Category Archives: Landscapes
Voices of Cork, The Munster Cross, April 2024
Kieran’s Historical Walking Tours, April 2024
Sunday 14 April, The City Workhouse, historical walking tour, meet just inside the gates of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road, in association with Cork Lifelong Learning Festival, 1.30pm, free, two hours, on site tour, no booking required.
Sunday 21 April, Douglas and its History, historical walking tour; meet in the carpark of Douglas Community Centre, 1.30pm finishes nearby, no booking required.
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 4 April 2024
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 4 April 2024
Launch of the Ballycannon Boys Memorial Park
This article is another follow up of articles I have written in recent years on the Ballycannon Boys memorial. In recent weeks the Ballycannon Boys Memorial Park, created by local community group of Clogheen/ Kerry Pike Community Association, has been unveiled. The park complements the nearby memorial (1945) and honours the memory of six young IRA men that were killed by Black and Tans on 23 March 1921.
The six men killed were Daniel Crowley of Blarney Street (aged 22), William Deasy of Mount Desert, Blarney Road (aged 20 years), Thomas Dennehy of Blarney Street (aged 21 years), Daniel Murphy of Orrey Hill (aged 24 years), Jeremiah O’Mullane of Blarney Street (aged 23), and Michael O’Sullivan of Blarney Street (aged 20 years).
The new and detailed information panels in the park highlight that early in the morning of the 23 March, a number of lorries left police barracks in Cork loaded with Black and Tans, British born recruits to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) who wore khaki uniforms & the black belts and caps of the RIC. The Black and Tans were feared for their ruthlessness and lack of discipline. The lorries drove out to Kerry Pike where the Tans dismounted and made their way silently over the road, crossing the fields, approaching and surrounding the O’Keeffe farmyard. They banged on the front door demanding admittance, and having woken the terrified household began searching the house, then spread out to search the outbuildings, catching the six young men asleep and unarmed in the tack room next to the stables.
What happened next is contested, but it appears that some of the six young men were dragged outside and mistreated as the police demanded to know where they had hidden their arms. There was an attempted break-out as they tried to escape through the surrounding fields. But a cordon had been posted and one by one the young men were picked off in a hail of high velocity rifle fire and revolver bullets. Some of the bodies were horribly mutilated, some showed marks of having been shot at close range.
When the firing ceased, six bodies were wrapped in blankets and carried down to the road, through the field, where they were loaded in the lorries and brought back to the military barracks. According to evidence given later by Cornelius O’Keeffe, who was taken prisoner and brought along, one of the victims was still alive when put into the lorry.
The Ballycannon tragedy must also be viewed in the broader context of what was happening elsewhere. During the eight months leading up until the Truce of July 1921, there was a spiralling of the death toll in the conflict, with 1,000 people including the RIC police, British military, IRA volunteers and civilians, being killed in the months between January and July 1921 alone. This represents about 70% of the total casualties for the entire three-year conflict. In addition, 4,500 IRA personnel (or suspected sympathisers) were interned in this time.In the middle of this violence, the Dáil formally declared war on Britain in March 1921. Between 1 November 1920 and 7 June 1921 twenty four men were executed by the British.
On 19 March 1921, four days before the Kerrypike incident Tom Barry’s 100-strong West Cork IRA unit fought a large-scale action against 1,200 British troops – the Crossbarry Ambush. Barry’s men narrowly avoided being trapped by converging British columns and inflicted between ten and thirty killed on the British side. About 100 Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers escaped an attempt by over 1,300 British forces to encircle them. During the hour-long battle three to six IRA volunteers were killed.
Michael Murphy who was a Commandant in the 2nd Battalion Cork No. 1 Brigade in his witness statement for the Bureau of Military History (WS1547) noted that in the case of the Ballycannon six that information was given to the military by a former comrade of the boys, a man named Patrick “Cruxy” O’Connor; “All our intelligence service vas alerted for information leading to the person who ‘tipped off’ the British as to the location of the Volunteer dugout. Finally, the informer was discovered to be a man named Connors who was actually a comrade of the murdered Volunteers at one time and who, possibly for monetary reward, decided to sell his friends”.
Michael writes that Patrick O’Connor went into hiding in the military barracks, Cork. Day and night, a watch was kept for him by Volunteers, but he never left the barracks. Eventually, we got word that he had gone to New York and, immediately, contact was made ‘with Cork men there to locate him. He was duly found and his address sent on to the Cork Brigade.
Michael notes of the New York assassination attempt; “Two Cork Volunteers Danny Healy and Martin Donovan from my battalion were sent out to New York. They watched for Connors, noted the times of his coming and going from his residence and, one afternoon when Connors opened the door of the house in which he lived, he was confronted by Healy and Donovan carrying revolvers”. Patrick managed to recover from his wounds. He moved to Canada, married an Irish immigrant and had a daughter. He died in 1952, at age 60.
Caption:
1246a. John Mulcahy, historian, speaking at the launch of the Ballycannon Boys Memorial Park, 23 March 2024 (picture: Kieran McCarthy).
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 28 March 2024
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 28 March 2024
Leo Murphy’s Shaving Kit 1921
Recently Cork Public Museum marked the return to Cork of a small shaving kit used by Commandant Leo Murphy who died at the hands of Crown Forces during the War of Independence in 1921.
Leo Murphy had been targeted by Crown Forces for his role as Commander of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Cork Brigade and his involvement in numerous notable IRA activities in the area, including the killing of British intelligence officer Captain Joseph Thompson in November 1920. He was shot and killed by soldiers from the Manchester Regiment during a surprise raid on a secret IRA meeting at O’Donovan’s Pub (now O’Shea’s) in Waterfall, on the outskirts of the city, on 27 June 1921. As Murphy lay dead at the side of the road, his pockets were searched, and the contents kept as ‘souvenirs of war’.
One of the items removed was a small personal shaving kit used by Leo Murphy while on the run. It ended up in display in the Manchester Regiment Museum in the town hall of Ashton-under-Lyne, in Tameside, Greater Manchester. The museum recently closed, and the Manchester Regiment Collection passed to the care of the Portland Basin Museum in Tameside.
Last year, Cork Public Museum Curator Dan Breen contacted his counterpart in the Portland Basin Museum, Rachel Crnes to enquire about the possibility of arranging the loan of the shaving kit for display in Cork.
The descendants of Walter ‘Leo’ Murphy came to the museum for a private viewing of the shaving kit before it goes on public display. The shaving kit will be displayed in the museum’s War of Independence exhibition, By Every Means at Our Command, alongside one of Leo Murphy’s hats, which was previously donated to Cork Public Museum.
Leo Murphy was born in his family’s The White Horse public house in Ballincollig in 1901. In 1917, he joined the Irish Republican movement and became a youth member in Fianna Éireann. In 1920 Cork Volunteer Headquarters sent Leo as a quartermaster, organiser and military trainer to the 3rd Battalion. The training consisted mostly of drill at first for the purpose of discipline and as the Company gradually increased in strength by twos and threes from the original six it was able to be organised on a proper basis.
Tim Herlihy in a witness statement (W810) for the Bureau of Military History, describes that he was a former founder members of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Cork Brigade. Tim outlines that in the autumn of 1920, after Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, had died on hunger strike in Brixon Prison in London, the 3rd Battalion in force attended his funeral in Cork. It was reckoned that the Battalion paraded over 500 strong.
At this time after nightfall shots were fired occasionally about 200 yards from the Military Barracks at Ballincollig just to keep the military guessing. Tim further explains that the usual patrols followed, but there was an Intelligence System in operation in the Barracks, carried out by the local Volunteers. They sent out word to the Volunteers prior to the military moving out of the Barracks.
Tim highlights that there was a Captain Thompson, Intelligent Officer Manchester Regiment, who used to go into shops and houses in Ballincollig village brandishing a revolver and saying that if anything happened to him “the village would go up”. In November 1920, Thompson was seized at Carrigrohane on his motor bike and shot dead, his arms and bike being taken”. No reprisals took place but there was tension for a while. Captain Thompson was shot dead by Leo Murphy and two other Volunteers on the Model Farm Road. Thompson had previously violently raided Leo Murphy’s mother’s house.
Thompson was succeeded as Intelligence Officer by Captain Vining. It was he who shot Leo Murphy on 27 June 1921, just a fortnight before the Truce. Leo Murphy was then Officer-in- Command, 3rd Battalion, having succeeded Tim Herlihy, who was taken prisoner by the British.
On acting on information supplied to him on Leo Murphy’s movements, he and approx five other British Officers drove up in a car to Donovan’s public house at Waterfall one evening and surrounded the house. Tim Herlihy in his statements relates: “There were about forty-four in all in the pub, the great majority of whom were elderly men who had been attending a bowling match in the locality. Of all the crowd there were only a few Volunteers. Two of them escaped, but Leo Murphy, who tried to shoot his way out, was shot dead. Another Volunteer, Charlie Daly, who was unarmed, was taken away by Captain Vining and his party and his dead body was found at Douglas the next morning. He had been shot. Daly belonged to the 2nd Battalion (Cork City)”.
In mid-January this year, as Lord Mayor, I travelled with Dan Breen to Tameside to officially receive the shaving kit taken by Captain Vinning and the Manchester Regiment and to bring it home to Cork. I visited Dukinfield Town Hall and was greeted by Dublin-born Deputy Mayor of Tameside, Cllr. Betty Affleck, and executive leader, Cllr. Gerald Cooney (also of Irish descent).
Cork Public Museum Curator, Dan Breen on the occasion noted: “Cork City Council and Cork Public Museum would like to acknowledge the help and support given to the handover by their colleagues in Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council and the Portland Basin Museum. The return of the shaving kit to Cork brings closure to one chapter of Irish War of Independence but it highlights the complex history shared by the cities of Cork and Manchester and acknowledges the potential for future collaborations to better understand it”.
From his early days in Fianna Éireann, Leo Murphy’s story was one of courage and resilience. His promotion to quarter master of the 3rd Battalion by the age of nineteen in 1920, is an indication of his leadership qualities and the high esteem in which he was held by all within the Cork IRA. The commemoration of his life and times in our time shines a spotlight on his leadership and sacrifice. It also, through the Tameside Museum side, showcases why we need to keep searching for objects and documents associated with our War of Independence to make sure the full story is told.
My sincere thanks to Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council for their courtesy and co-operation and to Cork Public Museum for their consistent guardianship of Cork’s past. The shaving kit can be viewed by the public at Cork Public Museum.
Caption:
1246. Shaving kit of Leo Murphy, 1921 (picture: Cork Public Museum).
Lord Mayor Cllr McCarthy Launches his Local Election Campaign, 23 March 2024
Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr Kieran McCarthy, Independent, has confirmed his attention to run in the forthcoming local elections on Friday 7 June. He has once again chosen to run in the south east local electoral area of Cork City which includes the Douglas area. The south east area extended from Albert Road through Ballinlough, Ballintemple, Blackrock, Mahon and takes in Douglas Village, Donnybrook, Rochestown and Mount Oval districts.
First elected in 2009 Cllr McCarthy has won three terms of office in Cork City Hall on an Independent platform. In launching his manifesto this week Cllr McCarthy outlined his vision across five policy areas – developing more recreational and amenity sites, moving Cork to become net zero in Carbon emissions, marketing the City Centre and village renewal, local government reform and financial accountability, and continuing his suite of community and history projects.
At the launch of his campaign Cllr McCarthy noted his broad range of interests from community development, city planning, culture and history, village renewal environmental issues and regional development. “Over the past fifteen years I have gained much experience in local government and in particular during my year as Lord Mayor. In City Hall, I continue to fight the corner of my constituents . My website and social media sites showcase my work pursued and achieved over the past decade. It also sets out my stall of interests and what an Independent strong voice can offer local government plus a vision for Cork City’s future in working with local communities. Collaboration with local people is very important to me”.
“Over the past fifteen years I have created and curated several community projects including local history programmes in local schools, a youth community talent competition, a youth Make a Model Boat project. I also founded Cork City Musical Society for adults. I also run free historical walking tours regularly across over 25 Cork City suburban sites. Against the backdrop of very busy Lord Mayor’s schedule I look forward to meeting people again at the doors over the next few weeks, and if anyone would like to help with my campaign in any shape of form, it would be greatly appreciated”, concluded Lord Mayor Cllr McCarthy.
Voices of Cork – Naomhóga Chorcaí, 3 February 2024
Voices of Cork, Artwork to the Swifts, January 2024
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 18 January 2024
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 18 January 2024
Kieran’s Audio Heritage Trails
January generally coincides with some fine and cold cold days where walking the city is lit up by wintry Atlantic light. As someone who enjoys photographing the city, it is a good time of year to capture some of the city’s nuanced layers of its past. I hope to launch my physical walking tours again in April but in the meantime, check out my audio heritage trails, which have been developed with Meitheal Mara – on the Bridges of Cork and The Marina respectively.
Both audio trails are hosted on my website www.corkheritage.ie under the history trails section. 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 just over 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 Cork Corporation that North Gate Bridge would be rebuilt in stone in 1712 while in 1713, South Gate Bridge would be replaced with a stone arched structure. 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 a guidance or tracking wall to bring ships into Cork City’s South Docks area. It was completed in 1761.
Following the constitution of the Cork Harbour Commissioners in 1814 and their introduction of steam dredging, a vigorous programme of river and berth deepening, quay and wharf building commenced. The dredger of the 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 audio heritage trails under history trails at www.corkheritage.ie
Captions:
1236a. Daly’s Bridge aka Shaky Bridge, present day, which is one of the featured bridges in Kieran’s audio heritage trail of the Bridges of Cork (picture: Kieran McCarthy).
Kieran’s Lord Mayor’s Column, 6 January 2024
Discover Cork Through a New Digital Atlas:
They say the best way to get to know a city is to walk it – and a new year with crisp early January days is an ideal time. In Cork you can get lost in narrow streets, marvel at old cobbled lane ways, photograph old street corners, look up beyond the modern shopfronts, gaze at clues from the past, be enthused and at the same time disgusted by a view, smile at interested locals, engage in the forgotten and the remembered, search and connect for something of oneself, thirst in the sense of story-telling – in essence feel the DNA of the place.
Giving walking tours for over 30 years has allowed me to bring people on a journey into that soul but also receive feedback on the wider contexts of what visitors and locals have seen elsewhere. Cork is a city packed with historic gems all waiting to be discovered at every street corner.
Cork has a soul, which is packed full of ambition and heart. Cork’s former historic networks and contacts are reflected in its the physical urban fabric – its bricks, street layout and decaying timber wharfs. Inspired by other cities with similar trading partners, it forged its own unique take on port architecture.
So the new Digital Atlas of Cork/ Corcaigh is very welcome. It is one of a series of digital atlases created by the Irish Historic Towns Atlas team (others are Derry, Dungarvan and Galway). The Digital Atlas of Cork/Corcaigh is an initiative of the Digital Working Group of the Irish Historic Towns Atlas research programme. The project has been led by Sarah Gearty (Royal Irish Academy) and Rachel Murphy (University of Limerick), with Mani Morse (Dublin City University) as Digital Manager.
The Digital Atlas of Cork/Corcaigh is a free online interactive map that invites you to discover the built heritage of Cork City in a new way where 6,245 features of the city’s history from AD 623 to 1900 are mapped. The atlas includes descriptions of over 800 streets, including their names in Irish and English as well as historical variants.
View the atlas here: Digital Atlas of Cork/Corcaigh | Royal Irish Academy (ria.ie)
Users can browse the digital atlas or search for a specific site in the city. They can also select and view features associated with specific time periods, from medieval times to the present day. Most notably, it maps out Cork’s earlier historical sites especially around South and North Main Street and its Viking age history and Anglo Norman history.
Each historical feature is represented by a coloured symbol, each feature has been categorized into one of eleven different themes such as entertainment, manufacturing, religion and transport. When a user clicks on a feature, key information about it is displayed in a pop-up box.
A specially commissioned historical map depicts each individual house and plot during the mid-nineteenth century (1842). This is just one of a number of layered maps that may be switched on and off to show how the city developed over the centuries.
Other layers include Ordnance Survey maps — a present-day plan of the city, as well as historic maps showing Cork pre-Famine and at the turn of the twentieth century. Additional map layers will be released over the coming months, providing access for the first time to digitised town plans by the Ordnance Survey (1842) and Valuation Office (1852–64).
A downloadable user guide has been created to accompany the resource, to allow anyone to explore the Digital Atlas with further education and project work in mind. The project has been part funded by the Heritage Council Stewardship Fund 2023. It has been supported by partners Cork City Council, the Digital Repository of Ireland, the National Archives of Ireland and Tailte Éireann.
The Digital Atlas is remarkable with over 6,000 entries. It is a tremendous new resource for all the people of Cork and will no doubt instil a sense of pride in local communities, through its use in schools and libraries. In particular, the research and further reading aspect of the atlas will be a great source for anyone with an interest in the history and development of Cork City. This innovative project from the Royal Irish Academy will make the valuable research of the Irish Historic Towns Atlas series available to a wider and more varied audience than heretofore.
The atlas will contribute immensely to the work of Cork City Council and the wider professional community in Cork particularly those working in archives, museums, education, planning, architecture and conservation. Ciara Brett, City Archaeologist, Cork City Council noted of the Digital Atlas:
“The Digital Atlas, when utilised with the forthcoming printed Atlas, will be a great benefit to the study of the changing urban environment and will provide practical assistance in the preparation and implementation of planning policy and development management in the City. The IHTA Cork/Corcaigh volume in digital format will add to the existing corpus of published material and will, I believe, encourage future research and study that will enhance our understanding and appreciation of our city”.
The Digital Atlas of Cork/Corcaigh is based on research carried out for Irish Historic Towns Atlas, no. 31, Cork/Corcaigh by H.B. Clarke and Máire Ní Laoi, which will be published by the Royal Irish Academy in print in May 2024.
Based at the Royal Irish Academy, the Irish Historic Towns Atlas research programme traces the topographical development of towns, cities and suburbs through its atlas and ancillary publications, annual seminars and special exhibitions. It is part of a wider international scheme that covers nineteen countries. The Irish programme is considered a leader in the development of digital atlases of this kind.