Many thanks to those who supported my recent historical walking tour of Cork Docklands.
Category Archives: S.E. Ward Local History
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, Cork Independent, 27 June 2013
Kieran Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 27 June 2013
Freedom, Hope and JFK
“There was a great assembly from all parts of Cork when President Kennedy visited the City yesterday on his Irish whirlwind visit and it will go down as one of the most memorable receptions so far. From an early hour spectators began crowding the sidewalk and streets gaily decorated with the entwined flags of the two countries” (Journalist, Irish Independent, 29 June 1963).
On Friday 28 June, I’m giving a tour of Cork Docklands leaving from Kennedy Park at 7pm (free). The tour aims to mark the visit, fifty years ago to Cork, by US President John F Kennedy. On 28 June 1963, he spent the morning in Cork where he received the Freedom of the City. He later left the city by helicopter from Monahan Road and from what in time became known as Kennedy Park. I was not around in 1963 but walking around Cork City Hall, there are several memorials to him. His visit to the city can be explored in the newspapers from the time and in film (google the youtube footage “John F. Kennedy in Cork, Ireland, June 28th 1963”),
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDbsxWGsebc.
A recent debate in Cork City Hall’s council chamber provided food for thought as Kennedy’s legacy was spoken about. In his trip to Ireland, he was just coming back from Berlin where on 26 June, 1963, he gave a historic speech to a crowd in front of the Berlin Wall. The speech was given in response to the Cold War and the tension between the non-Communist countries and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union built the Berlin Wall as a way to keep people from fleeing to non-Communist countries, mainly West Berlin. Kennedy praised the character of the people of Berlin in their pursuit for freedom.
JFK took office during one of the most turbulent times in American history. The Cold War between democracy and communism was becoming more confrontational, and the United States and the Soviet Union possessed enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world many times over. In American cities, racial tension was rising. Growing numbers of black Americans had begun to demonstrate for equal treatment under the law, and white segregationists promised to deny these rights, using violence if necessary. As he struggled with the complexities of foreign and domestic politics, Kennedy sometimes fell short of his idealistic rhetoric. A self-proclaimed supporter of civil rights, he moved forward slowly on the issue until 1963, when racial violence forced his hand. An advocate of peaceful development abroad, he hastened America’s descent into the Vietnam war, a conflict that would end countless lives and bitterly divide his nation. His assassination on 22 November 1963, in Dallas, Texas, marked a bloody conclusion to his presidency, but accelerated his coronation as a martyred prince of American politics. In death, he became a cultural icon. The idealism that Kennedy evoked did not die with him. Although Kennedy failed to realize his promise, he left a legacy of hope.
Perhaps it was a message of hope that he carried on his visit to Ireland and to cities such as Cork on his way back to the US from Berlin in June 1963. Indeed, he received the freedom of Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Wexford. President Kennedy’s itinerary meant that helicopter was his means of transport on trips through the country. The Minister for External Affairs, Mr Aiken and the American Ambassador, Mr McCioskey travelled in the President’s helicopter. The Minister for Industry and Commerce Jack Lynch travelled in another helicopter and visiting pressmen and officials travelled in two similar craft.
The rain, which had been threatening during the morning held off for the commencement of his visit. As the President alighted at Collins Barracks, a pipe band drawn from the 4th Batallion, Limerick under Sergeant Walter O’Sullivan. The President gave the crew cut White House security men an unexpected problem when he arrived in Cork. Flanked on both sides by security men, he suddenly changed course and went to a window at Collins Barracks where a group of Army nurses were waving frantically and calling “Mr President”, Mr. President. With a broad grin he strode across to them and with an outstretched hand greeted them individually.
Half an hour before President Kennedy arrived in Cork, an emergency call went out from the secret service that one of the two open cars to be used in the procession had broken down. Twenty minutes later a Cork firm had supplied a black 1937 Rolls-Royce. As the motorcade progressed towards the city centre the crowds thickened. Again and again his car had some difficulty in getting through and had to stop more than once. The effective crash barriers in Parnell Place stood up well to surging crowds and all Cork wanted to get a glimpse of the smiling young President as he was brought through the streets.
In McCurtain Street a large banner erected by the ITGWU spanned the roadway issuing ‘céad míle fáilte’ to the President. One of the biggest crowds was the foot of Patrick’s Hill where Gardai had trouble holding back the crowds. On more than one occasion thousands surged forward in an attempt to reach the President’s car but the Gardaí succeeded in maintaining a narrow passage, which was just big enough to allow the procession through.
At Cork City Hall the Cork Lord Mayor, Alderman Seán Casey, TD, opened his address to Kennedy by noting “You stand for the weak against the strong, for right against might”. Continuing the Lord Mayor noted that Kennedy was receiving the honour “in token of our pride that this descendant of Irish emigrants should have been elected to such an exalted office and of our appreciation of his action in coming to visit the country of his ancestors; as a tribute to his unceasing and fruitful work towards the attainment of prosperity and true peace by all the people of the world, and in recognition of the close ties that have always existed between our two countries”. The Freedom of Cork casket was decorated with celtic designs and on the lid the arms of Cork were engraved. On the front was the American Eagle Crest and on the back of the crest of the Kennedy family.
In a well measured speech, one of Kennedy’s key points referred to Ireland’s hope and mission for freedom through the ages: “So Ireland is still old Ireland but it has found a new mission in the 1960s and that is to lead the free world to join with other countries in the free world to do in the 60’s what Ireland did in the early part of this century and indeed has done for the last 800 years and that it associate itself intimately with the principle of freedom”.
As the crowds swelled outside City Hall to get a glimpse of the President, Kennedy’s motorcade struggled as it made its way to Monahan Road to reach his helicopter for his return flight to Dublin. Despite the troops drawn from Collins barracks and Sarsfield Barracks and the 1st Motor Squadron, the public seized their opportunity here and swarmed around the presidential helicopter and gave him a send-off that equalled anything he received to that date on his Irish visit.
Links, more information and more pictures on this story can be seen at my blog www.kieranmccarthy.ie
Caption:
697a. John F Kennedy’s Motorcade travels through St Patrick’s Street, 28 June 1963 (source JFK Presidential Library, USA)
Further information:
Kieran’s Historical Walking Tour Group of the Old Workhouse, St Finbarr’s Hospital, 22 June 2013
Lovely historical walking tour of the workhouse at St Finbarr’s Hospital on Douglas Road, last Saturday 22 June 2013
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 20 June 2013
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 20 June 2013
Workhouse, JFK and Docklands Tours
Aside from the summer city walking tours running at the moment, I have two suburb walking tours coming up across the next week. Next Saturday morning, 22 June at 12noon in association with the summer garden fete of the Friends of St Finbarr’s Hospital, I will conduct a historical walking tour of St Finbarr’s Hospital with special reference to its workhouse and Great Famine history (meet at gate, free, as part of my community work in the south-east ward). The second tour is the following Friday evening, 28 June at 7pm of Cork Docklands (free) at Kennedy Park, Victoria Road. Special focus will be given on marking the fiftieth anniversary of John F Kennedy coming to Cork and getting Freeman of the City on 28 June 1963. He left Cork by helicopter from the park now named after him. The tour will also take in Albert Road/ Jewtown/ Hibernian Buildings and the city’s docks.
On St Finbarr’s Hospital, I have always admired the view from the entrance gate onto the rolling topography extending to beyond the southern boundaries of the City. Here also is the intersection of the built heritage of Turners Cross, Ballinlough and Douglas. These are Cork’s self sufficient, confident and settled suburbs, which encompass former traditions of market gardening to Victorian and Edwardian housing on the Douglas Road. Then there is the Free State private housing by the Bradley Brothers such as in Ballinlough and Cork Corporation’s social housing developments, designed by Daniel Levie, on Capwell Road. Douglas Road as a routeway has seen many changes over the centuries from being a rough trackway probably to begin with to the gauntlet it has become today during the work and school start and finish hours.
With mid nineteenth century roots, the hospital was the site of the city’s former workhouse but as such here is one of Cork’s and Ireland’s national historic markers. Written in depth over the years by scholars such as Sr M Emmanuel Browne and Colman O’Mahony, many in-depth primary documents have survived to outline the history of the hospital. What shines out are the memories of how people have struggled at this site since its creation in 1841. Other topics perhaps can also be pursued here such as the history of social justice at the site, why and how society takes care of the vulnerable in society and the framing of questions on ideas of giving humanity and dignity to people and how they have evolved over the centuries.
The Hospital serves as a vast repository of memories, symbolism, iconography and cultural debate. Standing at the former workhouse buildings, which opened in December 1841, there is much to think about – humanity and the human experience. The architect to the Poor Law Commissioners in Ireland from 1839 until 1855 was George Wilkinson. Nearly all the workhouses, accommodating between 200 and 2000 persons apiece, were designed in a Tudor domestic idiom, with picturesque gabled entrance buildings which contracted the size and comfortlessness of the institutions which lay behind them. By April 1847 all 130 workhouses were complete, the Douglas Road being one of the first.
With its association with the memory of the Great Famine, there are also many threads of the history of the hospital to interweave – the political, economic and social framework of Ireland at that time plus the on the ground reality of life in the early 1800s – family, cultural contexts, individual portraits. In the present day history books in school, the reader is drawn to very traumatic terms. The recurring visions comprise human destruction, trauma, devastation, loss. One can see why the Great Famine is more on the forgetting list than on the remembering one.
At the same time as the development of the workhouse on Douglas Road was struggling, the city continued to extend its docks area. In the late 1800s, the port of Cork was the leading commercial port of Ireland. The export of pickled pork, bacon, butter, corn, porter, and spirits was considerable. The manufactures of the city were brewing, distilling and coach-building, which were all carried on extensively. I’m a big fan of the different shapes of these wharfs, especially the timber ones that have survived since the 1870s. A myriad of timbers still prop up the wharves in our modern port area, protecting the city from the ebb and flow of the tide and also the river’s erosive qualities. The mixture of styles of buildings etch themselves into the skyline, Add in the tales of ships over the centuries connecting Cork to other places and a community of dockers, and one gets a site which has always looked in a sense beyond its horizons. Indeed, perhaps the theme that runs through the docklands walking tour is about connections and explores sites such as Jewtown, the National Sculpture Factory, the Docks, the old Park Racecourse, and the early story of Fords. All these topics are all about connecting the city to wider themes of exportation and importation of goods, people and ideas into the city through the ages. I hope to have a page on John F Kennedy’s visit to Cork in 1963 next week.
Captions:
696a. Recent sunset on Douglas Road highlighting the workhouse memorial plaque (source: Kieran McCarthy)
McCarthy’s Walking Tours, June 2013
Kieran McCarthy’s summer walking tours of Cork City centre will take place during the month of June, on Tuesday evenings (18th, 25th). 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.10 per person and children under 12 are free. No booking is required, just turn up on the evening. Further information, if needed, can be attained from Kieran at 0876553389.
On Saturday, 22 June, the Friends of St Finbarr’s Hospital will be holding its annual garden party from 1.30 to 4.30 pm. As part of a whole series of events planned, Cllr Kieran McCarthy invites the general public to take part in a historical walking tour of St. Finbarre’s Hospital at 12noon. (meet at gate; the event is free as part of Cllr McCarthy’s community work). The workhouse, which opened in December 1841, was an isolated place – built beyond the toll house and toll gates, which gave entry to the city and which stood just below the end of the wall of St. Finbarr’s Hospital in the vicinity of the junction of the Douglas and Ballinlough Roads. The Douglas Road workhouse was also one of the first of over 130 workhouses to be designed by the Poor Law Commissioners’ architect George Wilkinson.
To mark the day of the actual fiftieth anniversary of John F Kennedy receiving the freedom of the city and taking off by helicopter from what is now Kennedy Park, Cllr Kieran McCarthy’s tour of Cork Docklands will take place on Friday, 28 June leaving at 7pm from Kennedy Park, Victoria Road (free, 1 1/2 hours). Some of the themes covered in the talk will be John F Kennedy’s visit to Cork and the development of the areas surrounding Albert Road and the Docklands itself.
McCarthy’s Walking Tours, June 2013
Kieran McCarthy’s summer walking tours of Cork City centre will take place during the month of June, on Tuesday evenings (11th, 18th, 25th), and Friday evening, 14th. 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.10 per person and children under 12 are free. No booking is required, just turn up on the evening. Further information, if needed, can be attained from Kieran at 0876553389.
On Saturday, 22 June, the Friends of St Finbarr’s Hospital will be holding its annual garden party from 1.30 to 4.30 pm. As part of a whole series of events planned, Cllr Kieran McCarthy invites the general public to take part in a historical walking tour of St. Finbarre’s Hospital at 12noon. (meet at gate; the event is free as part of Cllr McCarthy’s community work). The workhouse, which opened in December 1841, was an isolated place – built beyond the toll house and toll gates, which gave entry to the city and which stood just below the end of the wall of St. Finbarr’s Hospital in the vicinity of the junction of the Douglas and Ballinlough Roads. The Douglas Road workhouse was also one of the first of over 130 workhouses to be designed by the Poor Law Commissioners’ architect George Wilkinson.
To mark the day of the actual fiftieth anniversary of John F Kennedy receiving the freedom of the city and taking off by helicopter from what is now Kennedy Park, Cllr Kieran McCarthy’s tour of Cork Docklands will take place on Friday, 28 June leaving at 7pm from Kennedy Park, Victoria Road (free, 1 1/2 hours). Some of the themes covered in the talk will be John F Kennedy’s visit to Cork and the development of the areas surrounding Albert Road and the Docklands itself.
McCarthy’s History in Action, 9 June 2013, 2-5pm
McCarthy’s History in Action in association with Ballinlough’s Our Lady of Lourdes National School summer fair will take place at the school on Sunday 9 June 2013 between 2pm and 5pm. The re-enactment event, supported by Cllr Kieran McCarthy, brings history alive for all the family, with the participation of re-enactment groups, storytellers and more.
Cllr McCarthy noted: “The vision for the afternoon is one of encouraging community participation. Join re-enactors to honour the past, where there is much to learn, as one helps build the future; I am encouraging people to actively engage with life around them, as well as examine the history that brought us here. I believe that growth and transformation in society is affected positively by respecting our heritage in this way”.
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 2 May 2013
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 2 May 2013
A Gate of Heaven
“Take ship and travel into strange lands; go into strange villages, towns and cities. You may not know the roads or streets; you may not understand the human language. The first road or street you will discover is the one that leads to the Church. Enter it, you will always understand the language in it- it is the language of prayer, adoration and love” (Fr Kieran, OFM CAP, 11 September, 1938, Sermon, Dedication of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Ballinlough).
As a side topic this week, I’m currently doing research on Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Ballinlough to mark its 75th anniversary. This is an article looking for memories of the people involved in its design, construction, and fundraising. If anyone has information, I’d love to hear from them (087 655 3389). The Church of Our Lady of Lourdes at Ballinlough was solemnly blessed by Bishop Daniel Cohalan, Bishop of Cork in September 1938. The church as a project followed shortly after the opening of Christ the King Church in Turners Cross in 1931.
The solemn ceremonies in 1938 marked the realisation of a long cherished hope of priests and people of the extensive Parish of Blackrock. The new church was a long felt want in the Ballinlough area of the parish due to the rapid growth of it as a residential suburb of the city. The project had been envisaged for some years and in 1935 the Bishop of Cork laid the foundation stone. The design was quite different to the elaborate concrete Christ the King Church. Simplicity of design was the keynote of the Ballinlough building in regard to both exterior and interior. Despite this, passing this building and viewing it from a distance especially from the northside, its striking lines do make an immediate impression on its limestone ridge. The altar is of a beautiful design. The tabernacle stands out impressively as a separate unit. The Stations of the Cross are also of a distinctive pattern.
There was a large attendance of the parishioners for the 1938 dedication ceremonies and when the time came for the public to enter the church, the accommodation for 1,000 worshippers was well taxed. Bishop Cohalan in his address highlighted the importance of having a temple to worship God thanked all those involved in it; “I would like to thank all who have helped to provide the means of meeting the cost of this new church. About £10,000 has been already expended and paid out on this church. That was a notable sum for the organisers and collectors to collect…there remains a debt of £1,000 and a house must be provided for the priest in charge of this church…And I appeal to the parishioners and to charitable friends to help Canon Murphy to wipe off the debt and to provide the small sum required. And not to confine myself to mere words, to appeal by example, I am myself giving the Canon £100 to meet the remaining liability”.
The architects were Messrs. Ryan and Fitzbibbon, 21 South Mall (looking for information on?). The building is in a Romanesque style and is faced externally with bricks and white cement. It was originally decorated internally in cream coloured paints. The flooring in the nave was timber, with the centre and side passages of terrazzo and the sanctuary floor was in cream, white, brown and blue mosaic. The altar rail, altar, or predella (the platform or step on which an altar stands), and steps are of marble. In the sacristy, there was ample room for space a mortuary. The baptismal font was situated at the west end of the nave. Two recessed confessionals were provided, and space was provided for an organ.
Messrs. Coveney Brothers, West Douglas, Cork (information needed?) were entrusted the important job of chief contractors in the erection of the new church. They were specialists in the work of church and school erection. They were known for their attention to detail in making structures solid and lasting. Their name was linked to many projects of note in the city and outside of it. The products of Ballinphellic Brick Company, Ltd (information needed?) were widely known and appreciated. Their works were at Ballygarvan and their offices at 29, Watercourse Road. To Messrs. Lynch’s Joinery Works, Kyrl Street (information needed on?) was entrusted the work of the seating and other joinery works. The firm had a reputation as manufacturers of joinery of a very high standard of quality.
In his sermon, Fr Kieran OFM CAP eloquently wove themes of the importance of community coming together in changing the nature of a building into something more sacred; “We are gathered and united in one living Holy Faith this morning in this beautiful little church, planned by Christ-like minds and built by human hands and generous hearts. We have witnessed a simple and significant ceremony of the Mother Church, a ceremony that has changed this chaste material building, making it now and for years to come, no longer a mere house, but a house of prayer, a house of God, A gate of heaven”.
Caption:
689a. Interior of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Ballinlough (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
Kieran’s Events, Lifelong Learning Festival Week 2013
Wednesday morning, 20 March 2013, 10.30am, Talk: From Workhouse to Hospital, The Early Story of the St Finbarr’s Hospital, Curaheen Family Centre, Meeting Room, Church of the Real Presence, Curaheen Road, Bishopstown & Sunday afternoon, 24 March 2013, 2pm, Historical Walking Tour of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Meet at gate, Douglas Road (duration: 1 ½ hours).
Friday afternoon, 22 March 2013, Douglas historical walking tour; meet at St. Columba’s Church Car Park, Douglas, In association with Douglas Young At Heart, 12noon (duration: 1 ½ hours).
Saturday afternoon, 23 March 2013, 2pm; From Standing Stones to Market Gardens: A Historical Walking Tour Through Ballinlough and Environs; start point: Beaumont Park adjacent Beaumont National Schools (duration: approx 2 hours).
Kieran’s Cork Lifelong Learning Festival Events
As part of the tenth Cork Lifelong Learning Festival I have arranged a number of free historical walking tours and lectures, which focus on key heritage sites from Douglas to Ballinlough.
Wednesday morning, 20 March 2013, 10.30am, Talk: From Workhouse to Hospital, The Early Story of the St Finbarr’s Hospital, Curaheen Family Centre, Meeting Room, Church of the Real Presence, Curaheen Road, Bishopstown & Sunday afternoon, 24 March 2013, 2pm, Historical Walking Tour of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Meet at gate, Douglas Road (duration: 1 ½ hours).
Friday afternoon, 22 March 2013, Douglas historical walking tour; meet at St. Columba’s Church Car Park, Douglas, in association with Douglas Young At Heart, 12noon (duration: 1 ½ hours).
Saturday afternoon, 23 March 2013, 2pm; From Standing Stones to Market Gardens: A Historical Walking Tour Through Ballinlough and Environs; start point: Beaumont Park adjacent Beaumont National Schools (duration: approx 2 hours).