Report:
https://www.housing.gov.ie/sites/default/files/publications/files/report_of_the_expert_advisory_group_on_local_government_arrangements_in_cork_21-04-17.pdf
Category Archives: S.E. Ward Local History
McCarthy: Book Twenty Explores Secret Cork
Cllr Kieran McCarthy’s 20th book has hit Cork bookshelves and it entitled Secret Cork. Published by Amberley Press, the new publication is a companion volume to Kieran’s Cork City History Tour (2016) and contains sites that Kieran has not had a chance to research and write about in any great detail over the years. Secret Cork takes the viewer on a walking trail of over fifty sites. It starts in the flood plains of the Lee Fields looking at green fields, which once hosted an industrial and agricultural fair, a series of Grand Prix’s, and open-air baths. It then rambles to hidden holy wells, the city’s sculpture park through the lens of Cork’s revolutionary period, onwards to hidden graveyards, dusty library corridors, gazing under old canal culverts, across historic bridges to railway tunnels. Secret Cork is all about showcasing these sites and revealing the city’s lesser-known past and atmospheric urban character.
Cllr McCarthy notes; “Cork’s story is really enjoyable to research and promote. I still seek to figure out what makes the character of Cork tick. I still read between the lines of historic documents and archives. I get excited by a nugget of information that completes a historical puzzle I might have started years ago. I still look up at the architectural fabric of the city to seek new discoveries, hidden treasures and new secrets. I am still no wiser in teasing out all of Cork’s biggest secrets. But I would like to pitch that its biggest secret is itself, a charming urban landscape, whose greatest secrets have not been told and fully explored”
Continuing Cllr McCarthy highlighted that we all become blind to our home place and its stories; “we walk streets, which become routine spaces – spaces, which we take for granted – but all have been crafted, assembled and storified by past residents. It is only when we stand still and look around that we can hear the voices of the past and its secrets being told”.
“Cork’s story has been carved over many centuries and all those legacies can be found in its narrow streets and laneways and in its built environment. The legacy echoes from being an old ancient port city where Scandinavian Vikings plied the waters 1,000 years ago – their timber boats beaching on a series of marshy islands – and the wood from the same boats forming the first foundations of houses and defences”.
“Themes of survival, living on the edge, ambition, innovation, branding and internationalisation are etched across the narratives of much of Cork’s built heritage and are among my favourite topics to research. Indeed, I fully believe that these are key narratives that Cork needs to break the silence on more and this is a book constructed on those themes”.
Secret Cork is available in Cork bookshops or online at Amberley Press.
McCarthy: A Larger Marina Park should be Pursued
Press Release
Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy has welcomed the site preparation phase for phase one of the Marina Park, which comprises new riverside public sports, adventure and ecology Park – all of which wraps around the new Pairc Ui Chaoimh. “The creation of Marina Park pursues a 170-year-old plan for the area to develop a park worthy of being named City Park, notes Cllr Kieran McCarthy.
Cllr McCarthy is the author of a publication on the history of the Munster Agricultural Society and gives historical walking tours of the Marina and surrounding suburbs.
“A larger municipal park was proposed in the area in the 1840s by Cork Corporation’s Engineering department. The reclamation of land behind the Navigation wall or dock now part of the Marina Walk was accelerated through the provision of the Atlantic Pond in the 1840s, the opening of the City Park racecourse in 1869, the new showgrounds in 1892, shortly followed by a GAA pitch at the turn of the twentieth century and the new ford Factory in 1917. It is now through European funding of e.4m that we can begin to pursue that dream even further and create a super public amenity in the area. In addition, such heritage DNA should also be remembered in the footprint of the park. I welcome that part of the old stands are to become part of Marina park”.
“There are also lessons to be learned from other parks in the city. Despite the circa e30m investment into the nearby 180-acre Tramore Valley park it remains closed due to staffing shortages and funding challenges in the Council. I don’t want to see a brand new Marina Park and then no funding available to staff it, maintain it or open it”.
“There is also the elephant in the room that there may be room to create an expanded Marina Park. With all of the development land of former Howard Holdings in NAMA, it remains to be seen how these lands will be developed. I have advocated that part of the South Docklands plan will have to be revisited and redesigned. It would be great to have an elongated Marina Park through whatever new plan emerges. Public amenity space needs to be at the heart of the emerging Docklands quarter”.
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 27 April 2017
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
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)
Cllr McCarthy: May Historical Walking Tours
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”.
Kieran’s Speech, Blackrock Community Association AGM, February 2017
The Entanglement of Place
Cllr Kieran McCarthy
Madame chairperson, colleagues, committee members, ladies and gentlemen,
Thanks for the invite this evening to this my eighth AGM; time flies.
It is great and frustrating to meet adjacent a building site – a half finished but ongoing project with lots of complexities to complete, entanglements to disentangle and lots of odds and ends to tie up, which we can discuss at length later this evening.
But it is clear that the DNA of the village is transforming once again and its public face is being redrawn and renewed,
– where the element of what makes up a place gets unpacked and repacked,
– where mixed emotions and questions move and are fluid,
– where childhood and family spaces are turned over,
– where the everyday movements of people get muddled and turned upside down,
– where routine is broken and remade,
– where an assembly of old stones get taken down and become re assembled as new structures,
– where old transport routes and rails re-appear,
– where stones become cobbled spaces,
– where no through signs become obstacle courses, where the past haunts the future,
– where phone calls and email boxes to public reps like myself become full with queries and suggestions,
and what should a living heritage quarter of a city look like,
It’s all one big entanglement for this old fishing village, which is clearly passing through a significant phase of development, which will be spoken about and remembered for years to come. It shows clearly the power of place in this quadrant of the world and how the powers of place are multiple in nature. In essence, place matters. In a world where globalisation reigns, more than ever place matters.
This is also apparent in the proud DNA of Rockies and those who wish to be one!
With Blackrock, we are dealing with immense scenic perspectives.
We are dealing with gorgeous, original and well invested architectural, and rich stories.
We are dealing with historical DNA is rooted in ancient Cork from the sixteenth century.
We are dealing with an area that really emerged in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries where the city was branding itself as one of the Venices of the North and the Athens of Ireland in terms of cultural output.
People wished to live here and be inspired here; they built big houses and estates here; but their culture though was filtered down by the strong hardworking fishing village present here, which was part of a necklace of fishing villages in Cork Harbour. One by one great institutions from the Marina, the Ursuline convent, the churches, the railway line, the pier, the tram lines were all added to provide services but also built in a way to enhance the sense of place.
And of course, the most important historical element from one hundred years, which is getting a lot of press recently is the centenary of the construction of the Ford Plant.
In November 1916, Fords made an offer to purchase the freehold of the Cork Park Grounds and considerable land adjoining the river near the Marina. Fords, Cork Corporation and the Harbour Commissioners entered into formal negotiations. In January 1917, it was decided to obtain parliamentary powers to permit the sale of the necessary land, which would enable the Company to erect buildings of a size demanded by the extent of the proposed output.
Under the agreements drawn up between parties involved, the Company acquired approximately 130 acres of land, having a river frontage of approximately 1,700 feet, the company agreeing to erect the buildings to cost at least £200,000 to give employment to at least 2,000 adult males, and to pay a minimum wage of one shilling per hour to them when employed in the factory after completion.
And of course, the new factory brought its own building site in November 1917 when the foundations were laid.
The plant being laid down by the company was specially designed for the manufacture of an Agricultural Motor Tractor, well known as the “fordson”, a 22 horse power, four cylinder tractor, working with kerosene or paraffin, adaptable either for ploughing or as a portable engine arranged for driving machinery by belt drive.
The demand for such tractors was universal and great. Large areas could be brought under food production with the minimum of expense and labour. The Cork factory was to provide ‘fordsons’ to local, regional and national farmers and further afield on the European Continent.
And culturally transformed this corner of the city – industry came to Blackrock, and a steady wage – as well as opportunities to join Fordson Soccer team, build new housing estates paid for by workers as well the creation of new public houses.
Of course the list goes in exploring the rich heritage of this area; we are lucky to have such heritage here, which offers so much thought and complex levels of thinking about place and home.
Support:
I would also like to thank the people of Blackrock for their interest and support in my own community projects over the last eight years now.
– The Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage or Local history project, got some nice work this school season from 50 schools of which Beaumont BNS and GNS have pursued some great work on the history of this locality and some really great what I would deem lost family histories are re-emerging.
– The local history column in the Cork Independent, in the books I have been lucky to publish – two last year in terms of Cork City Centre Tour and Cork 1916, Examining everyday life.
– McCarthy’s Community Talent Competition is in its ninth year.
– McCarthy’s Make a Model Boat Project on the Atlantic Pond, also in its ninth year.
– and the walking tours through this ward; there are now ten of these – developed over the last number of years – and are ongoing and attract many interested people – people are interested in community, their roots, their identity and sense of place and the Blackrock Tour attracts many new residents who have many questions and are delighted to find a home in this quarter of the city or corner of the world
– With Cork City Musical Society, I directed Crazy for You in the Firkin Crane in Shandon.
– The appointment by the Minister for the Environment as an Irish delegate to the EU’s Committee of the Regions, is a busy one every three weeks of so. The 350 member committee gives advice to the European Parliament on local authority issues. I have shared the importance of small but significant projects such as yours from outings to get togethers. I have had the opportunity to see many new place and encounter situations from the Atlantic to the EU’s eastern borders in eastern Bulgaria– and ultimately everyone I have met is looking to live in places with opportunities and to be able to live or raise a family in safety. The importance of education, lifelong learning and building community capacity are consistently themes I encounter, even in the most impoverished places I have been sent to. At the end of last year, I was sent to a camp on innovation to Gabrovo in Central Bulgaria, where they earn on average e5,000 a year and where a average cost of a house is e35,000. And those I spoke with appreciated the Irish sense of community and believed in social innovation. I still firmly believe that communities and community groups such as yourself should have a stronger voice in driving and dictating social policy.
– Thank you for your continued courtesy towards myself. You always learn something new about yourself in Blackrock, indeed here is a place where you get stopped on the road for a chat, are challenged, encouraged, supported, helped and always pushed!
– Best of luck in the year ahead as you refocus the lens of this community space in the finished village renewal scheme. In these AGMs, there should always be the sense of thanks and renewal of spirit. Thank You.
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 12 January 2016
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 12 January 2017
The Wheels of 1917: Addressing a Food Crisis
The theme of the shortage of food emanates throughout the press columns of Irish newspapers in 1917. In the second week of January 1917, or one hundred years ago this week, problems of labour shortage and supply and distribution of food were the key concerns of Westminster’s Food Controller. Lord Devonport or Hudson Ewbanke Kearley was a British grocer and politician. He founded the International Tea Company’s Stores, became the first chairman of the Port of London Authority, and served as Minister of Food Control during World War I. He was appointed as Minister in December 1916 by Lloyd George and he submitted a proposal for compulsory rationing in May 1917. He developed a set of proposals designed to reduce the consumption of certain articles of food such as bread and meat.
According to the editorials of the Cork Examiner in January 1917, the price of bread was high. There was a notable disparity between the price of bread in Cork and Dublin. The high costs of freight stood out. To provide a sustainable supply, regulation was enacted to create a new “standard” bread. The bread was rolled out in Cork in the first week of January and baked in the factories of the master bakers. It was proposed at the time that the scheme would continue during the war. The price charged for this bread was to be the same as that previously in operation for beet white bread. The price was to be 11d per pair when the bread was delivered, but would be a halfpenny less per pair when purchased at the counter, and another half penny per pair less in the case of “cold” bread. Under the new rule, no “household” bread was to be on sale.
Other debates on food shortages also began on encouraging citizens to grow vegetables such as potatoes, parsnips, turnips, beans and peas and to establish allotments in the city. The growing of vegetables was not a new concept in the city’s suburban market gardens but creating labourer allotments of one eight of an acre in Cork were a relatively new concept. In early 1917, between Dublin and Belfast there were 2,000 plots in working order. In the bigger picture in Britain and Ireland, the concept of allotments and the total number of plots has varied greatly over time. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the allotment system supplied much of the fresh vegetables eaten by the poor. Westminster reports record that in 1873 there were 244,268 plots and by 1918 there were around 1,500,000 plots. To fulfil the need for land, allotment legislation was enacted. The law was first fully ordered in the Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908, then modified by the Allotments Act 1922. Under the Acts, a local authority is required to maintain an “adequate provision” of land, usually a large allotment field which can then be subdivided into allotment gardens for individual residents at a low rent. In August 1917, the Local Government Allotments and Land Cultivation (Ireland) Act was sanctioned.
Several months before the 1917 act, the lack of real legislation governing the legalities around Ireland’s allotment scheme is evident in Cork Corporation’s initial discussion in pursuing an actual scheme. As highlighted in the Cork Examiner on 15 February, an important meeting of the city’s allotments committee was held. The Lord Mayor Cllr Thomas Butterfield presided and he gave an account of the visit of a deputation to Dublin to the Local Government Board (LGB). There they asked questions which they considered would help them in rolling out Cork City’s allotment scheme. They asked for compulsory powers to acquire land and for an independent valuer from the LGB. Compulsory powers were not granted – the same applied to other public representatives from Irish towns seeking new legal powers. The second question they asked was to be allowed to increase the grant from one-eighth to a quarter of an acre, and the Corporation to take title land for a term of years. The Cork committee made the case that a family could work an acre. This also was not granted.
At the meeting on 15 February 1917, the allotment committee proposed that Fitzgerald’s Park display an eighth of an acre demonstration plot. Councillor Sir Edward Fitzgerald was to arrange to have his gardeners look alter the plot in the park. By late February the O’Donovans of Rutland Street offered four acres on Ballinlough Road at £4 an acre purchase price. Mr Joyce gave an offer of six acres in of Mayfield at £4 an acre purchase price. Fifty acres were offered at Beaumont, the estate of Mr R Woodhead free of rent. Part of these were only subsequently utilised and control was given to the Rural District Council in this part of the city’s county suburbs.
In early March 1917 Thomas Donovan wrote to the Corporation offering 6 acres of land at Gillabbey free of charge for nine months and Frank Murphy in Shanakiel gave 2 acres free of charge. By 23 March, the committee had 229 applications with 99 in the south of the city, 52 in the north-east, 56 in the north-west, 16 in the west, and 5 in the city Centre. The key problem was that only 19 acres of land was actually secured by the Corporation and applications could not be met. The struggle to secure land continued into 1918 and 1919.
If you missed one of the columns in 2016 and before, check out the Our City, Our Town index at my website, www.corkheritage.ie
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:
877a. Fr Mathew Memorial Fountain at Fitzgerald’s Park, c.1917 (source: Cork City Through Time by Kieran McCarthy and Dan Breen)
877b. Present day pond area of Fitzgerald’s Park (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
Happy Christmas
Happy Christmas, time to slow down and enjoy!
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 1 December 2016
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, 1 December 2016
Remembering 1916: From Racecourse to Factory
The 22 November 1916 brought the members of Cork Corporation to debate the proposed agreement with the Trafford Engineering Company on behalf of the Ford Company (see last week). The attachment of the name Fords was played down in the press especially as the deal with the Corporation was being negotiated. The Cork Examiner and the minutes of the meeting reveal a palpable excitement to the topic of debate. Chairing the Corporation meeting was Lord Mayor Thomas Butterfield. The Town Clerk of the day read the correspondence, which included: (1) a letter from the meeting of Transport Workers held in the City Hall on Tuesday night, calling on the Corporation and other public bodies to facilitate the scheme; and (2) from Mr Maguire, secretary of the University College Engineering Society, also asking the Corporation to facilitate the scheme and thereby provide much-needed employment for students of the College, very many of whom had to emigrate their native city.
The Lord Mayor Butterfield rose to propose a resolution which stood in his name to sell the park to the Trafford Engineering Company. He considered that Cork was extremely fortunate in having this offer made to it. He highlighted it as an epoch-making offer, and called upon his colleagues not to give any excuse to anybody for withdrawing these proposals. He articulated that in the hands of the Corporation’s solicitor the interest of the citizens of Cork would be safeguarded by Mr Barry Galvin. He would now move that the standing orders be suspended.
Debate ensued and by the end the resolution was agreed to unanimously. The Town Clerk read the heads of agreement to be made between the Cork County Borough Council and Richard Woodhead of No 91 Lord Street, the other (dated 17 November 1916). Below are some of the conditions. It was proposed to sell to the buyer the freehold of the City Park Racecourse. The development was also subject to the British Parliament granting permission – hence within a few ensuing weeks, the Cork Improvement Bill was passed. The buyer was given the right to construct an access route into the factory but it was to be their job to maintain it. The lands were to be used for the purpose of creating commercial, shipping and manufacturing premises and offices and generally in connection with industry or the housing of industrial workers. The price to be paid by the purchaser to the vendors for the transfer of the lands was agreed at £10,000.
Payment of £250 was to paid within seven days after the agreement had been approved by the vendors and £1,750 upon signing of formal contract. The estimated cost of such buildings to be erected on the lands were computed at £400,000, and the Corporation asked that at least £200,000 be spent within a period on construction within the first three years from the completion of the transfer. It was stipulated that at least 2,000 adult males be employed with a minimum wage of one shilling (1s) per hour to be paid to all such employees. A fair wage clause in the terms and conditions had to be inserted by the purchaser in any contracts.
As for the Racecourse, it had been for a period of 47 one of the most notable and popular race tracks between Britain and Ireland. Prior to its construction of what was known as the Navigation Wall, a part of which is now The Marina, the place was overrun by tidal waters. It was many years before the reclaimed mud back became coverered with grass. When the first race meeting was held, the mud was ever present that the pedestrians were told to exert caution. There was no systematic drainage of the Park till many years after its initiation. Reports of race meeting in the early races of 1869 report that there was no barrier to prevent people from wandering all over the running tracks. The clearing of the tracks before each race was undertaken by stewards, who were mounted and dressed in hunting kit and they were assisted by mounted police. Fixtures could attract up to 30,000 people. Every hotel and lodging house was crammed. The stakes in the early days were very generous, reaching a total at times of £1,600 a fixture. The best horses were attracted from all parts of Ireland, and many from England.
It was on 22 March 1869 that Cork Corporation leased the city’s swampy park to Sir John Arnott for the purpose of establishing a race-course for the recreation and amusement of the public, for the term of five years. As the years progressed the lease was renewed from time to time. On Arnott’s death in the 1890s, the management of the races passed to the Arnott Family. In 1902 a company was incorporated called the Cork Racecourse Ltd, of which the Arnott family retained the controlling influence and the lease terms were for 25 years. However due to multiple complaints by the public the Race Company surrendered their lease in 1913. A new lease was struck with William Green for a period of 31 years at a yearly rent of £175. This lease contained a provision that if the centre of the Park was required for the purpose of a factory it could be taken by the Corporation, without compensation giving three months’ notice to the Race Company.
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.
Caption:
872a. Map of site of Ford Plant 1917 (source: Cork City Library)
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 24 November 2016
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article
Cork Independent, 24 November 2016
Remembering 1916: A Proposal from Southport
The agenda of the special meeting of Cork Corporation held on 22 November 1916, this week one hundred years ago, was about revolutionising industry in Cork City and the region. Standing orders were suspended in order to consider a certain proposal from Mr R Woodhead of 91 Lord Street, Southport. The pitch was made on behalf of undisclosed principles with the aim of purchasing a portion of the freehold of Cork Park Racecourse. The building site was to be on the Marina, and also sought to take a portion of the public roadway on the Marina, and a portion of the public roadway on Victoria quay, at a price of £10,000. In essence this was a historic meeting as the City Councillors began their discussion of Mr Woodhead’s proposal who was working on behalf of the Ford Motor Company and their attempts to create a branch of their world wide industry in Cork.
Earlier in 1916, the original discussion paper presented by Mr Woodhead to Cork Corporation and the Cork Industrial Development Association involved the northern and southern banks of the River Lee, just east of the Port of Cork Building and Custom House structures. The initial idea was to build a factory on one or the other sides of the river to employ 2,000 adult males. On the northern side of the river for half a mile there extended the yards of the Cork Harbour Commissioners. These were formerly the site of shipbuilding yards conducted by the Pike family in the early nineteenth century. On the southern bank it was pitched to utilise a portion of Cork Park Racecourse to build an industrial village for the Ford plant workers. The idea of industrial housing was present en mass in Britain and Ireland. Two firms were mentioned as examples in the Council debate, both of whom, provided workers’ housing – Messrs Bradbury and the Lever Brothers.
Bradbury of Wellington Works in Oldham in Greater Manchester was the birthplace of the sewing machine industry and made clones of Singer sewing machines. Circa 1910 they extended their business into the manufacture of light weight motorcycles. Lever Brothers were one of several British companies that took an interest in the welfare of its employees. The model village of Port Sunlight in Merseyside was developed between 1888 and 1914 adjoining their soap factory to accommodate the company’s staff in good quality housing, with high architectural standards and many community facilities. Between 1889 and 1914, 800 houses were built to house a population of 3,500. William Lever introduced welfare schemes and provided for the education and entertainment of his workforce, encouraging recreation and organisations, which promoted art, literature, science or music. In the Cork context, in the early twentieth century many farm labourers needed housing. In 1906, Cork County Council agreed to build four such groups named model villages at Bishopstown, Clogheen, Dripsey and Tower.
With the Cork Ford plant project, the impact on diminishing poverty and employment at an enormous rate was not underestimated. The city’s traditional industries such as butter export had been in decline for some years. Media reports in the Cork Examiner throughout the year 1916 noted the continuous and slow demise of the Cork Butter Market. Large supplies of fresh butter were in excess. Danish butter was much lower in price and unsalted French butter together with big arrivals from New Zealand, Argentina and Australia out competed the Cork Market.
For the new Cork Ford plant, the media calculated an eight hour day at a shilling an hour, which would equate to each man’s wages amounting to £2 8s 0d per week. The total earned by 2,000 workers would amount to £4,800 per week, or roughly £250,000 per annum. It was projected that the effect of the expenditure of such a sum spent amongst the traders and shopkeepers of Cork would make the city in a few short years one of the most prosperous and progressive centres in Ireland, and the standard of living would be vastly improved amongst all classes. Other municipalities in Ireland were more than willing to place suitable sites at the disposal of Fords whom Mr Woodhead represented. All agreed not to impose rates on the factory if they could secure the establishment of such a gigantic industry within their jurisdiction. However Cork had been selected by Fords on account of the broad waterway it possessed and they hoped to create a business in the city on even a larger scale than they had been doing at Manchester.
An assembly plant in Trafford Park in Manchester opened in 1911 (closed in 1946) employing 60 people to make the Model T Ford. In the wider park 12,000 workers were employed making it one of the most significant engineering facilities in Britain. It was the first Ford Factory outside of North America. Six thousand cars were produced in 1913 – a doubling of output within a year and the Model T became the country’s biggest selling car with 30 per cent of the market. After the First World War, the Trafford Park Plant was extended, and in 1919, 41 per cent of British registered cars were Fords. By 1924 the plant had reached its limits and a new factory was opened in Dagenham in 1931. The plant was served by the Manchester Ship Canal, which had opened in 1894, to make Manchester the third busiest port in Britain despite being about 64 kilometres inland.
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.
Historical Walking Tour of Blackrock with Kieran, Sunday 27 November, 2.30pm. meet at Blackrock Castle (free: two hours)
Captions:
871a. The Marina Walk, c.1910 (source: Cork City Through Time by Kieran McCarthy & Dan Breen)
871b. St Patrick’s Quay, c.1910 (source: Cork City Through Time)
