An allocation of €800,000 from the National Transport earlier this year has allowed much progress on the next phase of the Ballybrack cycle scheme (phase 4).
This next phase involves the construction of circa 2.1km, 4m wide pedestrian and cycle path connecting the recently completed Ballybrack Pedestrian and Cycle Track Phases 2 & 3 with Maryborough Hill and proposed new residential developments along the route, especially in Castletreasure.
The project is slightly behind because of Covid and stoppage works in construction.
But the allocation has enabled Cork City Council to progress with a design team and it is currently preparing the detailed designs for the project.
Ground investigation work is also currently proceeding at present.
Cork City Council is hoping to be in a position to tender for the scheme in 2022.I will keep my pressure on what is a very exciting addition.
1123a. Crossbarry Ambush Memorial, present day, sculpted by Terry McCarthy and erected in 1966 (picture: Kieran McCarthy).
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 28 October 2021
Journeys to a Truce: The Aeridheachts Return
October 1921 coincided with many public events, which
drew a focus on the importance of the beginning of the Treaty negotiations in
London. Rural events called “aerideachts” or cultural events returned, which focussed
on Irish music and on orations on Irish nationalism. Such events were banned just
before the physical months of the War of Independence. But as peace reigned in
the autumn of the 1921, such events returned and were used once again as a
political tool by Sinn Féin to outreach to the Irish public.
On Sunday 2 October 1921, the Cork Examiner reports
that thousands of visitors mustered at Crossbarry aeridheacht. The event
commenced at 2pm. A special train left Cork for Kinsale Junction at noon, and
another special left Clonakilty at the same hour, both calling at intermediate
stations. Teas and refreshments were supplied on the grounds. Threatening rainfall
though did lessen the crowds from Cork City. However, large numbers travelled
to Crossbarry in motor cars, motor lorries, horse traps and horse cars of all
descriptions, as well as on bicycles and on foot. Towards the close of the programme,
persistent rain began to fall but those present did not leave.
The fixture was held in a field adjoining the road at
the point where the Crossbarry Ambush was carried out. Previous to the opening
of the programme, many people who had come to Crossbarry occupied themselves in
visiting the various places of interest in connection with the engagement – the
points occupied by the military in their advancing movements and the line of
retreat of the IRA, and houses involved with the ambush.
The very best talent including All-Ireland
prize-winners contributed to the success of the aeridheacht programme. This
comprised singers of traditional songs, Gaelic dancing, and the Irish music and
sport. Members of the Cork Pipers’ Club and also the Bandon and Kinsale Pipers’
Club were participants.
Commandants Tom Barry and Seán Hales TD presided. Addressing
the gathering, Tom Barry was enthusiastically received and had been asked by
the committee to say a few words to the people present. In his opinion an
aeridheacht was not the place for speaking on matters affecting the government
of the country, and he would confine himself to matters affecting him
personally as a “Soldier of the Irish Republic”. Probably the matter engaging
their attention more so than any other at that moment was the Truce. He
outlined that the Irish Republican Army had entered into the Truce, not at its
own request, but at the request of others but would adhere to the terms, noting
– “We have entered into it loyally, and with every intention of scrupulously
adhering to its terms. We have expected the enemy to keep the terms as
strictly, but as we all know, this was far from the case”.
Continuing Tom Barry referred to a breach of Truce
conditions through the actions of the Royal Irish Constabulary in Tipperary
Town in September (1921) and said it had been stated that it was not the
intention of either side to make a statement in reference to the matter pending
an enquiry.
Another matter concerning the Truce was the treatment
of Irish prisoners by Irish gaols. Citing the case of Cork Gaol, Tom Barry said
the men undergoing sentences of imprisonment with hard labour were placed on
the same status as prisoners. He highlighted that 6,000 men were being treated
in gaols and camps as criminals. Tom Barry argued: “The Irish Republican Army
was recognised by the British Government as an army of soldiers, but their
comrades in gaol were treated as criminals”.
Tom Barry noted that he would not go into the question
of whether there would or would not be peace as a result of the negotiations.
He stated that the Irish Republican Army was there to act under the orders of
the Government of the Republic – “they were not looking for war, but they were
ready for it. The country wanted liberty, and would insist on getting it…we
must not forget that from this particular area, people had laid down their
lives in the cause. Some had died almost on the very field in which the people
were standing…it was the duty of everyone to be prepared to fight on if
necessary…the people around West Cork as a whole, and of that district, in
particular, had always backed up the Army as those of no other district in the
country had done”.
Seán Hales in his speech reiterated Tom Barry’s
core points. In 1920, Seán was section commander of the West Cork Flying Column
and took part in the Crossbarry Ambush on 19 March 1921. In retaliation for the
arson attack on the Hales home in Knocknacurra House, Ballinadee, Bandon, in March 1921, he led a contingent of Volunteers and burned Castle Bernard,
the residence of the earl of Bandon. The occupant, Lord Bandon, was held hostage until General
Strickland, the British Officer-in-Command, assured he would not execute
Volunteers in Cork prison. The British authorities conceded and there was a
conclusion to the policy of executing prisoners of war in the Cork area. Seán
was elected to the Bandon county electoral area in June 1920, nominated to Dáil
Éireann as a Sinn Féin candidate in the May 1921 elections held in fulfilment
of the Government of Ireland Act.
On that Sunday 2 October 1921, two other Aeridheachts
– one at Clondrohid and one at Youghal – were held. The Clondrohid event
focussed on the importance of the Irish language. Mr Diarmuid Ó Laoghaire from
the Munster Training College in Ballingeary delivered what was described a
powerful address in Irish with the core focus on the need for Irish citizens to
speak Irish more. Meanwhile at Youghal, David Kent and Mary MacSwiney gave addresses,
which focussed on the history of the Irish Independence movement and setting
out their perspective for a modern Ireland.
Captions:
1123a.
Crossbarry Ambush Memorial, present day, sculpted by Terry McCarthy and erected
in 1966 (picture: Kieran McCarthy).
1123b. Detail of cross on
Crossbarry Ambush Memorial, present day, sculpted by Terry McCarthy and erected
in 1966 (picture: Kieran McCarthy).
1123b. Detail of cross on Crossbarry Ambush Memorial, present day, sculpted by Terry McCarthy and erected in 1966 (picture: Kieran McCarthy).
It is true to say that Bishop Lucey Park has served this city well since 1985.
It’s been 36 years since the park has been revisited as a whole.
The site has always been in flux with interesting ideas on the nature of Cork’s urbanity.
Delving into a site biography of the park site and one can see old seventeenth and eighteenth century maps of the city showcasing the structural legacies of an alms house and a school associated with Christ Church – so the site initially was space of helping citizens and one of education.
Fastforward to the mid-twentieth century and the demolishing of such buildings created an open sore in the heart of the city.
The additional decision in the 1970s to build Cork’s first public carpark on the site was deemed a constructive one at the time but was bound up with the city’s struggle to cope with increased cars and the demand for car parks.
But it was the city’s University archaeologists that put Cork Corporation thinking on another track in a very short time.
The excavation in the late 1970s by the late Dermot Twohig showcased what stories lay beneath the old school and almshouse. It was the first urban excavation in Cork City.
Finding timber tree trunks as foundational supports for medieval housing, collapsed fourteenth century wattle walls and full to the brim timber lined pits with shells and associated objects re-ignited an interest in the city’s medieval and resilient past.
The dept of archaeological work completed in the 1980s can be viewed in the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society in Cork City Library and online.
That coupled with various local historians, the late Sylvester O’Sullivan, who was the Corporation’s autobiographer of the history of its officials and engineers, and of course the late Seán Pettit, amongst others in the hallowed halls of UCC’s history department, who wrote at length newspaper articles and conducted walking tours, and who put public pressure on the Corporation Cllrs and the officials to create something more beneficial than a car park on the site.
And credit needs to be given to our predecessors in 1984 and 1985 for their vision and their re-interpretation of what was a derelict site and for taking a risk with it. Indeed, their risk in creating Cork 800 – the celebration of Cork’s being granted its first urban charter in 1985 – was one that laid many foundations across many arts and cultural fields and left our generation many positive cultural legacies especially in the fields of heritage, music and dance in the present day.
The centre piece of the celebrations was to be a new inner city public park. Majority support was expressed in the Council chamber for its name Bishop Lucey, who had just passed away – and was widely acknowledged for his work on the creation of the city’s rosary churches and associated community centre infrastructure and in the creation of the Credit Union system in Cork.
Of course when it came to laying out the park, the experience of the city’s archaeologists came to bear as foundations of the town wall were discovered. Indeed, such experience is very apparent in an interview with Maurice Hurley, consultant archaeologist at the time who spoke to RTE news – a piece of which is now archived online – when he went through the finds on the site, the nature of the town wall discovery and called for a larger museum for the city.
The City was also blessed to have Tony McNamara, City Architect, working in the city at the time – his re-engaging with the old cornmarket gates at City Hall and finding them a home at the entrance to Bishop Lucey Park as is thanks due to the vision of other City hall officials over the years, who gathered sculptures such as Seamus Murphy’s Onion Seller and plaques to the men of the 1798 rebellion and in more recent years the boxing wall memorial plaques.
One also needs to nod to the wider environs and the infrastructure work that has gone on there – the widening of the Grand Parade project, the re-orientation of Berwick Fountain, and the reputed seventeenth century canon.
Indeed, not only has Bishop Lucey Park served this city well over its 35 years – this little park has served as an inspirational platform for conversations on dereliction, environmental and greening challenges, well-bring, public art, incorporation of archaeological finds, conservation and preservation of urban memories and stories – to name but a few – but above all it is a little oasis in a busy city, which adds immensely to the heart of the city’s beating sense of place and identity. It is a place to be cherished and minded going forward. It has given the city so much over its 35 years but also the wider site has a long heritage of a number of centuries.
My thanks to Tony Duggan and his team for his work on our re-interpretation in the present day, and look forward to see the re-animation of Bishop Lucey Park.
More to be added at some point!
Kieran’s submission, Ref: Public Consultation, Bishop Lucey Park Regeneration Project, 16 August 2021
Dear City Architect’s Office,
I wish to warmly welcome the regeneration proposals for Bishop Lucey Park and its surrounds. I outline below a number of comments;
On areas outside of the park on Tuckey Street and on South Main Street extending to South Gate Bridge, there is an opportunity to demarcate archaeology reference points through lining perhaps or other different coloured road surface material – e.g. the original width of Medieval South Main Street, the old drawbridge tower on the South Main Street side of South Gate Bridge, or at Keyser’s Hill.
Within Bishop Lucey Park, the Pavilion feature is welcome plus it would be great to have info panels in it on the surviving town wall section. The 1985 Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society archaeology report on the town wall section by Maurice Hurley should be revisited and possible ideas of artwork and symbolism gleamed from it.
It would be great if the tower feature on the South Main Street side could be moved to the Grand Parade side – it would be great to mark the site of Hopewell Castle, the walled town turret, which in modern day terms existed at the Grand Parade side of the former Christ Church lane. The rectangular foundations of the tower were exposed in preparation works for the park in 1984 but were destroyed inadvertently.
I have an open mind on the current Cork 800 fountain site within the park. The core part of it really are the eight swans, which represent 800 years since Cork’s first charter. There is an opportunity, I feel, to create a new sculptural piece, which would not take up as much space as the large fountain and the eight swans could be incorporated into the new sculpture. Such a sculpture could also bring together the existing plaques in the park together – boxing memorials, 1798 memorial, and even Seamus Murphy’s Onion Seller sculpture.
Such latter clustering of heritage assets, perhaps next to the window ruins of Lyons Clothing Factory, may free up more public realm space – in particular helping to create more of an effective greening strategy for the park itself.
1119a. Front cover of 2021-2022 brochure for Discover Cork Schools’ Heritage Project.
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 30 September 2021
Launch of Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage
Project, Year 20
It
is great to reach year 20 of the Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project. It
is just slightly younger than this column but both this column, the school
project and the walking tours are all about popularising more of Cork’s history
and story for interested citizens and the next generation.
Over
15,000-16,000 students have participated in the Schools’ Heritage Project
through the years with many topics researched and written about – from
buildings and monuments to people’s stories and memories.
Covid-19
has brought many challenges to every part of society and never before has our
locality and its heritage being so important for recreation and for our peace
of mind. In the past eighteenth months, more focus than ever before has been
put on places and spaces we know, appreciate, and attain personal comfort from.
The
Schools’ Heritage Project is aimed at both primary and post primary level. Project books may be submitted on any aspect
of Cork’s rich past. The theme for this year’s project is “Cork Heritage
Treasures”. Funded by Cork City Council, the Project is an initiative of the
Cork City Heritage Plan.
The Project is open to schools in Cork City at primary level to the
pupils of fourth, fifth and sixth class and at post-primary from first to sixth
years. There are two sub categories within the post primary section, Junior
Certificate and Leaving Certificate. The project is free to enter. A student
may enter as an individual or as part of a group or a part of a class entry.
Co-ordinated by myself, one of the key aims of the Project is to
encourage students to explore, investigate and debate their local heritage
(built, archaeological, cultural and natural) in a constructive, active and fun
way. Projects on any aspect of Cork’s rich heritage can be submitted to an
adjudication panel. Prizes are awarded for best projects and certificates are
given to each participant. A cross-section of projects submitted from the last
school season can be gleamed from links on my website, www.corkheritage.ie
where there are other resources, former titles and winners and entry
information as well.
Students produce a project on their local area using primary and
secondary sources. Each participating student within their class receives a
free workshop in October 2021. The workshop comprises a guide to how to put a
project together. Project material must be gathered in an A4/ A3 size Project
book. The project may be as large as the student wishes but minimum 20 pages
(text + pictures + sketches).
Projects must also meet five elements. Projects must be colourful,
creative, have personal opinion, imagination and gain publicity before
submission. These elements form the basis of a student friendly narrative
analysis approach where the student explores their project topic in an
interactive and task-oriented way. In particular, students are encouraged (whilst
respecting social distancing) to attain material through visiting local
libraries, engaging with fieldwork, making models, photographing, cartoon
creating, and making short snippet films of their area. Re-enacting can also be
a feature of several projects.
For over twenty years, the project has evolved in exploring how students
pursue local history and how to make it relevant in society. The project
attempts to provide the student with a hands-on and interactive activity that
is all about learning not only about heritage in your local area (in all its
forms) but also about the process of learning by participating students.
The project is about thinking about, understanding, appreciating and
making relevant in today’s society the role of our heritage, our landmarks, our
oral histories, our environment in our modern world for upcoming citizens. So,
the project is about splicing together activity on issues of local history and
heritage such as thinking, exploring, observing, discovering, researching,
uncovering, revealing, interpreting and resolving.
The project is open to many directions of delivery. Students are
encouraged to engage with their topic in order to make sense of it, understand
and work with it. Students continue to experiment with the overall design and
plan of their work. For example, and in general, students who have entered
before might engage with the attaining of primary information through oral
histories. The methodologies that the students create provide interesting ways
to approach the study of local heritage.
Students are asked to choose one of two extra methods (apart from a
booklet) to represent their work. The first option is making a model whilst the
second option is making a short film. It is great to see students using modern
up todate technology to present their findings. This works in broadening their
view of approaching their project.
This project in the City is free to enter and is kindly funded by Cork
City Council (viz the help of Niamh Twomey, Heritage Officer) Prizes are also
provided by the Old Cork Waterworks Experience, Lee Road.
Overall, the Schools’ Heritage Project for the past twenty years has
attempted to build a new concerned generation of Cork people, pushing them
forward, growing their self-development empowering them to connect to their
world and their local heritage. Spread the word please with local schools.
Details can be found on my dedicated Cork heritage website,
www.corkheritage.ie.
Caption:
1119a. Front cover of 2021-2022 brochure for Discover Cork Schools’
Heritage Project.
The Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project launches in its 20th year and is open to schools in Cork City. Funded by Cork City Council, the Project is an initiative of the Cork City Heritage Plan.
The Project (est. 2002/03) is aimed at both primary and post primary level. Project books may be submitted on any aspect of Cork’s rich past. Suggested topics are over the page. The theme for this year’s project – the 2021/22 school season – is “Cork Heritage Treasures”.
FREE and important project support in the form of funded workshops (socially distanced, virtual or hybrid) led by Cllr Kieran McCarthy in participating schools will be held in October 2021. This is a 45min physical or virtual workshop to give participating students ideas for compilation and resources.
September 1921 coincided with several notes being published by the Reconstruction Committee of the Corporation of Cork outlining their six-month review in the Cork Examiner. By an order of the Council of the Corporation of Cork on 26 February 1921 a special committee consisting of one member from each electoral area was appointed to supervise the work of reconstruction of the destroyed portion of the city during the Burning of Cork event on 11/12 December 1920.
The
committee was authorised to co-opt members from other bodies such as the Cork Industrial
Development Association, the Technical Instruction Committee, the Employers
Federation, the District Trades and Labour Council and the Cooperative Building
Federation. The committee was seen as thoroughly representative of the
industrial, commercial, and labour interests of the city.
Between
February and September 1921, six meetings of the general committee were held
and their minutes are recorded in a surviving minute book (1921-1924) in Cork City
and County Archives. Many discussions also took place between a sub committee,
which was appointed to deal with the nuanced details, and to formulate
proposals with the owners, architects and builders of the relevant premises.
Cork
Corporation building bye-laws dictated that premises could only be re-erected
without the permission of the Reconstruction Committee, whose job was to
approve plans for entire buildings, so that proposed schemes could be viewed
and regulated. The same applied to the temporary timber premises that had been
erected – of which twelve businesses are recorded as located on cleared plots
within the St Patrick’s Street area by late September 1921. Time limits were
placed on temporary structures in order that actual rebuilding work be
incentivised.
Despite
the building by-laws, it was a fine balance by the Reconstruction Committee to
give business owners some leeway, ask that rebuilding work be started but also
create a spirit of collaboration. Many owners were still emotionally raw, were
broke, could not survive on the offers of insurance companies, and needed more
time to think about their future needs.
The
job of the committee was also to lobby for the compensation packages arising
out of damage, inflicted by British forces, to be delivered. But by September
1921, there was still no compensation forthcoming from Westminster. In general,
it was hoped that perhaps part of the Truce negotiations may bring a significant
compensation fund and one that could especially kick start the owner of a
property, who did not have reserve funding put aside in order to rebuild.
In
his six month review, chair of the Reconstruction Committee Cllr Barry Egan
details that aside from compensation funding, one of the prominent aspects
regularly discussed at committee level was the possible re-alignment of
building lines in the damaged St Patrick’s Street area plus creating a widened
Winthrop Street. In the pre-Burning of Cork era, footpaths were narrow and some
buildings, constructed in the nineteenth century jutted out in front of their
adjacent ones.
Winthrop
Street, which was a much narrower street to what exists today, was targeted for
widening and for creating more of a plaza as it meets St Patrick’s Street. It
was suggested that the work could be accomplished by acquiring the burnt out sites
of Messrs Thompson, Murphy and Tyler, and to determine a new building line
running north and south through their sites.
To
allow for more space, it was also proposed to close up and build over the next
street – west of Winthrop Street – that of Robert Street – and transfer back
the whole of what was described as block number three across the width of the
street – in otherwards eliminate the street. Discussions were held with property owners on Robert
Street but strenuous opposition was put forward to the closing of that
thoroughfare. The City Solicitor advised the Reconstruction Committee that
streets could not be closed or eliminated except upon an agreement being
entered into with the owners and occupiers of the property therein. The Robert
Street closure was eventually put to one side in the negotiations.
Negotiations
between the Reconstruction Committee and the business owners were intensive. However,
the minute books do reveal positive public support for the work of the
committee. In the six-month report, Cllr Egan places on record the committee’s
high appreciation of the manner in which Mr William Roche of Roches Stores met
the committee and the concessions supplied so far from him. The object with him
was trying to rectify a building line in area number one on St Patrick’s Street
and to possibly increase the width of Merchant Street on the western side.
Messrs J Daly and company Ltd expressed a full sympathy with the improvements
proposed by the committee and their willingness to make a concession of
property towards the widening of Merchant Street. Merchant Street in time though
was subsumed into Merchant’s Quay shopping in the 1990s.
There
is an addendum document to the committee’s six-month report. Joseph Delany, the
City Engineer, outlines his concerns that without plans being submitted, the
rebuilding ran the risk of building heights and respective architectural design
being out of sync with neighbouring rebuilds. Technically a business could come
back with just a one storey design and with a jarring architectural design. The
City Engineer references the need to set a fixed policy on the use of Irish
materials such as local limestone in particular. Mr Delany noted: “if there is
no standard as to height there are possibilities of one-storey deformities
placed in juxtaposition to buildings of three or four storeys high on either
side. Balance, symmetry, unity, harmony in design will be difficult to achieve
under these conditions of procedure by individuals”.
Caption:
1117a. Section of map
produced from Reconstruction Committee Minute Book, 1921-1924, showing proposed
building plot re-alignments (see red line) (source: courtesy of Cork City and
County Archives, ref: CP/CM/RE/1).
In a recent reply to a question posed by Cllr Kieran McCarthy at the recent City Council meeting, Cork City Council have noted a revised completion date of the Marina Park section next to Páirc Ui Chaoimh. Due to Covid 19, delays in construction works and poor weather has pushed the opening date from this month to mid to late November this year.
Cllr McCarthy noted: “The park looks more or less ready to open. It looks well and will add immensely to The Marina district. It’s been a long two years with construction work stopping and starting due to Covid 19. Phase one works has comprised the construction of a new public car park at the Shandon Boat Club end of the Marina, as well as a new cycle lane and pedestrian walkway – these are all now completed and are very well used. The public can now see the grass on sunken lawn areas in the park section and the diversion of a watercourse, as well as new pathways – all of which are in place.
“One can also see that the installation of perhaps the most eye-catching part of the project – a noticeable red steel pavilion on the site of, and replicating, the central hall of the former Munster Agricultural Showgrounds. The sides of the pavilion will not be enclosed, and there will be possibilities for coffee pods and outdoor seating and arts and crafts. The project is a e.10m investment into the area, of which nearly e.5m came from EU Urban Sustainable Funds, which are part of the EU’s structural funds and are a crucial source of funding for cities”, concluded Cllr McCarthy.
The Discover
Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project launches in its 20th year
and is open to schools in Cork City. Funded by Cork City Council, the Project
is an initiative of the Cork City Heritage Plan.
The Project (est.
2002/03) is aimed at both primary and post primary level. Project
books may be submitted on any aspect of Cork’s rich past. Suggested topics are
over the page. The theme for this year’s project – the 2021/22 school season –
is “Cork Heritage Treasures”.
FREE and important project support in the form of funded workshops (socially distanced, virtual or hybrid) led by Cllr Kieran McCarthy in participating schools will be held in October 2021. This is a 45min physical or virtual workshop to give participating students ideas for compilation and resources.
The Discover
Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project launches in its 20th year
and is open to schools in Cork City. Funded by Cork City Council, the Project
is an initiative of the Cork City Heritage Plan.
The Project (est.
2002/03) is aimed at both primary and post primary level. Project
books may be submitted on any aspect of Cork’s rich past. Suggested topics are
over the page. The theme for this year’s project – the 2021/22 school season –
is “Cork Heritage Treasures”.
FREE and important project support in the form of funded workshops (socially distanced, virtual or hybrid) led by Cllr Kieran McCarthy in participating schools will be held in October 2021. This is a 45min physical or virtual workshop to give participating students ideas for compilation and resources.
