Independent Cllr Kieran
McCarthy wishes to remind business owners that grants applications are
still being received for outdoor seating and accessories for tourism and hospitality
businesses in Cork City for 2021.
Cllr
McCarthy noted: “Outdoor hospitality was much enjoyed by the public last summer
and is playing a key role this year as well in welcoming people back to a
vibrant and safe Cork City. A new outdoor seating and accessories grant
scheme, supported by Fáilte Ireland in partnership with local
authorities such as Cork City Council, is now open for applications. Grants
are available to support businesses in the hospitality and tourism sector in
enhancing their outdoor offering”.
Any restaurant, cafe, bar,
hotel, visitor attraction or other hospitality/tourism business where food or
drink is sold for consumption on the premises. The scheme is open to
existing businesses located throughout Cork City.
Applicants should
have no commercial rates outstanding to Cork City Council, or have a payment
plan in place. Applicants must have signed up to the Covid 19 Safety
Charter (Apply for the Covid 19 Safety Charter. All applicants are required to
comply with planning codes, legislative requirements and other compliance
requirements. Only premises branding is permitted. No fixtures with
commercial/product advertising are eligible.
Those
businesses availing of public land for outdoor furniture must be in possession
of a Street Furniture License for 2021 from Cork
City Council before availing of the scheme. Each business can apply for up
to €4,000 per premises (exclusive of VAT) towards the above eligible
costs, up to a maximum of 75% of the total cost. Applications can be accepted
at any time between now and 5pm on Thursday, 30 September 2021. More
information can be got from outdoordininggrants@corkcity.ie or log onto
the Council’s website home page at www.corkcity.ie
1109a. Colourful front cover of first Anvil Books paperback edition (1962) of Guerilla Days in Ireland by Tom Barry (picture: Kieran McCarthy).
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 22 July 2021
Journeys to a Truce: Guarding
the Truce
On the advent of the Truce, Michael O’Donoghue, Engineer
Officer with the 2nd Battalion of Cork No.1 Brigade, remarks in
witness statement (WS1741) of the Bureau of Military History of a new-found
freedom. He had been based in the West Cork Brigade in the early summer of 1921
and decided to return home to Cappoquin in Waterford to study for his final engineering
exam in UCC. He returned though via Cork and ended up staying in his old digs in
the Shamrock Hotel on the Grand Parade, where he spent a few days and nights
before heading for home. On his first post Truce night in Cork, he notes that
he was amazed at the reactions of the public to the abolition of curfew and
other restrictions on their freedom.
“At 10pm they could be seen sitting on the
pavements, in doorways everywhere, on the streets under the open air, as if
they were trying to assure themselves that it was really true that British
tyranny no longer operated and that they were now free and no longer under the
baleful hostile gun-muzzle of Tan and Tommy. But Republican Police appeared
like mushrooms and enforced the licensing laws with strictness and even
harshness. The RIC and Tans strolled around aimlessly and at ease and seemed to
regard the rather puritanical activities of their successors in law–enforcement
with amused benevolence. The citizens played holiday round their streets until
well past midnight each night, rejoicing in their new found liberty. The young
girls, particularly, fell over themselves in their admiration for the returning
Republican Volunteer youths, and I and young IRA men like me basked in the
sunshine of female smiles and admiring glad eyes”.
West Cork Brigade Commander Tom Barry in his book Guerilla
Days in Ireland gives a chapter to the Truce negotiations and the impact of
the peace. He relates that the sudden ending of hostilities left IRA men dazed at
first and uncertain of the future, as no one considered during those early July
days that the Truce would continue for more than a month. Tom notes that his own
concerns were not eased by the arrival of a dispatch on 9 July, from Sinn Féin
headquarters, stating that the President de Valera had appointed him as Chief
Liaison Officer of the Martial Law Area of Cork or an important post making
sure the ceasefire and peace was kept. Tom describes of the Truce:
“As
July 11 approached one slowly began to appreciate what the Truce and all it
entailed signified. Gradually it dawned on me that the forcing of the enemy to
offer such terms was a signal victory in itself; that days of fear were ended, at
least for a time, and that one could return to normal life and thought, away
from the hates, the callousness and the ruthless killings of war. The respite
might only be brief, but one would not dwell on that. The sun blazed from God’s
Heavens during those cloudless days of the longest and most brilliant summer in
living memory, as if to remind man that the world held brighter things than the
darkness of war. At peace and relaxed we rejoiced with our own people, who had
been so good to us in the troubled past, until it was time for me to leave for my
new liaison post”.
The Bureau for Military History has a number of
files in its archives on the correspondence and work of the Office of the Chief
Liaison Officer. It operated from the Gresham Hotel, Dublin and was set up
following the successful negotiation of a Truce between the British Government
and the Army of the Republic (also known as Irish Republican Army), effected on
11 July 1921.
Representing the British was General Sir Nevil
Macready Commander in Chief, Colonel J Brind and A W Cope, Assistant
Under-Secretary, acting for the British Army. They agreed as follows that there
would be no incoming troops, Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), auxiliary police
and munitions. There would be no movements for military purposes of troops
and munitions, except maintenance drafts. There would be no provocative display
of forces, armed or unarmed. It was understood that all provisions of the Truce
apply to the martial law area equally with the rest of Ireland. There was to be
no pursuit of Irish officers or men or war material or military stores. There
was to be no secret agents, noting description or movements, and no
interference with the movements of Irish persons, military or civil, and no
attempts to discover the haunts or habits of Irish officers and men. There was
also to be no pursuit or observance of lines of communication or connection.
Commandant Robert C Barton TD and Commandant Éamonn J Duggan TD, acting for the Army of the Republic
agreed as follows; Attacks on Crown forces and civilians were to cease. There was
to be no provocative displays of forces, armed or unarmed. There was to be no interference
with Government or private property. There was to be no move to “discountenance
and prevent any action likely to cause disturbance of the peace which might
necessitate military interference”.
The Chief Liaison Officers included Commandant Éamonn Duggan, Commandant F Murphy and Commandant Emmet
Dalton. By December 1921, the Office of the Chief Liaison Officer was
liaising with 30 appointed Liaison Officers with locations amongst 30 counties
and liasing with the British authorities in reporting and investigating alleged
breaches of the Truce.
Caption:
1109a. Colourful
front cover of first Anvil Books paperback edition (1962) of Guerilla Days
in Ireland by Tom Barry (picture: Kieran McCarthy).
19 July 2021, “This is great news; apart from a possible judicial review by the developer, the legal planning processes have now been gone through- it is clear that the potential of babies buried beneath parts of the grounds has seriously hindered future development; More and more the process is leading to the need for State intervention on the future of Bessborough and other Mother and Baby Home sites”, Independent Cork city councillor and historian Kieran McCarthy also welcomed ABP’s decision, Developers unsuccessful in their appeal of refusal for apartments at Bessborough site, Developers unsuccessful in their appeal of refusal for apartments at Bessborough site (echolive.ie)
This week is the centenary
of the signing of the Truce on 11 July 1921 bringing the Irish War of Independence
in Ireland to an end. Technically talks had begun in December 1920 but they
petered out when British Prime Minister David Lloyd George demanded that
the IRA first relinquish their arms. Renewed talks began in the spring of 1921,
after the Prime Minister was lobbied by Herbert H Asquith and
the Liberal opposition, the Labour Party, and
the Trades Union Congress.
From the perspective of the
British government, it seemed as if the IRA’s guerrilla campaign would persist
indefinitely, with escalating losses in British casualties and in
finance. In addition, the British government was confronting acute blame at
home and abroad for the measures of British forces in Ireland. On 6 June 1921,
the British made their first peace-making act, calling off the strategy of
house burnings as reprisals.
On the other side, IRA
leaders and in particular Michael Collins, felt that the IRA, as it was
then organised, could not continue indefinitely. It lacked arms and ammunition
to face down the even regular British soldiers arriving into Ireland.
On 24 June 1921, the British
Coalition Government’s Cabinet decided to propose talks with the leader of Sinn
Féin. Coalition Liberals and Unionists agreed that an offer to negotiate would
strengthen the Government’s position, especially if Sinn Féin refused. On 24
June Prime Minister Lloyd George wrote to Éamon de Valera as “the chosen
leader of the great majority in Southern Ireland”, suggesting a
conference.
Sinn Féin agreed to talks.
De Valera and Lloyd George ultimately agreed to a truce that was intended to
end the fighting and lay the ground for detailed negotiations. Its terms were
signed on 9 July and came into effect on 11 July. Negotiations on a settlement,
however, were deferred for several months as the British government demanded
that the IRA first decommission its weapons, but this demand was ultimately
withdrawn. It was arranged that British troops would stay restricted to their
barracks.
However, in the three days
between the terms being signed and coming into effect, Irish Truce historian
Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc details at least sixty people from both sides of the
conflict were killed across the country. Such stories appear in the heart of Dara McGrath’s photographic exhibition
entitled For Those That Tell No Tales in the Crawford Art Gallery on
sites associated with the War of Independence. There is a poignant picture of an
execution location of The Lough with associated descriptive text. It was at 8
pm, on the evening of Sunday 10 July 1921, four young unarmed and off-duty soldiers,
Private Henry Morris (aged 21) and Corporal Harold Daker (aged 28) of the South
Stafforshire Regiment and Sappers Albert Camm (aged 20) and Albert Powell (aged
20) of the Royal Engineers were seized by a patrol of seven Volunteers. The
Volunteers had been searching an area from Donovan’s Bridge along the Western
Road in search of a suspected civilian informer.
Executed on the northern side of The Lough, the four bodies were dumped
at Ellis’s Quarry on its southside. All four were found blindfolded and shot
dead.
The only surviving account of the executions by a
Volunteer participant is the official report sent to IRA Headquarters. It
simply reads: “We held up four soldiers and searched them but found no arms. We
took them to a field in our area where they were executed before 9pm”. It has
been suggested that the killing of these men was a personal reprisal by the IRA
for the murder of Volunteer Denis Spriggs just two days earlier on 8 July.
Private Morris was from Walsall and served in the East Kent Regiment during the
First World War. He is buried in Ryecroft cemetery, Walsall. Corporal Daker was
the son of William and Mary Daker. He is buried in St Ann’s Churchyard,
Chasetown, Walsall. Sapper Albert Camm was from Holland Street in Nottingham.
Sapper Powell was the son of Arthur and Jane Powell of Abbott Road, London. He
is buried at Nunhead, All Saints Cemetery in Southwark.
On the advent of the Truce, Michael O’Donoghue, Engineer
Officer with the 2nd Battalion of Cork No.1 Brigade remarks in
witness statement (WS 1741) of the Bureau of Military History of a new-found
freedom and an almost too good to be true scenario;
“Now came July, and with the scorching summer
heatwave came rumours of peace and negotiations for a cease fire. Then before
we had time to realise what was happening, as everything moved so suddenly, the
Truce was upon us on a July 11th 1921 at midday. Overnight
everything was changed. The fugitive rebel army, the IRA, was recognised as Ireland’s
national army by the British Government. There was an uneasy peace. ‘Twas hard,
even for the IRA themselves, to credit that the fortunes of war had changed to
such an extent. we could now move everywhere in town and country. We exulted in
our new found authority and importance. Everywhere the people regarded us as heroes
and hailed us as conquerors and turned our heads with flattery, adulation and
praise. We were youngsters in our teens and early twenties, and who could blame
us if we got intoxicated with all the hero worship and rejoicings. Even those
people who had maintained a cautious neutrality, standing on the ditch during
the War of Independence, now rushed to acclaim us and to entertain us”.
Caption:
1108a. Execution location site for four
British soldiers, 10 July 1921 at northern side of The Lough, Cork, present day
(picture: Kieran McCarthy)
To ask the CE on the city schools, which received
Safe to School funding through the NTA and the associated Green Schools An
Taisce initiative in 2019, 2020 & 2021, and how much was allocated to each
school? (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)
Motions:
That the entrance to Broadale be examined from a safety perspective. Double yellow lines may be required to dissuade parked cars from blocking the entrance (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)
That a more user friendly Planning website be explored where is easier to access information such as letters and drawings (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)
10 July 2021, “Independent Kieran McCarthy have asked that Cork City Council, in partnership with the parish of Shandon and Diocese of Cork, mark the 300th anniversary of the construction of the church, recognising its impact on the citizens of Cork city and its unique landmark for Cork citizens and beyond”, Calls for anniversary of Cork city landmark to be celebrated, Calls for anniversary of Cork city landmark to be celebrated (echolive.ie)
Cllr Kieran McCarthy has asked Irish Water that Ballybrack Woods stream needs to be protected more from pollution outbreaks as witnessed in recent weeks. Cllr McCarthy noted: “I was very disappointed to see the pollution outbreak in the stream. Much work has been done by volunteers such as Douglas Tidy Towns, citizens environment activists and Cork City Council to protect this gem of a green space within the heart of Donnybrook”.
“Irish Water has got back to me and have completed
their site investigation; the water quality is back to normal and whoever the
culprit was and has stopped pouring a chemical or chemicals into the stream.
Many thanks to everyone for raising the pollution incident so quickly. Irish
Water at this point have not formally discovered who the culprit was, so one
needs to be legally careful on naming anyone. I’d ask though that all
users of the woods and the Mangala just keep an eye out for future pollution
incidents and report them just as fast”, concluded Cllr McCarthy.
In correspondence to Cllr McCarthy, Irish Water confirmed
that a site inspection of the wastewater infrastructure was undertaken in the
Calderwood/Ballybrack area on 7 July following Irish Water receiving this
report. The wastewater infrastructure at Calderwood Road and the Ballybrack
Walkway were inspected and was observed to be operating normally. A full walk
through check of the Ballybrack Stream was undertaken – there was no evidence
of pollution (no gross solids, no ragging, no evidence of third party
discharges) on the date of the visit.
The wastewater network was inspected along the route of
the pollution incident. This was observed to be operating normally. In
addition, a member of the public advised the team during the site visit that
construction work in the area may be the cause as they had observed similar
incidents over recent weeks. From these investigations Irish Water have noted:
“it would appear that the most likely source of this issue would appear to be
related to third party activity in the area. However Irish Water are unable to
formally confirm this issue”. The wastewater infrastructure in the area is
fully operational and is operating normally.
8 July 2021, “Local Councillor Kieran McCarthy said sites such as the Atlantic Pond must be protected from all forms of chemicals. ‘It is good news in the long run to see new measures being put in place to protect waterways such as the Atlantic Pond’, Procedural oversight’ blamed for Cork beauty spot being sprayed with weedkiller, https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-40332203.html
Kieran’s Quote:
“It is good news in the long run to see new measures being put in place to protect waterways such as the Atlantic Pond. There is quite an array of bird diversity at the pond and I always feel the location is often an under appreciated blue space for the wider city. On any given day, there are many people who walk around the pond and you’d often see people snapping photos of the birdlife in the pond especially the cygnets and herons. There is large local interest in the condition of the Pond. I continue to lobby for information panels and seasonally arranged nature walks.
The Atlantic Pond and Cork Lough possess the widest variety of freshwater species. Apart from being a really important blue space for bird diversity, the Atlantic Pond is also an important green space due to its adjacent woodland for many woodland bird species too. More and more at City Council level, we are hearing when green space and blue space exist side by side, species richness and abundance grows. So sites like the Atlantic Pond need to be protected more from all forms of chemicals”.
1107a. Plaque on Blarney Street Cork in memory of Denis J Spriggs, killed 8 July 1921 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 8 July 2021
Journeys to a Truce: Fred
Cronin’s Republican Plot
IRA casualties from the ongoing War of Independence
across the city continued all the way into the July 1921 truce. On 21
June Commandant Walter Leo Murphy was shot dead at Waterfall (a few miles from
Ballincollig) when an IRA meeting in a local public house was encircled by two
carloads of British undercover officers. He shot his way out of the public
house but was subsequently killed.
A commemorative plaque erected at Turner’s Cross to D Company
2nd Battalion commemorates Company Adjutant Charles Daly of 5 Glenview, Douglas
Road, who was captured by British forces at Waterfall, Co. Cork on 28 June
1921. British army records claim he was shot attempting to escape from Victoria
Barracks on 29 June 1921.
Denis Spriggs became involved in the fight for
independence from British rule at a very young age. At 16, he lied about his
age so he could join the IRA. As a known member of the IRA he, like many other
Volunteers, was forced to go on the run from British forces in the city. On 8
July 1921, whilst visiting his mother, Denis Spriggs was captured. The house
was raided and Spriggs was apprehended. He was taken from his house and shot on
Blarney Street where a plaque marks the spot today.
Walter Leo, Charles, and Denis are
buried in the Republican Plot at St Finbarr’s Cemetery, which dates back to 1920. Previously to its use there was, immediately inside
the gates of St Finbarr’s Cemetery, a vacant plot of green in one corner on
which stood a small but interesting memorial. Built in 1894 of stones taken
from an ancient Cork abbey, it marked the place where the collected bones of
the monks of Gill-Abbey had been reinterred.
On the day after the murder of Lord Mayor Tomás MacCurtain
in March 1920. Fred Cronin, close friend of Terence MacSwiney and a leading
Cork undertaker of Richard Cronin and Sons, suggested to the Brigade officers
that the municipal authorities, who were owners of the cemetery, should be
requested to make this plot available as a burial place for the dead patriot.
The Corporation readily agreed, and with this first interment the Republican
Plot came into existence.
Lough native Fred Cronin was an active
member of Sinn Féin. His membership dated back to its earliest days in its
foundation. Fred’s obituary in the Cork Examiner on 30 October 1937
describes that he took an active interest in all the nationalist movements from
the early days of his youth. He was one of the founders of the Young Ireland
Society in the year 1899, whose work is engraved in the memory of the people of
Cork by the erection of the monument on the Grand Parade. About this time also he was
also one of those people who attempted to put an end to the recruiting campaign
for men to fight in the British Army against the Boers in South Africa.
Fred also helped to establish a
Republican organisation known as the Cork Celtic Literary Society in 1903, and
it was in the ranks of this society that he came in close contact with such
well-known men as Terence MacSwiney, Tomás MacCurtain, and Tadhg
Barry. He was also a close follower of the national pastimes, being connected
with the Éire Óg Hurling Club. He also played for a number of years with the
Nils Football Club. He took a deep interest in the language movement and was a
prominent member of the Gaelic League for a long period.
Fred was transport officer to the 2nd
Battalion of Cork No. 1 Brigade IRA for a time around 1920. His experience with
the family firm of undertakers gave him considerable knowledge of transport
organisation.
When Terence MacSwiney’s life was
increasingly threatened in 1920, whilst he was Lord Mayor he could be found at
the house of Fred. Keeping a watchful eye on Fred and Terence were the members
of G Company of the 2nd Battalion. Their base were Messrs Phair grocery and provision store on Bandon Road.
Here there were stores and out offices of G Company, which provided an
admirable hiding place for guns and other military equipment.
When Terence was on from hunger strike in Brixton Prison,
Fred visited him regularly and on Terence’s date of death on 25 October 1920, Fred
was one of the last to see him alive. Fred was
tasked by the MacSwiney family to be the executor of Terence’s will. Fred’s
personal papers are now archived in the National Library in Dublin. The notes
for his 33 folders of surviving papers describe that between May and December
1921, he was interned by the British authorities at Cork Male Prison and Spike
Island. While he was incarcerated on Spike Island, he joined the other
prisoners in a hunger strike which lasted only four days, ending 2 September
1921.
Fred applied for parole due to the
illness of his youngest daughter. His parole application bound him during the
period of his release not to “render any assistance, direct or indirect,
to persons disaffected towards His Majesty the King, or do any act calculated
to be prejudical to the restoration or maintenance of order in Ireland.”
Republicans generally disapproved of parole-giving and it was permitted only in
cases of severe family stress. Fred Cronin had five children, of whom the youngest,
Maire, required a major operation and was dangerously ill for a time. His wife
Katie had died and her sister Mary Roche was looking after the children.
During the Civil War Fred’s anti-treaty
sympathies saw him interned during the Civil War by the Free State Government
in Cork Prison and then Hare Park Camp (Curragh), Co. Kildare from 1922 to
1923.
Recently Phoenix Historical Society has
published a book on those laid to rest in the Republican Plot at St Finbarr’s
Cemetery. The Plot is the final resting place of 61 Irish Republicans. Contact michael_nugent@corkcity.ie
for more information on how to attain a copy of a very interesting and
important local history book.
Captions:
1107a. Plaque on Blarney Street Cork in
memory of Denis J Spriggs, killed 8 July 1921 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
1107b. Republican Plot at St Finbarr’s
Cemetery, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
1107b. Republican Plot at St Finbarr’s Cemetery, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
One hundred years ago in Ireland marked a time of change. The continuous rise of an Irish revival, debates over Home Rule and the idea of Irish identity were continuously negotiated by all classes of society. In Cork City Reflections, authors Kieran McCarthy and Daniel Breen focus on the visual changes that have taken place in the port city on Ireland’s south-west coast. Using a collection of historic postcards from Cork Public Museum and merging these with modern images they reveal how the town has changed over the decades. Each of the 180 pictures featured combines a recent colour view with the matching sepia archive scene.
The authors have grouped the images under thematic headings such as main streets, public buildings, transport, and industry. Readers will be able to appreciate how Cork City has evolved and grown over the last century but also how invaluable postcards can be in understanding the past. 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 available to ordinary people.
