Category Archives: Cork History

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 19 August 2021

Cork City Events, Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized
1113a. Daly's Bridge aka Shaky Bridge, present day, which is one of the featured bridges in Kieran's new audio heritage trail (picture: Kieran McCarthy).
1113a. Daly’s Bridge aka Shaky Bridge, present day, which is one of the featured bridges in Kieran’s new audio heritage trail (picture: Kieran McCarthy).

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 19 August 2021

Kieran’s Heritage Week Audio Heritage Trails

The midway point has been reached for National Heritage Week 2021. There is still time to engage with my two virtual projects this year – the audio heritage trails of the Bridges of Cork and The Marina respectively. Usually, I am up to my eyes happily facilitating historical walking tours. But Covid is still scuppering my physical events. but hopefully the next few months will coincide with better news for the gathering of large groups that do not have to be socially distanced apart.

Both new audio trails are hosted by Meitheal Mara and I. All you need is your smartphone and some headphones. The first audio trail provides insights into the histories of the Cork city centre’s bridges, their place in Cork and some of their surrounding histories. The walk around the bridges is about two hours in duration. The trail is clockwise from South Gate Bridge up the south channel and down the north channel to cross back to the south channel. It ends at Nano Nagle Bridge.

They say the best way to get to know a place is to walk it. Through many centuries Cork has experienced every phase of Irish urban development. It is a city you can get lost in narrow streets, marvel at old cobbled lane ways, photograph old street corners, gaze at clues from the past, engage in the forgotten and the remembered, search and connect for something of oneself, and thirst in the sense of story-telling – in essence feel the DNA of the place. With so many layers of history in Cork, there is much to see on any walk around Cork City and its respective neighbourhoods. The River Lee has had and continues to have a key role in the city’s evolution.  Many Corkonians and visitors have crossed over the River Lee’s bridges and have appreciated the river’s tranquil and hypnotic flow.

The audio trail begins at the oldest of the city’s bridges – that of South Gate Bridge. In the time of the Anglo Normans establishing a fortified walled settlement and a trading centre in Cork around 1200 AD, South Gate Drawbridge formed one of the three entrances – North Gate Bridge and Watergate being the others. A document for the year 1620 stated that the mayor, Sheriff and commonality of Cork, commissioned Alderman Dominic Roche to erect two new drawbridges in the city over the river where timber bridges existed at the South Gate Bridge and the other at North Gate.

In May 1711, agreement was reached by the council of the City that North Gate Bridge would be rebuilt in stone in 1712 while in 1713, South Gate Bridge would be replaced with a stone arched structures. South Gate Bridge still stands today in its past form as it did over 300 years ago apart from a small bit of restructuring and strengthening in early 1994.

The second of the new audio trails is on The Marina. A stroll down The Marina is popular by many people. The area is particularly characterized by its location on the River Lee and the start of Cork Harbour. Here scenery, historical monuments and living heritage merge to create a historical tapestry of questions of who developed such a place of ideas. Where not all the answers have survived, The Marina is lucky, that archives, newspaper accounts, census records and old maps and other insights have survived to showcase how the area and the wider area has developed. These give an insight into ways of life and ambitions in the past, some of which can help the researcher in the present day in understanding The Marina’s evolution and sense of place going forward.

Cork’s Marina was originally called the Navigation Wall or in essence it was an additional dock for ships adjacent to Cork City’s South Docks area. It was completed in 1761.

Following the constitution of the Cork Harbour Commissioners in 1814 and their introduction of steam dredging, a vigorous programme of river and berth deepening, quay and wharf building commenced. The dredger of the Cork Harbour Commissioners deposited the silt from the river into wooden barges, which were then towed ashore. The silt was re-deposited behind the Navigation Wall.

During the Great Famine, the deepening of the river created jobs for 1,000 men who worked on widening the physical dock of the Navigation Wall. In essence a fine road was constructed, which linked into Cork’s South Docks. To give an aesthetic to the new road, a fine row of elm trees was planted c.1856 by Prof. Edmund Murphy of Queen’s College Cork (now UCC). The elm trees were part of a crop and tree growing experiment.

In 1870, the Gaelic poet and scholar Donncha Ó Floinn put forward to the Improvements Committee of Cork Corporation that the new road of the Navigation wall be named Slí na hAbhann, which means the ‘pathway by the river’. Ó Floinn’s proposal was not accepted. The matter came before the Improvements Committee again in 1872. This time Ó Floinn suggested that the promenade be named ‘The Marina’. He outlined that ‘The Marina’ was the name allocated to a recently reclaimed piece of land near Palermo in Sicily. In July 1872, Cork Corporation formally adopted ‘The Marina’ as the name of the new road or promenade.

Listen to Kieran’s new audio trails under history trails at www.corkheritage.ie

Captions:

1113a. Daly’s Bridge aka Shaky Bridge, present day, which is one of the featured bridges in Kieran’s new audio heritage trail (picture: Kieran McCarthy).

1113b. The Marina, Cork, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy).

1113b. The Marina, Cork, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy).

1113b. The Marina, Cork, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy).

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 12 August 2021

Arts, Cork City Events, Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Events
1112a. Upstream view of the south channel of the River from Cork's Parliament Bridge on a recent sunset; Discover the story of the city’s bridges and some of the rich local history on Kieran’s new audio heritage trail on the history trails section at www.corkheritage.ie.
1112a. Upstream view of the south channel of the River from Cork’s Parliament Bridge on a recent sunset; Discover the story of the city’s bridges and some of the rich local history on Kieran’s new audio heritage trail on the history trails section at www.corkheritage.ie.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 12 August 2021

Cork Heritage Open Day and Week Approaches

Cork Heritage Open Day and Heritage Week are looming. Cork Heritage Open Day which is organised by Cork City Council in partnership with the Heritage Council, is a wonderful celebration of the built heritage in the city. To mark the start of National Heritage Week, Cork Heritage Open Day will take place virtually on Saturday August 14.

The website www.corkheritageopenday.ie will go live on Saturday 14 August and will feature virtual guided tours of over 45 historic buildings from all over Cork City. Members of the public are allowed a glimpse of some of Cork’s most fascinating buildings ranging from the medieval to the military. The event showcases the many elements of Cork City’s rich heritage in a fun, family friendly way. The team behind the Open Day do group the buildings into general themes, Steps and Steeples, Customs and Commerce, Medieval to Modern, Saints and Scholars and Life and Learning.

These themes remind the participant to remember how our city spreads from the marsh to the undulating hills surrounding it, how layered the city’s past is, how the city has been blessed to have many scholars contributing to its development and ambition in a variety of ways, and how the way of life in Cork is intertwined with a strong sense of place.

It is always a great opportunity to explore behind some of Cork’s grandest buildings. With the past of a port city, Cork architecture is varied and much is hidden amongst the city’s narrow streets and laneways. Much of its architecture is also inspired by international styles – the British style of artwork pervading in most cases – but it’s always pays to look up in Cork and marvel at the Amsterdamesque-style of our eighteenth century structures on streets such as Oliver Plunkett Street or at the gorgeous tall spires of the city’s nineteenth-century churches.

For my part I am involved in a short film on the history of Cork City Hall. Cork has had a number of City Hall sites through the ages but none as grand as the present one. In the age of the Anglo Norman walled town and eighteenth century, civic business was conducted in King’s Castle. Business was also conducted in Cork City Courthouse for a time in the nineteenth century. In 1883, it was decided by a number of Cork businessmen that the Corn Exchange should be converted into an exhibition centre, a centre, which in 1892 became Cork’s City Hall. In December 1920, the premises were burned down by fires attributed to the Black and Tans as retribution for republican attacks. A new City Hall by architects Jones and Kelly was subsequently built. The limestone like for so many of Cork’s buildings is from nearby Little Island. The foundation stone of Cork City Hall was laid by Éamon de Valera on 9 July 1932.

 Sites that also appear on the online Cork Heritage Open Day are Riverstown House in Glanmire, the Quaker Meeting House and Graveyard, The Maryborough Hotel, Cork Opera House, The Courthouse on Washington Street, Ballincollig Gunpowder Mills, Blarney Castle, Cork City Hall, Cork Savings Bank, St Luke’s Church and the Military Museum in Collins Barracks.

The virtual one stop shop www.corkheritageopenday.ie celebrates various Cork Communities who through interviews, video and imagery tell their story. For example, check out:

  • Memories of a Cork Jewish Childhood, which has been produced by Ruti Lachs and sees former Cork residents remember their childhoods in Ireland, their Jewish upbringing, the synagogue and the characters. Interspersed with photos from the last hundred years of life in Jewish Cork, these stories paint a picture of a time and community gone by.
  • Anne Twomey from the Shandon Area History Group speaks about Emma Hourigan, an extraordinary woman from the Maddens Buildings in Cork who played a central role in the Irish Revolution 1916-1923.
  • Biddy McDonagh and Jean O’Donovan from the Traveller Visibility Group discuss their language Gammon and Cant and the tradition of the Beady Pockets in the Traveller Community.
  • Jim Fahy speaks about the language of the Stone Masons “Bearlager na Saor”.
  • Valerie Power, Breda Scanlon and Suzanne Dineen pay tribute to the Shawlies in Cork.
  • Historian Michael Lenihan uses historic postcards to show how Cork has changed in the past 100 years.

For the first time, Cork Heritage Open Day, celebrates the natural heritage of Cork and members of the public can enjoy a wonderful guided tour of the Mangala in Douglas with William O’Halloran and a fascinating insight into the Glen River Park with Julie Forrester and Gerard O’Brien. For those wishing to test their knowledge of the streets, bridges and buildings in Cork, historian Liam O’hÚigín has created a special quiz for Cork Heritage Open Day!

Heritage Open Day is usually the start of weeklong heritage week events in Cork. For the second year in a row, physical events have been curtailed. My own historical walking tours remain ‘off the road’ at present. I have written up over fifteen of my tours complete with pictures and some very short films and put them in a new section on my website www.corkheritage.ie.

In addition on the website I have partnered with Meitheal Mara and Joya Kuin in putting together two audio heritage trails. The first is on the various historic sites down The Marina and this came out in early June. Our Heritage Week Audio Heritage Trail is on the 31 bridges of Cork. Start at South Gate Bridge and make your way anti-clockwise around the South Channel and North Channel of the River Lee. All you need is a smart phone and a set of head phones!

Captions:

1112a. Upstream view of the south channel of the River from Cork’s Parliament Bridge on a recent sunset; Discover the story of the city’s bridges and some of the rich local history on Kieran’s new audio heritage trail on the history trails section at www.corkheritage.ie.

1112b. Canon from the Siege of Sevastopol, 1854-55 on The Marina, Cork, present day; Discover the story of The Marina and its rich local history on Kieran’s new audio heritage trail on the history trails section at www.corkheritage.ie.

1112b. Canon from the Siege of Sevastopol, 1854-55 on The Marina, Cork, present day; Discover the story of The Marina and its rich local history on Kieran’s new audio heritage trail on the history trails section at www.corkheritage.ie.

Cllr McCarthy to Discuss History of Cork City Hall for Virtual Cork Heritage Open Day

Arts, Cork City Events, Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, National, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Events

Local historian Cllr Kieran McCarthy will participate in the virtual Cork Heritage Open Day this Saturday 14 August. Cork Heritage Open Day which is organised by Cork City Council in partnership with the Heritage Council. The website www.corkheritageopenday.ie will go live on Saturday 14 August and will feature virtual guided tours of over 45 historic buildings from all over Cork City. Members of the public are allowed a glimpse of some of Cork’s most fascinating buildings ranging from the medieval to the military.

Kieran will participate by showcasing some of the stories connected to Cork City Hall as an important heritage building within the city. Kieran noted: “Cork has had a number of City Hall sites through the ages but none as grand as the present one. In 1883, it was decided by a number of Cork businessmen that the Corn Exchange should be converted into an exhibition centre, a centre, which in 1892 became Cork’s City Hall. In December 1920, the premises were burned down by fires attributed to the Black and Tans as retribution for republican attacks. A new City Hall by architects Jones and Kelly was subsequently built. The limestone like for so many of Cork’s buildings is from nearby Little Island. The foundation stone of Cork City Hall was laid by Éamon de Valera on 9 July 1932”.

Maryborough Hotel will also feature in this year’s Heritage Open Day. For the first time, the Open Day will also celebrate the natural heritage of Cork and members of the public can enjoy a wonderful virtual guided tour of the Mangala in Douglas with William O’Halloran.

In addition, for National Heritage Week, Kieran has partnered with Meitheal Mara and Joya Kuin in putting together two audio heritage trails. The first is on the various historic sites down The Marina and this came out in early June. Their Heritage Week Audio Heritage Trail is on the 31 bridges of Cork. All you need is a smart phone and a set of head phones. The bridges audio trail can be found on Kieran’s www.corkheritage.ie website under history trails from 14 August.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 5 August 2021

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized
1111a. Front cover of Cork City Reflections (2021, Amberley Publishing) by Kieran McCarthy and Daniel Breen.
1111a. Front cover of Cork City Reflections (2021, Amberley Publishing) by Kieran McCarthy and Daniel Breen.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 5 August 2021

New Book: Cork City Reflections

In our new book Cork City Reflections, Dan Breen and I build on our previous Cork City Through Time (2012) publication as we continue to explore Cork Public Museum’s extensive collection of postcards. People have been sending, receiving and collecting postcards for well over 150 years. They have always come in a variety of forms including plain, comedic, memorial, and of course topographical. Their popularity reached its zenith in the two decades before the outbreak of World War I when people used postcards for a variety of everyday reasons from ordering shopping to making appointments. Postcards have been described as the ‘social media’ of the Edwardian period as it is estimated that about one billion penny postcards were sold annually in the United States alone between 1907 and 1915.

Since 1992, Cork Public Museum has actively sourced and collected postcards of Cork interest. The majority of postcards are topographical in nature and cover towns and villages throughout County Cork. Presently, the collection numbers in the thousands but Dan, the museum’s curator, is constantly on the lookout for rarer and more unique examples or gems. In an age where digital photography and the internet have made capturing and sharing images so effortless, it is easy to forget that in the decades before the camera became popular and affordable; postcards were the only photographic souvenirs of the landscape available to ordinary people.

The old postcards with Cork City Reflections show the city of Cork to be a place of scenic contrasts. They are of times and places, that Corkonians are familiar with. The city as a visually bright world with all its shapes and contours challenge the photographer to take the best photograph, to capture the best of the city. There is a power in these images – they all have multiple interpretations; they are a window into the place, neighbourhood, people, their lives and identity. Many of the postcards show or frame the River Lee and the tidal estuary and the intersection of the city and the water. The postcards show how rich the city is in its traces of its history. The various postcard also reflect upon how the city has developed in a piecemeal sense, with each century bringing another addition to the city’s landscape.

For the photographer it took time patience to set up the picture. One had to wait for the people; the weather to be right, the order and symmetry had to be right. The gathering of memory, life, energy, the city’s beat, its light and shape had to be considered. The same challenges were present when trying to retake old photographs in the present day.

In more depth, the postcards show people’s relationship to their world – continuity and familiarity crossing past and present. They record a person, an event, a social phenomenon, and attempt to reconstruct a sense of place. The postcards let moments linger, reflect on life and showcase the the city as a work of art. The tinting or colouring in of postcards adds in more subtlety and weight to the image and to the concept of the city as a work of art. The tinting adds more to the romanticisation of the landscape.

Some public spaces are well represented, emphasised and are created and arranged in a sequence to convey particular meanings. Buildings such as a City Hall, a court house or a theatre symbolise the theatrics of power. Indeed, one hundred years ago in Ireland was a time of change, the continuous rise of an Irish cultural revival, debates over Home Rule and the idea of Irish identity were continuously negotiated by all classes of society. Just like the tinting of the postcards, what the viewer sees is a world which is being contested, refined and reworked. Behind the images presented is a story of change – complex and multi-faceted.

The postcards freeze the action, conceptualise society and civil expressions – from the city’s links with the natural world such as rivers and tide to its transportation networks, commerce and social networks. Places of Cork pride, popular culture and heritage, are depicted and are validated communicating the ideas of those places. Indeed, some of the postcards have written personal comments on the back. All types of emotion are represented from happiness in visiting Cork to comments on how the addressee was missed.

We have grouped the postcards under thematic headings like main streets, public buildings, transport, and industry. The highlight of Edwardian Cork was the hosting of an International Exhibition in 1902 and 1903 and through the souvenir postcards we can get a glimpse of this momentous event. We hope that any reader of this book will not only appreciate how Cork City has evolved and grown over the last century but also how invaluable postcards can be in understanding the nuances and complexities of studying images and their history.  

The old postcards within the book are archived in the Cork Public Museum and have been photographed by the museum’s digital officer Dara McGrath. The present day pictures were taken by the authors. We would like to also thank the staff of Amberley Publishing for their vision with this work and for creating a now and then frame right throughout the book.

Cork City Reflections by Kieran McCarthy and Daniel Breen is published by Amberley Publishing and is available in any good bookshop.

Caption:

1111a. Front cover of Cork City Reflections (2021, Amberley Publishing) by Kieran McCarthy and Daniel Breen.

1111b. South Mall, c.1900 from Cork City Reflections.

1111b. South Mall, c.1900 from Cork City Reflections.
1111b. South Mall, c.1900 from Cork City Reflections.

Cllr McCarthy: Consultation on Draft Cork City Development Plan Open, 31 July 2021

Cork City Events, Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Development, Ward Events

Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy is calling on residents, and communities in the south east of the city and beyond to have their say on the 2022-2028 draft Cork City Development Plan. The draft Cork City Development Plan, has recently been published and provides an overarching framework to help shape the transformation of the City over the next six years by supporting the creation of 20,000 homes and 31,000 jobs.

Cllr McCarthy noted: “Eight weeks of public consultation on the plan have just commenced and I encourage members of the public, community groups, representative organisations to make a submission to the draft plan before the closing date of 4 October. The draft plan can be viewed at www.corkcitydevelopmentplan.ie and the public can have their say on the Plan at https://consult.corkcity.ie/”

“There is some great ideas and opportunities within this draft blueprint for Cork as the city embarks upon an exciting phase of growth and change – with sustainability, quality of life, social inclusion, and climate resilience at the plan’s core. In particular the need to protect green spaces and create more in areas from Ballinlough to Douglas is essential”.

Cork City Council CE, Ann Doherty said: “This Plan is significant in many ways; not least it is the first local policy-based expression of the ambition for Cork contained in ‘Project Ireland 2040’ and the National Planning Framework. The Plan follows widespread listening and engagement with stakeholders in the first round of public consultation. The draft plan’s rationale is further informed by a suite of evidence-based studies on the various opportunities and challenges facing the city”.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 15 July 2021

Cork History, Landscapes, Uncategorized

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 15 July 2021

Journeys to a Truce: The 11 July 1921 Settlement

This week is the centenary of the signing of the Truce on 11 July 1921 bringing the Irish War of Independence in Ireland to an end. Technically talks had begun in December 1920 but they petered out when British Prime Minister David Lloyd George demanded that the IRA first relinquish their arms. Renewed talks began in the spring of 1921, after the Prime Minister was lobbied by Herbert H Asquith and the Liberal opposition, the Labour Party, and the Trades Union Congress.

From the perspective of the British government, it seemed as if the IRA’s guerrilla campaign would persist indefinitely, with escalating losses in British casualties and in finance. In addition, the British government was confronting acute blame at home and abroad for the measures of British forces in Ireland. On 6 June 1921, the British made their first peace-making act, calling off the strategy of house burnings as reprisals.

On the other side, IRA leaders and in particular Michael Collins, felt that the IRA, as it was then organised, could not continue indefinitely. It lacked arms and ammunition to face down the even regular British soldiers arriving into Ireland.

On 24 June 1921, the British Coalition Government’s Cabinet decided to propose talks with the leader of Sinn Féin. Coalition Liberals and Unionists agreed that an offer to negotiate would strengthen the Government’s position, especially if Sinn Féin refused. On 24 June Prime Minister Lloyd George wrote to Éamon de Valera as “the chosen leader of the great majority in Southern Ireland”, suggesting a conference. 

Sinn Féin agreed to talks. De Valera and Lloyd George ultimately agreed to a truce that was intended to end the fighting and lay the ground for detailed negotiations. Its terms were signed on 9 July and came into effect on 11 July. Negotiations on a settlement, however, were deferred for several months as the British government demanded that the IRA first decommission its weapons, but this demand was ultimately withdrawn. It was arranged that British troops would stay restricted to their barracks.

However, in the three days between the terms being signed and coming into effect, Irish Truce historian Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc details at least sixty people from both sides of the conflict were killed across the country. Such stories appear in the heart of Dara McGrath’s photographic exhibition entitled For Those That Tell No Tales in the Crawford Art Gallery on sites associated with the War of Independence. There is a poignant picture of an execution location of The Lough with associated descriptive text. It was at 8 pm, on the evening of Sunday 10 July 1921, four young unarmed and off-duty soldiers, Private Henry Morris (aged 21) and Corporal Harold Daker (aged 28) of the South Stafforshire Regiment and Sappers Albert Camm (aged 20) and Albert Powell (aged 20) of the Royal Engineers were seized by a patrol of seven Volunteers. The Volunteers had been searching an area from Donovan’s Bridge along the Western Road in search of a suspected civilian informer. Executed on the northern side of The Lough, the four bodies were dumped at Ellis’s Quarry on its southside. All four were found blindfolded and shot dead.

The only surviving account of the executions by a Volunteer participant is the official report sent to IRA Headquarters. It simply reads: “We held up four soldiers and searched them but found no arms. We took them to a field in our area where they were executed before 9pm”. It has been suggested that the killing of these men was a personal reprisal by the IRA for the murder of Volunteer Denis Spriggs just two days earlier on 8 July. Private Morris was from Walsall and served in the East Kent Regiment during the First World War. He is buried in Ryecroft cemetery, Walsall. Corporal Daker was the son of William and Mary Daker. He is buried in St Ann’s Churchyard, Chasetown, Walsall. Sapper Albert Camm was from Holland Street in Nottingham. Sapper Powell was the son of Arthur and Jane Powell of Abbott Road, London. He is buried at Nunhead, All Saints Cemetery in Southwark.

On the advent of the Truce, Michael O’Donoghue, Engineer Officer with the 2nd Battalion of Cork No.1 Brigade remarks in witness statement (WS 1741) of the Bureau of Military History of a new-found freedom and an almost too good to be true scenario;

“Now came July, and with the scorching summer heatwave came rumours of peace and negotiations for a cease fire. Then before we had time to realise what was happening, as everything moved so suddenly, the Truce was upon us on a July 11th 1921 at midday. Overnight everything was changed. The fugitive rebel army, the IRA, was recognised as Ireland’s national army by the British Government. There was an uneasy peace. ‘Twas hard, even for the IRA themselves, to credit that the fortunes of war had changed to such an extent. we could now move everywhere in town and country. We exulted in our new found authority and importance. Everywhere the people regarded us as heroes and hailed us as conquerors and turned our heads with flattery, adulation and praise. We were youngsters in our teens and early twenties, and who could blame us if we got intoxicated with all the hero worship and rejoicings. Even those people who had maintained a cautious neutrality, standing on the ditch during the War of Independence, now rushed to acclaim us and to entertain us”.

Caption:

1108a. Execution location site for four British soldiers, 10 July 1921 at northern side of The Lough, Cork, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Press, McCarthy Calls for anniversary of Cork city landmark to be celebrated

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

10 July 2021, “Independent Kieran McCarthy have asked that Cork City Council, in partnership with the parish of Shandon and Diocese of Cork, mark the 300th anniversary of the construction of the church, recognising its impact on the citizens of Cork city and its unique landmark for Cork citizens and beyond”, Calls for anniversary of Cork city landmark to be celebrated, Calls for anniversary of Cork city landmark to be celebrated (echolive.ie)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 8 July 2021

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized
1107a. Plaque on Blarney Street Cork in memory of Denis J Spriggs, killed 8 July 1921 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 8 July 2021

Journeys to a Truce: Fred Cronin’s Republican Plot

IRA casualties from the ongoing War of Independence across the city continued all the way into the July 1921 truce. On 21 June Commandant Walter Leo Murphy was shot dead at Waterfall (a few miles from Ballincollig) when an IRA meeting in a local public house was encircled by two carloads of British undercover officers. He shot his way out of the public house but was subsequently killed.

A commemorative plaque erected at Turner’s Cross to D Company 2nd Battalion commemorates Company Adjutant Charles Daly of 5 Glenview, Douglas Road, who was captured by British forces at Waterfall, Co. Cork on 28 June 1921. British army records claim he was shot attempting to escape from Victoria Barracks on 29 June 1921.

Denis Spriggs became involved in the fight for independence from British rule at a very young age. At 16, he lied about his age so he could join the IRA. As a known member of the IRA he, like many other Volunteers, was forced to go on the run from British forces in the city. On 8 July 1921, whilst visiting his mother, Denis Spriggs was captured. The house was raided and Spriggs was apprehended. He was taken from his house and shot on Blarney Street where a plaque marks the spot today.

Walter Leo, Charles, and Denis are buried in the Republican Plot at St Finbarr’s Cemetery, which dates back to 1920. Previously to its use there was, immediately inside the gates of St Finbarr’s Cemetery, a vacant plot of green in one corner on which stood a small but interesting memorial. Built in 1894 of stones taken from an ancient Cork abbey, it marked the place where the collected bones of the monks of Gill-Abbey had been reinterred.

On the day after the murder of Lord Mayor Tomás MacCurtain in March 1920. Fred Cronin, close friend of Terence MacSwiney and a leading Cork undertaker of Richard Cronin and Sons, suggested to the Brigade officers that the municipal authorities, who were owners of the cemetery, should be requested to make this plot available as a burial place for the dead patriot. The Corporation readily agreed, and with this first interment the Republican Plot came into existence.

Lough native Fred Cronin was an active member of Sinn Féin. His membership dated back to its earliest days in its foundation. Fred’s obituary in the Cork Examiner on 30 October 1937 describes that he took an active interest in all the nationalist movements from the early days of his youth. He was one of the founders of the Young Ireland Society in the year 1899, whose work is engraved in the memory of the people of Cork by the erection of the monument on the Grand Parade. About this time also he was also one of those people who attempted to put an end to the recruiting campaign for men to fight in the British Army against the Boers in South Africa.

Fred also helped to establish a Republican organisation known as the Cork Celtic Literary Society in 1903, and it was in the ranks of this society that he came in close contact with such well-known men as Terence MacSwiney, Tomás MacCurtain, and Tadhg Barry. He was also a close follower of the national pastimes, being connected with the Éire Óg Hurling Club. He also played for a number of years with the Nils Football Club. He took a deep interest in the language movement and was a prominent member of the Gaelic League for a long period.

Fred was transport officer to the 2nd Battalion of Cork No. 1 Brigade IRA for a time around 1920. His experience with the family firm of undertakers gave him considerable knowledge of transport organisation.

When Terence MacSwiney’s life was increasingly threatened in 1920, whilst he was Lord Mayor he could be found at the house of Fred. Keeping a watchful eye on Fred and Terence were the members of G Company of the 2nd Battalion. Their base were Messrs Phair grocery and provision store on Bandon Road. Here there were stores and out offices of G Company, which provided an admirable hiding place for guns and other military equipment.

When Terence was on from hunger strike in Brixton Prison, Fred visited him regularly and on Terence’s date of death on 25 October 1920, Fred was one of the last to see him alive. Fred was tasked by the MacSwiney family to be the executor of Terence’s will. Fred’s personal papers are now archived in the National Library in Dublin. The notes for his 33 folders of surviving papers describe that between May and December 1921, he was interned by the British authorities at Cork Male Prison and Spike Island. While he was incarcerated on Spike Island, he joined the other prisoners in a hunger strike which lasted only four days, ending 2 September 1921.

Fred applied for parole due to the illness of his youngest daughter. His parole application bound him during the period of his release not to “render any assistance, direct or indirect, to persons disaffected towards His Majesty the King, or do any act calculated to be prejudical to the restoration or maintenance of order in Ireland.” Republicans generally disapproved of parole-giving and it was permitted only in cases of severe family stress. Fred Cronin had five children, of whom the youngest, Maire, required a major operation and was dangerously ill for a time. His wife Katie had died and her sister Mary Roche was looking after the children.

During the Civil War Fred’s anti-treaty sympathies saw him interned during the Civil War by the Free State Government in Cork Prison and then Hare Park Camp (Curragh), Co. Kildare from 1922 to 1923.

Recently Phoenix Historical Society has published a book on those laid to rest in the Republican Plot at St Finbarr’s Cemetery. The Plot is the final resting place of 61 Irish Republicans. Contact michael_nugent@corkcity.ie for more information on how to attain a copy of a very interesting and important local history book.

Captions:

1107a. Plaque on Blarney Street Cork in memory of Denis J Spriggs, killed 8 July 1921 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

1107b. Republican Plot at St Finbarr’s Cemetery, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

1107b. Republican Plot at St Finbarr’s Cemetery, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Cork City Reflections (2021, Co-written, Amberley Publishing)

Arts, Cork History, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized

One hundred years ago in Ireland marked a time of change. The continuous rise of an Irish revival, debates over Home Rule and the idea of Irish identity were continuously negotiated by all classes of society. In Cork City Reflections, authors Kieran McCarthy and Daniel Breen focus on the visual changes that have taken place in the port city on Ireland’s south-west coast. Using a collection of historic postcards from Cork Public Museum and merging these with modern images they reveal how the town has changed over the decades. Each of the 180 pictures featured combines a recent colour view with the matching sepia archive scene.

The authors have grouped the images under thematic headings such as main streets, public buildings, transport, and industry. Readers will be able to appreciate how Cork City has evolved and grown over the last century but also how invaluable postcards can be in understanding the past. In an age where digital photography and the internet have made capturing and sharing images so effortless, it is easy to forget that in the decades before the camera became popular and affordable, postcards were the only photographic souvenirs available to ordinary people.

Read an Irish Examiner interview with Kieran: Cork City Reflections: New book merges old postcards with modern images (irishexaminer.com)
Buy the book here: Cork City Reflections – Amberley Publishing (amberley-books.com)
Cork City Reflections by Kieran McCarthy and Dan Breen (2021, Amberley Publishing)
Cork City Reflections by Kieran McCarthy and Dan Breen (2021, Amberley Publishing)

Cllr McCarthy: Forward Planning Essential for Former ESB Marina Site, 1 July 2021

Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Development

Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy has welcomed discussion and forward planning on the decommissioned Marina power station in Cork city. “It was great to hear about formal confirmation this week that planning between the ESB, Cork City Council and the newly formed Land Development Agency in relation to possible future uses of the site is ongoing. For me the ESB site is one of four sites in South Docks, which have a lot of built and cultural heritage – the others being the old Ford Factory site, former Odlums Building and the R & H Hall grain silos. All four sites have been highly influential in the development of south docks historically plus also are iconic symbolic structures in the area. It would be a real pity to lose their presence in the future of south docks.

“I would like to see the future of South Docks with a mixture of old and new building stock, so that the area has a nuanced sense of place. For me as well, I would encourage any future development to work with the Council to create a riverside walk on the south docks, so that The Marina greenway would potentially lead and connect all the way into the city, and hence linking to walks just west of the city centre – all in all creating an iconic routeway all along the city’s River Lee sections with public health advantages, scenery and other uses in abundance”. concluded Cllr McCarthy.

Read more here on future of ESB Marina Site:Former Marina power station eyed up for housing (irishexaminer.com)