Article 627- 9 February 2012

Technical Memories (Part 5)

Towards a Munster University

Bertram Windle became a familiar person at most Cork Civic gatherings and on so many public platforms throughout the country as he sought to reconnect Queen’s College Cork to public life. He got people talking about education and re-energised its importance. As President of the Irish Technical Association, he attended several Technical Congresses from Newry to Tralee, where on average 150 delegates from all parts of Ireland attended. The delegates represented on average 60 Technical Committees and the principal Chambers of Commerce and Industrial Development Associations.

A journalist for the Irish Independent on 25 July 1906 remarked of Betram Windle:

“Satisfaction will be felt throughout Ireland at the appointment of Dr. Windle, the able and energetic President of the Queen’s College, Cork, to a seat on the Intermediate Board. Since his arrival in Ireland Dr. Windle has taken an active part in promoting the cause of education; he has also identified himself with the industrial movement and the Gaelic revival. He, as a sound educationist, must see that any thorough system of primary and Intermediate education for this country must be so arranged as to fit the pupils to acquire such a training in these schools as will enable them to avail of the advantages of Technical Instruction.”

In September 1906, a resolution of the County Council of King’s County (Co. Offaly) demanded a Catholic University. It was unanimously adopted by Cork Corporation. In connection with the same subject, a letter was read at the Council meeting (written about in the Irish Independent) acknowledging the vote of thanks passed to Bertram Windle by the Corporation for his recent report to the King on the ways forward for Queen’s College Cork. In the letter, Windle strongly argued: “There are those who think that Cork could get on very well without any college at all, or with one, which was only of the nature of a superior Technical Institution. I am glad to find that these opinions are not shared by the representatives of the citizens of Cork itself, and I am also glad that they have made the important fact public. At the present juncture it is not my place to point out the advantages which the city would reap from the possession of a University College.”

Whilst as President of such bodies as the Cork Literary and Scientific Society and a member of the General Council of Medical Education in Ireland, Windle’s practical experience and wide knowledge were freely given for the public good. As one of the Special Commission appointed to prepare the stations and regulations, Windle was able to play a prominent and important part in laying the foundations of the new Cork university. In 1908, the University Act, in connection with which Windle was one of the Chief Advisers of both the government and the Catholic Bishops, removed the semi-official religious ban, which had previously existed, and enabled the college in its new guise, as a constituent college of the National University, to take its place in the national life.

On the university campus, through his work, Bertram Windle saw the construction of a new chemical and physical laboratory, and a new biological laboratory. He re-conditioned and re-organised the medical school. Private benefaction was also enlisted in support of projects, which government assistance could not be obtained. Prominent among these gifts were the Honan Hostel, the Honan Scholarships and the Honan Chapel.

Windle’s services to the church and education were honoured by the Pope in 1909 when he was made a Knight, of St Gregory the Great, and he received an additional honour of knighthood from the King. Once he had revived and reorganised the Cork College he was once more able to devote himself to literary work, and several important books appeared from his pen. His work, The Church and Science (1917), was awarded the Gunning Prize by the Victoria Institute in 1919, the first time this distinction was ever awarded to a Catholic writer.

In 1917-18, Bertram Windle acted as a member of the Irish Convention, summoned by Lloyd George, to arrange, if possible, an agreed scheme of self-government. He accepted the invitation to become a member of this assembly with enthusiasm, believing a resolution between North and South could be found. He was disappointed at the inconclusive settlement. He also sought an Independent University for Munster. With the support of all the leading men of the Province and backed by resolutions of its lending bodies, a committee was formed in 1918 to further the project and bring it to fruition. Considerable progress was made, a draft bill was prepared and the support of the government obtained. However with the 1919 General Election and the rise of the new Sinn Féin party, the scheme lost national support.

Almost at the same time, in October 1919, Bertram Windle was offered the position of Professor of Anthropology at Saint Michael’s College, Toronto, the Catholic College of the University of Toronto. Discouraged by the lack of support for his Munster University idea, he took up the position and spent the next ten years in America. He died in 1929.

To be continued…

Captions:

627a. Queen’s College Cork, c.1900 (source: National Library, Dublin)

627b. Portrait of Betram Windle from the front cover of Ann and Dermot Keogh’s book on Bertram Windle

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent 

2 February 2012

Technical Memories (Part 4)

A Question of Life or Death

 “In this country, he went on, the question to which we invite your attention to is literally one of life or death; it is a question, which involves that other great question, whether we are going to stop that terrible drain of emigration, which has been sapping the strength of this country far too long…the technical education movement might itself be used to stem that tide of emigration”, Journalist on Bertram Windle, Industrial Conference at Cork, 21 November 1905.

The exhibit of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction’s at the Cork International Exhibition 1902 was deemed a great success. It enthused those involved in education down south to do as much as they could to rally support for the movement. In the years following the exhibition one of the key figures to emerge in Cork and to push the movement was Bertram Windle (1858-1929), who became the President of Queen’s College Cork in 1901. In setting out his background and work in Cork, at the outset one of his notable traits was his mass of interest and experience in different matters concerning education in not just Cork but across the country. There is also the matter of the energy he put into his various pursuits. On the study of Windle one is blessed with a myriad of archival material in UCC’s Boole library and great reviews of his life and times by John A. Murphy, and Ann and Dermot Keogh. There are also the myriad of obituaries, which appeared in local and national newspapers at the time of his death in July 1929.

By the time Staffordshire born, Bertram Windle arrived in Cork in 1901, he already had a notable academic career. Starting as a senior moderator in natural science, after qualifying he was appointed Demonstrator in Anatomy and Histology at the Irish College of Surgeons, and in the following year Pathologist at the General Hospital in Birmingham. In this city he was destined to spend twenty years of his active career. He soon became Professor of Anatomy in the Medical School, which at that time was affiliated to the Queen’s College as an Anglican theological seminary.

Shortly afterwards, Bertram Windle started a movement, which resulted in the transfer of the medical school to the undenominational Mason College where he became Dean of the Medical Faculty. His ability to lobby government transformed it subsequently into the University of Birmingham. During this time he converted to Catholicism and also married Madoline, daughter of W. Hudson of Birmingham. He began to write and publish a number of books on medical and topographical subjects. These books were the fruits of his historical and literary studies. His closing years in Birmingham were sadly marked by the death of his wife and two infant sons. He also had two daughters.

His association with the Catholic life of Birmingham, in which he played an active part as a member of the Society of the St Vincent De Paul and otherwise, brought him in contact with the Irish exiles in that city. He became a supporter of various Nationalist organisations as well as being keenly interested in the future of Ireland. He also began to take an interest in the wider aspects of education, having served on the Birmingham School Board, and also as a member of the Consultative Committee to the English Board of Education. These activities led to the Presidency of the Queen’s College, Cork, which was offered to him in 1901 by George Wyndham, then Unionist Chief Secretary for Ireland, and which after personal investigation, he accepted.

At that time Queen’s College Cork was little more than an excellent medical school, which created doctors, many of whom emigrated. The priorities for the college at this time was its low numbers, poor morale, lack of finance for development, the absence of any real university context, the unrepresentative nature of its ruling body, and general public indifference. The figure and voice of the new President began to change those issues. New projects for the development of the College were successfully launched. With the warm support and assistance of old students from all over the world, a student’s Club was erected, new faculties were inaugurated, new lecturers were appointed, and money for additional buildings squeezed from the reluctant Westminster Treasury.

Betram Windle’s activities during these years were by no means confined to Cork. As President of the Irish Technical Association, at the Industrial Conference in Cork in November 1905, he noted:

“The technical movement was open to every Irish man and woman; it knows nothing of political or religious difference, as that great meeting showed. We want to make the movement a practical one, and not a Cork conference…I ask whether it would not be a useful thing to bring about a closer touch between the Technical Education Committee and the Industrial Development Associations, which were springing up over the country…Delegates should attack their task. You are met with the object of doing a piece of work for yourselves and by yourselves, because you think it is a good thing that it should be carried out”.

To be continued…

Caption:

626a. Photograph of Bertram Windle (picture: UCC Library)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 26 January 2012

Technical Memories (Part 3)

Renaissance Ireland

Three years after the passing of the Irish and Agriculture and Technical Instruction Act 1899 and the beginning of its associated Department in Dublin, Cork showed leadership in providing ample space for the Department to showcase its work at the Cork International Exhibition in 1902. Held at the Mardyke, the exhibition showcased the cause of industrial revival in Ireland and all its actions, programmes, ongoing discussions and ideas.

One of the exhibition halls was given over to the exhibits of the Department of Agricultural and Technical Instruction and its details can be viewed in archival catalogues that have survived in Cork City Library. The decoration of its stalls were designed and executed by the students of the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, and were an adaptation of old Celtic designs. A special feature and a most notable piece of decorative work was an exact reproduction of the doorways and apse of Cormac’s Chapel at Cashel. This was and still is generally admitted to be the best example of Celtic Romansesque architecture in existence. Modelled in fibrous plaster by a Cork craftsman, the interior of the structure was used as a reception room and main office by the Department. This was situated just within the chief entrance to the Department’s section, which was through an elaborately beautiful openwork Celtic screen, designed and executed by the students of the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art.

The exhibits of the Departmental section were classified under various divisions: Firstly the agriculture section contained exhibits on dairying, cheese-making, horticulture, cottage gardening, forestry, bee-keeping, willow culture, poultry keeping, fruit and vegetable drying, and preserving, and some of the applications of technical instruction to these subjects. Indeed in the western section of the exhibition grounds there was a series of demonstration plots with different varieties of farm crops, calf feeding experiments, model byre and feeding sheds, a school garden and examples of cultivation suitable to labourers’ allotments.

The Department also established on the far west end of the exhibition grounds a working dairy, where there were exhibitions of butter and cheese manufacture based on the Scotch system, and one adapted to the means of the small farmer. The butter was made in hand churns by girls from the Munster Institute. About 80 gallons of milk were used in each day’s butter making, whilst the quality of milk used in the daily manufacture of cheese amounted to 120 gallons.

The second division showcased the application of art, science and technology and the work of technical schools and art schools, Irish, British and Continental. It featured decoration and works carried out by the art schools of Dublin, Belfast and Cork and a working boot-making exhibit under the management of the Cork Technical Institute. Two of the most popular features of the division and exhibition were a full sized science laboratory and workshop equipped and fitted up for twenty students each. There, through demonstrations by pupils of the Christian Brothers School or the North Monastery School and their supervisor Brother Dominic Burke, the Department’s programme for day secondary schools was displayed.

The third division presented illustrations of industries, which were deemed suitable for introduction into Ireland, and of some industries, which existed in the country already, and which were capable of improvement and development. The exhibits consisted of charts and models illustrative of the use of water power, and of the applications of electrical power and of gas and oil to small industries. There was a working textile exhibit containing a selection of modern looms and other improved machines intended to demonstrate means of developing the smaller woollen mills of Ireland. There were looms on display for the manufacture of carpets, and the weaving of ribbons, braces and belts. There were working exhibits illustrating the manufactory of pottery and glass, clock making, paper box making, straw hat making, Swiss wood-carving, the making of toys and dolls, artificial flower making, mosaic working, art enamelling and art metal working.

The fourth classification was fisheries, which covered illustrations of current methods used in sea and island fisheries of Ireland, and of manufactures connected with it and of developments, which could be introduced. Examples encompassed artificial propagation, trout farming, oyster culture, model hatcheries, boats and gear, net-making etc.

Next to the fisheries was the Statistics and Intelligence section, which presented charts, diagrams, maps, and publications and which demonstrated the economic circumstances of the country. Section six was about the country’s raw materials. Specimens of Irish minerals and ores were on display as well as clays suitable for pottery and sands applicable for the manufacture of white glass, and of building and ornamental stones.

Section seven was made up of the historic arts and crafts section. A loan collection was showcased and was illustrative of some artistic crafts, which formerly were practised with distinction in Ireland, and whose traditions could influence modern work. The collection included specimens of old Irish furniture, silver plate, cut glass, book bindings and reproductions of antique Celtic work. Indeed section eight involved the display of Celtic design and utilised Celtic elements of ornament with a view to reharnessing such designs in modern design.

To be continued…

Captions:

625a. Illustration of the central grounds of the Cork International Exhibition, 1902 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

625b. Illustration of the central grounds of the Cork International Exhibition, 1902 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article

Cork Independent, 19 January 2012

Technical Memories (Part 2)

Educating a Modern Nation

Between the years 1901 and 1908, classes in science and commercial subjects were held in three centres in Cork. The Crawford School of Art was the first. The second centre was in the Model Schools on Anglesea Street, and the third was at 13 Union Quay.

At the second centre in the Model Schools in Anglesea Street, permission was given in 1902 by the Commissioners of National Education to use six rooms in order to enable the Cork Technical Instruction committee to hold practical classes in engineering and also some building classes. In a large house at 13 Union Quay, purchased by the committee, classes were held in plumbing, carpentry, engineering theory and drawing office work, and in music.

Apart from classes in art and music, in the 1901-02 session the records show that 29 classes in science and commerce were under the Cork’s committee’s control. In the 1905-06 session the number had risen to 88 classes with 711 individual students, which highlights the development of work subsequent to the opening of new rooms. In 1908, the commercial classes were transferred to a School of Commerce in the South Mall.

Funding for national technical instruction schemes in the year 1902 amounted to £2,818 19s. 8d. and by the year 1911, the figure was £27,066. The funding coincided with the rapid rise in interest and demand for technical education. However as the 1911 reported, the amount of funding required to meet the demand was much higher and classes for many years in all forms of technical instruction were carried out in many Irish locations, like in Cork, where premises, in general, were not purpose built to host classes. The report noted (p.307):

“With the rapid increase in the number of students attending these schools and the steady progress towards higher and higher efficiency of the teaching in them, the inconvenience of temporary buildings began to be acutely felt. All classes of buildings were employed to meet the need. In one place a fever hospital, in another a disused jail, in others disused chapels were adapted, while in one case a technical school is to be found underneath a large water tank, which supplies the town with water. In many cases private houses have been pressed into the service. In rural districts, the case is worse still”.

Through the Technical Instruction Act of 1899, an outreach programme for secondary schools was also planned. This led to the drafting of a programme of experimental science and drawing suitable for secondary schools, including the subject of manual instruction for boys’ schools and the subject of domestic economy for girls’ schools.

During the 1900-1 session, there were three schools in Munster carrying on practical science classes: two at the Christian Brothers’ Schools in Cork City (through Brother Dominic Burke), and one at Waterpark College, Waterford. By 1902, there were 38 schools running classes. In these schools, about 1,400 pupils devoted three hours per week to science, and one hour per week to drawing; 350 pupils gave, in addition, two hours per week to manual instruction, and twenty pupils gave an additional period to household economy. Seventeen schools received financial aid from their local authorities and many others were promised assistance. Of the 38 schools, only twenty, up to 1902 were able to equip really satisfactory laboratories. During the 1901-02 school session, practical science in six schools had to be carried out on temporary benches in rooms where curtains were used to separate other classes from the science classes. In five other schools the rooms were too over crowded, or fitted with unsatisfactory makeshift tables. In a report in 1911 on “A Decade of Technical Instruction in Ireland”, it was noted that grants were allocated amounting to a total of £25,000 for the equipment of laboratories. Schools themselves provided very large sums for building purposes, and some grants were made from the funds of local authorities.

The question of the training of teachers in science was also a difficult matter, but summer training courses were established in the principal settlements in Ireland. They were held annually in the months of July and August and extended over a period of nearly one month. They were held in the Royal College of Science, the Metropolitan School of Art and elsewhere. Courses were also held in a number of convents, where, in order to meet the needs of the members of enclosed orders, classes were organised consisting of nuns from different convents. Written and practical examinations were held at the end of the summer courses and recognition extended to teachers as appropriate. Permanent recognition was not given in a subject until the teacher-student had attended and passed the examinations of five summer courses.

Courses were also held in rural science and school gardening, in hygiene and home nursing, in office routine and business methods, and in manual work, building construction and other relating building work. In national courses held in 1911, 621 teachers attended whilst the number of special instructors numbered 88. The Department’s teachers of domestic economy were taught in the Irish Training School of Domestic Economy in Stillorgan Dublin.

To be continued…

Caption:

624a. North Monastery Laser Show, January 2011 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 12 January 2012

Technical Memories (Part 1)

A Technical Act

This month coincides with the 100^th anniversary of the official opening of the building, which houses CIT Crawford College of Art and Design on Sharman Crawford Street, Cork. A series of events have been planned to mark the occasion. I’d like to share some articles on the history on the 1912 establishment of the building, which when it opened was called the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute, Cork.

The Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act in 1899 recognised the need for an Irish framework for technical education in an attempt to halt industrial and manufacturing decline. The Irish act came ten years after the British one was passed. The Irish work proceeded along four lines. Firstly, technical instruction was re-organised under local authorities. Secondly, a system of instruction was planned in experimental science, drawing, and manual work, and domestic economy in day secondary schools.  Thirdly, there was a focus on “operations bearing directly on industries”. Fourthly, higher technical instruction was re-organised in the Royal College of Science.

In extensive and richly descriptive journals, published by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction from 1901 to 1921, the steps are outlined that each city and town, in particular, pursued in order to comply with the aims of the act. The 1901 journal (now in the Boole Library, UCC) reveals that in Cork the necessary steps were taken to transfer the control of the classes from the General Committee appointed by the Corporation of Cork under the Public Libraries (Ireland) Acts of 1855 and 1877 to a Technical Instruction Committee of the Corporation. That consisted of 21 members, eight of whom were accepted, and the transfer was carried out in 1901.

There already existed in Cork the work of the central Technical Schools of Science and Art. These schools, better known in their day as the Crawford Municipal Technical Schools, were presented to the City of Cork by William Horatio Crawford in 1884. The buildings comprised sculpture and picture galleries (Crawford Art Gallery), library, lecture theatre, class rooms for art, and some rooms for Science and technology. However, the 1901 technical instruction committee deemed the buildings insufficient for their proposed central technical institute.

The School of Art had engaged in some excellent work, but the science classes, on the whole, were deemed to be “starved” in the 1901 report. On the industrial side of the school there were classes for lace-making and crochet. These classes were largely attended, and most of the designs were supplied by students of the design class in the School of Art. A key feature of the School of Art was the system of scholarships connected to it. In 1892 ten free studentships were offered to pupils of national schools in the city, admitting them to evening classes. A preliminary test examination in freehand enabled the committee to select the best candidates. In respect of scholarships, the Cork Industrial Exhibition of 1883 had an important influence on the school. It was decided that a surplus remaining from the fund, raised for the exhibition, should be devoted to the endowment of two scholarships of £50 each, to enable successful candidates to receive a year’s training at the Royal College of Art in South Kensington, London. At first these scholarships were limited to young men (industrial students or artisans), but in 1889-90, one of the scholarships was offered to female students. The scholarships were of great benefit to many of the successful candidates; several won scholarships in the College of Art, South Kensington, and obtained appointments under the London School Board.

Out of the first year’s Departmental grant in 1900, the Technical Instruction Committee allotted to different secondary schools in the city a sum of £1,600 for equipment and apparatus. In Cork, a head science master was also appointed, who was to render the same service as in Belfast in the organisation of the new technical instruction scheme. Mr O’Keeffe, a technological teacher, who had fifteen years’ experience at Finsbury Technological College, London, was appointed by the committee, with the approval of the Department.

In 1901 the committee appointed a deputation consisting of three members of the committee and the Head Science Master to visit the various centres of technical instruction in England and Scotland. There they gained an insight into the working of many excellent schemes in existence, particularly those, which afforded some comparison with the work practiced in Cork. The report of the deputation again strongly advised the retention of all available funds for the purpose of building a central Technical College, which should be for the benefit of the County as well as the City of Cork. A large part of the funds at the disposal of the committee at that time were allocated to various secondary institutions to equip science classes. The committee decided to wait until better financial conditions prevailed before discussing the erection of a central Technical College.

Between the years 1901 and 1908, classes in science and commercial subjects were held in three centres in Cork. The Crawford School of Art was the first. The second centre was in the Model Schools in Anglesea Street, and the third was at 13 Union Quay.

To be continued…

Caption:

623a. Crawford Municipal Technical Institute, Cork 1912 (source: Opening Souvenir Booklet)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article

Cork Independent, 22 December 2011

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 280/280)

The Weir of Destiny

Gougane Barra epitomises many values and traditions of Ireland’s past. Many of these aspects echo throughout the Lee Valley to the beginning of the tidal area of the river at the weir at the Lee Fields. The Lee Fields are an important cross-roads where the River Lee’s natural wilderness and the urban wilderness of the City collide.  The contrasts are extensive. One view is of the River Lee and its part of large flood plain, shown regularly when the fields are waterlogged during Ireland’s rainy conditions or when the dam at Inniscarra is forced to release reservoir water.

Different species of flora overhang the river as well as playful bird life dive for fish. The slow current but heavy volume of river water spills over the weir to meet the tidal water. The other view is of Cork’s and Ireland’s most impressive buildings such as the Waterworks, now the Lifetime Lab), the former Our Lady’s Hospital and Cork County Hall. Sites such as the Kingsley Hotel (formerly the site of the Lee Baths) and the new student accommodation are all located within view on the Lee fields and these reveal further insights into the past, present and future pulses of the city.

The weir at the Lee Fields provides a boundary of the River’s fresh water and tidal water. It is here that during all months that the die-hards swim in the Lee, where people walk their dogs, where fitness fanatics jog and stretch to couples discussing the day’s challenges or those who watch the waters flow. It is here that the River Lee splits into two creating a north and south channel, both channels encompass the city centre islands.  One can see the northern channel as struggles to carve an initial path for itself whilst the south channel seems to flow on with ease. St. Finbarre’s Cathedral overlooks the southern channel and stands to recall a journey’s end and a beginning for Cork’s Patron Saint.

Standing at the weir and attempting to sum up six years in the Lee Valley is a difficult one. One aspect I feels shines through is that cultural heritage, encompassing history and geography, was not something abstract but was part of a way of life. It has been interesting to view how stories and values have been handed down and how each successive generation has taken it in turn to hold a torch for some element of the past in the present. One aspect for certain is that the more I researched the places within the region or the more doors I knocked on, the more information came to the fore. What is also apparent is that everybody’s view of the world is different. Each person encountered has a unique relationship to the past and present. One recurring aspect is how much the region’s cultural heritage runs metaphorically in “people’s blood”. There was a large amount of people who noted, “my father used to say to me” or “my mother used to say”. That sense of inheritance or the passing down of cultural heritage is important.

            From fieldwork and interviews, local people focused in on several aspects of their locality’s cultural heritage. Each person brought their own insights into their place and its roots, its identity and how it is perpetuated or lives in the present. Many of the themes talked about overlapped, signifying their importance to their lives and the community as a whole. It is difficult to place a weighting on the most important aspects. The River Lee column tried to dabble in the architecture of heritage and its interaction with life in the River Lee valley. It is interesting to see evidence of the past everywhere in tangible and visible monuments but also in people’s thoughts and how it is used everyday in cultural activities. Nevertheless, the Lee Valley is evolving with all its unusual uniquenesses and all the pressures of human existence firmly to be seen. The spirit of the valley’s people is very important to the past and to the rich, current and future geographies and histories of the modern valley.

However, it is not only the scenery but also the character of the place and its people that have become engrained in my own memories. The Lee Valley as a place has stopped me, impressed me, made me question, wonder, dream, remember, be disturbed, explore and not forget –a whole series of reactions. With all that in mind, the article attempted to capture my explorations, the many moods and colours of a section of the River Lee Valley, to contemplate news ways of seeing, to rediscover the characters who have interacted with it, the major events and the minor common happenings and to construct a rich and vivid mosaic of life by and on River Lee. Above all I would like to think that the work on the River Lee is not what we have lost but what we have yet to find…

My thanks to all who followed the River Lee column; if you missed out on a column, check out the index at www.corkheritage.ie. Happy Christmas to everyone!

Caption:

622a. Lee Fields in sunnier climes (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 15 December 2011

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 279)

A Golden Chain

            “The monastery is enshrined deep in the hearts of the people of Cork. The historian and the archaeologist love the place, too, for its many interesting associations; while the beauty of the country attracts the general tourist. The changing hands of time have not been at rest during the twelve hundred years that separate us from St Finbarr. On the contrary, they have been increasingly active. Storms and revolutions have rolled over the land. The piety and learning, implanted here by Patrick and Finbarr, and the other saints and scholars of the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries, had to pass through the ordeal of fire and sword (Southern Star, 3 October 1914, p.3)

This article arose out of the above quote, that a place such as Gougane Barra has survived through many ages of turmoil; that there is one thing having a physical monument, but these monuments must also be invested with human thought them to make them relevant to people’s lives. Indeed, reading newspapers such as the Southern Reporter about the nature and content of the Gougane Barra ceremonies every September/ October for the twentieth century reveals one of the many ways to enter the ‘mindscape’ of Gougane Barra. One of the aspects that shine out is the stability of the site’s essence in a world of change.

For example in early October 1914 the message by local parish priest Fr. James O’Leary asked the people to respect those whom “God had given and who in a special manner evidenced the ordinances by raising up such saints as Patrick and the other saints who had done so much for religion in Ireland…it was the duty of us all to honour the saint [St. Finbarr], to emulate his example in order to share his glory”. But these messages are placed against what else was happening in the world. Reading the Cork Examiner in early October 1914, World War I was in its first year. In October, 33,000 Canadian troops departed for Europe, the largest force to ever cross the Atlantic Ocean at the time. Belgium fell to German troops.

Similarly, in 1941 during the time, when the German invasion of the Soviet Union was in full swing, in early October 1941, the Southern Star reports on the sermon of Rev. L. Kelleher of Farranferris, Cork City; he said that the ceremony was the “occasion for thanksgiving to God and St. Finbarr for the hermitage of faith and Catholic life in Cork City and County and intercession to God, and to pray for the spirit of St Finbarr, for the grace to good works and to pray in the spirit of St Finbarr and our Catholic fore-fathers. The solution of social evils and modern difficulties to our Catholic precepts, in giving full play to the principles of charity towards God and love for our neighbours”.

The Southern Star for 2 October 1954 (p.1) records Rev. C. Lynch, C.C. Inchigeela preaching in Irish and in English; “we have come in pilgrimage out of our sense of devotion to God and in revered memory of the man who chose this place for his cloister that he might be free from the turmoil of the world and commune in peace with his God, the very atmosphere of the lake and mountain breathe peace because the peace of God is here”. The sermon was pitched against the backdrop of the Cold War and negotiations across international media of the USA, Great Britain, France and USSR agreeing to end occupation of Germany.

Ten years later the Southern Star, on the 3 October 1964 (p.10) reported on the sermon of Rev. L. O’Regan, C.C., Ballingeary, who noted: “There is a golden chain linking our pilgrimage there today with life and times of Ireland’s Golden Age. This strong and ancient golden chair is unique in the annals of Christendom, and a source of admiration and pride to any Irish Catholic who pauses to consider it. There never have been any weak links in the chain that link us here today with the faith of St Finbarr”. During that month Martin Luther King was awarded a Nobel peace prize for his work.

This year on 25 September 2011 Fr. Donal Cotter at the ceremonies, I thought, gave a thought provoking sermon. He noted “Finbarr found in the nature of the place and in the nature of God a unique combination, a unique relationship where his restless soul could find a level of peace, but he was never sure when that restless soul was finding peace, because he kept travelling further on and back again. And because of that, that represents to me the idea that the soul never truly rests until it rests with God…So while he found rest here, his ultimate point was not found in this world, but in the next. We have come here today, always finding something here ourselves, whatever that may be, a moment of solitude, a prayer for someone who is unwell, because people do the rounds here for those, the ending of a long journey, the finding of something within yourself that will help you move on from here.”

To be continued…

Caption:

621a. Bishop John Buckley greeting pilgrims, Gougane Barra Sunday Ceremonies 2011 (Picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article

Cork Independent, 8 December 2011

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 278)

Creating Ireland’s First National Park

In 1960, the national element of Gougane Barra was once again invested in when it was chosen as Ireland’s first national park. In the late 1950s, plans were drawn up to open up some of Ireland’s particularly attractive forest blocks as national forest parks. Up to that point in time, investment in state forests amounted to £22.5 million. The investment aimed to achieve maximum utilisation of the land, that patches of land, which could not be used economically for pasture or tillage, could be be devoted to timber production The forestry division in 1963 provided direct employment for 4,500 men, 330 of whom were employed in Cork and Kerry forests.  In 1963, the State planting rate was 25,000 acres per annum.

Apart from the economic advantages, the state also sought to improve local scenery affected by forestry plantations. In this light, it was decided to develop a number of national parks, providing new recreational facilities and contributing to the development of the tourist industry. Gougane Barra in Co. Cork and the Derrybawn and Lugduff properties of Glendalough were selected as the first two areas of development, or the Republic’s first forest parks. A grant was secured in September 1960 to create a new road into the heart of Gougane’s forestry scheme. The layout of the park officially began in late December 1961.
A journalist with the Irish Independent on 1 January 1963, (p.20) noted of Gougane Barra’s forestry:
“Up to recently, on the mainland, it was possible to drive only a short distance past the island. There the road ended. A narrow path continued for some distance towards the boundary of the forest nearly a mile away. It was here deep in the valley, that the forestry division of the Department of Lands began planting about 24 years ago. Today, the trees, including magnificent spruce, larch and silver fir, are tall and stately. It is here that the national park is taking shape.”

The idea of opening the forest to the public first was put forward by Colonel Roland H. Packwood who was engaged as a consultant to the Irish Forestry Division in 1937. He formed the idea from his experience with the British Forestry Commission, in which he served as Chief Engineer. As such he was responsible for the 400 forests in Britain, and when he retired he was invited to prepare a report on the afforestation needs of Ireland. For three years leading up to 1961, he visited Ireland and on one occasion suggested the idea of a national park to the Minister for Lands Mayo Fianna Fáil TD Micheál Ó Móráin. Colonel Packwood had also visited forestry areas in India, New Zealand and Australia. Full support was given by the Minister. In 1957 Micheál Ó Móráin was made Minister for the Gaeltacht. He was a native Irish speaker. He was appointed Minister for Lands by Taoiseach Seán Lemass, in 1959 and was re-appointed to the Gaeltacht portfolio in 1961. He remained in these two Departments until 1968.

Work in Gougane Barra began under the supervision of engineer Mr K McGarry, Mr Con Lynch, Divisional Engineer, Cork and Mr D. O’Driscoll, forester, Ballingeary. Construction of an 18 foot wide link road from Gougane Barra to the forest began early in 1961. Inside the forest, a circular loop road, over 2 ½ miles long was made. This was the difficult part of the project. The road in many places had to be cut out of rock using dynamite. By the time the road was completed, more than 10, 000 tons of rock and soil had been moved. All this had to be accomplished without major damage to valuable trees. At one point the road passes over two small streams, one of which comes down from Nead An Iolair, the source of the Lee.

A visit by the Irish Independent journalist in early 1962 noted of the area’s history:

“In a recent visit we left the unfinished road and climbed further up the mountain to a spot where one can straddle the famous river, one foot on each bank. This place has a niche on history too. The road at another point passes at the base of a deep ravine. It had been seen by few people because of it’s previous inaccessibilty. Known locally as Poll, or the Black Glen, it was used once by the West Cork Flying Column in their famous trek to avoid encirclement by British forces during the War of Independence. The column led by famed Tom Barry, was being confined in the valley of Coomhola on the Kerry side of the mountains.  A British pincer movement was an all-out drive to smash the fighting men of West Cork. All escape routes were cut off. A local guide led the column in a night escape across treacherous, boggy land.”

Gougane Barra Forest Park was officially opened on 20 September 1966. The Irish Press reported of Micheál Ó Móráin, Minister for Lands, opening the forest park and sharing the news that new national forest parks were proposed for Glendalough, Co. Wicklow and at Lough Key, Co. Roscommon (see www.coilte.ie for more on these).

To be continued…

Caption:

620a. The ‘baby’ River Lee in Gougane Barra Forest Park (picture: Kieran McCarthy)