Kieran’s Our City, Our Town,

Cork Independent, 24 February 2011

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 249)

A Disappearing Memory

Following the laying of the foundation stone of Cork City Hall on 9 July 1932 and the luncheon that followed, Eamonn DeValera travelled by motor car to the Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair on the Straight Road. He was greeted by Mr. P.J. Dolan, manager of the Fair and Mr. J.R. Hainsworth, organising manager.

DeValera was eager to inspect the agricultural section. Here he spoke with Mr. D.J. Curran, Agricultural Instructor with Mr. C.F. Moloney, a like official of the County Cork Committee of Agriculture. Curran conducted his explanations of the various plots of seasonal crops entirely in Irish. The fruit and flower departments were equally well appreciated by DeValera who commented positively on its immense value as an educational exhibit for visiting agriculturalists. The brother of the architect Mr.  E. O’Flynn, who was responsible for the entire architectural at the exhibition, was presented to the President at the entrance to the Hall of Commerce. DeValera practically visited each stand in the different exhibition halls and was particularly interested in those promoting home manufactures, conversing with attendants and gaining detailed information about their products.

The summer and autumn of 1932 brought great national attention to the Fair. Certainly the amusements gave Cork people a place to be entertained. The impact of the various fair trade stands is unknown. Certainly during the four months of its existence, people came from over Ireland and the wider world to visit the exhibition. Whereas, one can, through local and national press, articulate that many people walked through the fair stands, how many people bought goods later is unknown. Certainly, the entire venture was a great example of what could be done to engage the general public in the opportunities available in the Irish Free State and framing the national ideals of such a title.

By October 2 1932, the last day of the Fair thousands had come through the gates of the Fair. The Evening Echo highlighted that hundreds of people took advantage of the last opportunity to see the Fair and the grounds were thronged throughout the last day. Buses plied between the city and the Fair and extra buses were put on. A big excursion arrived from Waterford to swell the crowds. During the day, a clay target shoot was held. It was the last shoot of several that were held during the Fair season at the site.

A carnival was arranged to make the closing night enjoyable. Any visitors who arrived in fancy dress were admitted free into the exhibition halls and on to all the amusements. A further attraction was the ‘popular’ Mystery Man, who was present in the amusement park, distributing cash presents to those lucky to attract his attention. Followers of music heard the Butter Exchange Band play a programme from 7pm until 10pm on the bandstand. The grounds were lit up by rows of tiny overhead lights of the national colours of green, white and orange.

There was an intention, as noted in the Cork Examiner and Irish Press that the Fair committee wanted to run the event gain in 1933. Hence in the winter months of 1932, they approached the government to secure a grant of £3,000 to run same. However, by that time, the committee seemed to be up against a number of difficulties. The ESB had dismantled their plant, which meant the committee would have to pay again to get one installed at the site. In December, the winding up of the fair also led to some investors wishing to be paid. These claims ended up in the High Court. I was unable to find out what was the eventual outcome. However the fair was not held in 1933 and probably the bad publicity affected the search for investors and the positive energy needed to push forward such a venture.

Another problem was that by the end of the fair season that a number of the fair’s exhibition buildings were the property of other institutions. In July 1932 according to the minutes of the Munster Agricultural society, their members attended an auction at the industrial fair grounds at the Carrigrohane Straight Road. They purchased the Industrial Hall for the sum of £220 and six kiosks at £6-10-each. The society was further contacted by city manager Philip Monahan who wanted to use the building in conjunction with a proposed new public park at Carrigrohane. He wished for the society to leave the building there till spring of the following year but the committee disagreed with proposal. The building was dismantled and brought to the Show grounds and erected. The steel framing left over was sold off in February 1934. A concrete pathway was created from the Cork showgrounds entrance to the grounds through the quadrangle to the new hall that became known as the Lee Hall.

In the years following the fair, a city dump or landfill was located on the site. This landfill remained in place for a number of decades before the Kinsale Road landfill came into being. That perhaps also added to the memory of the Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair disappearing out of Cork’s public history. The site is now to become the city’s new park and ride venue.

To be continued…

Captions:

579a. Portraits of J.R. Hainsworth and P.J. Dolan from an official guide to the Fair (source: Cork Museum)

579b. Lee Hall of Cork Showgrounds, formerly the Industrial Hall of the 1932 Fair (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 

Cork Independent, 17 February 2011 

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 248)

Irish Unity and City Hall 

“We are in the midst of ruins of various sorts, and it is time that the people-especially people with the capacity of the people of Cork had shown – to look ahead and take stock of the present needs and of the prospects that lie ahead for the people who will make use of them and take proper advantage of them” (Eamonn DeValera at the luncheon celebrating the laying of the foundation stone of City Hall, 9 July 1932).

Three weeks after the opening of the Savoy Cinema, another important Cork building began its life. On the 9 July 1932 the foundation stone of the new Cork City Hall was laid by Eamonn DeValera, newly elected President of the Executive Council or the Government of Ireland. The Cork Examiner gave ample coverage to the event. It was DeValera’s second visit to Cork in the space of a fortnight; he had also visited the Industrial Fair on the Straight Road. The ceremony for City Hall took place on the site of the former City Hall, which was demolished in 1929. It was burned out in December 1920 during the ‘Burning of Cork’ and for many years, the site was one of civic controversy. The Cork Examiner writes about how the compensation allowed by the British government for the destruction of the old premises was deviated to social housing schemes. This was driven by the then City Manager Philip Monahan who was appointed in 1924 when the elected councilors could not agree on issues and the Council was disbanded. In 1929, a new council was re-elected and they sought a new civic building.

When President DeValera arrived at the city hall site he was greeted by a large gathering of the citizens, who had not only thronged the large space within the hoardings and outside on the street. Catholic Boy scouts and Civic Garda were under pressure to maintain control over the enthusiastic crowds. On DeValera’s arrival, he was led onto the city hall site. The foundation stone was suspended from a pulley block and lowered into position, and with the aid of silver trowel, with an ivory handle (now in the Lord Mayor’s Chamber, City Hall), he performed the function of laying the stone on the foundation. Then in a few words in Irish, the President declared the stone laid. The band of the Greenmount Industrial Schools then played the national anthem.

Then followed the blessing of the stone by Rev. Monsignor Patrick Sexton, Dean of Cork who was representing the Bishop. In passing, the corkandross.org website reveals that Monsignor Sexton was Parish Priest of St. Patrick’s Church in 1932 and one of those who introduced the Catholic Boy Scout and Catholic Girl Guide movements to Cork.

As President DeValera was about to walk away from the foundation stone, a voice behind him shouted “Give us a word, Eamonn”. The President, addressing the gathering, said: “All I wish to say is that I hope that with this stone we are laying the foundation for renewed prosperity for your city”. The President subsequently motored to the Victoria Hotel where he was entertained to lunch, with the Lord Mayor, presiding. As the President passed into the hotel the no.2 Army Band played the National Anthem and a military guard of honour presented arms.

The Lord Mayor at the luncheon welcomed the President and company and referred to the deaths of Lord Mayor’s MacCurtain and McSweeney and the circumstances in which the old city hall was destroyed. He linked the laying of the foundation stone of the new building to both individuals and how they strived to lay moral foundations of unity in the Irish nation. DeValera in his speech referred to them as comrades in the Irish Republican Army. He was imprisoned with Terence McSweeney so he knew him well and appreciated “his wonderful strength of character he possessed throughout his life”. In coming to lay the foundation stone of the new City Hall in Cork, he hoped that it would be “symbolic of the prosperity and the future glory of the country, to come as a result of the sacrifices, which had been made by the men like those to whom the Lord Mayor had referred to”.

DeValera continued and referred to the future prospects for Ireland:

“There was great work for the Irish people to do not only at home but elsewhere for they were scattered throughout the world; The world needed the efforts of the Irish people who had already done wonderful work; and had reached high ideals in positions throughout the world. The Irish people today had a wonderful chance for a great spiritual leadership in a world which needed restoration from the ruin of social order to which it had fallen. If only they could push these efforts in the right way there was a big chance for the Irish people to set a great example to the rest of the world. The Irish people had a wonderful chance to experiment in bringing about the right social order in a world where it had fallen to pieces”. Following the luncheon, the entire party proceeded to a tour of the fair grounds.

To be continued…

Captions:

578a. Laying of the foundation stone of Cork City Hall (source: Cork Corporation diary, 1932; Cork City Library)

578b. Architectural drawing of Cork City Hall, 1932 (source: Cork Corporation diary, 1932; Cork City Library)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article

Cork Independent, 10 February 2011

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 247)

Pictures at the Savoy

The summer of 1932 was a very eventful one for Cork. Apart from the Fair on the Carrigrohane Straight Road, Corkonians were also to witness the opening of the Savoy cinema on St. Patrick’s Street. That brought with it a sense of a modern dynamic like the fair that also captured the public imagination.

The cinema was another very popular form of entertainment in the 1920s. Indeed, it is difficult to disconnect the work of building a new Irish Free State and not perhaps comment on the influence of globalised entertainment venues like the cinema. For example, the Pavillion Cinema on St. Patrick Street opened in 1924 and popular silent movies shown there included Charlie Chaplain, Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy. In 1928 the first ‘talkies’ (films with speech) were made. In the post Wall Street collapse era of the early 1930s, the uncertainty of the time resulted in widespread popularity of fantastical and escapist cinema fare.

Newspaper coverage in the Cork Examiner on the 13 May 1932 has two pages full of insightful facts and figures about the Savoy cinema. The contractors of Cork’s Savoy cinema were the well-known firm of Meagher and Hayes, who were also responsible for the building of the Dublin Savoy cinema, which inspired the venture in Cork. The Cork building was completed in seven months from the time the foundations were laid. The labourers, skilled and unskilled, numbering about three hundred were all local hands with the exception of the workers of a few contractors. A total of 15,000 concrete blocks and close on 600 tons of steel work were used in the completion of the project.

The front of the cinema was executed in Hathern Faience of various colours. Its light-reflecting surface made flood lighting especially effective. It was manufactured and fixed by the Hathern Station Brick and Terra Cotta Co. Ltd or Loughborough, England, whose materials were extensively used for cinemas, hotels, business premises, shops, churches, etc. The cement used during the building of the premises was supplied by Norman McNaughton and Sons, Union Quay, Cork, and W.J. Hickey, Maylor Street, Cork and Charles Tennant and Co. Ltd., Cork and Dublin. The paints and distemper used were manufactured by Harringtons and Goodlass Wall, Ltd., Shandon Paint Works, Cork. Their paint was also used for the fair buildings in the Straight Road.

The Savoy comprised modern cinema architecture of its day from ventilation systems to phone systems to the projection room. The lighting was run off the cinema’s own plant, built by J.D. Carey and Sons, electrical contractors, 58, South Mall. The decorative scheme was designed and carried out by a London firm which had a worldwide reputation for furnishing and decoration on the “atmospheric style”. The aim was to create as the Cork Examiner suggests the “realms of romance, colour and sunshine of Northern Italy”. In the auditorium, the tableaux and scenic work were painted by well-known artist, Mr. Oswell Jones. Quaint archways, trees, fountains to images of magnificent scenes of the Grand Canal at Venice were painted on the walls.

Processioned seating assured that the occupier of every seat had an unobstructed view of the ‘picture’, projected on to the 40 feet long by 30 feet high screen. The well-known Cork firm, the Munster Arcade, completed the 2,500 luxuriously upholstered seats in moquette and as the journalist notes: “the colours being a perfect blending of grey, rose and blue”. The carpeting was done by this firm and the entire floor space was covered with Walton carpets in soft shades of rose. The Munster Arcade supplied the stage curtains (and their borders were of heavy satin in shades of gold and tango) as well as other curtains in other spaces in the cinema. The same firm also did the order for the uniforms and caps for the male attendants.

The opening ceremony was officially performed by the Lord Mayor, Cllr. Frank J. Daly. He spoke about Cork people having confidence in themselves and in their country. The resident manager was introduced, Mr. J. McGrath, a native of Roscommon. The General Manager was Mr. F.C. Knott, who was long established in Dublin as an entertainment provider. Mr. Hugh Margey was Catering Manager. Miss Kathleen O’Brien was the Restaurant Manager. For the operation of the Crompton organ in the auditorium, Mr Frederick Bridgeman was engaged. He had a nationwide reputation and was the Savoy’s top live entertainer for nearly thirty years. The attendants were recruited locally and employment was given to about seventy people. The Studios of Rank, United Artists, 20^th Century Fox and Columbia supplied new films to the Savoy and the programme changed twice a week on Sundays and Wednesdays.

In 1953, the Cork Film International Festival, originally called ‘An Tostal’, began. For one week each year, the Savoy was home to the festival. By 1970, the character of the Savoy was starting to fade. The departure of Fred Bridgeman signalled the end of the era of the cinema organ and the grand sing-a-long shows. In July 1973, the Savoy cinema closed. Today, part of the Savoy is a shopping unit complex with the old cinema site a night club.

To be continued….

 Captions:

 577a. Advertisement from Dowdens celebrating the Savoy’s opening (source: Cork City Library)

 577b. Façade of Savoy on St. Patrick’s Street, February 2011 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article 

Cork Independent, 3 February 2011

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 246)

Building a National Identity

The Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair 1932 aimed to build on aspects of Ireland’s national identity through staging a spectacle to draw the viewer in and empower people to buy and support all levels of what it meant to be Irish in the Free State. Apart from Irish products, the Fair’s specially built art gallery showed oil-paintings, water-colours and black and white drawings, all by Irish artists sent in by the Cork School of Art and the Cork Technical School.

Listening to the music from the band stand, one could hear music that encompassed the idea of nation building. The No.1 Army Band played there a number of occasions in the first fortnight of the exhibition in May 1932. Their repertoire on the 17 May 1932, for example, included the following: March from Tannhauser and other pieces by Wagner, the overture from Orpheus by Offenbach, Hungarian Rhapsody by Reindel, a selection of music from Die Fiedemaus by Strauss, Pas des Fleurs by Delibes, Hansel and Gretel by Humperdinck, the tango from Expressions by Brasse, overture from Masanillo by Auber, Reminiscences of Offenbach by Conrad and a selection of music from Faust by Gonnod. Historian Benjamin Curtis in a book on nationalist composers and nation building argues that music can create nations. From the role of folk sources in nationalist music, to the inspirations of landscape, language, and myth, to composers’ aspirations for their music, the idea of homeland can be stirred in the listener’s mind.

Apart from the band stand, the Fair’s ‘Concert Hall’ could accommodate 1,500 people and hosted many concerts for Irish born singers. In mid May, Mr. W.F. Watts, a Waterford tenor, gave a recital with the first performance of the ‘Exhibition Orchestra’. It was a specially formed orchestra and included many popular Cork musicians led by Miss D.E. Foley. It was conducted by Jonathan Thomas Horne who by 1932 had amassed huge career experience in playing organs and creating choirs in places such as Passage, Shandon, Dundalk and Kilkenny. Originally a Cork native, he was organist in St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral for 55 years (1922-1977).

Fashion parades were also held in the Concert Hall, which were organised by Messrs. Dowden & Co. of Cork. The press argues that at least 2,000 people attended one such event on the 9 June 1932, which showcased Irish clothing manufactures and styles of the day. The Greenmount Industrial School Band entertained the viewers during the fashion shows.

The organising committee of the fair also drew on other types of amusements that were common place across the world in similar fairs. Senses of carnival spirit, escape, magic, fantasy, otherworldliness, illusion, drama, absurdity, the dangerous, a world of role playing and the idea of the world as a lesson were represented. In a distinctly separate section to the display halls, the amusement section included a Cairo street with fifteen makeshift shops and in them Egyptians demonstrated their crafts. Walking along further one came to the ‘Waxworks’ building and the ‘Palais de Danse’ (a type of dance studio). Near the ‘Waxworks’ was a ‘Monkey House’ with over 150 monkeys populating the building.

There was a large, square building described as having a “rather freakish appearance”. The visitors looked in through cavern-like apertures in the sides and saw what resembled a water tank, only that this one was elongated to form a veritable maze. The tank held about two feet of water. One got into a boat, electrically driven from overhead wires and went sailing round and round the tank. The length of the waterway was half a mile.

Close by there was a hall for distorting mirrors and another for a big-scale version of the wheel-of-fortune. Below these was a large marquee known as the ‘Bavarian Restaurant’ and within which were to be concerts given by Swizz yodlers. There was an ‘Indian Temple‘ and an ‘African Village’ where fifty Africans worked at their expert trades plus gave the public an idea of their way of life. The latter group presented their work in some of Cork’s disused trams that had been taken off their rails in December of 1931. There was also a series of Tunisian stalls attended by natives. Tunisia, at that time, was under French protectorate but had a semi-independent monarchy. In the 1930s a campaign for independence from French rule began.

At the other end of the fair grounds was the ‘Ghost Train’, at the end of which the participant got their photograph taken. Next door was the ‘Wall of Death’, a large cylindrical and steel structure inside which a rider on a motor cycle rode around a vertical wall fifteen feet high. In a press interview with the manager of the Death Drivers Mr. E.T. Mysal, he noted that ‘Speedy’ Jack Sales and ‘Cyclone’ Morley were riding for nearly five years and had by 1932 visited eleven countries. They also held a ‘Wall of Death dance’ in the Arcadia or on the Lower Road, Cork, the proceeds of which went to a local charity. The Arcadia or ‘Arc’ opened its doors first in 1924 as an ice-skating rink but by the 1930s had transformed into a popular dance hall.

To be continued…

 Captions:

576a. Postcard Sketch of View of Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair, 1932, Carrigrohane Straight Road, Cork (source: Cork Museum, my thanks to Stella Cherry and Dan Breen)

576b. Photograph still of the Fair’s ‘Concert Hall’ from British Pathe (source: www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=3001)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town

Cork Independent, 27 January 2011

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 245)

A National Shop Window

It must have been an impressive site. Certainly the daily newspaper reports in the Cork Examiner and Evening Echo for the summer of 1932 record an energetic effort to draw attention to the aims of the Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair. Adjacent the Straight Road was over 83 acres of ideas promoting Ireland and all its different parts from native industries to highlighting the Irish way of life. All went a long way in trying to define the emerging national spirit of the Irish Free State. Even the grounds were lit up by rows of tiny overhead lights of national colours of green, white and yellow.

It is quite apparent from the newspaper coverage of the time that the fair committee worked hard to get the crowds in and came up with different themes and ideas in that regard.  Over 50,000 people in the first two weeks visited in the first two weeks of the six month run. Conscious of the fact that the fair was on the edge of the City, a new wide footpath was built along the Straight Road. The motor car visitor could park in an organised car park, which accommodated upwards of 3,000 cars under the supervision of the Fair authorities. Special exhibition buses, operated by the Irish Omnibus Company, ran from the city centre to and from the grounds. Special trains running from the western road terminus of the Muskerry Light Railway ran in the evenings to the site and back again.

Efforts were made to bring people from as far as possible. In May, an official of the fair went to meet all the liners coming in at Cobh and spoke to the visitors to get them to visit the fair. By early June, wireless messages were sent to all the liners as they entered Cork harbour. On the 11 June, the following message was sent out today to the M.V. Britannic “Executive Council of Ireland’s National Exhibition, at Cork extends a hearty welcome to all visitors, and co-ordially invite them to see Ireland’s greatest industrial enterprise, covering over 83 acres of exhibits.”

Excursions from Irish towns were encouraged. For example on the 7 May 1932, 240 people from Navan visited. For the 29 June 1932, which was a church holiday, a large number of excursions from towns were arranged from Naas, from West Cork taking in people from Bantry, Skibbereen, Clonakilty, from Kerry taking in people from Tralee and Kenmare and from East Cork, taking in people from Midleton and Youghal. The 29 June was also the day that Eamonn DeValera came to Cork to lay the foundation stone of the new City Hall (opened officially in 1936, celebrating 75 years this year). A number of cross-channel trips to the exhibition were arranged as well as day excursions from England. Most of the UK visitors were from London, Bristol and South Wales.  On the 15 June, 30 English tourists came over on the Inishfallen in the early morning taking advantage of the cheap day excursions arranged by the City of Cork Steam Packet Company. Information was also recorded that a number of people from South Africa, New Zealand and Australia visited the grounds, took a keen interest in the Irish goods displayed and made arrangements for samples to be sent home for them.

There was a miniature railway that was installed to take children around the grounds of the Fair. However in May at least 75 per cent of its occupants were adults. A children’s nursery or crèche was managed for ‘tired’ children. They could be left in the care of skilled attendants at the crèche. The crèche was administered with the co-operation of the Cork Child Welfare League. Huge efforts were also made to engage school going children in the Fair project. As essay competition on Irish Free State had alot of entries from Cork Schools and presentations were made by the then Minister of Education, Mr. Patrick Ruttledge. He, nine years previously had been appointed as Minister of Home Affairs, or Eamonn DeValera’s substitute when DeValera was arrested in July 1923 (released in 1924).

The 8 June 1932 was a special day for school children. Special arrangements were made with the railway authorities for reduced fares from all stations throughout the country. On the same day, the fair committee organised a sports display with drills taking place in the sports ground attached to the fair. It was led by a Mr. Bygrove. On the 18 June, a national school sports day was held with hundreds of children from most of the city schools taking part. They assembled in the city centre, were accompanied by bands and marched in processional order to the fair grounds. They carried banners with such inscriptions as “Buy Irish”, “Come to the Fair” and “An t-Aonach Abu”. Indeed on the grounds of the dair as well was a kiosk where a fluent Irish speaker answered any questions in Irish. In that kiosk a visitor’s book was kept where the signature of the Irish-speaking visitors were gathered. It aimed to show the extent of influence and earnestness of the supporters of the language movement throughout the country.

To be continued…

Wanted: Any stories of the 1932 Fair, photographs, memorabilia? Thanks

Captions:

575a. Media ad for Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair, May 1932 (source: Cork City Library)

575b. Ad for Johnson and Perrott Ltd., in the Fair Catalogue, 1932 (Source: Cork Museum)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town,

Cork Independent,

 20 January 2011

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 244)

The Bantry Band

It is amazing the tangents one is presented with when studying the Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair 1932 especially its deeper roots in linking to Ireland’s past. Last week, the column talked about the chequered career of William Martin Murphy and the founding of the Irish Independent, which was represented at a stand on the grounds of the fair.

I mentioned in passing William’s interest in politics and his MP role. To flesh that out, Denis Kirby emailed me to highlight that William was one of “The Bantry Band” of young men from Bantry who were all Westminster MPs. Daniel Sullivan, a house painter from Bantry, was the founder the Bantry Temperance band, an actual musical band of about 25 members. They took part in Daniel O’Connell’s famous “monster meeting” in Skibbereen in June 1843. The “monster” meeting comprised many thousands of supporters attending to campaign for the repeal of the Act of Union and for a separate Dublin parliament. However contemporary accounts of the numbers of people present in Skibbereen to hear O’Connell’s case for repeal vary from 75,000 upwards.

Support for Daniel O’Connell’s aspirations was strong in West Cork. The Bantry Band was in time a title given to the group of young men from Bantry who all went on to be MPs in Westminster at around the same time. Amongst those well-known in the Bantry Band and who went on to contribute to the Irish political landscape were Tim Harrington, Thomas Healy, Tim Healy, Alexander Martin Sullivan and his brother Timothy Daniel Sullivan. Tim Harrington (1851-1910) was secretary and chief organiser of the Irish National League (INL), supporter of Charles Stewart Parnell and was largely responsible for planning the agarian plan of campaign in 1886. The campaign was a strategy adopted in Ireland between 1886 and 1891, co-ordinated by Irish politicians to help tenant farmers, stand up against mainly absentee and rack-rent landlords. Bad weather in 1885 and 1886 also caused crop failure, making it difficult to pay rents. The Land War of the early 1880s was rekindled after evictions increased and outrages became widespread.

Thomas Healy (1854–1924) was a solicitor and Member of Parliament (MP) for North Wexford. His younger brother Tim Healy (1855–1931) was a prominent Irish nationalist. Later he became a Home Rule MP in Westminster and led a faction of the party after it split in 1891. He became the first Governor-General of the Irish Free State.

The sons of the founder of the band, Daniel Sullivan, were Alexander Martin Sullivan (1830-1884) and Timothy Daniel Sullivan (1827-1914) both Irish nationalists, journalists and politicians. In time, they owned The Nation newspaper an Irish nationalist weekly newspaper. In 1888 Timothy Daniel Sullivan started The Irish Catholic, not William Martin Murphy as I alluded to last week. In an email to me by Timothy’s great grandson Denis Kirby, he noted also that Timothy (1827-1914) was also well known as a writer, poet and songwriter. His better known songs were “God Save Ireland” and “Deep in Canadian Woods”. “God Save Ireland” was used as an unofficial Irish national anthem for Irish nationalists from the 1870s to the 1910s. During the Parnellite split it was the anthem of the anti-Parnellite Irish National Federation. The song was first published on the 7 December 1867 and was inspired by Edmund O’Meager Condon’s speech from the dock when he stood trial along with Fenian members Michael Larkin, William Phillip Allen, and Michael O’Brien (‘Manchester Martyrs’) for the murder of a British police officer. After the three were executed, the song was adopted as the Fenian movement’s anthem. The song shares its tune with “Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!” (The Prisoner’s Hope)” a song reportedly written in 1864 by George F. Root in response to conditions in the Andersonville Prison, a Confederate prison during the American Civil War. “God Save Ireland” was the unofficial national anthem of the Irish Republic and the Irish Free State from 1919 to 1926, when it was displaced by the official Amhrán na bhFiann.

Interestingly and to go off on another tangent Amhrán na bhFiann was composed by Peadar Kearney and Patrick Heeney, and the original English lyrics were authored (as “A Soldiers’ Song”) by Peadar. It was used as marching song by the Irish Volunteers and was sung by rebels in the General Post Office (GPO) during the Easter Rising of 1916. Its popularity rose among rebels held in Frongoch internment camp after the Rising, and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the Irish War of Independence (1919–21). It was translated into Irish in 1923 by Liam Ó Rinn. On 12 July 1926, W.T. Cosgrave, President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State agreed to adopt its as the National Anthem. It was played with prominence at the opening of the 1932 fair in Cork.

As another important tangent, a remarkable number of Timothy Daniel Sullivan’s descendants were people of outstanding distinction: his son Timothy was Chief Justice of Ireland from 1936 to 1946, his grandson Kevin O’Higgins was one of the dominant political figures of the 1920s and his great-grandson Thomas O’Higgins was Chief Justice from 1974 to 1985.

To be continued…

My thanks to Denis Kirby for his insights

Captions:

574a. Timothy Daniel Sullivan (1827-1914), MP, writer, composer of God Save Ireland (picture: Cork City Library)

574b. Tim Healy (1855–1931), First Governor General of Ireland (Library of Congress, Washington D.C.)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 6 January 2011

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 242)

Through the Agricultural Hall

Continuing our imagined walk through the Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair held on the Straight Road in 1932, the archived fair catalogues reveal much about what was on display but also the aims of the fair. The promotion of Ireland and its ideas, enterprises and manufactures was a priority.

One of the central buildings in the fair was the Agricultural Hall. In 1932 approximately 53% of the working population in the country was employed in the agricultural sector (c.6 % in 2010). Most Irish farmers owned their own land, some 11 million acres having been purchased as a result of the Land Acts of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In addition Ireland had a strong dependence on Britain to export its agricultural produce.

The Agricultural Hall showcased the work of the young State’s Department of Agriculture. Their exhibit encompassed the development of several phases of Irish agriculture such as the improvement in live stock, increased production in poultry, better methods of marketing, the improvement of agricultural seeds, manures and cereals, the increase in forestry plantation areas, the nature of the agricultural education provided for children in the Irish Free State under the Department’s educational schemes as well as illustrations of some of the activities of the agricultural staffs of University Colleges Cork, Dublin and Cork.

As a context, historians such as Diarmuid Ferriter and Joe Lee, through their publications, reveal that ten years previously to 1932 one of the first acts of the new Irish Free State government was to develop Irish agriculture. Sugar beet production was begun and standards were applied to all butter and egg production. An Egg Act was passed in 1925 standardising all egg exports for testing and preservation methods. A Dairy Production Act was passed in 1924 requiring registry and packaging standards for all butter and milk products. A Bull Act was passed requiring licensing and inspection of all bulls, some 18,000 animals, for their suitability for breeding. This act applied to pigs, horses and rams as well.

The exhibit in the poultry section at the Cork fair was designed to indicate the progress that had been made in egg production. That was shown through the results obtained from the different breeds of poultry entered in the egg laying competitions in the nearby Munster Institute on the Model Farm Road from 1913 to 1931. In the marketing section of the fair, a model egg store was displayed, which showed the layout and equipment required for an egg store registered for the testing, grading and packing of eggs for export. During the period of the fair, the Department of Agriculture conducted classes in the section for the purpose of training pupils in the grading, testing and packing of eggs.

In the livestock exhibit, photographs illustrated the different breeds of live stock throughout the Irish Free State and the improvement brought about by the Department’s Live Stock Schemes. Diagrams and graphs showed the annual value of the live stock export trade and the development of the cow testing schemes. Maps and photographs also illustrated the work carried out at the Department of Agriculture’s forestry stations and the development of the various types of forest trees at these and at other centres throughout the country. Initially, the Irish Free State carried out most tree planting to stop Ireland’s deforestation and to decrease Ireland’s timber dependency. Most of the new state forests were grown on mountain land and consisted mainly of ‘exposure-tolerant’, fast-growing conifers.

Four years previous to the Cork fair, a new Forestry Act was introduced to restrict the felling of trees. This was the first time the State took measures to control the felling of trees and empower the Minister of Agriculture to force the replanting of felled areas. The Act also empowered the Minister to provide non-refundable grants to private landowners. The first planting grants were made available in 1931. By this time there were only 220,000 acres of woods in the country and any new forest planting that occurred was undertaken almost exclusively by the State. Perhaps one of the most famous afforestation projects in the Lee Valley was that of the initial 350 acres of forest planted in Gougane Barra in 1938. The plantings were largely of Lodgepole Pine, Sitka Spruce and Japanese Larch, three species that thrive in poorer soils and stand up well to exposure. The Sitka Spruce, native to a narrow coastal belt from Alaska to California is particularly resistant to constant winds and suits a wide range of soils. Lodgepole Pine, is so called because the North American Indians used its stems as poles for their wigwams while the Japanese Larch is quite distinct in its appearance as a soft feathery light-green needle tree.

Almost all of the new afforestation was undertaken by the state up until the Second World War when afforestation rates naturally fell. Once again demand for fuel and timber resulted in large-scale deforestation. The Forestry Act of 1946 introduced a comprehensive legal framework for forestry in Ireland. This was accompanied by a government policy to increase the rate of afforestation to 10,000 acres per annum, again pursued principally by the State.

To be continued…

Captions:

572a. Photograph of Fair grounds on the Straight Road, Cork 1932 (source: Archive of Iona National Airways, Dublin)

572b. Sketch of Agricultural Hall, from the Fair Catalogue 1932 (source: Cork Museum)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town article,

Cork Independent, 23 December 2010

Redevelopment of Beamish & Crawford Site

Planning permission was recently lodged with Cork City Council for the redevelopment of the four acre Beamish and Crawford site on South Main Street. The plan encompasses a 6,000 seat event centre, a ‘brewing experience’ visitor centre, 30,000 sq, feet of office space, 250 student beds, a viewing tower, cinemas, shops and  restaurants.

I have been open in my concerns about the re-development of the Beamish and Crawford site. This site has enormous cultural and tourism potential. I am not happy with the scale of the proposed development and I am annoyed because this is where Cork began and a developer is going to put apartments and office blocks on the vast majority of it.  I have been open and tolerant to many modern developments in our city during the boom years but not with this one. I do not want an office block style development destroying the foundations of the civic memory of the city.

Way back in the early 1980s, Cork Corporation made the great decision to create Beamish Lucey Park – providing a space to showcase the city’s medieval past in terms of the incorporation of the foundations of the town wall and highlighting Cork 800 and the city’s charter in 1185 through John Behan’s sculptured eight swans on the fountain; sculptural pieces by Seamus Murphy were added in as well as the old Cornmarket Gates that once stood in the backyard of Cork City Hall. The Beamish and Crawford site can be a similar cultural project.  This is where over 1000 years ago, someone physically ‘broke their back’ whilst sinking their wooden materials into a swamp to start the process of reclamation and what we know as Cork today.  Possibly this is where Dún Corcaighe, the Viking fort, which was attacked in 848 AD by an Irish chieftain, once stood. Recent excavations on the Grand Parade City Car Park site revealed that the people living in the 1100s actually moved the river channel that ran through the site to allow for timber housing and thus created the present south channel in the area. In one pit dug by archaeologists they found a wooden quayside dating to 1160 and in another found the remains of four houses, each demolished to make way for the next one over the space of 50 years between 1100-1150 AD.

Cork is the only settlement in Ireland that has experienced every phase of urban growth. Hence I could go and in depth mention the creation of South Main Street in the era of the walled town, the foundation of the Beamish and Crawford brewery in 1792 and the businesses that lined the adjacent street during the centuries. This is a  place of tradition, of continuity, change and legacy, of ambition and determination, engineering ingenuity, survival and experimentation. But it is not a place I strongly feel for student accommodation and office blocks.

I’m always very disappointed when the city’s early heritage is discovered and for the most part is covered over. For example Queen’s Castle, the tower shown in the city’s Coat of Arms, was excavated and encased in concrete in 1996 and still lies under Castle Street.  One had the Crosses Green apartment complex, the remains of a Dominican Friary were discovered in 1993 but no remains were incorporated.  I am reminded at this juncture if you go to places like Galway, they have successfully incorporated the remnants of their town wall into Eyre Square Shopping Centre, they have also incorporated their built heritage into Eyre Square. Or venture further afield to York where they have developed a Viking interpretative centre on the site of their old Viking town or go to Munich city centre where they have an enormous transport and science museum/ centre.

There seems to be a sense to certain developers in this city that heritage is something that cannot be harnessed or that it is not something unique or exciting or maybe that generally people want to live in a place that looks the same as some other cities in the world.  I can say the following from giving walking tours of this city for 17 years that people don’t come to Cork or Ireland because it is the same as other places. Tourists want to come here to see something different and to learn something new. Despite having great venues such as the Lifetime Lab or Blackrock Castle, there is no venue in the city centre that tells the story of Cork’s evolution, revealing the city’s sense of place, pride and identity. I also feel that the promotional heritage frameworks that are in place are not good enough for a city that has a European Capital of Culture and a Lonely Planet accolade ‘under its belt’.

I honestly believe we need a new framework for the harnessing of our built, cultural heritage, our very identity. In an age of the recession, there is an opportunity through the Beamish and Crawford site to foster our tourism and cultural sector which I feel has not been adequately opened up. There is an enormous cultural and economic opportunity to be missed if this re-development of this site is messed up.

Happy Christmas to readers of this column and thanks for your continued support…

Caption:

571a. Interpretation of the past; area around South Main Street, c.1000 AD (drawing: Claire Flahavan from Kieran’s book, Discover Cork)

571b. Section of walled town of Cork , c.1575, Beamish and Crawford site is in top left, from the Pacata Hibernia (source: Cork City Library)