Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy has welcomed the addition of new interpretative signage at tourist strategic sites in Cork City. Fáilte Ireland have commenced with the installation of orientation signage as part of Ireland’s Ancient East at five locations in Cork City – Cork City Gaol, Blackrock, Butter Museum/ Shandon, Cork Public Museum/ Fitzgerald’s Park, St Finbarre’s Cathedral. The signs are strategically located at popular stopping points and inform visitors of nearby tourist attractions and points of interest that are part of Ireland’s Ancient East Story and within up to 60 minutes-drive away from the sign location and encourage visitors to extend their stay. The installation of further signs at other sites like the Lifetime Lab will happen shortly.
Whilst welcoming the signs, Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy re-iterated his recurring point to the City Council’s tourism committee that it is important that Cork gets its share of publicity from Ireland’s Ancient East; “Additional interpretative signage telling Cork’s story is always great; But I am worried though from looking at the national picture – at the marketing campaign of Ireland’s Ancient East that there is a strong marketing focus on counties such as Meath, Carlow, and Kilkenny. This is also shown very clear on the marketing boards in Cork Airport and online. Cork City (and parts of the county to the north and east) as a southern terminus for the trail must get its fair share of publicity. The City was told 2-3 years ago that because we are not on the Wild Atlantic Way we would feature strongly on Ireland’s Ancient East. I acknowledge Fáilte Ireland has funded new heritage projects at the Lifetime Lab and Blackrock Castle but the publicity so far for Cork, I feel, has generally been underwhelming. I have called that we construct a stronger relationship with those in Fáilte Ireland driving Ireland’s Ancient East that we invite them into the committee to see what further work can be pursued.
The Wheels of 1917: Insights at the South Infirmary
One hundred years ago, 9 February 1917, the annual meeting of the Joint Committee of Management of the South Charitable Infirmary and County Hospital was held in the Boardroom of the institution. The Bishop of Cloyne Dr. Browne, chairman, presided with the report being published in the Cork Examiner. The report given on the hospital was extensive and gives another insight into everyday life in Cork a century ago and on the nature of the pressures on the health service for the ordinary citizen. The South Infirmary was opened in 1762 and was established by Act of Parliament. By 1917, the Victoria Hospital was in existence next door. Formerly known as the Women and Children’s Hospital, the latter institution was first located on Union Quay and then on Pope’s Quay. The move to be a neighbour of the South Infirmary occurred in 1885 and shortly afterwards an efficient training system for nurses was established. The name change to Victoria Hospital occurred in 1901.
The 1917 report highlighted what the South Infirmary deemed as “large numbers” applying for admission into the wards and attending at the extern departments. By arrangement with the military authorities over the previous two years the committee of the South Infirmary placed the entire male surgical ward at the disposal of the military authorities. The large number of 152 wounded and sick soldiers passed through the wards.
The medical and surgical report highlighted 484 medical cases passed through the wards. of whom 447 were discharged, cured or relieved and 37 died. The chief causes of death were acute lung and kidney diseases. The other deaths were largely due to the chronic affections found in a general hospital, and many of these were deemed “hopeless on admission”. In the surgical ward 598 cases were treated, and of these 561 were discharged or cured, whilst 34 died. Several deaths were due to cancerous cases on admission. The daily average number of beds occupied were 90.7%. The treatment of many cases, very many of a serious nature, and some requiring immediate operation, demanded much time and attention. There were 404 major operations performed during the year. A total of 3,109 new cases passed through the extern department, with a total attendance of 11,531.
Regarding staffing, the house surgeon Dr D P Lucy resigned in March 1916 having joined the Royal Army Military Corp (RAMC). Dr W P Lehane and Dr J C Saunders, former students of the hospital, were appointed house surgeon and house physician respectively. Dr G F Hegarty, after a year’s service with the RAMC, resumed charge of the X-ray department, which, during his absence was attended to by Mr H Lund. The concept of using X-rays in general hospitals was only about 15-20 years old. The hospital report regretted that owing to the high cost of building, they were not yet able to enlarge this department and complete its equipment. A special donation was received for it in 1913. The Lord Mayor, Thomas Butterfield, who was a dental surgeon by profession, found that the many calls on his time made it difficult to attend regularly at the South Infirmary’s dental department. He asked that a dentist be appointed to act with him during his term of office. Two were appointed. The onerous duties of the Matron were discharged by Sister M Albens Fogarty; her assistant was Sister M Cecilia. Miss A Henderson, who had been a member of the nursing staff for 7 ½ years, resigned in November 1916. She held the responsible position of staff nurse in the operation theatre.
In a finance sense, the hospital report highlighted that 1916 was an “extremely difficult and anxious year for the Joint Committee, and still more so for the House Committee”. The cost of everything connected with hospital maintenance continued to increase. There was often over 170 persons to be provided for in the Infirmary each day. The Matron lessened the distribution of food and coal but called for a warning to be given in the report; “it must be remembered that in the care of the sick there should not be any reduction in the amount of food or comfort required for their treatment. Apart altogether from the natural desire to do everything possible for the sick, it is false economy to reduce nourishment below what is necessary, as it means a longer stay in the hospital, and, consequently, more expense, besides, in many cases, depriving families of their breadwinners”.
Regarding funding and bequests, the hospital’s Joint Committee received during the previous year a bequest of £1,000 left by Dr A C Godfrey, of Broom Hill, Dripsey, for the endowment of “the Godfrey Bed’. A tablet was placed over a bed in the male surgical ward recording the name of the donor. A further £900, was made from the trustees of the will of Mr Joseph Bennett, of Warren’s Place, Cork, which became available on the death of his son, Mr Thomas F Bennett. The collections for the Hospital Saturday Fund and Hospital Aid Society amassed £53 and £40, respectively, to be allocated to the South Infirmary. The Joint Committee acknowledged the donations and the collection work of the Countess of Bandon, the Lady Mayoress, and the ladies of the city and county.
Indices of and links to previous Our City, Our Town columns can be viewed at www.corkheritage.ie
Cork 1916, A Year Examined (2016) by Kieran McCarthy & Suzanne Kirwan is now available in Cork bookshops.
Cork City History Tour (2016) by Kieran McCarthy is also available in Cork bookshops.
Captions:
881a. Postcard of former entrance to South Infirmary, c.1910; this main block has now been replaced by the modern hospital (source: Cork City Through Time by Kieran McCarthy & Dan Breen)
881b. Map of the grounds of South Infirmary, c.1910 (source: Cork City Library)
For over twenty years Kieran McCarthy has promoted Cork’s history and heritage and promoted its various communities and people.
His love of local history has inspired his many successful heritage initiatives and he has now received the January Cork Person of the Month award to mark his work.
Kieran organises local history walking tours, community talks, city and county school heritage programmes, newspaper history columns and has written nineteen local history books such as “The Little Book of Cork” and “Cork City History Tour – 2016”. Many of his articles can be seen on www.corkheritage.ie.
He is also an Independent Cork City councillor and a member of the EU Committee of the Regions. Recently as a mature student at UCC he gained a PhD in geography.
Over recent years he also started many youth projects such as the “Discover Cork: School’s Heritage Project”, McCarthy’s Community Talent Competition, and Cork City Musical Society.
“Cork has a great story to tell, one of ambition and determination, and it’s important we champion it and pass it on. I have always been passionate about Cork’s local history, both urban and rural, and especially in passing it on to the next generation” said Kieran at the award presentation.
This is the 25th year of the Cork Persons of Month award scheme and the Cork Person of the Year will be chosen from the monthly award winners in mid-January next (’18).
One hundred years ago, February 1917 coincided with a renewed focus on the value of engineering works for employment and industrial image in the region. The detail of the Ford project was progressing. In addition, in the first week of the local press, Passage West and its ship building industry came under scrutiny when its docks complex was purchased by the shipping magnate Messrs Furness, Withy & Co, Ltd. This was an enormous global firm, which provided the city and region an extra bargaining chip to the Westminster government on why the Ford complex should be sanctioned in Cork. Indeed, by the end of 1917, some 800 workers were employed at Passage West and Rushbrooke.
Passage West and Rushbrooke Docks were built by Henry Brown and William Craig, and were formally opened by Queen Victoria on her visit to Passage West in 1832, and the two dry Docks were named respectively the Royal Victoria Dock and Albert Twin Dock. The town of Passage West flourished and prospered because of the large amount of employment given in the consultation and repair of ships. Serving the town was the Cork, Blackrock and Passage Railway, which was opened from Cork to Passage in 1850, and extended to Crosshaven in 1904. It was 16 miles long and served the important shipbuilding centre at Passage West, the well-known residential district of Monkstown, the rich agricultural area around Carrigaline, and the famous seaside resort of Crosshaven.
The Rushbrooke Dock was built by the late Joseph Wheeler in 1860. He was an extensive shipbuilder in Cork, where he built many sailing ships for local and other owners. The rapid growth of other shipyards to cope with the advancing types of ships in England and elsewhere affected Passage, and for some years a period of depression ensued. The fate of the docks and the town was a matter of anxiety. The facilities offered a fine waterway but lack of investment capital.
In 1880 the Passage West and Rushbrooke Docks passed into the hands of entrepreneur Sir John Arnott, from whom they were again subsequently purchased by the Channel Dry Docks Shipbuilding and Engineering Co, Ltd, in 1898. In 1900, there was talk of Harland and Wolfe coming to Monkstown and, although there was much enthusiasm for the project, it never materialised. In 1910, the Managing Director, Mr Oliver Piper, purchased the Docks himself. It was Oliver Piper who brought Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, on a guided tour of the Royal Victoria Dockyard when he came to view Cork Harbour in the summer of 1912. It was hoped that the visit would result in Admiralty work for the dockyard. When Furness & Withy purchased the site from Piper he continued to work them until March, 1917. He then went on to create the Queenstown Dry Docks firm, which pursued work for Furness & Withy.
Mr Piper on 5 February 1917 in the Cork Examiner noted on the takeover of his firm; “the Docks have been acquired by the very important firm of ship-owners, Messrs Furness, Withy and Co, Ltd, of London. Liverpool and Hartlepool, whose phenomenal rise in such a few years to the very highest position in shipping is an indication of the ability and energy of its directors. They have been satisfied by their personal investigations and reports that the South of Ireland is virgin soil, and has potentialities of very great importance to a shipping corporation possessed of the ability, energy and immense resources that the purchasing company enjoy”.
London’s National Maritime Museum denotes of the international reputation of Messrs Furness Withy & Co that it was was incorporated as a company in 1891 upon the amalgamation of Christopher Furness’ business in West Hartlepool and London with Edward Withy’s shipbuilding yard in Hartlepool. By 1914 the company had acquired interests all over the world in liner and tramp shipping and in shipbuilding, but from 1920 they concentrated on liner services.
In 1911 Furness Withy acquired a large holding in Houlder Brothers and the company’s British & Argentine’s vessels were operated in association with those of the Houlder Line. In 1914 the Furness-Houlder Argentine Lines was incorporated for the purpose of building a fleet of large, fast twin-screw steamers for the conveyance of chilled and frozen meat from the River Plate to London in conjunction with the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co, Furness Withy and Houlder Brothers. There were other additions to the company. The Prince Line was purchased in 1916 and with this services were developed to the Mediterranean and from New York to the Far East and the River Plate. The River Syndicate was incorporated in 1920 to acquire a controlling interest in the Danube shipping which had formerly belonged to South German, Austrian and Hungarian companies. In the late 1920s and early 1930s the company sold of several of its non-profiting shipyards of which Passage West Docks was one.
In 1931, the site of the Royal Victoria Dockyard was purchased by a new company, Haulbowline Industries Ltd (HIL). The Harbour Board supported the HIL shipbreaking venture by decreasing tonnage dues on metal from scrapped ships. The company still focusses in the trade of scrap iron and today, some loading and unloading of cargo is also completed at the dockyard.
Indices of and links to previous Our City, Our Town columns can be viewed at www.corkheritage.ie
Cork 1916, A Year Examined (2016) by Kieran McCarthy & Suzanne Kirwan is now available in Cork bookshops.
Cork City History Tour (2016) by Kieran McCarthy is also available in Cork bookshops.
Captions:
880a. Passage West from Glenbrook, c.1910 (source: Cork Harbour Through Time by Kieran McCarthy & Dan Breen)
880b. Wall of former Royal Victoria Dockyard, Passage West, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
This week’s article is inspired by a summary report, 100 years ago today, in the Cork Examiner on 19 January 1917. The article addressed the activity levels of technical instruction in County Cork and the educational, arts and crafts activities associated with it for the season 1915-16. The article is also inspired by the current and great exhibition in the Crawford Art Gallery called Made in Cork, it celebrates the unique history of the arts and crafts movement in the County and city of Cork from the early twentieth century. The collection of 70 beautiful examples of the finest crafts Cork has to offer is curated by art historian Vera Ryan. The exhibition runs till 25 February 25 and commemorates both the centenary of the Honan Chapel, which was opened in 1916 and the centenary of the 1917 Arts and Crafts Society exhibition in Cork, which took place in the Crawford Art Gallery, then Cork School of Art.
The meeting of the County Cork Technical Committee was held on the third week of January 1917. It was a monthly meeting and was chaired by Canon Thomas Barrett, Parish Priest in Passage West. He had deeps interests in promoting community life and education and also had fundraised successfully monies for the construction of the Catholic Young Men’s Society Hall in Passage. The committee, Canon Barrett chaired, had been created some years previously, under the banner of the Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act in 1899. The act recognised the need for an Irish framework for technical education in an attempt to halt industrial and manufacturing decline and provide employment. Technical instruction was re-organised under local authorities and committees were funded to run local programmes. County Councils also had to rent schools, and in many instances had to also build them. A system of instruction outreach was planned in experimental science, drawing, and manual work, and domestic economy in day secondary schools.
At the January 1917 meeting a summary of Technical Instruction Inspector, Mr J J McCaffrey’s report was read out on the scheme of technical instruction in County Cork during the session 1915-16. He praised the work of the instructors but as per the national mantra in technical instruction he pressed to have them work longer hours. The committee was quick to note that it’s finances were at breaking point, was struggling to rent appropriate spaces for instruction and was finding it difficult to provide twenty hours of teaching for instructors in some of the outlier districts. The debate and results do offer an insight into the nature of arts and crafts in Cork and its geographic spread in 1917 and the underpinning of the importance of local industry to provide personal opportunity one hundred years ago.
During the winter session, the work of the eight manual instructors employed under the technical instruction scheme were organised in elements such as woodwork, domestic economy, embroidery, needlework, commercial work, and art classes. Classes were about to be arranged in farriery for blacksmiths and in rural science and school gardening for National school teachers. From late Spring the eight technical instructors were occupied five days weekly and taught on an average for eighteen hours a week. McCaffrey, the inspector, noted that the results from the classes in manual instruction work were excellent in the Charleville, Doneraile, Youghal and Passage West. Several tradesmen received instruction in carpentry and joinery in Kanturk, and there was a small day class for apprentices in Fermoy. A small first year building construction class was taught in Youghal. McCaffrey noted that instruction in Baltimore in manual instruction, practical geometry and several stages of boat-building drawing were taken concurrently with the students meeting in three different classrooms. Under such circumstances progress was not being made.
Syllabuses were followed in domestic economy, and in many of the centres the number of students enrolled was quite large. The classroom used at Killavullen was deemed by McCaffrey as satisfactorily lit, but stood in need of repairs, whilst that at Ballyhooly the room gave a very good floor space, but was also poorly lit. Courses in cookery were held in two permanent centres – Mallow and Youghal. The Mallow class suffered from oversubscription. The teaching of needlework was deemed satisfactory in many centres. At Macroom, instruction was given in various kinds of plain needlework. At Ballineen the accommodation was reported as quite unsuitable as seats were not provided. An instructress in crochet work conducted courses in temporary centres. McCaffrey highlights that the accommodation at Knockavilla was deemed satisfactory, but that at Crossbarry was unsuitable and that the work-room needed to be more comfortable.
The commercial courses were deemed well conducted at all centres from Bantry to Charleville. The accommodation provided though was deemed not suitable for commercial students. Art classes for teachers were satisfactorily conducted at Mallow and Bantry. Art classes for ordinary students were held in Fermoy. At Passage West, classes were held in three science subjects under part-time teachers. In each of these, parallel instruction was given in two or more syllabuses, much to the detriment of students who wished to attend all the classes. McCaffrey’s report offers an interesting light into arts and craft education in County Cork but check out Vera Ryan’s Exhibition, Made in Cork in the Crawford Art Galley to discover more on the production of some real treasured and local crafted work from circa 1917.
If you missed one of the columns in 2016 and before, check out the Our City, Our Town index at my website, www.corkheritage.ie
Cork 1916, A Year Examined (2016) by Kieran McCarthy & Suzanne Kirwan is now available in Cork bookshops.
Cork City History Tour (2016) by Kieran McCarthy is also available in Cork bookshops.
Captions:
878a. Main Street, Doneraile, c.1910 (source: North Cork Through Time by Kieran McCarthy & Dan Breen)
878b. New Street, Bantry, c.1910 (source: West Cork Through Time by Kieran McCarthy & Dan Breen)
The theme of the shortage of food emanates throughout the press columns of Irish newspapers in 1917. In the second week of January 1917, or one hundred years ago this week, problems of labour shortage and supply and distribution of food were the key concerns of Westminster’s Food Controller. Lord Devonport or Hudson Ewbanke Kearley was a British grocer and politician. He founded the International Tea Company’s Stores, became the first chairman of the Port of London Authority, and served as Minister of Food Control during World War I. He was appointed as Minister in December 1916 by Lloyd George and he submitted a proposal for compulsory rationing in May 1917. He developed a set of proposals designed to reduce the consumption of certain articles of food such as bread and meat.
According to the editorials of the Cork Examiner in January 1917, the price of bread was high. There was a notable disparity between the price of bread in Cork and Dublin. The high costs of freight stood out. To provide a sustainable supply, regulation was enacted to create a new “standard” bread. The bread was rolled out in Cork in the first week of January and baked in the factories of the master bakers. It was proposed at the time that the scheme would continue during the war. The price charged for this bread was to be the same as that previously in operation for beet white bread. The price was to be 11d per pair when the bread was delivered, but would be a halfpenny less per pair when purchased at the counter, and another half penny per pair less in the case of “cold” bread. Under the new rule, no “household” bread was to be on sale.
Other debates on food shortages also began on encouraging citizens to grow vegetables such as potatoes, parsnips, turnips, beans and peas and to establish allotments in the city. The growing of vegetables was not a new concept in the city’s suburban market gardens but creating labourer allotments of one eight of an acre in Cork were a relatively new concept. In early 1917, between Dublin and Belfast there were 2,000 plots in working order. In the bigger picture in Britain and Ireland, the concept of allotments and the total number of plots has varied greatly over time. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the allotment system supplied much of the fresh vegetables eaten by the poor. Westminster reports record that in 1873 there were 244,268 plots and by 1918 there were around 1,500,000 plots. To fulfil the need for land, allotment legislation was enacted. The law was first fully ordered in the Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908, then modified by the Allotments Act 1922. Under the Acts, a local authority is required to maintain an “adequate provision” of land, usually a large allotment field which can then be subdivided into allotment gardens for individual residents at a low rent. In August 1917, the Local Government Allotments and Land Cultivation (Ireland) Act was sanctioned.
Several months before the 1917 act, the lack of real legislation governing the legalities around Ireland’s allotment scheme is evident in Cork Corporation’s initial discussion in pursuing an actual scheme. As highlighted in the Cork Examiner on 15 February, an important meeting of the city’s allotments committee was held. The Lord Mayor Cllr Thomas Butterfield presided and he gave an account of the visit of a deputation to Dublin to the Local Government Board (LGB). There they asked questions which they considered would help them in rolling out Cork City’s allotment scheme. They asked for compulsory powers to acquire land and for an independent valuer from the LGB. Compulsory powers were not granted – the same applied to other public representatives from Irish towns seeking new legal powers. The second question they asked was to be allowed to increase the grant from one-eighth to a quarter of an acre, and the Corporation to take title land for a term of years. The Cork committee made the case that a family could work an acre. This also was not granted.
At the meeting on 15 February 1917, the allotment committee proposed that Fitzgerald’s Park display an eighth of an acre demonstration plot. Councillor Sir Edward Fitzgerald was to arrange to have his gardeners look alter the plot in the park. By late February the O’Donovans of Rutland Street offered four acres on Ballinlough Road at £4 an acre purchase price. Mr Joyce gave an offer of six acres in of Mayfield at £4 an acre purchase price. Fifty acres were offered at Beaumont, the estate of Mr R Woodhead free of rent. Part of these were only subsequently utilised and control was given to the Rural District Council in this part of the city’s county suburbs.
In early March 1917 Thomas Donovan wrote to the Corporation offering 6 acres of land at Gillabbey free of charge for nine months and Frank Murphy in Shanakiel gave 2 acres free of charge. By 23 March, the committee had 229 applications with 99 in the south of the city, 52 in the north-east, 56 in the north-west, 16 in the west, and 5 in the city Centre. The key problem was that only 19 acres of land was actually secured by the Corporation and applications could not be met. The struggle to secure land continued into 1918 and 1919.
If you missed one of the columns in 2016 and before, check out the Our City, Our Town index at my website, www.corkheritage.ie
Cork 1916, A Year Examined (2016) by Kieran McCarthy & Suzanne Kirwan is now available in Cork bookshops.
Cork City History Tour (2016) by Kieran McCarthy is also available in Cork bookshops.
Captions:
877a. Fr Mathew Memorial Fountain at Fitzgerald’s Park, c.1917 (source: Cork City Through Time by Kieran McCarthy and Dan Breen)
877b. Present day pond area of Fitzgerald’s Park (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
The 1 January 1917 began with historical echoes of the previous year. The year 1916 coincided with many great stories of a changing society in Cork from the adjustment of the clocks to Greenwich Mean Time to differing attitudes towards the Easter Rising versus those on the front lines in trenches in France to the celebration of Irish culture through the architecture of the new Honan Chapel. As the year progressed, so many different aspects of Irish culture and society came under bombardment or were progressed as outlined in the various Our City, Our Town columns last year.
I hope for the next few weeks to write about some key themes of physical, social and political developments in the city and region in 1917. A study of the daily news stories that made the headlines in local newspapers such as the Cork Examiner at first glance showcase a less eventful year than 1916. Controlled by the British government, censorship was ever present in the newspaper. However, taking many of the overarching news themes over a year, one can see key changes within society to how to best approach society issues such as war, industrialisation, the political quest for Home Rule, the role of the church, the role of violence in campaigns for a United Ireland, the impact of the re-emergence from prison of key Easter 1916 Rising key participants in late Spring 1917 such as Éamon DeValera and Countess Markievicz. The Countess herself brought a renewed call to rebellion in public meetings on the streets of Cork and Clonakilty in mid-August 1917.
The news of the first week of 1917 set the undertone for what was to come. War was ever present and by the late spring of 1917, one can feel the closeness of the front of war to Cork as more and more references are given to German submarines waiting in Irish waters to attack mercantile vessels. There are also continued references to Irish soldiers in various battalions awaiting action on the frontlines. The Reserve Camp of the 3rd Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers in Aghada was focused upon on the 1 January 1917 in the Cork Examiner as a space of peace and quiet over the Christmas period. The Royal Munster Fusiliers raised a total of 11 battalions from the pre-war, two regular and two reserve battalions. The 3rd (Reserve) Battalion was mobilised at Tralee on 4 August 1914 and later that month deployed to Berehaven and Bantry Bay for training. In October 1914, it was moved to Cork. In May 1915, it was relocated to Aghada and Cork Harbour. Here the camp was tented and hutted in nature because nearby Fort Carlisle was full. The camp was in a field opposite the Presbyterian (former Church of Ireland) Church. The reality of the hutted camp was that it was in a poor state of repair, the training grounds confined to a few fields with no elaborate training trench system and the musketry course was thirty miles away in Youghal.
On Christmas Day 1916, Christmas Services were held in the Catholic Church and Presbyterian Church for the Battalion. The Christmas dinners in the various companies commenced at 1 o’clock, the huts where the dinners were served were decorated. The Commanding Officer, Buttevant man, Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Sherlock Brasier Creagh, visited the various companies, where he was joined by the company officers. He read the King’s message to the troops, and expressed the hope that “the men were thoroughly provided for, and that they would enjoy themselves to the fullest extent”. In addition to refreshments, tobacco, cigars and cigarettes were distributed among the men. In the evening a dance look place in the local Y.M.C.A. Hall. In October 1917, the Battalion was re-located to Ballincollig and in November 1917, the battalion was moved to England at Devonport.
A key term shining through various historical sources for the City and region in 1917 is that of Americanisation. The year 1917 was to coincide with re-election of President Woodrow Wilson and the subsequent call by the American House of Representatives and Senate to declare war on Germany. Through entering the war in April 1917 there arrived to Cork Harbour fleets of gun ships to attack the increasing attacks of German submarines, and a proliferation of American soldiers into the towns of the Harbour area and Cork City. At the end of January 1917, Germany, determined to win its war of attrition against the Allies, announced the resumption of unrestricted warfare.
Another key piece of Americanisation was the negotiations to bring a Ford tractor factory to the site of Cork’s City Park Racecourse and Deep Water Quay at the Marina. By January 1917, negotiations between representatives of the promoters and the heads and legal representatives of the local public bodies concerned, had been brought to a successful conclusion. It was announced in the press on 1 January that all preliminary details had been arranged, and that, subject to the necessary Parliamentary sanction being obtained i.e. the Cork Improvement Bill – everything would be in order and the scheme could proceed. These Parliamentary powers were to be sought for immediately but it would take until mid-July 1917 before the bill got final royal ascent after passing through Westminster and the House of Lords.
If you missed one of the columns in 2016, check out the Our City, Our Town index at my website, www.corkheritage.ie
Cork 1916, A Year Examined (2016) by Kieran McCarthy & Suzanne Kirwan is now available in Cork bookshops.
Cork City History Tour (2016) by Kieran McCarthy is also available in Cork bookshops.
Captions:
876a. Postcard of Cork Harbour, c.1910 (source: Cork Harbour Through Time by Kieran McCarthy & Dan Breen)
876b. Aghada, c.1910 (source: Cork Harbour Through Time by Kieran McCarthy & Dan Breen)
Cork Independent, 22 December 2016 Remembering 1916: Christmas Preparations
Today one hundred years ago, citizens went about their annual Christmas shopping amidst a sharp frost and a bitter wind. The Cork Examiner reports of the week reveal multiple tales of a city struggling with legacies of war and loss. Animated scenes were recorded at a Christmas party at Victoria Barracks on a Wednesday evening, when through the kindness of Lieutenant-Colonel A Canning, CMG, commanding the 3rd Leinsters, and Mrs Canning, an entertainment was given to the wives and children of the men of the several battalions of the regiment who were resident in Cork and vicinity. It was an anecdote to the horrors of news across other parts of the media’s press coverage. On 18 December 1916, the Battle of Verdun ended in France with German troops defeated. The Battle of Verdun lasted for 303 days and became the longest and one of the costliest battles in human history with nearly a million casualities.
The 3rd Leinsters Battalion was one of eight Irish regiments raised largely in Ireland with its home depot in Birr. The function in Cork barracks commenced at 3.30pm when tea was served in the YMCA Hut to about 600 women and children. Afterwards all proceeded to the gymnasium, which was elaborately decorated with flags and bunting. Here an enormous Christmas tree-laiden with toys in waiting, Captain HRH Ireland MC in ruddy robes and snowy hair and whiskers, acted as Santa Claus, and the toys were given away by Mrs Reed. There were almost 500 children present, and each child got a present.
Archives of the Leinster Regiment Ireland record that three battalions of the Leinster Regiment were active during the Easter Rising in 1916, it was only the 5th that was directly involved in the fighting. The 3rd and 4th battalions were mobilised but performed only guard duty at Bridges on the Shannon. The legacy of 1916 also pervaded the press in December 1916 with news from the Frongoch Internment Camp in Wales. Owing to their refusing to answer roll-call and assist in the identification of those liable to military service, prisoners at the South Camp were heavily penalised – one of the punishments being the deprivation of medical treatment when necessary.
In our recent weeks, the Digital Repository of Ireland has launched a series of new digital exhibitions to post online in the next couple of months to commemorate the internment of Irish prisoners at the Frongoch internment camp. Frongoch and 1916: Recreating a Lost Landscape will contain several thematically arranged exhibitions, augmented by unseen memorabilia from private collections digitised at public memorabilia collection days. The project blurb details that Frongoch provides a fascinating window into 1916, because the Irish prisoners, their Welsh guards and local townspeople created a kinship during this short imprisonment, leading to a fount of stories and an array of artefacts that mark the brief period of the camp’s existence. Following the 1916 Easter Rising, the camp was emptied of the German prisoners being held there from World War I battlefields, and was populated with c. 1,800 Irish prisoners, including Michael Collins. The camp was emptied in December 1916, but not before becoming known as ‘ollscoil na réabhlóide’, the “University of Revolution” for the discussions and classes that had been built by the community. In terms of the emptying of Froncoch Camp a small story appearing in the Cork Examiner on 26 December 1916 comments that on the previous Saturday and Sunday men from the County of Cork arrested after the troubles of Easter Week and confined in internment camps in England, arrived in Cork. They were met by relatives and friends at the Glanmire Railway terminus, and proceeded to their respective homes.
Where both soldier and revolutionary met was probably at the Cork Opera House. A century ago it was an old-established custom at the Cork Opera House to open the after-Christmas season with a George Edwarde’s musical comedy. The success of 1916 was “The Happy Day”, which ran for several months in London, and had been presented in British cities with equal success. It was welcomed to Cork in the afternoon of 27 December by an audience, which left very few seats vacant in the Opera House. The play, which was in two acts, was the work of Mr Seymour Hicks; the music was by Sydney Jones and Paul A Rubens, and the latter with Adrian Ross, contributed to the lyrics. As to the plot – Prince Charles of Galania, who might be a knight errant in the old days of chivalry, is to marry Princess Mary of Valaria, whom he has never seen. He meets the Princess, but thinks she is somebody else, and they arrange to meet again at a sort of Bohemian ball that forms part of the municipal celebrations. And perhaps the theme of multiple identities is where Cork and the country ended up on the last day of December 1916 – being at a crossroads of multiple narratives, all active in shaping Ireland’s southern capital – where themes of a world war, revolution, poverty, industrial opportunism through the hopeful Fords project all merge to create an Atlantic port city full of stories about life and humanity.
Happy Christmas and Happy New Year to all readers of the column – if you missed one of the columns this year, check out the Our City, Our Town index at my website, www.corkheritage.ie
Cork 1916, A Year Examined (2016) by Kieran McCarthy & Suzanne Kirwan is now available in Cork bookshops.
Cork City History Tour (2016) by Kieran McCarthy is also available in Cork bookshops.
Captions:
875a. Crawford Art Gallery & Cork Opera House, c.1916 (source: Cork City Through Time by Kieran McCarthy & Dan Breen)
875b. Present day Emmett Place (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
Announcement has been made by Cork City Council of a grant by the National Transport Authority of e.800.000 to fulfil the second phase of redevelopment at Blackrock Village pier. This entails the creation of a stepped down plaza area into the river. Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy noted; “this is great news for Blackrock residents and those who walk and enjoy the Marina and Blackrock area. The pier area will now be the focus of envy of other small coastal villages in Ireland. The scheme will complement the existing pier area and put the focus back even more on the important relationship between the pier and the river. It also comprises very good urban design and will create a vibrant public realm space for people to enjoy this corner of historic Cork”. Work will shortly conclude on phase one i.e. the widening of roads in the area and phase 2, the plaza area is said to begin in the early months of next year.
