Category Archives: Arts

Kieran’s Talks, Lifelong Learning Festival Week 2016

March 30, 2016Arts, Cork City Events, Cork History, Landscapes, National, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorizedadmin

For the forthcoming Lifelong Learning Festival Week, Douglas Road Cllr Kieran McCarthy will give a talk on some of the histories of West Cork through old postcards at the meeting room of the Church of the Real Presence, Curaheen on Wednesday 13 April, 10.30am. Based on his book, West Cork Through Time, Cllr McCarthy noted: “The talk focuses on in selective detail postcards from Cork City museum of the region of West Cork from one hundred years ago. It takes the reader from Bandon to Castletownbere through the changing landscapes and seascapes. This region is a striking section of Ireland’s coastline, over 320 kilometres in length, encompassing a raw coastal wilderness with expansive inlets eroded away by the Atlantic Ocean. The old postcards represent many memories of the landscape, sold to visitors and locals a century ago. There are places that charm, catch and challenge the eye. West Cork in itself is a way of life where individuals and communities have etched out their lives. It is a place of discovery, of inspiration, a place of peace and contemplation, and a place to find oneself in the world”.

Cllr McCarthy will also give a talk on Cork and daily life in 1916 in the Cork City and County Archives in Blackpool at 11am on Saturday 16 April (all free, all welcome). It will form part of the half day seminar entitled Cork and the Easter Rising. Kieran is currently working on a book that takes the year 1916 from the point of view that there were multiple conversations to be heard during the year – a kaleidoscope of ideas which provided the context and framework for revolution – everyday life being one – some led Cork citizens to connect with the Republican mantra at the time and others to just maintain existence, survive and struggle with the bleakness of a national and local economy. Cllr McCarthy noted: “Entering the Cork Examiner on 1 January and progressing page by page one discovers key nuggets about the nature of Cork society, the soul of Ireland’s southern capital, the ongoing conversations about maintaining a contemporary status of being one of Ireland‘s distinguished port cities, and all the advantages and problems that run with that”.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 24 March 2016

March 24, 2016Arts, Cork City Events, Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorizedadmin

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town,

Cork Independent, 24 March 2016

Centenary Programmes: Reflecting 1916-2016

For a century, the stories of the Easter Rising and the Irish Citizen Army have morphed into powerful national metaphors for Irish identity. The events are written and spoken about in almost mythic and romanticised terms, encoded and re-encoded, distilled and re-distilled into key events and moments in the Easter period of 1916 and onwards into subsequent years – the idealism of democracy, the Rising, the Rebellion, the Volunteers, the reading of the Proclamation, the Irish Citizen Army, the standing down of those ready to fight outside of Dublin, the role of the GPO and its shelling by British forces, the violence, the surrender, the executed leaders, the sorrow, the questions of clemency, the morality, the internment camps, the beginning of the war of Independence, the role of objects of nostalgic currency such as participation medals, copies of the actual proclamation, the citizen army flag, letters and documentation.

In Cork many hundreds of Cork men and women mobilised (c.180 alone in the Cork City Battalion). An anxious standoff took place at the Volunteer Hall on Sheares Street between the Irish Volunteers who had gathered there and the British Forces. The intervention of the Lord Mayor and the Bishop of the day led to a peaceful outcome and no bloodshed. However these aspects and above and much more are all stitched into a national history framework – a cultural consciousness – a continuous conversation about Irish heritage by successful Irish governments and by civil society on what the building blocks of a national nostalgic and a national collective memory should be and their meaning, relevancy, value and connection to today’s world.

The Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme, under the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, is a year-long programme of activity to commemorate the events of the 1916 Rising, to reflect on challenges and achievements over the last 100 years and to look towards Ireland’s future. The 31 local and community plans are a core element of the Community Participation strand of Ireland 2016, one of the seven programme strands alongside State Ceremonial, Historical Reflection, An Teanga Bheo – the Living Language, Youth and Imagination, Cultural Expression and Global and Diaspora. Over 2,000 events will take place in 2016 as part of the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme. The 31 Local Authority Programmes for Ireland 2016 represent the outcome of many hundreds of hours of reflection, consultation and discussion involving thousands of people all over Ireland. Cork city and county, under the efforts of both local authorities, will have the biggest percentage of events in the country.

The Cork City programme is the outcome of consultations with interested local groups, organisations and individuals. Led by Cork City Council, the programme comprises events and initiatives ranging across all seven strands of the Ireland 2016 programme.

Easter Monday Commemorative Ceremony to mark the 100^th anniversary of the Rising in conjunction with Cork County Council. Events will be held at St. Francis Hall on Sheares Street, the home of the Cork Volunteers, and at the National Monument on Grand Parade. A synchronised wreath laying ceremony will be held at 1.15 p.m. – the time that the first shots of the 1916 Rising were fired.
Sacrifice at Easter: Corcadorca Theatre Company will stage Sacrifice at Easter by Pat McCabe at Elizabeth Fort in June 2016. Written in response to the 1916 centenary, Sacrifice at Easter is a creative collaboration between director Pat Kiernan, writer Pat McCabe and renowned composer Mel Mercier.
Exhibition: Perceptions 2016, the Art of Citizenship: Part of a series of exhibitions and events the Crawford Art Gallery will host in response to the 1916 Centenary, Perceptions 2016 is an exhibition, seminar and public engagement workshops and events that expand the range of voices, visions, perceptions and approaches to creativity that the public engage with. This will be held in cultural venues throughout the City including Crawford Art Gallery, Wandesford Quay Gallery, City Hall Atrium and a number of satellite venues around Cork.
Exhibition on the 1916 rising and its connection to Cork City: Illustrating people, places and events connected to Easter Week in Cork at Cork Public Museum.
Centre of Commemoration at St. Peter’s Church, North Main Street: Cork City Council will manage a year round venue based programme in St Peter’s Church on North Main Street. The centre will be called ‘The Centre of Commemoration’ and will host a range of exhibitions, talks, readings, music and community events. All national themes relating to Remember, Reconcile, Imagine, Present And Celebrate will be programmed, supported and presented into this venue.
Ballyphehane 1916-2016 programme: Ballyphehane’s main roads are named after the seven signatories of the 1916 Proclamation. See their facebook page for more.
Upstairs at The Oliver Plunkett, Revolution is a dramatic, specially commissioned series of plays, written and directed by Eoin Hally, which bring the events of 1916 to life. The series features six different plays, including the following: The Women of the Rising, O’Donovan Rossa Connection, WWI Roger Casement, The Lockout 1913, Connolly and The finale play – The Preparation and The Rising. Tickets are available to buy online at www.theoliverplunkett.com or at the bar.

For City City commemorative events,

see http://corkcity1916.ie/clar.pdf

and for the County Programme

see http://www.ireland.ie/sites/default/files/cork_county.pdf

Captions:

836a. Ballyphehane GAA group participating at the recent Cork City St Patrick’s Day Parade commemorating Ballyphehane’s historic roads named after the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

836b. Large scale banner of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic, Cork City St Patrick’s Day Parade 2016 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 14 January 2016

January 15, 2016Arts, Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, Uncategorizedadmin

826a. Jarlath Daly’s ‘John Anderson’ at Fermoy Bridge

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 14 January 2016

Cork Harbour Memories (Part 44)

John Anderson: King of the Road

Last week the column explored some of the early history of Fermoy and the importance of its location on the River Blackwater. On the northern side of the bridge is an elegant sculptural piece by bronze specialist artist Jarlath Daly dedicated to John Anderson who developed the town of Fermoy in the early nineteenth century. In 1791, John Anderson, having purchased four-sixths of the ancient manor, erected a hotel and some good houses, and laid the foundation of the town’s future prosperity and growth.

The Oxford National Biography of Britain denotes that John Anderson (c.1747–1820) was born in western Scotland in poverty, the son of David Anderson, of Portland. He moved to Glasgow, and after making £500 through dealing in herring in 1780 he moved to Cork. Anderson quickly established himself as an export merchant in the provisions trade with a base on Lapp’s Quay. Today Anderson’s Quay is named in his honour. A £500 investment multiplied quickly and by 1789 he could successfully bid for, and set up, the first Irish mail coach service. This proved both reliable and profitable. The mail-coach system was first launched in Ireland in 1789. The initial services were on routes from Dublin to Belfast and Dublin to Cork. The system was gradually extended countrywide. The first service from Dublin to Waterford took place in 1790.

Anderson’s coaches traversed the new roads of the eighteenth century, which were built under the Turnpike Acts. A very interesting book by David Broderick (2002), entitled The First Toll-Roads: Ireland’s turnpike roads 1729-1858 reveals that up until the Acts roads in Ireland, mainly built in medieval times, were of very poor quality. It was one of the shortcomings of, unlike England, not having been invaded by the Romans. The building of turnpike roads was the beginning of an era of the development of transport in Ireland, which would later include canals and railways. The first Irish turnpike act, entitled An act for repairing the road leading from the city of Dublin to Kilcullen-Bridge, in the county of Kildare, was introduced in 1729. It began a system, which was to last 129 years and which provided the basis for the national trunk road system in existence today. The acts commenced a planned system of road-building in Ireland to accommodate the sizeable increase in passenger and coach traffic. The turnpike roads were seen as directly benefitting the lands close to their routes; rents on these lands could be greatly augmented and commerce grew in the adjacent towns and villages.

The emergence of the post office pressurised the development of mail-coach roads and the payment of tolls. The awarding of mail contracts resulted in the contractors developing an interest in the repair and maintenance of the turnpike roads. This in turn developed into a need to control the actual roads so that any profits would amass to the contractor. Research by Martina Clancy in Limerick Civic Trust on toll pike roads (2011) reveals that the origin of the privatisation of the roads was a petition by John Anderson and William Bourne, partners on the Naas-Limerick mail-coach contract. The petition resulted in both Anderson and Bourne being given full control over the management of the Naas-Limerick section of the road. They also granted a loan of £27,000 to the trustees, for repairs, in exchange for the right to all tolls collected for the subsequent thirty years. In addition Anderson and Bourke were also given the power to levy a fine of five shillings per horse on any vehicle which was carrying more than nine passengers. The vital achievement of the time was getting from Dublin to Cork within 24 hours.

John Anderson pioneered cheap passenger travel and had a monopoly on it. The mail coach was drawn by four horses and had seating for four passengers inside. Other passengers were later permitted to sit outside with the driver. The mail was kept in a box to the rear, where a Royal Mail post office guard stood. The mail coach was quicker than the stage coach as it only stopped for delivery of mail and generally not for the comfort of the passengers. They were slowly phased out during the 1840s and 1850s, their role being replaced by trains as the railway network expanded. Many of the mail coaches in Ireland were also eventually out-competed by Charles Bianconi’s country-wide network of open carriages, before this system in turn succumbed to the railways as well.

In 1791, borrowing £40,000, John Anderson purchased a large County Cork estate, including the town of Fermoy. The town, which Anderson largely rebuilt, became the centre of his mail coach organisation. Later he had an involvement in the construction of a prominent military barracks for 1,400 men. In 1800 Anderson opened the Fermoy Bank. Later he reputedly declined a baronetcy, though the title was subsequently bestowed on his son. In 1807 he purchased, in partnership, the nearby Barry estates. However, this investment ultimately proved disastrous. The property was heavily mortgaged, and land values fell. He also lost £30,000 in a Welsh mining investment. In 1816 the Fermoy Bank closed and its Anderson was bankrupted. He died in reduced circumstances in 1820.

To be continued…

For more on North Cork History, check out Kieran’s and Dan Breen’s new book, North Cork Through Time

Captions:

826a. Jarlath Daly’s ‘John Anderson’ at Fermoy Bridge (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

826b. Jarlath Daly’s ‘mail coach’ at Fermoy Bridge (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

826c. Fermoy Bridge, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 26 November, Kieran’s New Book, Ring of Kerry Postcard Collection

November 25, 2015Arts, Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, Uncategorizedadmin

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 26 November 2015

Kieran’s New Book – Ring of Kerry Postcard Collection

The third of three books I have been compiling and penning this year is entitled Ring of Kerry, The Postcard Collection. Vibrancy, a wild vibrancy, is perhaps the best way to describe the Ring of Kerry. Exposed by raw elements, the landscape is windswept and awe inspiring. This book follows on from my previous work of exploring the nature of postcards in the south west region and how they helped to place–make and construct local, regional and national identity. The book explores the fascination of landscapes around the Ring of Kerry or the Grand Atlantic Tour as it was known a century ago and comprises what could be genuinely described as stunning images. Many could be printed in large sizes and hung on walls and I have no doubt many have over the decades. They are beautiful images made to entice the viewer to remember, to visit and not forget.

These postcards were the preferred souvenirs for connoisseurs of the landscape. They framed a world for people to view, consume, keep a part of, send to other people and mass produce. The mass production of such images helped advance the narrative in promoting the south west Iveragh peninsula. The communication of the message behind these postcards in the early twentieth century was important and the messages were and still are numerous and strong. They showcase extraordinary and geologically ancient but desperate spaces in an artistic narrative – our countryside, a sense of adventure, ideas of self-discovery, true, honest and valuable experiences, the 40–shades–of–green package, concepts of Irish culture and identity, and ultimately the collective memory of a country and what it stands for.

The postcards contain representations of an Ireland to draw people to the country and into the country’s regions. The images are collective representations and visual metaphors of the power of landscape in the culture of the time they were produced – they all spin a political narrative of sorts on the selection of memories, stories, legends and their meanings, the role of natural and built landscape in shaping the Irish psyche – what should be remembered more so than forgotten, what images are deemed important in the construction of local and national belonging in the early twentieth century. The postcards are all romantic and poetic odes to landscape – by photographers and artists – their awe and respect can be viewed as well as their devotion to nature and the quest for a vision of the idyllic.

Many of the images within this book are also of familiar landscapes, landscapes that many Irish people learned about in school or on holidays (like my own situation!) whilst bottled up in a car travelling from one set piece to another. They are Ireland’s public and private playgrounds of sorts – places to get lost in – to feel dwarfed by the mountains, the lakes and the coastline. The images are exaggerated with the addition of reflections and shadows and oil painting type colours – colours that heighten and aid in the construction of place. Even a single image can make a huge impression. Memorials and ruins are shown with ivy and crumbling stone – to show the contribution of nostalgia, how it creeps into a sense of place to ignite a present and to question a future.

Accumulating a large cross section of these early twentieth century images together provides a wider snap shot of perspectives and perceptions of landscape, the stories within the landscape and Irish identity, and how they interweave. The postcards are framed narratives – perceived as symbolising Irish landscapes, identity within those landscapes, that the peaks, troughs, rivers, lakes, cottages symbolise an idyll. The Ring of Kerry is all about travel. There are tourist reports of visits to Killarney since the late eighteenth century, accounts of Grand Tours of Kerry in the nineteenth century, and narratives about Irish Free State tourism products in the county in the twentieth century. All reflect a pilgrimage of the self – of silent conversations with yourself and nature and your place in the world – chasing reflections of the world in south Kerry’s crystalline lakes or bending to the might of the landscape on its coastal roads, seeking the Atlantic view point.

Now scattered to the four corners of the virtual eBay world and institutions like Kerry County Libraries and postcard fairs and shops, these postcards in their day influenced the modern photographic and text based narrative in marketing the Ring of Kerry today. Of course not every place was photographed and the editing of this book has also been difficult in choosing which postcards to include. The book is divided into four sections, Kenmare and its surroundings, Killarney and its tourism heart, the lake district, and a spin around the c.180km Ring of Kerry. Scattered across the publication as well, I have put in my own artistic responses to the landscape in the form of poems. The postcards and landscapes opened up further creativity in my own writing and new ways to research, decode and describe the Irish countryside. The postcards offer much to the student of cultural landscapes and how our heritage is constructed and ultimately how it can be appreciated, understood, interpreted, re–interpreted, negotiated, protected and advanced – and above all cherished.

Ring of Kerry, The Postcard Collection by Kieran McCarthy is published by Amberley Press and is available in all good bookshops.

Captions:

820a. Front cover of Ring of Kerry, The Postcard Collection by Kieran McCarthy

820b. Postcard of the Gap of Dunloe, c.1900

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 24 September 2015

September 24, 2015Arts, Cork City Events, Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, Uncategorizedadmin

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 24 September 2015

Kieran’s North Cork Through Time

It’s been a very busy year. The second of three books I have been involved in penning this year focuses on postcards of historic landscapes of North Cork. Entitled North Cork Through Time, it is compiled by Dan Breen of Cork Museum and I and published by Amberley Press.

It is easy to get entangled with the multi-storied landscapes of North Cork. It is a region with so many stories to tell, veins of nostalgic gold from tales of conquest to subtle tales of survival. There are many roads to travel down and many historical spaces to admire. The enormous scenery casts a hypnotic spell on the explorer. The region is defined by the meandering River Blackwater and its multiple tributaries and mountainous terrain to the north. It borders four counties that of Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford. The postcards, taken for the most part between c.1900 and c.1920 show the work of various photographers, who sought to capture the region and sell their work to a mass audience. Not every town and village were captured in a postcard. This book brings together many of the key sites of interest and serves as an introduction to the rich history of the region.

In the postcards, one can see the beauty that the photographers wished to share and express. The multitude of landmarks shown in this book have been passed from one generation to another, have evolved in response to their environments and contribute to giving the County of Cork and its citizens a sense of identity and continuity. Cultural heritage does not end at monuments and collections of objects. It also includes traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants. Pilgrimages and rituals are also engrained in many of the scenes within the postcards. Even mundane performances can construct a historic past and help weave personal and local memories with established national and regional historical narratives.

In many of the postcards, the scene is set up to elicit a response and to create a certain emotion within us, or because they make us feel as though we belong to something – a region, a country, a tradition, a way of life, a collective memory, a society. North Cork is blessed with such an array of diversity in heritage sites and there is a power in that diversity.

Chapter one explores the border territory with County Kerry – a type of frontier territory for Cork people – its history epitomised in the elegant and well-built Kanturk Castle, the gorgeous town of Millstreet with its international equestrian centre and its access into the old historical butter roads of the region, the use of secondary rivers for transport and industry, and the development of railways lines.

Chapter 2 centres around the Limerick Road from Mallow to Charleville – Mallow a settlement with a heritage dating back 800 years and straddles the winding River Blackwater. The town came into its own in the nineteenth century with the development of its main street, churches, academies, convents, viaduct, clock tower and spa house, all interwoven with the commemoration of Ireland’s famous writer and poet, Thomas Davis. The idea of an interwoven and multi-narrative heritage is also present in Buttevant. A former walled town, its medieval fabric is shown in its streetscape and old tower, Franciscan church and the ruinous Ballybeg Abbey in the town’s suburbs. On the latter site its columbarium or pigeon house reminds the visitor of the importance of seeing the human side of our heritage – that people minded the birds and in a cherished way created the house with all its square roosts. Charleville also connects to an English colonial past being a late seventeenth century plantation town named after Charles II.

Chapter 3 glances at the area east of the Mallow-Limerick Road taking in the stunning Doneraile estate with the adjacent and spacious streetscape of the connected village. Killavullen, Castletownroche and Kilworth all present their industrial pasts. Along the Blackwater, Ballyhooley Castle stands in defiance of time, as does Moorepark and Glanworth Castles, just off the old Fermoy-Mitchelstown Road. The nineteenth century estates are very prevalent in old stone walls, old ruinous and rusted gateways. There are exceptions such as Castlehyde, which stands as a testament to the affection of the Flatley family, the current guardians of its heritage, but also a salute to the many families who inherited such estates and landscapes. Mitchelstown stands in the ‘Golden Vale’ of the Galtee Mountains, its heritage being linked back to the Kingston estate and their big house, which dominated the local landscape with views on all it surveyed.

Chapter 4 explores Fermoy, which because of its history and connection to a local military barracks possesses a fine range of postcards. Its bridge and weir, views of the Blackwater, the nineteenth century square, colourful streetscapes all reveal the passion for such a place by its photographers. Still today, you can almost hear the hoof noises and creaking carriage wheels of the Anderson coach works and the marching of the military in the now disappeared army barracks. Above all Fermoy through its heritage exhibits a strong sense of place, a proud settlement, traits which pervade across North Cork and its landscape.

North Cork Through Time by Kieran McCarthy and Dan Breen is available in any good bookshop.

Captions:

810a. Banks of River Blackwater at Fermoy, c.1910 (source: Cork City Museum).

810b. Banks of River Blackwater at Fermoy, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 12 September 2015

September 10, 2015Arts, Cork City Events, Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Eventsadmin

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent,

Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project 2015-16

10 September 2015

This year coincides with the thirteenth year of the Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project. Again launched for the new school term, the Project is open to schools in Cork; 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. 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 this link 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 visit and workshop in October 2015. 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 to attain material through visiting local libraries, engaging with fieldwork, interviews with local people, making models, photographing, cartoon creating, making DVDs of their area. Re-enacting can also be a feature of several projects.

For over thirteen years, the project has evolved in how students actually pursue local history. 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 scenery 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. This year as well there is a focus on the 1916 commemoration side with projects on the centenary being encouraged.

The importance of doing a project in local history is reflected in the educational aims of the history curricula of primary and post-primary schools. Local heritage is a mould, which helps the student to become familiar with their local environment and to learn the value of it in their lives. Learning to appreciate the elements of a locality, can also give students a sense of place in their locality or a sense of identity. Hence the Project can also become a youth forum for students to do research and offer their opinions on important decisions being made on their heritage in their locality and how they affect the lives of people locally. Over the years, I know a number of students that have been involved in the project in schools over the years who have took their interest further and have gone on to become professional tour guides, and into other related college work.

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 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 DVD. 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 kindly funded by Cork City Council (viz the help of Niamh Twomey), the Heritage Council and Cork Civic Trust (viz the help of John X. Miller). Prizes are also provided by the Lifetime Lab, Lee Road and Sean Kelly of Lucky Meadows Equestrian Centre, Watergrasshill (www.seankellyhorse.com). There is also a County Cork edition. Overall, the Schools’ Heritage Project for the last thirteen 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.

Captions:

809a. Deirdre Moriarty getting ready to prepare the Rokk Choir at the recent Coal Quay Festival (picture: Kieran McCarthy).

809b. A walking tour getting underway at Elizabeth Fort during the recent Cork Heritage Open Day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

McCarthy’s Community Talent Competition 2015

June 29, 2015Arts, Cork City Events, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized, Ward Eventsadmin

The recent McCarthy’s Community Talent Competition at the Firkin Crane! thanks to Yvonne Coughlan, the Producer and all the auditionees, finalists and winners (below)!

Pictures, McCarthy’s Make a Model Boat Project, June 2015

June 28, 2015Arts, Cork City Events, Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized, Ward Eventsadmin

The recent McCarthy’s Make a Model Boat Project 2015 at the Atlantic Pond; thanks to all the participants and to our judges from Meitheal Mara!

Kieran McCarthy, PhD in Geography

June 27, 2015Arts, Cork History, Improve Your Life, International, Landscapes, Uncategorizedadmin

A River of Memory:

Landscape, Narrative, and Identity in the Lee Valley,

Co. Cork, Ireland

Kieran McCarthy, B.A., M.Phil.

Department of Geography, National University of Ireland, Cork

Thesis submitted to the National University of Ireland for the degree of PhD.

Abstract:

In moments of rapid social changes, as has been witnessed in Ireland in the last decade, the conditions through which people engage with their localities though memory, individually and collectively, remains an important cultural issue with key implications for questions of heritage, preservation and civic identity. In recent decades, cultural geographers have argued that landscape is more than just a view or a static text of something symbolic. The emphasis seems to be on landscape as a dynamic cultural process – an ever-evolving process being constructed and re-constructed. Hence, landscape seems to be a highly complex term that carries many different meanings. Material, form, relationships or actions have different meanings in different settings.

Drawing upon recent and continuing scholarly debates in cultural landscapes and collective memory, this thesis sets out to examine the generation of collective memory and how it is employed as a cultural tool in the production of memory in the landscape. More specifically, the research considers the relationships between landscape and memory, investigating the ways in which places are produced, appropriated, experienced, sensed, acknowledged, imagined, yearned for, appropriated, re-appropriated, contested and identified with. A polyvocal-bricoleur approach aims to get below the surface of a cultural landscape, inject historical research and temporal depth into cultural landscape studies and instil a genuine sense of inclusivity of a wide variety of voices (role of monuments and rituals and voices of people) from the past and present.

The polyvocal-bricoleur approach inspires a mixed method methodology approach to fieldsites through archival research, fieldwork and filmed interviews. Using a mixture of mini-vignettes of place narratives in the River Lee valley in the south of Ireland, the thesis explores a number of questions on the fluid nature of narrative in representing the story and role of the landscape in memory-making. The case studies in the Lee Valley are harnessed to investigate the role of the above questions/ themes/ debates in the act of memory making at sites ranging from an Irish War of Independence memorial to the River Lee’s hydroelectric scheme to the valley’s key religious pilgrimage site.

The thesis investigates the idea that that the process of landscape extends not only across space but also across time – that the concept of historical continuity and the individual and collective human engagement and experience of this continuity are central to the processes of remembering on the landscape. In addition the thesis debates the idea that the production of landscape is conditioned by several social frames of memory – that individuals remember according to several social frames that give emphasis to different aspects of the reality of human experience. The thesis also reflects on how the process of landscape is represented by those who re-produce its narratives in various media.