One hundred years ago, in early May 1918 the upper portion of No.1 Barrack Street showed physical signs of serious deterioration and a portion of it was ordered by the engineering department of Cork Corporation to be taken down. Today, the gap in the building line is clearly visible in front of Fordes Pub, at the intersection of Sullivan’s Quay and South Gate Bridge. The Barrack Street Band started in the upper part of the premises. The premises was a focal point for the band took part in various political or social incidents. For nearly 80 years it was the rallying place for large sections of the people of the city’s south ward whose interests were identical with those of the band.
Founded in 1838 and inpired by the work of Fr Theobald Mathew, the band room and its associated temperance hall recruitment space was one of the first Cork recruiting quarter for the temperance cause. By the end of 1838, it is argued that 6,000 people were recorded on the temperance pledge register in the Cork region through the springing up of other local recruitment spaces and band spaces. The lead organisers on Fr Mathew’s campaign in the early months were James McKenna and William Martin. John Hockings, a leading teetotaller campaigner in Birmingham was also invited over to lecture to teetotallers in Cork.
By 1839, the temperance movement began to gain popular support in rest of the country. Branches were organised in surrounding towns. These included Passage, Cobh, Aghada, Whitegate, Blarney, Cloyne, Midelton, Carrigtwohill, Glanmire, Fermoy, Rathcormac, Riverstown, Ladysbridge and Carrigaline. John O’Connell was primarily involved in visiting these branches. Large numbers also began to flock to Cork from the surrounding countryside to take the pledge. By the end of 1839, the reputation of the Cork Temperance Society began to spread further into north Munster into areas like Limerick.
Within four years of the founding of the Cork Total Abstinence Society, the movement had found its way into every corner of the country. It was not a political movement; indeed Fr Mathew’s principal concern was to keep it clear of politics, but it had, nevertheless, a deep political effect. With their new-found dignity, the converts became more acutely conscious of the weaknesses that surrounded their social state and thinking inevitably led to more constant support for the national cause. The temperance movement brought an immediate accession of strength to Daniel O’Connell, his successors benefited from it, and the foundations were laid for the better things that were to follow.
Scholars John Borgonovo and Jack Santino in a book entitled Public Performances: Studies in the Carnivalesque and Ritualesque (2017) note that Fr Mathew encouraged the formation of temperance brass bands at the local level to gather crowds for pledge meetings and to offer non-alcoholic entertainment to working classes. Band practice kept men out of the public house, while Sunday band processions and concerts served as a wholesome nonalcoholic family events that spread the temperance message. bands were locality based and had numerous followers who would accompany them on excursions through the city. At the movement’s height the city of Cork maintained thirty-three temperance bands, with uniforms financed by Father Mathew. The instructors of the Barrack Street Temperance Band at this time and up to the 1870s were non-existent; but according to tradition the military bands had a great influence on them Brass bands often developed alongside reading rooms. Working class self-improvement was a key point.
At the Annual Temperance Rally in late March 1842, the Cork Examiner notes the location of the event was at the new Corn Market (now Cork City Hall site). It was densely crowded with countless societies, each headed by its band of 20 or even 30 musicians. According to the media, there was much pomp and ceremony; “members dressed with blue, or pink, or green scarfs of Irish Manufacture, and holding a long white wand decorated with colored ribbons or laurel. Before the several societies was borne a flag or banner, generally with either the name of the particular room to which they belonged, some having painted on them an appropriate device, or allegorical representation, and, in many at least 23 city bands, each containing 20 to 30 musicians, participated in a huge temperance procession through the centre of Cork. Many came from poor localities such as Fair Lane, Blarney Street, Blackpool and the Barrack Street area. cases, a full-length figure of the Apostle himself”. In further newspaper articles across the Cork Examiner in the ensuing two years, it is revealed that up to 55 bands became operational.
Local historian, Richard T Cooke in his book Cork’s Barrack Stret Silver and Reed Band (1992) recorded from the band’s annals that the No 1 Barrack Street building comprised three storeys and was constructed at the end of the eighteenth century. The society occupied the first and second floors of the building. On the first floor was the society’s reading and recreation room and the second floor housed the bandroom where instruments and banners weres tored. Its rooms were quite spaciousand well-lit with the main entrance on Sullivan‘s Quay, No. 37. The building had no water supply, drains or backyard; and, therefore no outhouse forpublic convenience. The opening hours of the society were from 7pm to 11pm each evening and remained open all day Sunday.When the building was condemned in 1918, the Barrack Street Band moved to Tuckey Street for a time.
Captions:
945a. South Gate Bridge c.1900 (picture: Cork City Library)
945b. Portrait of Fr Theobald Mathew from Frank J Mathew’s (1890) Fr Mathew’s Life and Times (source: Cork City Library)
945c. Site of No. 1 Barrack Street, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
This year’s National Famine Commemoration will take place on Saturday May 12 at University College Cork (UCC). The event will be hosted by UCC in collaboration with Cork City Council.
President Michael D. Higgins and Tánaiste Simon Coveney will attend the State Ceremony on Saturday week as will ambassadors. The President will unveil a plague to commemorate local famine victims. There will also be a wreath laying the following day, Sunday May 13 at St Joseph’s cemetery in Ballyphehane.
As part of the 2018 commemoration The Great Irish Famine Online will be launched. This is a world class free digital resource which will provide detailed information on how the famine impacted upon each of the 3,000 parishes and 1600 towns on either side of the border.
Cork City Council have also organised a programme of surrounding events through Cork City Libraries, Cork Public Museum and Cork City Councils Heritage office.
Lord Mayor Cllr Tony Fitzgerald said: “We are honoured that this year’s National Famine Commemoration will be held in Cork as in recent years the National Famine Commemoration has been held in such historic sites as Glasnevin Cemetery. Cork City Council has organised a strong programme of surrounding events and I am certain that the City will come together to produce a fitting tribute to those who suffered during the Famine”.
Cork City Council Programme of Events:
May 1–Monday May 14 –“Famine in Cork” an online exhibition available on www.corkpastandpresent.ie May 1 – Monday May 14 – Famine Exhibition in the Cork City Library featuring extracts from Cork Constitution, Cork Examiner and Illustrated London News from 1845 to 1850 with supporting exhibitions at all of the city’s six local libraries.
May 1 – Monday, May 14 – Famine Exhibition at the Cork Public Museum
Sunday May 6 @ 2pm – Walking Tour of St Finbarr’s Hospital by Cllr Kieran McCarthy.
Monday May 7 @ 7pm – Walking Tour of St Joseph’s Cemetery by Ronnie Herlihy.
Tuesday May 8 @ 7pm – Talk on the Famine in Cork by Pat Gunn at the Central Library
Stories from 1918: Medical Adventures at the Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital
The death of Dr Henry MacNaughton-Jones, which occurred at his residence in London, on Friday 26 April 1918 was a shock for the people of Cork. He had earned a distinguished reputation as a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology, on which he was an acknowledged authority. Henry was a central figure in the development of medicine in Cork.
Henry was born over seventy years earlier in 1845. Born in Cork City, he was the son of Dr William Thomas Jones MD, and Helen MacNaughton Jones. He received his early education at the Queen’s College, Cork, graduating with an MD (1864) and further qualifications as the years progressed. At the age of nineteen he was appointed Demonstrator and Lecturer in Descriptive Anatomy. Later, in 1876, he became Professor of Midwifery in the College, and in 1881 Examiner in Midwifery (obstetrics and gynaecology) in the Royal University of Ireland.
During this period, however, as a junior doctor Henry did duty in no less than eight of the Poor Law dispensary districts of the city for some years with a degree of skill and kindness, which made him one of the most well-known and popular junior medical men of his time. For eleven years he acted as physician to the Cork Fever Hospital, and for a good period also he was surgeon to the South Infirmary.
In 1868 at the age of 24 Henry founded a 30-bed Cork Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, in a building at the western end of Sheares Street. He was also physician there between 1868 and 1882. In the first eleven years, the hospital treated over 2,000 intern and 20,000 extern patients. A new hospital building was constructed 200 yards from existing building in 1895-97. Designed by architect James McMullen it has an elaborate ruabon brick with limestone dressings design. The foundation stone was laid by the Mayor of Cork, Patrick Meade on 29 or 30 December 1895. James McMullen had a high profile in the city. He had been High Sheriff for the City of Cork in 1907-08. Significant works by McMullen in Cork city include: Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital, Western Road (1897); conservation of the Firkin Crane, built in 1855 in the Shandon district of the city (1900); St. Finbarre’s West Total Abstinence Club, Bandon Road. (1900), formerly known as “Lough Rovers” and the remodelling of Holy Trinity Church, Fr. Mathew Quay (1906–08).
In 1872 Henry MacNaughton-Jones was co-founder and physician to the Cork Maternity Hospital, Nile Street (which later moved to Bachelors’ Quay). It was established to provide free care to pregnant women in their homes and to educate nurses. During the first five years 1,611 women received care and twenty nurses were trained.
Henry was also co-founder (1874) with a Miss Gibson and secretary to the medical committee (1877-9), becoming visiting medical officer (1874-80), and consulting surgeon (1880-83) for the County and City of Cork Hospital for Women and Children (renamed the Victoria Hospital in 1901).
The creation of the premier branch of the British Medical Association in Ireland was due to Henry’s efforts. His failure to gain the chair of materia medica (1875) or of surgery (1880) at Queens College Cork may have precipitated his move in 1883 to Harley Street London. When Henry MacNaughton-Jones departed Cork he received many tributes and presentations from his colleagues, his patients, and the citizens, generally.
Henry maintained a deep interest in Queen’s College Cork. He founded the Old Corkonians graduate club (1905) in London and made clear his objections and those of the club to the change of name from Queens College Cork to University College Cork. He is reputed to have composed the college motto “Where Finbarr taught, let Munster learn”, though he merely popularised it in verse recited at the inaugural dinner of the Old Corkonians (1905).
Henry was thrice President of the Irish Medical Schools, and Graduates’ Association; twice President of twice British Gynaecological Society, Vice-President and President of the Obstetrical and Gynaecological section of the Royal Society for Medicine 1910-11, mid president of the Irish Association (in London) 1909-10. By members of the medical profession on the Continent he was as highly regarded as by his colleagues at home, and he held honorary membership of the Obstetrical Societies of Leipzig, Munich and Rome, as well as Honorary President of International Congresses of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of Amsterdam, Rome and St Petersburg, and Raconteur for Great Britain and Ireland at the International Congress of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Berlin in 1912.
Henry was the author of a number of medical books, which included the Atlas of diseases of the membrana tympani (1878), Points of practical interests in gynaecology (1900), and Practical manual of diseases of women and uterine therapeutics (1884), and joint author of Practical handbook of diseases of the ear and nasopharynx (1887), he published numerous papers on a variety of subjects including ophthalmology, surgery, otology, and anaesthesia. He also published collections of poetry, including The Thames (1906) and A Piece of Delph and Other Poems (1908).
Henry was married to Henrietta, the third daughter of Mr William Veiling Gregg, solicitor of Marlborough House, Cork, and they had five children. During the summer of 1917 Henry contracted a chill at the seaside, and he never fully recovered from the serious effects. His death took place at his residence, on Friday 26 April 1918 at The Rest, Ravenscroft Park, High Barnet, London.
Kieran’s Upcoming Historical Walking Tour
Sunday 6 May 2018, The City Workhouse; learn about the workhouse created for 2,000 impoverished people in 1841; meet at the gates of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road, 2.30pm (free, duration: two hours, on site tour), in association with the National Famine Commemoration, 2018, Cork.
Captions:
944a. Former Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, Western Road, Cork (pictures: Kieran McCarthy)
944b. Former entrance to Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, Western Road, Cork
Sunday 6 May 2018 with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, The City Workhouse; learn about the workhouse created for 2,000 impoverished people in 1841; meet at the gates of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road, 2.30pm (free, duration: two hours, on site tour), in association with the National Famine Commemoration, 2018, Cork.
By 18 April 1918, the British House of Commons had passed the Military Service Bill, which empowered the British Government to enforce conscription –service became compulsory in the British Forces for all men of military age in Ireland was adopted. This was the catalyst for a mobilisation of Nationalist Ireland to resist what was seen as a gross imposition by another country of unacceptable measures upon Irishmen against their will.
All newspapers of the day reported on the Conference of Nationalist and Republican leaders held on 18 April in in the Mansion House, Dublin. Union leaders, the Irish Parliamentary Party and Sinn Féin were all present and agreed a pledge against conscription. John Dillon and Joseph Devlin represented the Irish Parliamentary Party, Éamon de Valera and Arthur Griffith for Sinn Féin, William O’Brien and Timothy Michael Healy for the All-for-Ireland Party and Michael Egan, Thomas Johnson and W X O’Brien representing Labour and the Trade Unions. The Pledge that was to be taken read: “Denying the right of the British Government to enforce compulsorily service in this Country, we pledge ourselves solemnly to one another to resist conscription by the most effective means at our disposal”.
On the evening of the same day, the Roman Catholic bishops held their annual meeting and declared the conscription decree an oppressive and unjust law. Dublin’s Archbishop William J Walsh and his fellow bishops issued a statement condemning conscription, saying: “We feel bound to warn the government against entering upon a policy so disastrous to the public interest and to all order, public or private”.
Sunday 21 April 1918 day was appointed by resolution of the Irish Hierarchy to host anti-conscription pledge at Masses of to avert the scourge of conscription. Several churches throughout Cork City took part. Bishop Cohalan administered the pledge to the thousands of men assembled outside the North Cathedral after the noon Mass. Across the city at the South Chapel, subsequent to all the Masses the anti-conscription pledge, was administered. There were large congregations, and at the conclusion of the Intercession Mass at 12noon, which was celebrated by Father McSweeney, CC, a public meeting was held outside the church gate, which had a large attendance.
On 20 April, an emergency conference in Dublin by the Irish Trade Union Congress was attended by 1,500 delegates who decided to hold a general strike on 23 April. Hundreds of thousands signed the anti-conscription pledge, and the strike resulted in factories, shops, schools and other workplaces closing. Protests were held on the streets of Irish cites.
In Cork, the twenty-four hours were observed with a rigid faithfulness to a united protest against the imposition of conscription in Ireland. There was an entire suspension of business across the city. No trains on any of the lines converging on Cork termini entered or left the city. Steamboats remained idle at shipways and wharves. All shops of every description shut down with perhaps one of two exceptions. Licensed premises were unopened even during the hours customary on Sundays. No trams ran on any of the suburban lines from midnight on Monday till the ordinary hour of starting on Wednesday – in short, the commercial and industrial life of the city was for one whole day at a standstill.
The prominent feature of the day was a monster meeting of Trade Unionists general workers and labour en masse on the Grand Parade. It was immense in its proportions, and the various sections paraded and were played to the venue by many of the city bands, brass and reed, drum and fife, and the pipers. The weather was dry with a high wind, and this suited the evolutions of a large bi-plane that soared above and about the immediate vicinity of the members. After the meeting ended, and the people dispersed, tables were set up at many points, so people could sign the anti-conscription pledge. Voluntary workers presided over the tables and provided pencils and papers for the signatures. Tables were occupied until late in the evening.
The stoppage of trains did not deter people from districts about Cork from coming in and taking part in the general protest. Bicycles, cars, and wagonettes were requisitioned wholesale, and vast numbers from the country spent the-day in the city. Estimates in the press of the total number that attended the big meeting on the Grand Parade vary between twenty and thirty thousand.
The women’s meeting of protest at the City Hall was also deemed the largest of its kind ever seen in Cork. Held within Cork City Hall overflow gatherings grew rapidly in the vestibule and onto the street.
Theatre’s and other places of amusement in the city also closed down in the evening. This in part accounted for the increased crowds that also paraded the streets, perhaps in a less unofficial manner, in the evening. By 10.30pm, however, nearly all had gone back to their homes.
Due to the clear intent of Nationalist Ireland to resist such an imposition the British Government did not implement the Manpower Act. The War ended some months later in November 1918 (more on this in forthcoming columns).
Kieran’s Upcoming Historical Walking Tours
Saturday 28 April, The Victorian Quarter; tour of the area around St Patrick’s Hill – Wellington Road and MacCurtain Street; meet on the Green at Audley Place, top of St Patrick’s Hill, 12noon (free, duration: two hours, finishes by St Patrick’s Church, Lower Road)
Sunday 6 May 2018, The City Workhouse; learn about the workhouse created for 2,000 impoverished people in 1841; meet at the gates of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road, 2.30pm (free, duration: two hours, on site tour), in association with the National Famine Commemoration, 2018, Cork.
Caption:
943a. Anti-conscription document pinned to door of churches across Cork (source: National Library Dublin).
The political fallout of the Manpower Bill and its proposal to create forced conscription of males over thirty years of age to the British army led to mass anti-conscription meetings and campaigns across Ireland. The minutes of the Cork Harbour Commissioners meeting on 18 April 1918, as published in the Cork Examiner, reveals the non-black and white, and complex challenges within the wider public debate. Mr Daniel Lucy, chairman, presided with Mr Coroner John Horgan, noting that he had a resolution to propose on the question of conscription.
John Horgan moved: “That we declare that the English Parliament has no moral or legal right to conscript the people of Ireland. We claim, in accordance with the principle of self-determination and liberty (or small nationalities, for which England is alleged to be waging this war) that the Irish nation can only be conscripted by a freely elected Irish Parliament, and we call upon the Nationalist leaders to unite in formulating a common policy against the attempt to finally decimate our nation; and that a copy of this resolution be wired to the Lord Mayor of Dublin, as Chairman of tomorrow’s conference”.
Irish society was faced, John Horgan described, with a “terrible and tragic situation”. “It was only right that the people should be under no delusion. The English Government had neither legal nor moral right to pass this Act for Ireland”. He highlighted the years of struggle that went on in the House of Commons to carry through a moderate measure of self-government for Ireland; “There were three general elections, the veto of the House of Lords was abolished, and though it was the will of the people, the bill did not pass”. He blamed a small minority in the north-east of Ireland who would not be coerced to accept self-government.
Mr Patrick O’Brien seconded the motion whilst stating that the proposed conscription of the “manhood of Ireland” was an outrage, and then subsequently drew upon the concept of previous sacrifices being made detailing that after the Great Famine years the population dwindled from 9 ½ to 4½ million through death and emigration. His opinion was that “for every one man England would get from Ireland she would have to get two to preserve the peace”.
Mr Charles Furlong felt they should not pass the resolution. He considered that the case against England had not been fairly put. The British Parliament, was still ruling Ireland, and having conscripted England and Scotland, was only asking Ireland to carry out the same laws. “Numbers of people in Ireland had sent their best to help England in the war, and why should not other people do the same thing; If England is beaten in this war Germany will rule England and Ireland, and Irishmen would feel very sorry tor themselves if they did not help England in the war, and perform their duty to King and country”.
Mr B Haughton endorsed the remarks of Mr Furlong and thought that the agitation taking place showed that their “kith and kin” in the trenches were largely overlooked. He described that at that moment in time the Germans were advancing slowly but steadily with Messines Ridge in their possession. Mr Haughton proceeded to critique statements made by Mr Horgan in August 1914, in which he said he quoted that “Ireland’s interests are bound up with England, and that they should stand or fall together”.
Alderman Jeremiah Kelleher was of the opinion that Germany should not beat England. However, he said that every party in Ireland – national and labour was– “united in the issue to resist this imposition on the people against, the will of the majority”. Referencing Mr Furlong comment to his duty to “King and Country”, Alderman Kelleher highlighted that he knew the country and his duty to it, but after last night’s act he did not know the King; “The national and labour element, Belfast included, were united, and the democracy of Ireland would loyally obey the order of the Conference of their leaders”.
Mr Dennehy reiterated that the national and labour element of Ireland were not going to allow England, under any circumstances, to fool the people any longer. He advised the people to be cautious, and not to rush into any act “that would give the capitalistic classes the chance to massacre them”. He continued; “Belfast labour is as loyal on the issue as any other part of Ireland, and they would let England see that if this north-east corner was not to be coerced into Home Rule, the rest of Ireland was not to be coerced into Conscription. After this meeting the people of Cork would see that two members of the Board were in favour of conscripting the people against their will and could henceforward recognise them as their enemies”.
The Chairman, Daniel Lucy, declared the resolution passed. He thought the action of the Government would mean its death-warrant before many months; “The Conference of the Irish leaders would advise the country what to do, and the people, who were determined to resist to the death this terrible tyrannical act of the English Government would adopt their advice”.
Kieran’s April Historical Walking Tours
Saturday 21 April, Stories from Blackrock, tour of Blackrock Village, from Blackrock Castle to Nineteenth Century Houses and Fishing; meet at Blackrock Castle, 12noon (free, 2 hours, finishes near railway line walk, Blackrock Road)
Saturday 28 April, The Victorian Quarter; tour of the area around St Patrick’s Hill – Wellington Road and MacCurtain Street; meet on the Green at Audley Place, top of St Patrick’s Hill, 12noon (free, duration: two hours, finishes by St Patrick’s Church, Lower Road)
Sunday 6 May 2018, The City Workhouse; learn about the workhouse created for 2,000 impoverished people in 1841; meet at the gates of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road, 2.30pm (free, duration: two hours, on site tour), in association with the National Famine Commemoration, 2018, Cork.
Caption:
942a. Boardroom, Cork Harbour Commissioners, c.1918, from Cork: Its Chamber and Commerce, 1919 (source: Cork City Library)
Saturday 21 April, Stories from Blackrock, tour of Blackrock Village, from Blackrock Castle to Nineteenth Century Houses and Fishing; meet at Blackrock Castle, 12noon (free, 2 hours, finishes near railway line walk, Blackrock Road)
Saturday 28 April, The Victorian Quarter; tour of the area around St Patrick’s Hill – Wellington Road and MacCurtain Street; meet on the Green at Audley Place, top of St Patrick’s Hill, 12noon (free, duration: two hours, finishes by St Patrick’s Church, Lower Road)
Sunday 6 May 2018, The City Workhouse; learn about the workhouse created for 2,000 impoverished people in 1841; meet at the gates of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road, 2.30pm (free, duration: two hours, on site tour), in association with the National Famine Commemoration, 2018, Cork.
On 27 March 1918, David Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, presented to his cabinet plans to raise a further 555,000 men for the war effort of which 150,000 were expected to come from Ireland. On 9 April 1918 in his speech in the House of Commons Mr Lloyd George introduced the Westminster’s Government’s new Man Power Bill. The provisions included conscription for Ireland. The text of the Military Service Bill also provided that any man who at the passing of the Act has not attained the age of 51 could be deemed enlisted for general service. A sub-section substituted 56 for 51 years in the case of medical practitioners.
Mr John Dillon, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, stated that Irish conscription would destroy all hope of a settlement of the Irish Home Rule question during the war. To apply conscription to this country could, Mr Dillon, declared, “open up another war-front in Ireland, and this spirit of discontent would spread to America and Australia and wherever the Irish race was scattered. For the remainder of the war they (the Government) would have to hold Ireland under strict military law”.
In the same week, the report of the Irish Convention concluded but the British parliament’s decision to link Irish conscription to a Home Rule bill was a move that alienated Irish Nationalists and Unionists alike and created a backlash. The Irish Volunteers declared they would resist conscription. Sinn Féin and the Irish Party formed committees to direct opposition. Mass Public meetings were held across the country.
On 15 April 1918, an enormous public meeting assembled at a platform under the shadow of the National Monument on the Grand Parade, Cork. The entire thoroughfare was utterly impassable from the Monument as far as Tuckey Street and all along the Grand Parade. Most noticeably, a very large contingent came from the North-West Ward headed by the priests of the parish and bearing with them a large banner inscribed: Cork’s resolve – Death before conscription. They were accompanied by the Butter Exchange Band. Other bands that took part being the Transport Workers Band, the Workman’s Fife and Drum Band, and the Piper’s Band.
Addressing the crowd, the Lord Mayor, Thomas C Butterfield, said on behalf of the committee who called the meeting that he wished the crowd present to make a solemn promise “to resist in every way that, was in its power this iniquitous net of the British Government in attempting to enforce compulsory military service on the Irish nation against the will of the Irish people”. He outlined that there would be resolutions submitted for their approval.
Bishop Cohalan was received with cheering and said he had great pleasure in proposing the resolution: “That we, the citizens of Cork, assembled in mass meeting, solemnly protest against the proposal of the British Government to impose conscription on the Irish nation in defiance of the will of the Irish people”. Continuing he highlighted the mass opposition; “No measure of the British Government had excited Ireland so much for a long time as the conscription measure. Why had that measure disturbed Ireland? Was it that young Irishmen were afraid to shoulder the gun and face the enemy? The young men of Ireland who had already joined the army had proved that, they were able to face an opposing force with bravery. The young men of Ireland had also proved that at home”. He pitched that the young men of Ireland did not see that the war was Ireland’s war, and they protested against being asked to join the British Army against their will; “A British Parliament never tried to force a measure on either England, Scotland or Wales against, the wills of the peoples of those countries; but when it came to Ireland that government proposed to force a measure on their people which made the greatest demand on the nation—to force a measure on the nation without the consent or approval of the nation”.
The Bishop was pleased to see such a large turnout in their city noting the action of Lloyd George’s Cabinet had welded together all parties of different political views in Cork and in Ireland from the North to the South – that the whole of Ireland was united in one movement of opposition to the Military Service Act.
Mr J J Walsh, of Sinn Féin, in seconding the Bishop’s resolution, said if it became necessary to fight they were prepared for that. The advice he gave to the crowd was not to do anything impulsively until they had heard from their leaders. He declared that he did not want bloodshed, but if it had to be faced, then they must be ready. They did not want war, but if the British Government forced war upon the Irish people they would not shy away from it. Conscription, he believed, would be passed and “the manhood of Ireland must be prepared and ready”. He advised householders to lay in a supply of food. The people should stand firm in this crisis; “The Government may parade their machine guns against us and may tell us they would be shot down if we did not drill for service. If they took our gruelling like-men and stood unshakable, the Government would shrink from wholesale bloodshed in face of the feeling of universal detestation”.
Kieran’s April Historical Walking Tours
Saturday 21 April, Stories from Blackrock, tour of Blackrock Village, from Blackrock Castle to Nineteenth Century Houses and Fishing; meet at Blackrock Castle, 12noon (free, 2 hours, finishes near railway line walk, Blackrock Road)
Saturday 28 April, The Victorian Quarter; tour of the area around St Patrick’s Hill – Wellington Road and MacCurtain Street; meet on the Green at Audley Place, top of St Patrick’s Hill, 12noon (free, duration: two hours, finishes by St Patrick’s Church, Lower Road)
Sunday 6 May 2018, The City Workhouse; learn about the workhouse created for 2,000 impoverished people in 1841; meet at the gates of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road, 2.30pm (free, duration: two hours, on site tour), in association with the National Famine Commemoration, 2018, Cork.
Caption:
941a. World War I recruitment poster (source: Trinity College Dublin)
Stories from 1918: Towards an Independent University
Late March and early April 1918 coincided with the ambition of University College Cork being pursued across newspapers such as the Freeman’s Journal and the Cork Examiner. Under the presidency of Sir Bertram Windele and through the governing body of University College, Cork, they published a pamphlet in the last week of March 1918 highlighting that the time was ripe for demanding an independent University for Munster in the city, and based, of course, on the existing College. The movement was initiated for having an independent University, similar in its constitution to Universities in Leeds, Manchester, and other cities in Great Britain.
The year 1918 was exactly eighty years since an independent claim was first proposed by Cork Corporation at the instigation of the late Sir Thomas Wyse. The Corporation of Cork also supported a statement made by Councillor J Hooper, afterwards MP. His paper/ speech was afterwards published “bv order of the Council”.
In 1902 and 1906, Cork Corporation passed resolutions in favour of the project. In 1904 and 1908 two large public meetings of the citizens urged autonomy for Cork in the impending University settlement. Presidents of UCC Sir Rowland Blennerhaisset and his successor Sir Bertram Windle were consistent advocates of an independent southern university. Under the Irish Universities Act 1908, the name Queen’s College Act was changed to University College Cork.
The National University of Ireland (NUI) is a federal system of constituent universities and recognised colleges set up under the Irish Universities Act, 1908. In 1918, the Cork College was still but an appanage of the National University, and a large amount of its management of academic business generally was pursued in Dublin. Frequent meetings were in Dublin, with much weary railway travelling; copious correspondence with all of its possibilities of misunderstandings and friction and clashes of local interests. The Cork university president spent some thirty days each year in attendance at meetings in Dublin.
Under a charter and statutes, an overwhelming majority of the representatives of the National University’s central Council resided in Dublin, which, therefore, had complete control in many important matters and over rival colleges. Dublin College had seventeen representatives, Cork-seven, Galway-five, the Crown nominated four (all of whom represented Dublin and three of whom were members of the Governing Body of Dublin College).
The Board of Governors highlighted that the number of students attending the College was too small, half as many as those attending the university in Belfast. The number of students in Cork University was increasing yearly, and the constituting of it as independent College would be a distinct benefit to students. In 1918 Cork had 550 students (110 of whom were women), being a greater number of students than that of Belfast College at the time it received its charter.
According to the Board of Governors, public financial support existed. Apart from the scholarships provided by University College Cork. more than £4,000 per annum was supplied for this purpose by various public authorities in Munster. Since the foundation of the College, gifts in money and kind to a value exceeded £105,000, more than two-thirds of which had been given during 1908-1918.
Since 1908 the College had made great advances in buildings, in its range of instruction, and in the number of its teachers. The medical buildings and the engineering school had been considerably improved, and new laboratories for physics and chemistry had been constructed. At the time of the passing of the Universities Act there were seventeen professors, ten lecturers and eight demonstrators, whereas in 1917 there, were 33 professors, 23 lecturers and ten demonstrators. A Faculty of Commerce had been founded (in association with the Incorporated Cork Chamber of Commerce), as well as a Department of Dentistry. With the aid of a grant from the Cork Corporation evening lectures for working men had been instituted in connection with the Workers’ Education Association.
As a member of the Board of Governors, The Lord Mayor of Cork Thomas C Butterfield wrote publicly in March 1918; “As an old student of the College, and as Lord Mayor, I should like the change to take place for I am certain that owing to the great changes, which are likely to take place in Cork in the immediate future it will be to the advantage of the people of Munster that the College should have a free hand in working out its own destiny, so as to conform with the changing conditions, which is at present impossible except to a limited degree”.
At the meeting of the Cork Corporation on Friday 12 April 1918, the Lord Mayor presided, the City Council unanimously adopted the following resolution. “That this meeting approves of the action which, the Governing Body of the University College is taking with the object of obtaining a Charter which will secure for Munster a separate and independent University. That we believe the increasing popularity of the University College as a teaching centre justifies us in stating that the educational requirements of Munster will be best served by the proposed change”. Copies of the resolution were to be sent to the Prime Minister, the Lord Lieutenant, the Chief Secretary, all the members of Parliament for Munster, and to all public boards in Munster except Clare”. It was to take to 1997 before a revised Universities Act gave UCC full University Independence.
Captions:
939a. Map of the campus of University College Cork, 1919, from Cork: Its Chamber and Commerce (source: Cork City Library)
939b. Photo of the quadrangle of University College Cork, early twentieth century, from Cork: Its Chamber and Commerce (source: Cork City Library)
Saturday, 24 March 2018,The Friar’s Walk, with Cllr Kieran McCarthy; discover Red Abbey, Elizabeth Fort, Callanan’s Tower and Greenmount area; meet at Red Abbey tower, off Douglas Street, 12noon (free, duration: two hours) in association with Cork Lifelong Learning Festival 2018.
