Cork Heritage Open Daywebsite, www.corkheritageopenday.ie

Cork Heritage Open Day is organized by Cork City Council as part of Heritage Week in association with The Heritage Council and media sponsors Cork’s  96FM and the Evening Echo. 

This event would not be successful without the participation of the building owners and proprietors.  The organisers would like to thank each of the participating building proprietors for their generosity and fantastic support.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 14 August 2014

Kieran’s Heritage Week, 23-31 August 2014

National Heritage Week is upon us again at the end of next week (23 – 31 August). It’s going to be a busy week. In the city and county, there is a wide range of events on. The City Library has an extensive local history lecture programme. I will post all events on my facebook page, Cork: Our City, Our Town. I have set up a number of events. They are all free and I welcome any public support for the activities outlined below.

Kieran’s Heritage Week, 23-30 August 2014

Heritage Open Day:

Saturday 23 August 2014 – Historical Walking Tour of City Hall with Kieran; Learn about the early history of Cork City Hall and Cork City Council, Discover the development of the building and visit the Lord Mayor’s Room, 11am, ticketed (free, duration: 75 minutes). The current structure, replaced the old City Hall, which was destroyed in the ‘burning of Cork’ in 1920. It was designed by Architects Jones and Kelly and built by the Cork Company Sisks. The foundation stone was laid by Eamonn de Valera, President of the Executive Council of the State on 9 July 1932. For more on Cork Heritage Open Day, check out www.corkheritageopenday.ie

Kieran’s Heritage Week, 24-31 August 2014:

Sunday 24 August 2014 – Eighteenth century Cork historical walking tour, Branding a City-Making a Venice of the North, with Kieran; meet at City Library, Grand Parade, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).

 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. The walls served as a vast repository of meanings, symbolism, iconography and ideology, as well as symbols of order and social relationships. However, economic growth as well as political events in late seventeenth century Ireland, culminating in the destruction of the city’s core 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. By John Rocque’s Map of Cork in 1759, the walls of Cork were just a memory- the medieval plan was now a small part in something larger – larger in terms of population from 20,000 to 73,000 plus in terms of a new townscape. A new urban text emerged with new bridges, streets, quays, residences and warehouses built to intertwine with the natural riverine landscape. New communities created new social and cultural landscapes to encounter, several of which are explored on my tours for this year’s heritage week.

Monday 25 August 2014 – Shandon Historical Walking Tour  with Kieran, Discover the City’s historical quarter; learn about St Anne’s Church and the development of the butter market and the Shandon Street area; meet at North Gate Bridge, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).

There are multiple layers of history around the Shandon quarter. Amongst them is the story of the great butter market. By the mid 1700s, the native butter industry in Cork had grown to such an extent due to British empire expansion that it was decided among the main city and county butter merchants that an institution be established in the city that would control and develop its potential. These ‘Committee of Butter Merchants’ located themselves in a simple commissioned building adjacent to Shandon. The committee comprised 21 members who were chosen by the merchants in the city.  In May 1770, it was decided by the Cork Committee that all butter to be exported from Cork was to be examined by appointed inspectors who had two main duties to perform. Firstly, they had to examine and determine the quality and weight of the butter. Secondly, they had to examine and report on the manner of packing and to detect and signs of fraud. 

Tuesday 26 August 2014- Blackpool Historical Walking Tour with Kieran, From Fair Hill to the heart of Blackpool, learn about nineteenth century shambles, schools, convents and industries, meet at the North Mon gates, Gerald Griffin Avenue, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).

The walking tour weaves its way from the North Mon into Blackpool, Shandon and Gurranbraher highlighting nineteenth century life in this corner of Cork from education to housing to politics, to religion, to industry and to social life itself. Blackpool was the scene of industry in Cork in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for industries such as tanning through big names such as Dunn’s Tannery and distilling through families such as the Hewitts. The leather industry at one vibrant in Blackpool with no fewer than 46 tanyards at work there in 1837 giving employment to over 700 hands and tanning on average 110,000 hides annually.

Kieran’s other walking tours include:

Thursday 28 August 2014 – Docklands Historical Walking Tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, Discover the history of the city’s docks, meet at Kennedy Park, Victoria Road, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).

Saturday 30 August 2014,  Douglas Historical Walking Tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, Discover about the sailcoth and woollen mills, meet at St. Columba’s Church Car Park, Douglas, 2pm (free, duration: two hours).

Captions:

755a. Shandon silhouetted through a recent sunset (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 12 June 2014

Kieran’s City Walking Tours, 17 & 20 June 2014

My summer walking tours of Cork City centre continue and conclude next week Tuesday evening, 17^th June and Friday evening, 20^th June. The tours begin at the National Monument on the Grand Parade, at 7pm on those evenings and explore the City Centre’s early development on a swamp. The tour costs e.5 per person and children under 12 are free. No booking is required, just turn up on the evening.

One of the aspects of the city’s development addressed on the walking tour is the walled town of Cork. Access into walled settlement was via three entrances; two well-fortified drawbridges with associated towers and an eastern portcullis gate. Access from the southern valley side was via South Gate Draw-Bridge while entry from the northern valley side was through North Gate Draw-Bridge. Various depictions of the walled town show menacing symbols of power at the top of the drawbridge towers where the dismembered heads of executed criminals were placed as a warning to the other citizens contemplating crime. The severed head was placed onto a spike and this was slotted into a rectangular slab of stone. Legend has it that one of the stone blocks still exists and today can be seen at the top of the steps of the Counting House in Beamish and Crawford Brewery on South Main Street. Other methods of execution involved been hung at Gallows Green, a location on the southern valley side near to the southern road leading into town. The site is now marked by Greenmount National School and the Lough Community Centre.

The third entrance overlooked the eastern marshes and was located at the present day intersection of Castle Street and the Grand Parade. Known as Watergate and comprising of a large portcullis gate, this opened to allow ships into a small quay, located within the town. On both sides of this gate, two large mural towers, known as King’s Castle and Queen’s Castle controlled its mechanics. Today, the place-name Castle Street echoes their former presence. In 1996, when new sewage pipes were been put in place on Castle Street, work was halted when Cork archaeologists found two stone rubble portions of the rectangular foundation of Queen’s Castle. A further section was discovered in 1997. Through these excavations, sections of the medieval quay wall were also discovered on Castle Street. The importance of Watergate is also reflected in the city’s contemporary coat of arms, which shows two castles (King’s and Queen’s) and a ship in between, with a Latin insignia, “Statio Bene Fida Carinis”, meaning a safe harbour for ships.

In the last three decades, a substantial amount of archaeological excavations have taken place within the former area of the walled town and many facets of the townscape and society have been revealed. In particular, several sections of the lower courses of the town walls have been discovered along with parts of streets, laneways, housing and even the remains of citizens. The Pacata Hibernia depiction of the medieval town dates to circa 1585-1600 and shows the wall encompassing an oval shaped settlement. The walled defences, 1,500 metres in circumference, were to provide security for its inhabitants up to 1690. In a present day context, if one starts on the corner of the Grand Parade and the South Mall, on the city library side, the walls of the medieval town would have extended the full length of the Grand Parade, along Cornmarket Street, onto the Coal Quay, up Kyrl’s Quay to the North Gate Bridge. From here they would have extended up Bachelor’s Quay as far as Grattan Street, then turning southwards, the walls would have followed the full length of present day Grattan Street as far as present day Clarke’s Bridge. The walls then followed the course of the River Lee back to the starting point. Much of the town wall survives beneath the modern street surface and in some places has been incorporated into existing buildings. The wall was composed of two stone types, limestone and sandstone, types, which have been used down through the ages in Cork buildings from warehouses to churches. Sandstone deposits are common on the northern hills overlooking Cork while limestone deposits are common under the southern hills.

On the wall, at regular intervals were mural towers, which projected out from the wall and were used as lookout towers by the town’s garrison of soldiers. The walled town of Cork extended from South Gate Bridge to North Gate Bridge and was bisected by long spinal main streets, North and South Main Street. These were the primary route-ways and compared to today, these would have been much narrower but followed an identical plan.  In the early half of the life of the walled town, the majority of the houses overlooked the main street and running perpendicular to North and South Main Street were numerous narrow laneways, which provided access to the back gardens or burgage plots of the latter dwellings. Comprised of individual and equal units of property, burgage plots extended from the main street to the town wall. The sizes of these plots were carefully regulated by owners, tenants and borough charters.

More on the walking tour and keep an eye…

Caption:

746a. Walled town of Cork, c.1575 (source: Cork City Library)