22 August 2021, “Local historian and Cork City Independent councillor, Kieran McCarthy, has presented to the library copies of his new book, Irish International Trading Corporation (Cork), Celebrating 100 Years, which details the company’s growth from 1920 to the present day”, Rich history of iconic Cork company to be preserved at library,
https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-40364363.html?fbclid=IwAR2FFgC9n4f3EcHBmzjlb7Ts5dNpLRIch7fhdT3Z6KmGuua-IBceGL65kHs
Next Thursday 26 August is the last day for public submissions to the Planning Directorate, City Hall on this proposal. My objections on the encroachment, via building a new car park onto the edge of the Atlantic Pond, are outlined below and have been acknowledged as received by the planning unit.
Public submissions may be made on any planning application by post and accompanied by the €20 fee. They may also be made via email to plansub@corkcity.ie and the submitter will be contacted by a member of Planning staff to take a card payment.
“Re: Planning Application at Pairc Ui Chaoimh, Cork, 21/40374Dear Director,I write to make my concerns known regarding the planning proposal submitted above.There are parts of the proposal I support such as the GAA museum and cafe, but I have very large concerns on the car parking and on the Atlantic Pond intrusion. The car parking issue has never fully been resolved down by the Pairc.
Even at the most recent matches cars were still parked across immediate green spaces and in the new bicycle lanes on Centre Park Road and beyond. And the crowd at that match was smaller than usual because of COVID measures. A proper transport plan to and from the Pairc is needed. One cannot just keep building another carpark and hope that eliminates the problem. In addition for me providing another car park is not about enhancing the public realm. A car park brings many hazards plus does not add to what the new adjacent Marina Park is trying to do in terms of a very valuable green space or add to the new pedestrianisation areas such as The Marina.
The other principal issue I have is the construction and intrusion of a car park on the physical western bank of the Atlantic Pond. There are serious ecological concerns in pursuing the construction on the ‘edge’ of the pond. Another car park will destroy the ecology of that immediate area of the pond in particular, and have a knock-on effect on the whole pond. In addition, I feel the proposed playground to be provided is a tokenistic one at best.
Yours sincerely,_Cllr Kieran McCarthy
Irish International Trading Corporation presents archive materials to Cork City Library
As part of Ireland’s National Heritage Week celebrations, Irish International Trading Corporation (IITC) has handed over an extensive collection of archive materials to Cork City Library, ensuring that the rich history of the 101-year-old company will be maintained for generations to come. Local historian and Cork City Councillor Kieran McCarthy has also presented copies of his new book to the library, Irish International Trading Corporation (Cork), Celebrating 100 Years which details the company’s growth from 1920 to the present day.
The archive materials presented to Cork City Library include minutes from board meetings, cash books, ledgers, letters and notes all dating back to the company’s inception against the backdrop of the Burning of Cork in 1920. These materials, as well as an exhibition of photographs will remain on display in the public areas of the library until September 17th.
Speaking at the formal handover of archive material to Cork City Library, the Lord Mayor of Cork, Councillor Colm Kelleher said, “The handover of these historic documents and copies of Cllr Kieran McCarthy’s book is an opportunity to celebrate the legacy of IITC and its shared history with Cork, whilst also highlighting the important role that Cork City Library plays as a custodian of the city’s rich history. I am delighted to be helping IITC celebrate this occasion, and I look forward to its continued success”.
IITC Managing Director, David Heffernan said, “Today marks another significant milestone in the history of IITC. The original headquarters for the company was located on Grand Parade, across the road from Cork City Library, so in effect we are returning these materials close to the site of the inaugural meetings that took place in the 1920s. In Cllr McCarthy’s book, we now have a definitive and detailed account of the work that our founders carried out to ensure that Cork played a key role in establishing trade routes with other countries in the early 1900s”.
The duty of care for these documents of significant historical importance now falls upon Cork City Libraries, and the newly appointed city librarian David O’Brien. “We are delighted to have this opportunity to preserve these materials in our archives. IITC was founded at a time of enormous historical significance in Cork, so it is truly fascinating to be able to reflect on the work that was done in setting up a company that fostered crucial trading links to Europe and America. It is our duty as trustees of Cork’s history to ensure that these documents, which are sure to be of public interest, are preserved for generations to come”.
IITC was founded by a collective of Cork business families at the Grand Parade in Cork in 1920. The founders were motivated by a desire to support commercial and industrial development in a new emerging Ireland. IITC has played a key role in the development of Cork, from supplying materials to aid the rebuilding of the city after its burning in 1920 all the way through to supporting local enterprise today. From relatively small beginnings, IITC has grown to become a national business with a global reach, employing over 120 people with annual sales of €60 million.
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 19 August 2021
Kieran’s Heritage Week Audio Heritage Trails
The midway point has been reached for National Heritage Week 2021. There is still time to engage with my two virtual projects this year – the audio heritage trails of the Bridges of Cork and The Marina respectively. Usually, I am up to my eyes happily facilitating historical walking tours. But Covid is still scuppering my physical events. but hopefully the next few months will coincide with better news for the gathering of large groups that do not have to be socially distanced apart.
Both new audio trails are hosted by Meitheal Mara and I. All you need is your smartphone and some headphones. The first audio trail provides insights into the histories of the Cork city centre’s bridges, their place in Cork and some of their surrounding histories. The walk around the bridges is about two hours in duration. The trail is clockwise from South Gate Bridge up the south channel and down the north channel to cross back to the south channel. It ends at Nano Nagle Bridge.
They say the best way to get to know a place is to walk it. Through many centuries Cork has experienced every phase of Irish urban development. It is a city you can get lost in narrow streets, marvel at old cobbled lane ways, photograph old street corners, gaze at clues from the past, engage in the forgotten and the remembered, search and connect for something of oneself, and thirst in the sense of story-telling – in essence feel the DNA of the place. With so many layers of history in Cork, there is much to see on any walk around Cork City and its respective neighbourhoods. The River Lee has had and continues to have a key role in the city’s evolution. Many Corkonians and visitors have crossed over the River Lee’s bridges and have appreciated the river’s tranquil and hypnotic flow.
The audio trail begins at the oldest of the city’s bridges – that of South Gate Bridge. In the time of the Anglo Normans establishing a fortified walled settlement and a trading centre in Cork around 1200 AD, South Gate Drawbridge formed one of the three entrances – North Gate Bridge and Watergate being the others. A document for the year 1620 stated that the mayor, Sheriff and commonality of Cork, commissioned Alderman Dominic Roche to erect two new drawbridges in the city over the river where timber bridges existed at the South Gate Bridge and the other at North Gate.
In May 1711, agreement was reached by the council of the City that North Gate Bridge would be rebuilt in stone in 1712 while in 1713, South Gate Bridge would be replaced with a stone arched structures. South Gate Bridge still stands today in its past form as it did over 300 years ago apart from a small bit of restructuring and strengthening in early 1994.
The second of the new audio trails is on The Marina. A stroll down The Marina is popular by many people. The area is particularly characterized by its location on the River Lee and the start of Cork Harbour. Here scenery, historical monuments and living heritage merge to create a historical tapestry of questions of who developed such a place of ideas. Where not all the answers have survived, The Marina is lucky, that archives, newspaper accounts, census records and old maps and other insights have survived to showcase how the area and the wider area has developed. These give an insight into ways of life and ambitions in the past, some of which can help the researcher in the present day in understanding The Marina’s evolution and sense of place going forward.
Cork’s Marina was originally called the Navigation Wall or in essence it was an additional dock for ships adjacent to 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 Cork Harbour 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.
Listen to Kieran’s new audio trails under history trails at www.corkheritage.ie
Captions:
1113a. Daly’s Bridge aka Shaky Bridge, present day, which is one of the featured bridges in Kieran’s new audio heritage trail (picture: Kieran McCarthy).
1113b. The Marina, Cork, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy).
Cllr Kieran McCarthy, in collaboration with Meitheal Mara, is delighted to present two audio heritage trails this year as part of this week’s National Heritage Week (14-22 August). Take a walk and discover everything about the beautiful bridges of Cork with Kieran’s brand new audio trail. Stroll along the popular Marina and find out about its rich history.
The Bridges of Cork audio trail provides insights into the histories of the Cork city centre’s bridges, their place in Cork and some of their surrounding histories. The walk around the bridges is about two hours in duration and the trail is clockwise from South Gate Bridge up the south channel and down the north channel to cross back to the south channel. It ends at Nano Nagle Bridge. All you need is your smartphone and some headphones.
Cllr McCarthy noted: “With so many layers of history in Cork, there is much to see on any walk around Cork City and its respective neighbourhoods. Covid, though, has scuppered my physical walking tours for a second year in a row. However, I’m very excited about this new audio trail, which provides insights into the histories of Cork city centre’s bridges, their place in Cork and insights into some of their surrounding local histories”.
“This trail around the bridges is about two hours in length and the trail is clockwise from South Gate Bridge up the south channel and down the north channel to cross back to the south channel”, continues Kieran.
“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 historical tapestry of questions of who developed such a place of ideas”, concluded Cllr McCarthy.
The audio trails are free to download. Just access them from Cllr McCarthy’s www.corkheritage.ie website under the History Trails section.
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 12 August 2021
Cork Heritage Open Day and Week Approaches
Cork Heritage Open Day and Heritage Week are looming. Cork Heritage Open Day which is organised by Cork City Council in partnership with the Heritage Council, is a wonderful celebration of the built heritage in the city. To mark the start of National Heritage Week, Cork Heritage Open Day will take place virtually on Saturday August 14.
The website www.corkheritageopenday.ie will go live on Saturday 14 August and will feature virtual guided tours of over 45 historic buildings from all over Cork City. Members of the public are allowed a glimpse of some of Cork’s most fascinating buildings ranging from the medieval to the military. The event showcases the many elements of Cork City’s rich heritage in a fun, family friendly way. The team behind the Open Day do group the buildings into general themes, Steps and Steeples, Customs and Commerce, Medieval to Modern, Saints and Scholars and Life and Learning.
These themes remind the participant to remember how our city spreads from the marsh to the undulating hills surrounding it, how layered the city’s past is, how the city has been blessed to have many scholars contributing to its development and ambition in a variety of ways, and how the way of life in Cork is intertwined with a strong sense of place.
It is always a great opportunity to explore behind some of Cork’s grandest buildings. With the past of a port city, Cork architecture is varied and much is hidden amongst the city’s narrow streets and laneways. Much of its architecture is also inspired by international styles – the British style of artwork pervading in most cases – but it’s always pays to look up in Cork and marvel at the Amsterdamesque-style of our eighteenth century structures on streets such as Oliver Plunkett Street or at the gorgeous tall spires of the city’s nineteenth-century churches.
For my part I am involved in a short film on the history of Cork City Hall. Cork has had a number of City Hall sites through the ages but none as grand as the present one. In the age of the Anglo Norman walled town and eighteenth century, civic business was conducted in King’s Castle. Business was also conducted in Cork City Courthouse for a time in the nineteenth century. In 1883, it was decided by a number of Cork businessmen that the Corn Exchange should be converted into an exhibition centre, a centre, which in 1892 became Cork’s City Hall. In December 1920, the premises were burned down by fires attributed to the Black and Tans as retribution for republican attacks. A new City Hall by architects Jones and Kelly was subsequently built. The limestone like for so many of Cork’s buildings is from nearby Little Island. The foundation stone of Cork City Hall was laid by Éamon de Valera on 9 July 1932.
Sites that also appear on the online Cork Heritage Open Day are Riverstown House in Glanmire, the Quaker Meeting House and Graveyard, The Maryborough Hotel, Cork Opera House, The Courthouse on Washington Street, Ballincollig Gunpowder Mills, Blarney Castle, Cork City Hall, Cork Savings Bank, St Luke’s Church and the Military Museum in Collins Barracks.
The virtual one stop shop www.corkheritageopenday.ie celebrates various Cork Communities who through interviews, video and imagery tell their story. For example, check out:
For the first time, Cork Heritage Open Day, celebrates the natural heritage of Cork and members of the public can enjoy a wonderful guided tour of the Mangala in Douglas with William O’Halloran and a fascinating insight into the Glen River Park with Julie Forrester and Gerard O’Brien. For those wishing to test their knowledge of the streets, bridges and buildings in Cork, historian Liam O’hÚigín has created a special quiz for Cork Heritage Open Day!
Heritage Open Day is usually the start of weeklong heritage week events in Cork. For the second year in a row, physical events have been curtailed. My own historical walking tours remain ‘off the road’ at present. I have written up over fifteen of my tours complete with pictures and some very short films and put them in a new section on my website www.corkheritage.ie.
In addition on the website I have partnered with Meitheal Mara and Joya Kuin in putting together two audio heritage trails. The first is on the various historic sites down The Marina and this came out in early June. Our Heritage Week Audio Heritage Trail is on the 31 bridges of Cork. Start at South Gate Bridge and make your way anti-clockwise around the South Channel and North Channel of the River Lee. All you need is a smart phone and a set of head phones!
Captions:
1112a. Upstream view of the south channel of the River from Cork’s Parliament Bridge on a recent sunset; Discover the story of the city’s bridges and some of the rich local history on Kieran’s new audio heritage trail on the history trails section at www.corkheritage.ie.
1112b. Canon from the Siege of Sevastopol, 1854-55 on The Marina, Cork, present day; Discover the story of The Marina and its rich local history on Kieran’s new audio heritage trail on the history trails section at www.corkheritage.ie.
Local historian Cllr Kieran McCarthy will participate in the virtual Cork Heritage Open Day this Saturday 14 August. Cork Heritage Open Day which is organised by Cork City Council in partnership with the Heritage Council. The website www.corkheritageopenday.ie will go live on Saturday 14 August and will feature virtual guided tours of over 45 historic buildings from all over Cork City. Members of the public are allowed a glimpse of some of Cork’s most fascinating buildings ranging from the medieval to the military.
Kieran will participate by showcasing some of the stories connected to Cork City Hall as an important heritage building within the city. Kieran noted: “Cork has had a number of City Hall sites through the ages but none as grand as the present one. In 1883, it was decided by a number of Cork businessmen that the Corn Exchange should be converted into an exhibition centre, a centre, which in 1892 became Cork’s City Hall. In December 1920, the premises were burned down by fires attributed to the Black and Tans as retribution for republican attacks. A new City Hall by architects Jones and Kelly was subsequently built. The limestone like for so many of Cork’s buildings is from nearby Little Island. The foundation stone of Cork City Hall was laid by Éamon de Valera on 9 July 1932”.
Maryborough Hotel will also feature in this year’s Heritage Open Day. For the first time, the Open Day will also celebrate the natural heritage of Cork and members of the public can enjoy a wonderful virtual guided tour of the Mangala in Douglas with William O’Halloran.
In addition, for National Heritage Week, Kieran has partnered with Meitheal Mara and Joya Kuin in putting together two audio heritage trails. The first is on the various historic sites down The Marina and this came out in early June. Their Heritage Week Audio Heritage Trail is on the 31 bridges of Cork. All you need is a smart phone and a set of head phones. The bridges audio trail can be found on Kieran’s www.corkheritage.ie website under history trails from 14 August.
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 5 August 2021
New Book: Cork City Reflections
In our new book Cork City Reflections, Dan Breen and I build on our previous Cork City Through Time (2012) publication as we continue to explore Cork Public Museum’s extensive collection of postcards. People have been sending, receiving and collecting postcards for well over 150 years. They have always come in a variety of forms including plain, comedic, memorial, and of course topographical. Their popularity reached its zenith in the two decades before the outbreak of World War I when people used postcards for a variety of everyday reasons from ordering shopping to making appointments. Postcards have been described as the ‘social media’ of the Edwardian period as it is estimated that about one billion penny postcards were sold annually in the United States alone between 1907 and 1915.
Since 1992, Cork Public Museum has actively sourced and collected postcards of Cork interest. The majority of postcards are topographical in nature and cover towns and villages throughout County Cork. Presently, the collection numbers in the thousands but Dan, the museum’s curator, is constantly on the lookout for rarer and more unique examples or gems. In an age where digital photography and the internet have made capturing and sharing images so effortless, it is easy to forget that in the decades before the camera became popular and affordable; postcards were the only photographic souvenirs of the landscape available to ordinary people.
The old postcards with Cork City Reflections show the city of Cork to be a place of scenic contrasts. They are of times and places, that Corkonians are familiar with. The city as a visually bright world with all its shapes and contours challenge the photographer to take the best photograph, to capture the best of the city. There is a power in these images – they all have multiple interpretations; they are a window into the place, neighbourhood, people, their lives and identity. Many of the postcards show or frame the River Lee and the tidal estuary and the intersection of the city and the water. The postcards show how rich the city is in its traces of its history. The various postcard also reflect upon how the city has developed in a piecemeal sense, with each century bringing another addition to the city’s landscape.
For the photographer it took time patience to set up the picture. One had to wait for the people; the weather to be right, the order and symmetry had to be right. The gathering of memory, life, energy, the city’s beat, its light and shape had to be considered. The same challenges were present when trying to retake old photographs in the present day.
In more depth, the postcards show people’s relationship to their world – continuity and familiarity crossing past and present. They record a person, an event, a social phenomenon, and attempt to reconstruct a sense of place. The postcards let moments linger, reflect on life and showcase the the city as a work of art. The tinting or colouring in of postcards adds in more subtlety and weight to the image and to the concept of the city as a work of art. The tinting adds more to the romanticisation of the landscape.
Some public spaces are well represented, emphasised and are created and arranged in a sequence to convey particular meanings. Buildings such as a City Hall, a court house or a theatre symbolise the theatrics of power. Indeed, one hundred years ago in Ireland was a time of change, the continuous rise of an Irish cultural revival, debates over Home Rule and the idea of Irish identity were continuously negotiated by all classes of society. Just like the tinting of the postcards, what the viewer sees is a world which is being contested, refined and reworked. Behind the images presented is a story of change – complex and multi-faceted.
The postcards freeze the action, conceptualise society and civil expressions – from the city’s links with the natural world such as rivers and tide to its transportation networks, commerce and social networks. Places of Cork pride, popular culture and heritage, are depicted and are validated communicating the ideas of those places. Indeed, some of the postcards have written personal comments on the back. All types of emotion are represented from happiness in visiting Cork to comments on how the addressee was missed.
We have grouped the postcards under thematic headings like main streets, public buildings, transport, and industry. The highlight of Edwardian Cork was the hosting of an International Exhibition in 1902 and 1903 and through the souvenir postcards we can get a glimpse of this momentous event. We hope that any reader of this book will not only appreciate how Cork City has evolved and grown over the last century but also how invaluable postcards can be in understanding the nuances and complexities of studying images and their history.
The old postcards within the book are archived in the Cork Public Museum and have been photographed by the museum’s digital officer Dara McGrath. The present day pictures were taken by the authors. We would like to also thank the staff of Amberley Publishing for their vision with this work and for creating a now and then frame right throughout the book.
Cork City Reflections by Kieran McCarthy and Daniel Breen is published by Amberley Publishing and is available in any good bookshop.
Caption:
1111a. Front cover of Cork City Reflections (2021, Amberley Publishing) by Kieran McCarthy and Daniel Breen.
1111b. South Mall, c.1900 from Cork City Reflections.
Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy is calling on residents, and communities in the south east of the city and beyond to have their say on the 2022-2028 draft Cork City Development Plan. The draft Cork City Development Plan, has recently been published and provides an overarching framework to help shape the transformation of the City over the next six years by supporting the creation of 20,000 homes and 31,000 jobs.
Cllr McCarthy noted: “Eight weeks of public consultation on the plan have just commenced and I encourage members of the public, community groups, representative organisations to make a submission to the draft plan before the closing date of 4 October. The draft plan can be viewed at www.corkcitydevelopmentplan.ie and the public can have their say on the Plan at https://consult.corkcity.ie/”
“There is some great ideas and opportunities within this draft blueprint for Cork as the city embarks upon an exciting phase of growth and change – with sustainability, quality of life, social inclusion, and climate resilience at the plan’s core. In particular the need to protect green spaces and create more in areas from Ballinlough to Douglas is essential”.
Cork City Council CE, Ann Doherty said: “This Plan is significant in many ways; not least it is the first local policy-based expression of the ambition for Cork contained in ‘Project Ireland 2040’ and the National Planning Framework. The Plan follows widespread listening and engagement with stakeholders in the first round of public consultation. The draft plan’s rationale is further informed by a suite of evidence-based studies on the various opportunities and challenges facing the city”.
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 29 July 2021
Journeys to a Truce: Lord Mayor Donal Óg Returns
The Truce amongst Cork politicians was largely welcomed. In his diary, Alderman Liam De Róiste of Cork Corporation and TD comments at length on the multitude of nuances and correspondence between Lloyd George and de Valera. The diary can be viewed in Cork City and County Archives. He ultimately embraces the truce but acknowledges the long road ahead to create a mutually acceptable agreement on Irish and British sides. On the 9 July 1921, at 1pm Liam De Róiste writes: “The details of the truce are to be published today. There are many rough rocks in the road of peace yet, but this at least is the evidence of the will to peace. I am sure the mass of the people are filled with joy. As for me, I accept the matter calmly. We are not yet sure of our footsteps. The joy of my companions here is also subdued. They incline to be critical. A few moments ago, Black and Tans appeared: ‘Here They are’; a rush to search a hiding place. They came on ordinary business to convey a poor patient to the institution. The rush shows that through the dawn of the peace appears with the announcement of the truce, the shadows of the night are still dark and thick over the land”.
The Lord Mayor of Cork Donal Óg O’Callaghan had recently returned after an eight months’ public speech tour across America to grow interest in Irish Independence and to raise finance for Dáil Éireann. His campaign work, which wove with the visit of de Valera and Harry Boland to the United States is well captured in the fine book Forgotten Lord Mayor Donal Óg O’Callaghan, 1920-1924 by Aodh Quinlivan. Through Aodh’s research, he discovers that Donal Óg, on the whole, was welcomed by those communities he engaged with. There were a number of small exceptions. Politically though, Donal’s journey ended as America’s Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby came under British diplomatic pressure to end his permission to stay longer in the States. Through the Truce, Donal returned to a less threatening environment. Heretofore he was on a most wanted list by the Black and Tans.
ln the course of an interview with a Cork Examiner representative on 18 July 1921, Donal Óg noted that it was very gratifying to find the state of affairs which existed in Ireland. He noted: “It seems possible that the just object for which the people of this country have been fighting for years is at last about to be secured through negotiations. Like the President, the people of Ireland heartily desired to see peace, to see the end of the state of war and destruction which has been obtaining in this country for some years past, desired to devote themselves to the work of reconstruction and to the general development of the prosperity of our country”.
The Lord Mayor continued that the manner in which the Truce has been observed throughout the country was a tribute to the discipline and unity of the people of Ireland. He noted: “Nowhere has it been more loyally observed than in Cork. While I would regret at the moment to say a word which might be construed as calculating to interfere with the existing peace. I feel bound to say that the truce doesn’t appear to have been on loyally kept by the British Army in Cork as it might have been. For the past few days I have seen police and military fully armed parading the streets; armoured cars and lorries containing armed troops driving through the city, in what I can only regard as a wantonly provocative planner. I trust that this matter will be immediately remedied, and that nothing will occur to mar the favourable conditions of the moment or the atmosphere of the negotiations about to take place, which we all sincerely hope will be successful, and will make the temporary peace of to-day the lasting peace of to-morrow”.
In his press interview the Lord Mayor also thanked the people of America for the manner in which they received him while in the United States, and to thank them, on behalf of the people of Ireland for the deep interest they took in Ireland fight for freedom and what he described as “the spirit animating them in doing all they could to assist in the fight”. To the people of Cork he wished to say that he left Cork, and left momentarily the duties to which they had elected him, “as the result of an order from the Republican Government”. Only on such an order would he leave them or lreland under the circumstances. He noted: “While the people of Ireland hoped to see their freedom achieved as a result of the present negotiations going on their spirit and determination are alike unimpaired, and should they have to continue the fight for freedom they will continue to rely on the liberty loving people of America for assistance”.
A few days after the 18 July, the Cork Examiner records that Cork Corporation had a Council meeting but it was again chaired by Deputy Lord Mayor Cllr Barry Egan. Donal Óg had gone to Dublin to be part of the welcoming group for the Peace Delegates at Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire), Dublin. De Valera had returned from talks in London with the British Prime Minster Lloyd George. A famous picture was taken by photographer W D Hogan of the welcoming group and this forms part of the National Library of Ireland photographic collection. In the picture is Donal Óg as well as Chairman of Dublin County Council, H Friel, the acting Mayor of Limerick, Máire O’Donovan, Waterford TD Vincent White, Limerick TD Kate O’Callaghan, and Cork Corporation Alderman and TD Liam De Róiste. All six greeted de Valera as well the large number of general public waiting. All six were also involved in the early peace talks in the summer of 1921 offering advice and support.
Captions:
1110a. Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Donal Óg O’Callaghan, 1920 (picture: Cork City Council).
1110b. Welcoming group for the Peace Delegates at Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire), Dublin with Chairman of Dublin County Council, H Friel, the acting Mayor of Limerick, Máire O’Donovan, Waterford TD Vincent White, Limerick TD Kate O’Callaghan, Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Donal Óg O’Callaghan, and Cork Corporation Alderman and TD Liam De Róiste (picture: William Hogan Collection, National Library of Ireland).
