Dear Patricia, Dear Tadhg, Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Many thanks for the invitation to address you today.

They say that stories have the power to stop, impress, make one question, wonder, dream, remember, be disturbed, explore and not forget – a whole series of emotions.

With those threads in mind, there is truly much to be said and reflected upon in the annual One City, One book project, the 2020 edition of which, we have before us this evening.

From the outset, and in a universal context, I feel the title of the book we speak about here this evening – Whatever it Takes, sums up not only the story within Tadhg’s book but also connects to the wider world of where we find ourselves.

Living in the social ruins of a pandemic or fallout of an ongoing pandemic has seen our lives stripped back to its physical basics as seen clearly in the sparse Library furniture available – and socially to the seams of our hearts and minds- it has forced us to take a journey inwardly for reflection.

Losing is Not an Acceptable Option:

Whatever it takes to curb the virus, society is willing to do. In a world where frontline staff fight back the virus we as a society put measures in place to curb its spread.

The last line of the back cover of Tadhg’s book has written “Time is against him and the stakes are high, but losing is not an acceptable option”.

With this virus losing is also not an acceptable option. We are all in this time of pandemic together. Our social bonds are more important than ever. So it is also apt that Tadgh’s book also connects to the project of One City, One Book – and not just because Tadhg’s book is set in Cork. The plot and protagonist of Whatever It Takes are both firmly rooted in Cork.

But because I feel at the moment in Cork at the moment it’s a very real case of One City, One Virus. We saw the work of the community response teams across the Spring and early Summer of this year delivering food and medicines to those cocooning and we witnessed those who moved from council departments such as the Library to the HSE to help with contact tracing – and we have seen in more recent weeks, the measures put in place by shop-keepers and restaurants to awaken our sleepy city. One can see very clearly Cork’s strong sense of place, which is a paradigm that Tadhg carries in his quiver of ideas that interest him.

Another important universal point to make is how important our cultural processes are to us at the moment – it has been imagination, culture and arts and aspects such as media and literature that have kept many of us sane in these difficult times. With literature, you can journey along the sentences and paragraphs of a book and travel as Tadhg proposes in his title for his memoir of essays for 2021 – to a Place Beyond Words – where words become gripping stories.

A read of Tadhg’s previous works The First Sunday in September, the stories and remarks on his blog and his book Whatever It takes shows the power of words, narrative and ultimately story telling. In a recent Irish Examiner article written by Journalist Marjorie Brennan, Tadhg outlines his library career first in Cork City library and later in CIT. he pursued an MA in Creative Writing in UCC. In Tadhg’s every day career, his tools of the trade were books. Books mattered and the stories within them also mattered.

In the world we live in, books matter more so than ever before. Cork City Libraries’ One City, One Book is a multi-purpose tool or initiative to yes get book loving Corkonians to read and discuss the same book. But individuals, groups, book clubs, workplaces and organisations are also encouraged to take part in building a sense of community throughout the city, promoting literacy, supporting the arts and encouraging everyone to engage in reading. It takes the idea of a localized book discussion club and expands it to cover the whole city. It is the ultimate form of municipal biblio-therapy, a term, which my partner Mairéad mentioned to me during the week as we discussed this evening’s event.

Books also matter in Cork City’s Heritage, which also has a strong short story DNA – being the home to very fine story writers in the twentieth century but also in most recent times. But sometimes and this is my personal view we linger too much on the past wins of literary Cork and its actors within the twentieth century. They have been very important foundations and influences but also in our world it is also as important to leave imprints in the 21^st Century for the present to create our literary output.

Supporting New Writing Talent:

Hence why I think One City, One Book project, the library’s other literary initiatives and the Council’s financial individual and project support schemes, and concepts such as the work of the MA in Creative Writing, the work and events of the Munster Literature Centre – they are crucial in finding and supporting new writing talent.

As Tadhg noted in the Irish Examiner article, “You can’t really be taught to be a writer but you can be encouraged, supported, given a safe environment and pushed… It is easy to start a novel, short story or poem, it is not so easy to finish it and send it to people, that is the hard part…You have to really want to do it as well — to be honest, you have to be a little bit cracked to be a writer.” 

It is an unreal experience because I was older and I thought I would never even write a book, never mind get one published, let alone see it in a bookshop. I would say to anyone my age or older not to give up if they want to write a book”. 

I also think you need to be a person with much focus, patience, time, and much thick-skin to process the comments from one’s early readers.

Tadhg’s Whatever it Takes was originally in the first person, but after about 60,000 words, Tadhg switched it to the third person and brought in other characters and their voices as well. Pulling apart 60,000 words and retweaking them requires much thinking, much head space, much creativity, and much time.

One must be also open to the winds of direction by publishing houses. Of course, Cork is blessed to have Mercier Press as a very supportive and v active publisher. Mercier is not only interested in fiction but non-fiction as well and in this decade of commemorations through its own authors and history publications have laid the actual foundations of thought and knowledge for why commemoration and memory are so important to pursue.

A Cauldron of Ideas:

So what we launch here today in terms of the 2020 One City, One Book, is a cauldron of different simmering ideas – it’s not just about supporting Tadhg’s book, One City, One Book project but about the world we find ourselves, the importance of culture, the importance of literature, the importance of literary heritage, the importance of biblio-therapy the importance of the stories and ultimately their power to stop, impress, make one question, wonder, dream, remember, be disturbed, explore and not forget – a whole series of emotions.

I wish you well Tadhg in your journey with Whatever it Takes and the City Library well with this One City, One Book project. On behalf of the Lord Mayor’s Office, many thanks for the invitation again and best of luck.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 13 August 2020

Remembering 1920: The Arrest of Terence MacSwiney

The military activities in and around Cork City Centre for early August 1920 culminated with a raid on the old City Hall on the Thursday 12 August 1920 and the arrest of Lord Mayor Cllr Terence MacSwiney and other prominent Sinn Féin members. They were meeting generally on Cork Brigade No.1 plans and adjudicating at the Sinn Féin courts or acting as officers thereof. Upstairs in the Council Chamber and Committee Room, courts were about to start and several litigants, including many women with children were in the building. Members of six families in a tenement were present to contest their landlord seeking possession.

The Cork Examiner reports that a large military party in two lorries came over Clontarf Bridge and disembarked near City Hall, which they immediately surrounded. All passerbys were arrested. But in a very short time a large crowd had assembled in Anglesea Street, along Albert Quay and Lapp’s Quay, and even on the South Mall. Traffic was stopped. When the City Hall was surrounded the soldiers entered the building with rifles and fixed bayonets and a search commenced. Considerable emotion ensued as women and children fled from the encroaching soldiers into the darkening corridors of City Hall. The ante-room off the Council Chamber got the most attention. Here it was known that Gaelic League classes were held regularly and it was also the office of the Dáil Éireann courts. Presses and desks were minutely searched and some papers were taken away.

One of those arrested in City Hall was Michael Leahy, Officer in Command of the Fourth Battalion (East Cork) of Brigade No.1. In his interview within the Bureau of Military History (WS1421), he relates he was present by accident as he was looking to speak with Florence O’Donoghue to plan an assassination of a RIC Sergeant in Cobh. At City Hall earlier in the day of the 12 August, Terence MacSwiney told him that there was to be a meeting of the senior officers of the Cork brigades that evening in City Hall, about 8pm. Although Michael only ranked as a battalion commandant at the time, Terence ordered Michael to stay and attend the meeting. In the main hall of the City Hall the Republican Court was in progress while their meeting was on.

In his witness statement Michael Leahy recalls just some of those present at 8pm – Seán Hegarty, Vice-Officer in Command; Joseph O’Connor Brigade Quarter Master, Dan Donovan, Officer in Command of 1^st Battalion, Florence O’Donoghue, Brigade Intelligence Officer, Dom Sullivan, Brigade Adjutant, Liam Deasy, officer in Command of Cork No.3 Brigade, and Mick Murphy, Officer in Command, 2^nd Batallion Cork City.

The 8pm group meeting was not very long in session when word was brought that the military had surrounded the building and had begun searching it. Michael relates: “We left the room and made for a concealed exit to a hiding place somewhere between the ceiling and the roof. I remember a key to this hideout being missing and Terry MacSwiney sending someone to another room to get it. The soldiers, meantime, were getting closer to where we were, so it was decided to get out into the back yard and the work-shops to the rear of the City Hall”. In the hope of getting away in that direction, Michael went to climb a gate out of the yard when a bullet, fired by a soldier in the laneway outside, whizzed past his head. He jumped back into the yard. He now realised that escape was impossible, so the group got into one of the carpenter’s workshops where they were captured by the military.

The dozen arrested Brigade members were conveyed in three military lorries to Victoria Barracks. The Lord Mayor was in the first lorry with three of the others. They were surrounded with soldiers with fixed bayonets and each side of the lorry was lined with soldiers having their rifles ready for combat. Similar conditions were seen in the other two lorries.

The following day at the detention barracks section Michael Leahy relates that eleven of the group gave false names when questioned, with the exception of Terence MacSwiney, who gave his correct name and title of “Lord Mayor of Cork”. They were kept in Cork detention barracks for a day when they went on hunger strike. This was pursued in solidarity to over 60 IRA men who were on hunger strikes in Cork County Gaol, off Western Road.

The twelve were then transferred to the military barracks, where they were again interrogated by military intelligence officers. There they denied having any connection with the IRA or Sinn Féin. After five days in the barracks, Michael and his group were surprised to learn that they were to be released with the exception of Terence MacSwiney.

The eleven in number could scarcely credit their good fortune on being released and they lost no time in getting out of the city. Not two hours after they had left the barracks, a most intensive round-up took place in the city. Thousands of soldiers were engaged searching every conceivable building. It was Michael’s firm belief that the British military intelligence was so poor at the time and that, with the exception of Terence MacSwiney, who was a well-known public man, the military had no idea as to who the prisoners really were. Terence was not so fortunate. He was charged with sedition having an RIC cipher in his possession and documents relating to Dáil Éireann. He was sentenced to two years in prison. Terence was transferred to Brixton Prison in England. Within hours he began his hunger strike, which was to last 74 days before his eventual death.

A virtual Cork Heritage Open Day takes place on 15 August 2020. Check out the various short films on buildings and online talks throughout the day, www.corkheritageopenday.ie. Details of Kieran’s events for Heritage Week 2020 are online under Kieran’s Heritage Events at www.corkheritage.ie. These include a lunchtime webinar on Saturday 15 August and a lunchtime heritage treasure hunt along the City’s historic bridges on Saturday 22 August.

Captions:

1061a. Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney, Spring/ Summer 1920 (source: British Pathé).

1061b. Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney, Spring/ Summer 1920 (source: British Pathé).

1061b. Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney, Spring/ Summer 1920 (source: British Pathé).

On next Saturday 15 August 2020 Cllr Kieran McCarthy will take part in the virtual Cork Heritage Open Day. Due to Covid-19 Cork Heritage Open Day, which has always had up to this year had 40 buildings opened to the public,  will now go online with a mixture of virtual tours, interviews, history quizzes and completions. Cllr McCarthy has contributed to the virtual City Hall tour and the Chamber of Commerce Fitzgerald House tour.

To mark the start of Heritage Week the Cork Heritage Open Day website will go live on Saturday 15 August and members of the public will be able to explore virtually some of Cork’s finest historic and most beautiful buildings including Cork City Hall, Ballincollig Gunpowder Mills, the Custom House Port of Cork, Blarney Castle, the National Sculpture Factory, Cork Savings Bank, the Unitarian Church, Fitzgerald House and lots more.

Cork Heritage Open Day is organised by Cork City Council. Cork’s 96FM and the Echo are the media sponsors of Cork Heritage Open Day which is supported by Cork City Council and the Heritage Council.

On Heritage Open Day at 1pm Cllr McCarthy will also present a free webinar in collaboration with Meitheal Mara entitled “The River Lee and Cork City: Stories from the Past”. The link to the webinar is under Kieran’s Heritage Events at www.corkheritage.ie.

Cllr McCarthy noted: “Covid 19 has brought my heritage work online more and more this year. I have had to put my walking tours to one side for the moment, due to the social distancing requirements but they will be back in time. My Cork Heritage Open Day online talk looks at the Cork City’s amazing development on a swamp. The city possesses a unique character derived from a combination of its plan, topography, built fabric and its location on the lowest crossing point of the river Lee as it meets the tidal estuary and the second largest natural harbour in the world”.

In addition, on Saturday, 22 August, Cllr McCarthy in collaboration with Meitheal Mara, will host a Heritage Treasure Hunt along the City’s bridges. Meet at the National Monument, Grand Parade, Cork, between 1pm and 1.30pm (for social distancing reasons). No booking is required. Just bring a pen. The treasure hunt is suitable for all ages and is approximately a two-hour walk. On meeting Kieran, he will give you a self-guided walking and heritage treasure hunt trail to follow around the historic bridges of Cork City Centre island. Discover the city’s unique relationship with the River Lee.  

On the way your task is to explore the built heritage around the bridges and unlock the answers to the heritage treasure hunt. Those who get all the answers right will be in with a chance to win a copy of Kieran’s new book, Witness to Murder, The Tomás MacCurtain Inquest (with John O’Mahony, Irish Examiner, 2020).

1060a. Richard H Beamish c.1910 from Pike’s Contemporary Biographies, 1911 (source: Cork City Library).

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 6 August 2020

Remembering 1920: A Deputation to Westminster

In the midst of curfews being implemented and Black and Tans patrols across Cork City Centre streets, on 3 August 1920, a large meeting of the professional and commercial, both Protestant and Roman Catholic merchants, who supported Home Rule was held at the Imperial Hotel on the South Mall. Their intention was to send a delegation to meet British Prime Minister Lloyd George.

At the meeting, Alderman Richard Henrik Beamish was appointed to take the chair. Richard was an experienced and respected Protestant businessman. In reviewing his contributions in the press over the previous decade, he was not an overtly political player and was more known for his brewery and employment connections as well his acute interest in horticulture. Richard succeeded to the chairmanship of his firm Beamish and Crawford in 1899. His family held the uninterrupted chairmanship of the firm from its foundation, in the eighteenth century, up to the early twentieth century. During his term of office, Richard helped absorb the three firms of Lane & Company of Cork, Allman & Company of Bandon and the Bandon and Dungarvan Brewery into Beamish and Crawford.

In his earlier years Richard studied agriculture in Sweden and back home years later he acted for years as a Governor of the Munster Institute. He also wrote essays upon the winter feeding of cows and the water contents ofbutter. His beautiful gardens at Ashbourne, Glountane were well known throughout Britain as having a unique collection of rare trees, shrubs and plants gathered by him over many years from all parts of the world, varying in climates from Lapland to Mexico. His small home farm included a herd of Kerry cattle, remarkable for their yield of milk and the purity of their breed.

For years Richard occupied the position of Alderman of the Old pre 1920 Cork Corporation. He was elected twice as High Sheriff of the City. He was created a Deputy Lieutenant of the City and served as Justice of the Peace. In the year 1918 he was created a Freeman of London. In January 1920, Richard ran on the city’s commercial panel and topped the poll in the centre ward.

In his opening remarks at the Imperial Hotel on 3 August 1920, Richard Beamish said that the “unprecedented and serious state of the country” had caused their meeting assembly to declare their Dominion Home Rule policy. Richard began by noting that Ireland had never perhaps been placed in the position of greater agricultural and commercial prosperity than at that time. He noted: “it is equally clear that the universal feeling and demand for self-government has never been stronger throughout the country than it now is. There appears to exist an unwavering determination by the Irish nation to insist upon the direction of its own affairs, coupled with the desire to raise and employ the money of our country in accordance with its wishes…A complete Dominion status, with full powers to raise and disburse the country’s revenue is our essential demand, and were this granted it will be found that the income raised and devoted to Ireland, chocked by means of an assembly of Irishmen of all creeds and classes, would rapidly develop our Irish resources, and raise the status of our country to a level hitherto unthought of”.

Richard Beamish spoke for over 45 minutes reiterating his key points and then called upon Cork Fine Chemicals merchant Sir Stanley Harrington to formally propose the resolution to be sent to Westminster on self-government. Those present unanimously agreed to the motion plus several wished to send a physical delegation to wait on the Prime Minster. This was agreed to. The eventual delegation listed was Alderman Richard H Beamish, Mr J Dinan, Mr Benjamin Haughton, and Mr Thomas Jennings, all from Cork and neighbourhood, Sir Thomas Callan McArdl from, Dundalk, Mr James Shanks from Dublin, Professor Trench from Trinity College Dublin as well as Mr Braham Sutton, Mr Andrew Jameson and Captain Henry Harrison.

In a very quick turnaround and travel agenda, the deputation was received the following day on 4 August 1920 by David Lloyd George at Westminster in London, who was accompanied by the Chief Secretary Sir Henry Greenwood and parliamentary Coalition leaders. Two hours’ conversation on the Irish position followed, in which the Dominion solution was pressed on the Government. According to news agencies in London the deputation say that they were heard with “patience, courtesy and apparent sympathy”. They felt very satisfied with their interview. After a prolonged talk the members of the deputation were invited to return at 5pm for a further talk with representatives of the government. They were met by, Chief Secretary of Ireland Mr Hamar Greenwood, who was Home Rule sympathiser but was also trying to maintain control of his Black and Tan soldier unit.

At the close of these discussions Mr Lloyd George made a public statement and stated that he was open to other delegations calling for resolutions and for peace.  The Cork deputation in their own way created an early stepping stone in a long path to a truce in the Irish War of Independence. A further meeting on 24 August was attended by commercial and industrial representatives from all parts of Ireland.

Kieran’s new book Witness to Murder, The Inquest of Tomás MacCurtain is now available to purchase online (co-authored with John O’Mahony 2020, Irish Examiner/www.examiner.ie).

Captions:

1060a. Richard H Beamish c.1910 from Pike’s Contemporary Biographies, 1911 (source: Cork City Library).

1060b. Hamar Greenwood, Chief Secretary of Ireland, 1920 (source: Library of Congress, USA).

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 30 July 2020

Remembering 1920: The Terror of Curfew

One hundred years ago – late July 1920 – nightlife on the streets of Cork was under strict curfew. On 19 July Major-General Strickland issued an order of a curfew between the hours of 10pm and 3am for Cork City. A permit was required from the 21 July to be able to be on the streets outside of those times. It applied to all those within a radius of three miles of the GPO on Oliver Plunkett Street. Application for permits had to be made in writing to the County Inspector at the RIC Barracks at Union Quay. Permits were to be granted to clergyman, registered medical practitioners, and those engaged in urgent duties. All other persons outside the latter could be challenged by any policemen or soldier on duty to halt and obey orders. The penalty for non-compliance was three months’ imprisonment or a fine not exceeding £100.

On night one, the Cork Examiner records that sixty arrests were made. Arrests were made three minutes after 10pm and no leeway was made. The latest arrest was about midnight. One man charged explained that he had been engaged driving a horse in the county and that it was late when he came back to the city. Another man said he was going in home having been speaking to a friend near by for some time. Another man arrested said he was coming out from home to go to work.

Some of the young men arrested gave an interesting account of their experiences. It was about 10.15pm when one of them left his residence to speak to a man who was singing on the street apparently oblivious of the Curfew order. He went away and when the young man tried to turn into his home, he was picked up by a roaming military truck. Not having a permit he was put into the lorry. The lorry then proceeded along St Patrick’s Street and around that direction. At the bridge, a young men near the Post office was picked up and arrested. The lorry kept moving about and after some seven or eight having been arrested, it proceeded to Union Quay RIC Barracks. Soldiers with fixed bayonets were posted along the railings outside.

Some of those arrested at the RIC Barracks sang the Soldier’s Song and Wrap the Green Flag Round Me. Singing and bantering went on all the time they were detained there. At 3am, the military lorries came along again and those arrested were sent off in groups. Fourteen persons of the 60 arrested were lodged in Victoria Barracks and released shortly afterwards. A further 24 of those arrested were taken to the County Gaol off Western Road and they were also released shortly afterwards. Twenty-two were sent to the Bridewell and detained in one of the larger cells. The following day at 12noon they were brought before the Police Court. The 22 gave verbal undertakings to be at home at 10pm while the order was in force. They were subsequently discharged.

Such was the impact of the roaming military lorries with trigger happy Black and Tans, a week later the arrests in the city during the curfew are recorded as been down to their teens. An account in the Cork Examiner on 2 August further relates activities such as rifle firing, bomb-throwing, the smashing of glass windows. On Saturday, 30 July 1920 at 11.15pm, a fusillade of shots and a number of loud and terrifying explosions were heard. Black and Tans proceeded along St Patrick’s Street at a slow pace, and without warning the party indulged in indiscriminate rifle firing while a few bombs were thrown. A good deal of damage was done. 

Amongst the establishments affected by these fusillades were Cahill and Company, The Blackthorn House, Baker and Wright’s, John Burke, The Munster Arcade, Egan and Son, Farrow’s Bank, Byford & Company, Woolworths. The shutters of Mr William Lee, butcher, and the London and Newcastle Tea Company, situated on each side of the Cork Examiner Office entrance, were practically riddled with bullets. In the Chateau bar a bullet passed through the St Patrick’s Street window and smashed the glass partition inside the premises.

A determined, though unsuccessful, effort was made to bomb the Cork Examiner Office. Two bombs were thrown at the main entrance on St Patrick Street, but exploded without doing much damage beyond the disfigurement of the door and the making of a hole in the pavement. Intermittent rifle fire was also directed at the office door.

This firing occupied about quarter of an hour, after which the lorries were driven away, but hour later they returned, and more rifle fire, was directed at promises on each side of St Patrick’s Street.

A visit was paid to 8 Camden Quay, and the large building occupied by the members of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union was attacked and extensively wrecked. The windows were smashed in and the clerical offices which were situate on the ground floor were damaged very considerably. A large glass partition was demolished together with the furniture of the office. The books were torn and strewn over the ground and cards of membership intended for filled up were treated in a similar manner. An unsuccessful attempt was made to prize open the safe. The upper rooms were next entered, and the chairs and tables broken, as well as the pictures, which hung on the walls. Instruments from the Union band were also confiscated.

Kieran’s new book Witness to Murder, The Inquest of Tomás MacCurtain is now available to purchase online (co-authored with John O’Mahony 2020, Irish Examiner/www.examiner.ie).

Captions:

1059a. Section of Goad’s Insurance Map of Union Quay showing RIC Barracks 1920 (source: Cork City Library).

1059b. St Patrick’s Street, Cork, c.1920, from Cork City Through Time (2012) by Kieran McCarthy and Daniel Breen.

Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy wishes to remind business owners that the recent expansion of the Restart Grant scheme now includes sports clubs, which had previously been excluded. The majority of clubs will also be able to avail of the commercial rates waiver. Cllr McCarthy noted: “Applications are available through local authorities or for the City within Cork city Council.  Under the revised Restart Grant, support will also be provided for enterprises that could not access the original grant scheme. These grants will provide a much-needed cash boost to sports clubs that are at the heart of our communities. Non-rated B&Bs and rateable sports businesses will be eligible for a grant payment of €4,000. B&Bs will be eligible to apply to Fáilte Ireland”.

The maximum grant available will rise to €25,000 (up from €10,000) and the minimum payment will be €4,000 (up from €2,000). Firms that accessed the Restart Grant will be eligible to apply for a second top-up payment to a total combined value of the revised minimum and maximum grant levels. The criteria for accessing the scheme will include Enterprises that have 250 employees or less, have turnover of less than €100,000 per employee and have a reduced turnover by 25% as a result of COVID-19. The contact details for Cork City Re-Start Grants within Cork City Council are at 021 4924000 or email restartgrant@corkcity.ie.

Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy has welcomed the news this week that the Douglas Library has begun preparations for its re-opening in Douglas Shopping Centre. In response to a query by Cllr McCarthy at the recent Cork City Council meeting Director of Services Adrienne Rodgers highlighted that the City Council is making progress in restoring a full library service in Douglas.

The temporary pop-up facility in Douglas Community Centre has ceased due to social distancing measures and the need to focus on the full time service in just a few short months.

As Douglas Library was a lending facility, like other local libraries, one third approximately of the stock was in circulation outside of the premises at the time of the Douglas Shopping Centre fire, and this stock will be available to initiate the resumption of service in Douglas.  The Council is in discussions with the relevant government department to secure funding for additional stock, and is hopeful of a positive outcome.

Cllr McCarthy noted; “Douglas Library is a cultural focal point in the village and has a high membership with adults and in particular younger people using it. It regularly hosted a large number of weekly community events, which attracted a lot of interested local people. It is imperative that the full time library service is got up and running again; I remain committed to following the re-opening closely”, noted Cllr McCarthy.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 23 July 2020

Remembering 1920: Stories of the Fianna

The youth division of the Cork No.1 IRA Brigade or the Fianna was significant in their reconnaissance during 1920.  It was in 1910 that the Na Fianna Éireann was established in Cork by republicans involved in the O’Growney Branch of the Gaelic League.

Charles Meaney, in his witness statement (WS1631), held in the Bureau of Military Archives describes his involvement. Charles joined the Fianna in Cork prior to the Easter Rising of 1916. He was about fifteen years old when he witnessed several other young Fianna teenagers leaving the city for Macroom with the Volunteers on Easter Sunday 1916. He was not allowed to go with them as he was considered to be too young. After 1916, his group kept together and, later that year, the Fianna was divided into two companies, or sluaghs, as they were known – one for the portion of the city north of the River Lee, and, one for the area south of the river. There were circa 60 teenagers in the organisation at that time, but their number increased subsequently to about 100 on the rolls.

The Fianna headquarters varied from time to time. They met in An Grianán, Queen Street, now Fr Mathew Street, Cork, a room in South Main Street Cork, in Drummy’s premises, Pope’s Quay, and in McGurk’s in North Main Street.

During 1917 and 1918, Fianna activities comprised drilling, general training of a military nature, lectures in first aid and rifle and revolver shooting. During the general election of December 1918, the Fianna were very active in distributing election literature for Sinn Féin, posting bills (sometimes at night during curfew).

Early in the year 1919 when, due to increasing numbers, it was decided to form three sluaghs in Cork city. These were known as the North Sluagh, Centre Sluagh and South Sluagh. There would be on an average of from 30 to 40 boys in each sluagh. The Fianna wore a uniform consisting of a blue short pants, green shirt, saffron scarf and green slouch hat. Fianna officers wore Sam Browne belts. When engaged on route marches they always wore the latter uniform, notwithstanding the ban placed on the wearing of military uniforms by the British forces.

Charles Meaney describes that during the years 1920-21, the really active members of the Fianna in Cork numbered not more than 30 and not all of these were armed. The use of arms by the Fianna in Cork was frowned on by the IRA leaders in the city, possibly it was thought that they were too young and irresponsible. An order was issued in 1920 from the IRA in Cork forbidding the Fianna to use arms unless with the prior permission of the local brigade company leaders.

According to Charles’s account, the activities of the Cork Fianna during 1920-1921 were varied. Raids were carried out at night on the houses of pro-British people who were suspected of having guns. Three or four of them usually carried out these raids with only one of the Fianna being armed with a revolver.

Many times the Fianna were called on to act as scouts for IRA units waiting in ambush. Their job was to give warning of the approach of enemy forces. Military and police barracks were watched and movements of troops, Black and Tans and RIC were duly reported to the IRA. Suspected spies were followed by them and their activity reported on. On several occasions too, they were called, at short notice, to remove guns and ammunition from IRA arms dumps in the city, which were in danger of discovery by the enemy.

The Cork Fianna frequently destroyed quantities of enemy stores being conveyed to barracks from shops in the city. Charles Meaney makes reference in his witness statement to a daylight hold-up of a lorry with provisions outside Dobbin’s shop in Alfred Street. Four or five of the were watching near Dobbins. When the lorry was loaded they got on to it and drove it to Hardwick Street where they emptied the contents (jam and other provisions) into a store. The goods were later distributed to the relatives of men in gaol.

When an order was made by Dáil Éireann that all goods from Belfast should be boycotted by shopkeepers, the Fianna in Cork were very active in enforcing the order. Many shops suspected of stocking goods from Belfast were visited, invoices examined and the proprietors warned not to sell such goods.

Attacks on individual members of the enemy forces were a feature of Fianna activities, 1920-21. Three or four of them waylaid soldiers and Black and Tans who were sometimes in the company of girls, or, perhaps, leaving a public house in a drunken condition. Whenever the opportunity offered, they attacked them, took their equipment and, in many cases got revolvers as well.

The carrying of IRA dispatches was part of the routine work of the Fianna, but nonetheless important. Boys were available at all times to carry out this work in co-operation with Cumann na mBan. P J Murphy in his witness statement (WS869) recalls his involvement in the Fianna and details that  one of the most important  dispatch houses for the IRA in Cork City and County was the Misses Wallace’s news agency shop in Brunswick Street, a small and narrow street at the back of St Augustine’s Chapel.

Towards the end of July 1920, information was received that the shop was to be raided by the British just before curfew hour which was 10pm. An ambushing party was detailed to cover both entrances to the street, P J Murphy was detailed by the Brigade Officer in Command (then Seán Hegarty) to remain outside the shop and give warning of the enemy’s approach. At the same time his job was to ensure that the clerk of the Chapel would not close the side entrance to the Chapel as this was their only means of escape, if the enemy used both entrances to the street. This detail was carried out for three consecutive nights and had no sooner withdrawn the third night when the place was raided. No arrests were made.

As the summer of 1920 progressed clashes between civilians, the RIC and Black and Tans became frequent, and often with fatal results.

Kieran’s new book Witness to Murder, The Inquest of Tomás MacCurtain is now available to purchase online (co-authored with John O’Mahony 2020, Irish Examiner/www.examiner.ie).

Captions:

1058a. Cork Fianna member Christopher Lucey, 1916 (source: Cork City Library).

1058b. Cork Fianna member Seamus Quirke, 1920 (source: Cork City Library).

Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy wishes to remind the general public that Cork City Council has launched a consultation process for the preparation of the vitally important City Development Plan (CDP) 2022-2028, which will provide the framework for how the city will grow and develop in the coming years.

This City Development Plan comes at an extraordinary time for Cork.  Last year, the city’s population grew to 210,000 following an extension of the city boundary which positioned Cork as a city of scale. Furthermore, it has been set government targets to grow by 50% over the next 20 years so that it can provide a counterbalance to Dublin.

The preparation of a City Development Plan involves a 13 step process, with three separate public consultation phases. The City Development Plan process should be completed within a two year period.

As part of this initial consultation, Cork City Council is seeking the views of the public on how to best develop Cork City to meet the changing needs of our society, environment and economy while realising the ambitions set for our city. The public is invited to read the ‘Our City – Our Future’ issues paper which is available at www.corkcitydevelopmentplan.ie, at Cork City libraries and by appointment at the Planning Counter at Cork City Hall. A submission on the plan can be made as part of this initial public consultation from 26 June until 21 August 2020.

Cllr McCarthy noted: “Cork’s future is bright and filled with opportunities. There is much to celebrate and much to challenge Ireland’s southern capital. The enlargement of the city’s boundary in 2020 has solved some problems of areas needing to expand and be part of an enlarged city – so there could be more joined up resources. The enlargement though has left many blank canvasses for the city to debate and pin down such as transport and mobility, energy consumption and transition, the digital city, the circular economy, sustainable land-use and climate change adaptation”.

“Add in other debates such as those on the sustainable development goals, the new Regional Spatial Strategy Cork 2050, and there is a very real need for Cork to work harder than ever before to get ahead of the curve, seek investment, and for all to work together on Cork’s urban agenda There are no silver bullets either to any of the latter challenges. There is certainly no room for siloised thinking in the Cork of the future. But Cork in its past and in its present has never been afraid of hard work, passion and working together”, concluded Cllr McCarthy.

Cork City Council is also to engage in an extensive public consultation process to gather the views of people around the City Development Plan. This will include webinars, community engagement, surveys, a photographic competition for young people.