Cllr Kieran McCarthy invites all Cork young people to participate in the eighth year of McCarthy’s ‘Make a Model Boat Project’. All interested must make a model boat at home from recycled materials and bring it along for judging and floating at Cork’s Lough on Wednesday 24 May 2017, 6.30pm. The event is being run in association with Meitheal Mara and the Cork Harbour Festival. There are three categories, two for primary and one for secondary students. The theme is ‘Cork Harbour Boats from 100 years ago inspired by the 1917 Naval commemorations’, which is open to interpretation. There are prizes for best models and the event is free to enter. There are primary and secondary school categories. Cllr McCarthy, who is heading up the event, noted “I am encouraging creation, innovation and imagination amongst our young people, which are important traits for all of us to develop; places like the Lough are an important part of Cork’s natural and amenity heritage and in the past have seen model boat making and sailing. For further information and to take part, please sign up at www.corkharbourfestival.com.
The Cork Harbour Festival will bring together the City, County and Harbour agencies and authorities. It connects our city and coastal communities. Combining the Ocean to City Race and Cork Harbour Open Day, there are over 50 different events in the festival for people to enjoy – both on land and on water. The festival begins the June Bank Holiday Saturday, 3 June, and ends with the 10 June 28km flagship race Ocean to City – An Rás Mór. Join thousands of other visitors and watch the hundreds of participants race from Crosshaven to Blackrock to Cork City in a spectacular flotilla. Cllr McCarthy noted: “During the festival week embark on a journey to explore the beautiful Cork Harbour – from Mahon Estuary to Roches Point – and enjoy open days at heritage sites, and lots more; we need to link the city and areas like Blackrock and the Marina and the harbour more through branding and tourism. The geography and history of the second largest natural harbour in the world creates an enormous treasure trove, which we need to harness, celebrate and mind”.
Cork Independent, 11 May 2017 The Wheels of 1917: The Queenstown Patrol
Sir Lewis Bayley of the British Navy gave Commander Joseph Taussig’s four days to mobilise the six American destroyers, which arrived into Queenstown on 4 May 1917 (see last week’s column). In the ensuing days of preparation work and strategy creation, stories were shared of the engagement between the British flotilla leaders Swift and Broke on one side and six German destroyers on the other side, as well as German submarines.
According to Taussig’s diary entries, by 7 May 1917, a naval strategy had been worked out – some of the core points of which are below. The destroyers, British and American, were to work in seven pairs for the short term. Taussig’s fleet were to replace the larger British naval destroyers, which in time were to be sent back to the British base at Plymouth in the English Channel. The destroyers were to be made to work six days at sea. Ships chasing a submarine on the sixth day with two thirds of their fuel gone were to stop chasing their folly and come home. Shelter was to be taken in bad weather. When ship-wrecked crews were picked up, they had to be brought directly into the harbour. As German submarines were returning to torpedoed and floating steamers to get metal out of them, destroyers were encouraged to wait and approach them with the sun at their back. If they met what appeared to be a valuable ship in dangerous waters they were to escort her. If an SOS call was received, and they thought they could be in time to help, they were to go and assist the ship; but as a rule, they were not to go over 50 miles from their area.
Destroyers were to be careful not to ram boats to sink them as cases had occurred whereby they had been left with bombs in them ready to explode when struck. Senior officers of destroyers were to give the necessary orders with regard to what speed to cruise at, orders for zig-zagging; they knew the capabilities of their ships best. When escorting, it had been found best as a rule to cross from bow to bow, the best distance away being about 1,000 yards; however, this depended on a myriad of factors, which included sea conditions and visibility. Reports of proceedings were not required on arrival in harbour unless for some special reason such as signalling for preparing for attacking submarines and rescuing survivors.
Much confidence was placed in the strategic mind of Commander Taussig. Like his father before him, Joseph was noted as well-known figure with exceptional ability as a naval officer. Joseph Knefler Taussig was born of American parentage in 1877 in Dresden, Germany, where his father, who also became a rear admiral in the Navy, was stationed. His father was Edward David Taussig, a native of St Louis, Missouri, and his mother, Ellen Knefler Taussig, was a native of Louisville, Kentucky. Joseph’s father graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1867 and retired in 1909, ten years after his son completed his work at the Academy. Joseph graduated from high school in Washington, DC, in 1895 and was appointed to the Naval Academy that same year. At Annapolis, young Taussig was known primarily as an all-around athlete: he won first-place medals in the high jump, broad jump, and 200-yard hurdles; he was a member of the crew, varsity football team, and runner-up for the wrestling team.
In 1900, whilst a midshipman, a member of the naval forces, Joseph was sent to China with other members to squash a violent anti-foreign and anti-Christian uprising that took place in China between 1899 and 1901. Near Tientsin, Joseph was wounded and sent to a hospital to recover with an English Captain John Jellicoe who was Chief-of-Staff to Admiral Seymour, who was in charge of the British forces. It was a legend of sorts that grew up around Joseph and that diplomatic relations were something not new to him. In addition, a letter from Admiral Jellico was handed to Joseph in Queenstown in May 1917 welcoming him and the American Navy to the battle zone.
In a public speaking engagement at Carnegie Hall, New York on 30 January 1918, Joseph Taussig recalls that in the three weeks before his arrival to Queenstown, German submarines had sunk 152 British ships in the nearby Atlantic area. Hence, he had depth bombs installed so as to fight off the submarines. He noted in his speech; “we escorted many ships and we saved many lives. I cannot say we sunk any submarines. The submarine I found was a very difficult bird to catch. He always sees you first. Only once did my vessel, in seven months, succeed in actually firing at a submarine. He then went down after the fifth shot was fired. At that he was five miles away. But they were afraid of the depth bombs. I saw results on several occasions, which led me to believe that I had at least damaged one of two”.
Joseph Taussig found the patrol duty very difficult as the ocean was strewn with wreckage for a distance of 200 miles off shore. Judgement was important; “it was hard to tell a telescope when we saw one. We fired at fish, floating spars and other objects because we could afford to take a chance. The submarines grew less active or did less damage as the summer [of 1917] wore on”.
Captions:
894a. Painting by Burnell Poole, 1925. Depicting three U.S. Navy destroyers fighting heavy seas while on World War I escort service, off Queenstown, Ireland (source: Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington).
894b. Commander Joseph K Taussig in the 1920s (source: Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington).
Cork Independent, 27 April 2017 Kieran’s May Historical Walking Tours
Early summer is coming and the weather is improving. So below are details of the next set of my public walking tours for the first week of May,
Tuesday 2 May 2017, Historical Walking Tour with Kieran of Eighteenth Century Cork, from the walled town to an eighteenth-century Venice of the North; meet outside Cork City Library, Grand Parade, 6.45pm, (free, 2 hours, finishes on St Patrick’s Street)
For nearly five hundred years (c.1200-c.1690), the walled port town of Cork, built in a swamp and at the lowest crossing point of the River Lee and the tidal area, remained as one of the most fortified and vibrant walled settlements in the expanding British colonial empire. However, economic growth as well as political events in late seventeenth century Ireland, culminating in the Williamite Siege of Cork in 1690, provided the catalyst for large-scale change within the urban area. The walls were allowed to decay and this was to inadvertently alter much of the city’s physical, social and economic character in the ensuing century.
One of the most elegant additions to eighteenth century Cork was the Exchange or Tholsel, which was built on the site of Roches Castle (now the site of the Catholic Young Men’s Society hall on Castle Street). It was an important building of two stories. On its opening in 1710 the Council ordered the upper floor room be established as a Council Chamber with liberty for the Grand Jury of magistrates and landlords to sit. The lower part was used for commercial purposes. where a pedestal known as “the nail”, was used for making payments (still in existence in Cork City Museum). In later times the room was used for public sales. A figure of a dragon made of copper and gilt surmounted the cupola of the building as a weather vane. The Exchange declined as a market in time – through the erection of a Corn Market on the Potato Quay (popularly known as the Coal Quay) and improved facilities for the transaction of business offered to merchants.
Wednesday 3 May 2017, Historical Walking Tour with Kieran on the Walk of the Friars, from Red Abbey through to Greenmount; meet at Red Abbey Square, 6.45pm, (free, 2 hours, finishes near Deerpark)
The central bell tower of the church of Red Abbey is a relic of the Anglo-Norman colonisation and is one of the last remaining visible structures, which dates to the era of the walled town of Cork. Invited to Cork by the Anglo-Normans, the Augustinians established an abbey in Cork, sometime between 1270 AD and 1288 AD. It is known that in the early years of its establishment, the Augustinian friary became known as Red Abbey due to the material, sandstone, which was used in the building of the friary. It was dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity but had several names, which appear on several maps and depictions of the walled town of Cork and its environs. For example, in a map of Cork in 1545, it was known as St Austins while in 1610, Red abbey was marked as St. Augustine’s.
In the mid eighteenth century, part of the buildings of Red Abbey were used as part of a sugar refinery. This refinery was burnt down accidentally in December 1799. Since then, the friary buildings with the exception of the tower have been taken piecemeal. The tower is maintained by Cork City Council who were donated the structure by the contemporary owners in 1951 and also own other portions of the abbey site. Today, the tower of Red Abbey approximately thirty metres high is one of Cork’s most important protected historic structures. The remaining tower cannot be climbed but medieval architecture can still be on the lower arch of the structures and in the upper windows. The adjacent street names of Red Abbey Street, Friar’s Street and Friar’s Walk also echoes the days of a large medieval abbey in the area.
Thursday, 4 May 2017, Historical Walking Tour with Kieran of Blackrock Village, from Blackrock Castle to Nineteenth Century Houses and Fishing; meet outside Blackrock Castle, 6.45pm, (free, 2 hours, finishes at railway line walk)
The earliest and official evidence for settlement in Blackrock dates to c.1564 when the Galway family created what was to become known as Dundanion Castle. Over 20 years later, Blackrock Castle was built circa 1582 by the citizens of Cork with artillery to resist pirates and other invaders. In the early 1700s, the prominent Tuckey family, of which Tuckey Street in the city centre is named, became part of the new social elite in Cork after the Williamite wars and built part of what became known in time at the Ursuline Convent. The building of the Navigation Wall or Dock in the 1760s turned focus to reclamation projects in the area and the eventual creation of public amenity land such as the Marina Walk during the time of the Great Famine. Soon Blackrock was to have its own bathing houses, schools, hurling club, suburban railway line, and Protestant and Catholic Church. The pier that was developed at the heart of the space led to a number of other developments such as fisherman cottages and a fishing industry. This community is reflected in the 1911 census with 64 fishermen listed in Blackrock.
Captions:
882a. Sketch of Cork Exchange, c.1750 (now the site of YMCA hall, Castle Street, one of the city’s primary market sites, subject of eighteenth century Cork tour (source: Cork City Library)
882b. Map of north east marsh, Paul Street & St Paul’s Church, 1726 by John Carty (source: Cork City Library)
Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy will give three historical walking tours in early May across the southside of the City.
Tuesday 2 May 2017, Historical Walking Tour with Kieran of Eighteenth Century Cork, from the walled town to an eighteenth-century Venice of the North; meet outside Cork City Library, 6.45pm, (free, 2 hours, finishes on St Patrick’s Street)
Wednesday 3 May 2017, Historical Walking Tour with Kieran on the Walk of the Friars, from Red Abbey through to Greenmount; meet at Red Abbey Square, 6.45pm, (free, 2 hours, finishes near Deerpark)
Thursday, 4 May 2017, Historical Walking Tour with Kieran of Blackrock Village, from Blackrock Castle to Nineteenth Century Houses and Fishing; meet outside Blackrock Castle, 6.45pm, (free, 2 hours, finishes at railway line walk)
Commenting Cllr McCarthy noted;
“It is said that the best way to get to know a city is to walk it – 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”.
“Cork has a soul, which is packed full of ambition and heart. Cork is a city packed with historic gems all waiting to be discovered at every street corner. These three walks provide insights into the development of just three of the city’s historical suburbs”.
Cork Independent, 13 April 2017 The Wheels of 1917: The Carpenter’s Call
The history of Cork unions and the labour movement is not an overly researched topic in Cork history, but relationships between employers and employees regularly appear in the newspapers across the years. This month, one hundred years, coincided with strikes and union meetings in the city. A dispute on pay between the Cork Carpenter’s Society and the Builder’s Federation was ongoing. A fully attended meeting of the Builder’s Federation was held on 2 April 1917 with the proceedings being private. The situation was discussed at length and the meeting approved of the reply drafted to the declaration of the carpenters. A Cork Examiner article on 3 April 1917 reveals that it was hopeful that the matter would be resolved: “a much more hopeful aspect is believed to prevail, and the hope is expressed that the spirit of broadmindedness, which is being displayed on both sides at present will have a good effect; the time is ripe for mediation, and that it would be a great pity if the present favourable opportunity were allowed pass, with the danger of the delay giving rise to a more embittered situation”.
The members of the Cork Masons and Plasterer’s societies also struck work on 2 April 1917, the former on a demand equivalent to an increase of 9s a week in their wages, and the latter equivalent to an increase of 6s a week. Both bodies pointed out that their claims were made independently of the Carpenter’s Society. The builders’ attitude in reference to the masons’ demand was that they were prepared to grant them a war bonus of 3s a week and an increase of wages represented by 6d a day subject to a guarantee, to abide by certain modifications of rules. They offered similar terms to the plasters as from 2 April and promised that when “certain matters in the course of settlement with another trade body” were adjusted, their demand would be fully considered.
A week later, the masons, plasterers, builders’ labourers, and munition workers on strike attended public meetings hosted by the Lord Mayor, Thomas C Butterfield to speak about arbitration measures. At the meeting of 8 April it was discussed that the men involved have already appointed their arbitrator, and the masons would soon appoint theirs. The Chairman, Mr P Lynch, was glad to be able to announce that negotiations were proceeding with a view of bringing the dispute to an end and breaking the resolve of employers in the building trade; “If the employers in the building trade had been left lo themselves he was convinced that there would have been no trouble between the men and employers, but unfortunately outsiders intervened and tried to force the employers in the building trade to smash the men’s union. I trust that the men would be able to return to work next week after winning a successful but short fight”. On the motion of Alderman Cllr Kelleher, a resolution was unanimously adopted, hailing the attempts being made to bring about an amicable settlement, between employers and employees.
By 16 April 1917, the outcome of many discussions was that a joint conference of the representatives of the South of Ireland Master Builders Association and the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners under the chairmanship of Captain Fairbairn Downie at 4pm, at the Cork National Shell Factory on Corn Market Street, now the Bodega. After an exhaustive discussion of all the phases of the dispute, arbitration under Captain Downie was unanimously agreed to. The employers present were Messrs T Goodall of Cork Timber and Iron Co, Ltd and William O’Connell, of Messrs W O’Connell and Son and Charles F Hayes of Messrs Meagher and Hayes.
On 30 April, Captain Downie published his proposed award scheme, which did settle the dispute; Working hours to work were to be from 8am to 6 pm from Mondays to Fridays inclusive with an interval of one hour from 1 pm to 2 pm for dinner. Working hours on Saturday were to be 8 am to 1 pm; all carpenters and joiners would work 50 hours per week. Overtime from 6 pm to 9 pm was to be paid time and a quarter. Half an hour for refreshments was to be allowed, and the time to be mutually agreed upon. From 9 pm to 12 midnight was to be paid time and a half, and from midnight to 6 am, was to be double time, with one hour break by arrangement. The rate of wages was to be l0d per hour as and from the 1 April, 1917, until the first day of May, 1917. From that date the wages were to be increased by a further halfpenny per hour, making a total rate of wages from that date to be 10½ d per hour all the year round. Country money was to be paid at the ratio of 1s 3d per day. The sum of 3s was to be added if working on two different jobs in the one week. Train fares to and from jobs were to be paid by the employer. However, a workman leaving his job in the country without permission, or through misconduct, was not to be paid his return fare.
Captions:
890a. The operative society of Masons & Bricklayers have been residents of Carpenters Hall on Fr Mathew Quay since 1950, before that they were residents in Mechanics Hall from 1870, which was used by the volunteers during the Irish War of Independence (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
890b. Carpentry tools on display at Cork Carpenter’s Hall during a recent Cork Heritage Open Day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
This week, one hundred years ago at Cork City Hall, the distribution of 100 certificates to the successful pupils of the Cork Municipal School of Music for the Session 1915-1916 took place. Lord Mayor Butterfield and the Lady Mayoress presided over a large attendance. Locally there was great pride in the School. Over the previous years, students at the school had won many distinctions at various examinations and the school frequently published celebratory public notices in newspapers like the Cork Examiner. All of them were attempts to keep music as a key subject on the agenda of national technical education as well as keeping funding streams in place and helping with fundraising for a new school building. In March 1917, the chairman of the School Committee, Mr P Curtis noted that through publicity he was attempting to showcase the “true value of the school and the talent of the pupils produced” through tuition in pianoforte, violin, cello, organ, voice, elocution, theory of music, harmony, orchestration and choral work.
The Cork School of Music was established in 1878 at 51 Grand Parade with four rooms catering for an initial enrolment of 161 students and a staff of five. In the year 1900, the Committee of the School decided to seek more suitable premises, and a move was made to 8 Morrison’s Island. Three years later during the in winter of 1903 operations were transferred to a large house at 13 Union Quay (being replaced by two new buildings in time, one opening in 1956 and the other in 2007).
Union Quay in Guy’s Directory of Cork for 1903 lists a variety of different trades. It had a number of vintners – Edmond Heaphy (no.1), Mary Fleming (no.2), John O’Connor (no.3) and William Drinan (no.4) – as well as businesses such as the Cork Co-operative Creamery Federation Ltd (no.5), D Williams’ Union Quay Carriage Works (no.s 6-7), T E Jacob & Co Ltd, flour and meal store (no.8), Newsom & Sons Ltd sugar store (no.9), Constabulary Barrack (no.9a), Thomas O’Brien auctioneer and valuer, horse, cattle, and sheep repository (no.s 10-11), W Dalton’s Cork Electric Bakery (no.12), Richardson Bros, manure Depot and Johnson & Co Ltd, cement manufacture (no.14), John Fitzgerald’s corn stores (no.s 16-17), Madden Michael, vintner (no.19), and J O’Connor’s City Saw mills (no.20).
In the 1903-1904 annual report on technical education in the city, only a portion of no.13 Union Quay was used as a school of music – the remainder being allotted to a kitchen equipped for twenty students, a plumber’s workshop, a painter’s and decorator’s room. A beginning was made in the formation of a small botanical garden in the grounds attached to the buildings.
By 1917 the teachers at the school were internationally known – Cambridge scholar William Henry Hannaford taught pianoforte and theory with Wilberforce Franklin of voice production, Signor Ferrouccio Grossi of violin, viola, and conductor of orchestra, Theo Gmür, of the organ, sight-singing, and conductor of choral clans; Michael O’Grady taught Irish National Music and traditional Irish singing with E Rawlinson of violoncello, P Minton of the clarinet, Mrs W Franklin of elocution, Miss Swaffield of pianoforte and Miss Anna O’Donoghue. The superintendent was Miss Mary Barker.
Some background can be gleamed on the background of the above teachers. For example, the organ teacher Theo Gmür was Swiss born. His obituary for 1929 reveals he came to Cork City as a young man, and rapidly gained a reputation as organist and choirmaster. His first appointment was at SS Peter and Paul Church, where he remained as director of the choir up to the time of his death. He became prominent by his active work at the Cork Young Ireland Society’s concerts, City Hall concerts, the Cork Municipal School of Music Choral Society, the Cork Musical Club and Cork Operatic Society. Gmür was musical director of the Cork International Exhibition of 1902 and 1903 and was an Honorary Academician of Trinity College, London, was one of the members of the preliminary committee of the Feis Ceoil, Dublin and was an examiner for many famous colleges.
The March presentation of certificates in 1917 coincided with the hosting of a public concert of orchestral selections, piano duets, violin soles and solo singers. At the interval in the concert, Mr P Curtis, Chairman of the committee of the School, addressed the audience. He was glad to report, that for the year 1914-15 the number of students increased to 439 from 312. He read from the examination report by Dr Annie Patterson (organist with St Anne’s Church, Shandon), which praised the practical musical education on offer to students. He referred to special distinctions gained by students of the School during the past session. Mr T J Collins, tenor, was singled out. During the concert, he received an ovation for his singing of the Prologue from Pagliacci. He had during the year won the O’Mara cup and gold medal in singing at the Feis Ceoil in Dublin.
Mr J L Fawsitt committee member, noted that the School deserved the support of the citizens, and had the committee more money, much more could be done. He appealed to the citizens with financial means; “Rise to the occasion and give the School a building, which would be a credit to Cork and ample space to accommodate all the young Cork artists, who would throne their halls in the near future”.
Cork 1916, A Year Examined (2016) by Kieran McCarthy & Suzanne Kirwan is now available in Cork bookshops.
Cork City History Tour (2016) by Kieran McCarthy is also available in Cork bookshops.
Captions:
888a. Union Quay, c.1910 (source: Cork City Library)
888b. Union Quay, c.1917 from Goad’s Insurance Map (source: Cork City Library)
Cork Independent, 23 March 2017 The Wheels of 1917: The Question of Reform
This week, one hundred years ago, coincided with the release of the Annual Report of the Chief Inspector of Reformatory and Industrial Schools in Ireland for the year 1915. Summarised in the Cork Examiner, some insights were given into the structure of such schools. The full report is also digitised as part of the online archive project on British Parliamentary Papers on Ireland, 1801-1922. Some 14,000 items have been digitised by the University of Southampton. In recent years the stories and realities of these schools are also well documented by the report (2009) of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse or the Ryan Report, which is online at www.childabusecommission.ie. These offer a comprehensive voice to the structure of processes carried out. However, from a family tracking perspective, archives are scattered between religious orders and the HSE making it difficult to track relatives from past archives even when personal sensitivity are considered.
Industrial and Reformatory institutions were run by religious orders and funded by the public. From the Industrial Schools Act of 1868 to the eventual decline of industrial schools in 1969, over 105,000 children were placed in this state care system. By the 1915 report, there were five reformatories and 66 industrial schools in Ireland. Eight of the latter were for boys under ten years of age, who were then transferred to senior schools. The number of committals to the boys’ and girls’ reformatories increased during the 1915 year, and was in excess of the number committed during the previous two years. The Chief Inspector describes the process for committal for juvenile offenders; “offenders were often only committed when they appear several times before a court, and when unfortunately, they had become fit cases for committal to a reformatory. It would naturally be better that when children are in danger of being led into criminal courses that they were at once taken away from their surroundings and sent to an industrial school”.
In his report, the inspector stressed that being sent to such institutions was not implying committees were guilty of a crime; “Committing a child in one of the former does not imply in any way that he or she is guilty of any criminal offence, or has any tendency towards crime. Amongst children liable to be sent to an industrial school are those under fourteen years of age who may be found begging or receiving alms in any street or premises, whether or not there is any pretence of singing, performing or offering anything for sale; those found wandering and not having any home or settled place any of abode or visible means of subsistence; those not being orphans, found destitute; children under the care of parents or guardians of drunken or criminal habits, and orphans found destitute”. The inspector outlined his perspective that such institutions were to protect destitute children in society; “children will be seen from the foregoing that the purpose of the industrial schools is to provide protection for children who may be destitute or on the way, owing to their surroundings, of lapsing into criminal habits. The reformatories are intended to reclaim young persons who have been found guilty of offences against the law, and to enable them to learn to be useful members of the community”.
An account was given by the inspector of a section for training in domestic science and economy, which were located at four of the industrial schools for girls of the age of sixteen years, and upwards. The Inspector writes about such courses as being set up to provide training to young women who wish to earn a livelihood as household servants. There was he noted; “a desire to undergo a course of sound training in housekeeping, after the expiration of their ordinary period of residence at these schools”.
One hundred years ago, the two industrial schools in Cork were the Greenmount Industrial School for boys and the girl’s industrial school of St Finbarr’s, which was based within the Good Shepherd Convent complex at Sunday’s Well adjacent its Magdalen Asylum and Laundry. Information on the St Finbarr’s school is difficult to source. There is a report of the “Inter-Departmental Committee to establish the facts of State Involvement with the Magdalen Laundries (2013)”, which mentions St Finbarr’s Industrial School but nothing substantial. There is work to be pursued on its history and realities.
The Ryan Report outlines a detailed historical timeline of Greenmount Industrial School. By the turn of the twentieth century, it was certified to take in 200 boys and work was progressing at the grounds so that it would become a farm proficient of giving the boys training in farm work, and at the same time provide food for the School and additional income from the sale of farm produce. The School was constructed on eight acres of land, and the staff and boys in the School began cultivating the surrounding land. The Presentation Brothers continued to develop the farm. They purchased much of the surrounding land at the turn of the century, and the adjacent farm comprised approximately 39 acres by the early twentieth century.
Greenmount also had two further farms located at Lehenagh, on the outskirts of the city. It is recorded in the School annals that the Management decided to sell these farms because of difficulties arising in the day-to-day management of them. The Department of Education records described the farm: “The farm attached to this school has an area of 39 acres. It is used to supply milk and potatoes to the institution. Fifteen cows are kept and the feeding for these is grown on the farm”.
For more information on the Irish Industrial Schools and sources for families, see www.childabusecommission.ie.
Captions:
887a. Map of Greenmount Industrial School and surrounds, 1949 (source: Cork City Library)
887b. Ruin of Good Shepherd Convent, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy has welcomed the Cork City Council’s plan to replace trees in the Marina tree line as part of the upcoming Marina Park plan starting later this year. Raising the issue at a recent Council meeting, Cllr McCarthy noted; “The Marina treeline is one of the most significant in the city and is a vital resource which enhances the visual character of Cork City and its natural heritage. I have had numerous emails by local people concerned about the several gaps in the treeline, which have not been replaced over many years now. Cutbacks to the Council’s environment services have greatly reduced its ability to keep up with its urban forestry programme”.
Commenting further, Cllr McCarthy highlighted that a number of substantial trees have also fallen on the perimeter of the Atlantic pond in the last 2-3 years; “Some of these are manifest in the form of a few stumps; some are as a result of a fall during storms of recent years – especially several big trees. Concreting over fallen trees roots is a poor policy. I would urge that the fine Marina tree line is maintained and protected as part of the finances required for future Marina Park Plans”.
To ask the CE on an update on the Penrose Quay hoarding? Whilst acknowledging, the recent creation of a smaller hoarding space, it is now eight years since my initial asking of when this remnant of the Cork Main Drainage Project will be completed and the site levelled off (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)
Motions:
That the City Council create a new historic city centre action plan for North Main Street?
On Saturday evening, 10 March 1917 in the Lifeboat House, Baltimore, silver medals were awarded by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) to Con Cadogan, Michael Cadogan, Tim Cadogan, John Daly, and Michael Daly all from Cape Clear for their rescue of crew from the sunken ship, the SS Nestorian.
Both the Southern Star and the Cork Examiner describes that the Bishop of Ross, Dr Kelly addressed the large crowd present and related the brave exploits of the medal receivers. On 2 January 1917, in the pitch darkness the Royal Mail Steamship Nestorian entered a thick fog went on the rocks near Cape Clear. Con Cadogan, described by the Bishop as a “patriarch of the Island, with the trained ear of the old Sea dog”, recognised the gun’s fire in distress. He awoke his boys and awoke their neighbours, the Dalys. All went out on Con Cadogan’s fishing boat, and in tow they had a small punt. As they got to the scene of the wreck, the Nestorian was already breaking up, and the sea was strewn with spars and wreckage of all kinds. The fishing boat could not approach the wreck, and the two Cadogans and the two Dalys got into the little punt, and rowed into the high waves to rescue ten of the crew. In time a naval boat arrived to rescue others.
The SS Nestorian was built in 1911 by Leslie Hawthord & Co Ltd of Newcastle upon Tyne and was owned F Leyland. She was powered by a four cylinder quadruple expansion steam engine which generated 510 hp. She was en route from Galveston, USA for Liverpool with a cargo of cotton & steel ingots and empty shell heads when she hit rocks off Cape Clear. Fifty-two of her crew were rescued and one died when he fell from the rigging.
Reference at the medal ceremony of the Cadogans and Dalys was also made of their pursuits in helping the crew off the passenger and cargo ship Alondra. It ran aground on 29 December 1916 on Kedge Rock, an island off Baltimore with sheer rock cliffs. Sixteen of her crew were able to get aboard one of the ship′s lifeboats, but they drowned before they could reach safety. Another man died on board. Meanwhile, Archdeacon John Richard Hedges Becher, who was serving as the honorary secretary of the Baltimore Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), set out with a rescue lifeboat. He failed to reach Alondra on the first try and again on the second. When the sun rose, he and his lifeboat crew set out a third time using a rocket apparatus and managed to reach the vessel. While the lifeboat worked from one position, the crews of Royal Navy trawlers worked from the tops of the cliffs to lift other surviving crew members out of Alondra. In total, 23 men were rescued from the ship. The RNLI awarded silver medals for gallantry to Archdeacon Becher and to Lieutenant Sanderson for assisting with the rescue. In 1913, the RNLI had established a lifeboat base in Baltimore, which could have been of assistance in rescuing the crew of the Alondra. Unfortunately, World War I delayed the official opening of the base until 1919. In 2013, a professional film crew sponsored by the Arts Council England created a film based on the events surrounding the Alondra shipwreck of 1916. The film was made in collaboration with the RNLI and the Baltimore Drama Group. Wreck diving is popular in Baltimore at sites such as the Alondra wreck.
The RNLI was established in 1824 and its local lifeboat centres have a great history of recording their stories and their importance through books and websites. Two of the first lifeboat stations in Cork were established in Courtmacsherry and Kinsale respectively in 1825. Both were also one of the first in Ireland. The first record of a lifeboat in Cork Harbour also dates back as far back as 1825. A boat was built in Passage West and sailed to Liverpool in an unsuccessful attempt to get the Institution to adopt the design. The Ballycotton Station was established by the Institution in 1858 to afford protection to the shipping frequenting the port of Cork and, together with the new stations at Youghal and Ardmore (closed 1895) and others, created to guard the English and Irish channels. The Queenstown Lifeboat Station was established by the Institution in 1866 following several wrecks with loss of life off Cork Harbour.
During World War I, RNLI lifeboat crews launched 1,808 times, rescuing 5,332 people. With many younger men on active service, the average age of a lifeboatman was over 50. Many launches were to ships that had been torpedoed or struck mines, including naval or merchant vessels on war duty and many were in non-motor propelled boats. The Lusitania on route to New York on 7 May 1915 was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat south of Courtmacsherry Bay, with the loss of 1201 lives. The Courtmacsherry Lifeboat crew was alerted to the tragedy and, because of very fine weather that day the sails were of no use so they rowed the Kezia Gwilt lifeboat 15 miles to the scene of the sinking. Today there are 45 Lifeboat stations in Ireland and 237 in total run by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
Check out the small museum on island and coastal community life in the old national school on Cape Clear island plus the ferry times are on www.calinoir.com
Cork 1916, A Year Examined (2016) by Kieran McCarthy & Suzanne Kirwan is now available in Cork bookshops.
Cork City History Tour (2016) by Kieran McCarthy is also available in Cork bookshops.
Captions:
885a. Approaching Cape Clear, present day, on a sunny summer’s day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
885b. Cape Clear, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
