlement upon a wetland. Themes of survival, community life living on the edge, ambition, innovation, branding and internationalisation are etched across the narratives of much of Cork’s built heritage and are amongst my favourite topics to research. Indeed, I fully believe that these are key narratives that Cork needs to break the silence on more.
However, for all the tours and for all the writing projects, I still seek to figure out what makes the character of Cork tick. I still read between the lines of historic documents, archives and placenames. I get excited by a nugget of information, which completes a historical puzzle I might have started years ago. I have sat in the library pouring over a book or old newspaper on many an occasion trying to figure out where a piece of information sits in my researches.
I still look up at the architectural fabric of the city and at name plaques to seek new discoveries, hidden treasures and new secrets. I encourage people on my tours to look up and around and always they see something that I have not seen. I am still no wiser in teasing out all of Cork’s biggest secrets. But I would like to pitch that it’s biggest secret is itself, a charming urban landscape, whose greatest secrets have not been told and fully explored. In essence Cork has a living heritage and history, which defines it.
I have articulated over the years that there is a power of place – that the concept of place matters. Cork is a place of tradition, continuity, change and legacy. It is a place of direction and experiment by people, of ambition, experiences and learning, of ingenuity and innovation and a place of nostalgia and memory.
Cork’s urban landscape is filled with messages about the past – from positive to negative. That beyond the physical surfaces of a city such as Cork, there is a soulful and evocative character etched across the flat of the city, the estuary of the river Lee and surrounding valleysides.
Place matters in Cork. Within this topographical frame is a heritage – physical and spiritual to a degree – that needs to be minded, cherished and nourished for the Cork of the future.
Several of the locations around Cork possess a strong sense of character, culture sentimentality, place and belonging, symbolic ownership and are a source of inspiration – from sites such the Fitzgerald’s Park to Ballincollig Regional Park to Blarney Castle to The Lough, to our universities to the English Market to old industrial sites in Blackpool to the fabric of our city centre streets to woodland trails in Douglas or Glanmire to the towering heritage of St Anne’s Church, Shandon or St Patrick’s Hill – to name a small number of sites. Much has been written over many years on all of the latter sites and their cultural relevance in Cork.
Some sites Corkonians deem such sites as being appealing, timeless, ancestral, eternal, enshrined or sacred in conjuring and summoning a sense of place. Cork possesses a number of sites such as St Anne’s Church Shandon or Pairc Ui Chaoimh, which are synonymous with Cork – they frequently are mentioned to be a representative image of the city.
So it was not on a whim I rolled into the debate on the proposed re-naming of Pairc Ui Chaoimh this week. It is not just the name of the place at stake but what the name means and echos within the heart of Cork’s character, heritage and memory.
There were many ideas bouncing around in my head – the story, legacy and memory of Pádraig Ó Chaoimh – raised in Cork, was a member of the Cork IRA in the Irish War of Independence, secretary to the Cork GAA and then National secretary in the early Irish Free State. His legacy includes doubling the amount of grassroots sports clubs in Ireland and forging club owned premises. There was a strong reason his name was chosen in 1974 for then new Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Pádraig was a legend in his day for many aspects – very much in his development of the GAA in the form we have today as a champion of the culture of the game and the encouragement of young people to join their local clubs and participate in them.
Páirc Uí Chaoimh as a place also possess a strong sense of culture, character, sentimentality, place and belonging, symbolic ownership and is a source of inspiration to those who play on the pitch or support the GAA.
We all become blind to our home place and its stories. We walk streets, which become routine spaces – spaces, which we take for granted – but all have been crafted, assembled and storified by past residents. It is only when we stand still and look around can we hear the voices of the past and its secrets being told, and hopefully build many of them into future, maintaining and enhancing the rich sense of pride and place and history and memory that Cork possesses.
Visit Kieran’s website www.corkheritage.ie for more on Cork history.