Cork Heritage Open Day is a unique event, which is held on the first Saturday of Cork Heritage Week. Cork Heritage Open Day is taking place on Saturday, August 20th and will see over 42 buildings open their doors to the public for one day only. A series of guided walking tours, heritage events, exhibitions, talks and children’s events will also take place. All events are free.
Cork Heritage Open Day is organized by Cork City Council as part of Heritage Week in partnership with the Heritage Council and with media sponsorship from Cork’s 96FM and the Evening Echo.
To view other events taking place in the city for Cork Heritage Week please click on the links below.
Roger Casement was executed in London on 3 August 1916. The following day 4 August, this day one hundred years ago, the newspapers of the day had ample coverage about the nature of his execution. He was the last of the executions of the leaders associated with the Easter Rising. It occurred amidst a backdrop of continuing martial law in Ireland and internments in British prisons. Casement remains a type of enigma in the study of the 1916 conflict. He is considered an outsider as such. He was involved in broader international politics (as outlined a few weeks back in another column), and if anything, his legacy provides a lens to view the influences on the Rising in a larger international narrative – the German interest in our revolution through the gun running and the Aud – that the storyline is broader than just what happened in Dublin in Easter 1916 – and again highlighting that the story of the Rising has many facets and angles to approach it from an examination sense.
On 3 August 1916, a large crowd of people assembled in the neighbourhood of the front entrance to Pentonville Prison, in Caledonian Road, North London to try to witness Casement’s hanging. The crowd, comprising chiefly of women and children, stood outside the main gates on which there was posted a small sheet of white paper announcing when the execution would take place. Pentonville opened in 1842, part of a suite of prisons in the British capital. Prisoners under sentence of death were not housed at Pentonville Prison until the closure of Newgate Prison in 1902. Pentonville took over executions in North London. Condemned cells were added and an execution room constructed to accomodate Newgate’s gallows. At the same time Pentonville took over from Newgate the role of being the training location for future executioners.
Upon the white slip of paper on Pentonville’s gate the eyes of the spectators were riveted. The notice had the following words: “The sentence of the law passed upon Roger David Casement, found guilty of high treason, will be carried into execution at 9 a.m. tomorrow – Signed A S Ruston, Under-Sheriff of London, B. Kynaston Metcalfe, Under-Sheriff of Middlesex , O E M Davies, Governor”.
At eight minutes past nine the prison bell. tolled once, and immediately the members of the crowd exclaimed; “There is the bell; he has gone”. By this time the main road was crowded, and a large force of police was required to keep the populace back. John Ellis was the executioner. Eight years later, Elllis had given 23 years as an executioner and had been involved with 203 executions. He was noted to take his post very seriously and always hoped to dispatch the condemned person with as little issue as possible. In carrying out the execution, Mr Manler, senior medical officer, said death was instantaneous. Casement was six feet one and three-quarter inches in height, and the drop was six foot, three inches.
Rev James Caroll, a priest of the Roman Catholic Church at Eden Grove, was present at the execution, and afterwards told the Press Association representative that Casement went to his death “Strong and Erect, like the man he was”. Casement’s body was interred in No. 2 burial ground, Pentonville, inside the north boundary wall, opposite the officers’ quarters. Quicklime was not used in these grounds and the executed were buried in coffins. There Casement’s remains remained until 1965 when the labour government of Harold Wilson agreed to hand it over to the Republic of Ireland on condition he was not buried in the North. He was given a full state funeral and interred in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.
President Eamon de Valera in his mid-eighties himself gave the graveside oration at Glasnevin. He joined an approximate other 30,000 Irish people at the funeral. His oration, which was televised, can be viewed on the archive section of RTE.ie. DeValera spoke about Glasnevin as a “place of pilgrimage”, Casement’s love of his father’s Antrim and Ulster. He called for north and south of Ireland to be “united in co-operation” and spoke about Casement’s “championship of oppressed and downtrodden people”.
In 2015, the National Library of Ireland released a cache of previously unseen documents penned by Casement whilst he was awaiting his execution. This includes on prison-regulated paper a letter from Casement to his cousins about his imprisonment and impending death in which he thanks them for their “brave, faithful, loving hearts to me in these last horrible days”. There is an envelope with the inscription: “This little book was used by Roger Casement at the hour of his death and was brought by me that morning by the priest who attended him on the scaffold”. One can also read the Notice of Final Appeal, dated 20 July 1916 with Roger Casements handwritten observations on his trial and the judgement handed down, typed copies of official papers and the Royal Ordinance stripping Casement of his knighthood and other honours. A significant set of Casement papers (transcripts or trials and personal diaries) also can be viewed in Clare County Archives and also in Kew Archives, London. In addition, the recent work of the Casement Project (.ie) by choreographer Fearghus Ó Conchúir focusses on Casement’s diaries and his world view on personal and bodily identity.
Captions:
855a. Roger Casement, c.1916 (source: Cork City Library)
855b. Roger Casement being led to the gallows at Pentonville Prison, 3 August 1916 (source: Cork City Library)
The 2016 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival/ Summer School will be held in Shandon over five days in Cork city from today, Thursday 28 July until Monday 1 August 2016, designated by Cork City Council as Mother Jones Day. This event celebrates trade union activist, Corn born Mary Harris, known as Mother Jones, and it is “dedicated to inspirational people everywhere who fight for social justice”.
This is the fifth annual summer school/festival organized by the Cork Mother Jones committee since 2012, when the committee erected a plaque in Shandon to honour “the most dangerous woman in America”. She was born in Cork in late July 1837 and baptised in the local North Cathedral on 1st August that year. She lived through the famine in Cork and later left with her family for Canada. She later emerged as one of the most celebrated and feared union leaders in the USA and was a passionate defender of miners and the rights of workers and those discriminated against everywhere.
The 2016 Summer School will be spread over five days with talks, discussions, films and music each evening. According to Jim Nolan of the Cork Mother Jones Committee; “The 2016 festival and summer school will again see a wide variety of talks, films and music associated with social justice issues, the history of the labour movement, and human rights. We are extremely proud that this is the fifth festival and we have managed to retain the unique, convivial and informal character of the summer school located as it is in Shandon the very heart of Cork city. These two speakers will recreate the atmosphere of Cork city at the time a young Mary Harris lived here. Our full five day programme of talks, films, music and exhibitions will be announced shortly”.
The Cork Mother Jones Committee is delighted to confirm the attendance of author Laurence Fenton, who has written an account of the visit of Frederick Douglass to Cork in 1845, when a young Mary Harris lived in the city. Frederick Douglass, a former slave and later anti-slavery campaigner spent 3 weeks in Cork city in October 1845. It is certain that the later Mother Jones would have been influenced by Douglass in the USA afterwards. Laurence Fenton will present a lecture on the visit of Frederick Douglass to Cork also at the Maldron Hotel on Friday morning 29 July at 11.30.
The Cork Mother Jones Committee is also delighted to announce that the historian Dr Sean Pettit will appear at the 2016 Spirit of Mother Jones festival and summer school. Sean will speak about the Cork in the eighteenth century and also Shandon, at a time when the young Mary Harris was born and who afterwards became the trade union leader Mother Jones. Sean will speak on Friday afternoon 29 July at 2.30 at the Maldron Hotel.
The programme of events begins on this evening, Thursday 28 July at the Firkin Crane in Shandon when the President of SIPTU, Mr Jack O’Connor will deliver the 2016 Mother Jones Lecture entitled “Organising to win – what is to be done!” Jack O’Connor is probably the best known trade union spokesperson in Ireland and is a passionate and straight talking speaker. He will discuss the future of the trade union movement.
Among the confirmed participants for 2016 are journalist and author Justine McCarthy, who argues passionately for the underdog in her newspaper columns and in her television appearance. Writer and BBC correspondent and award winning journalist Fergal Keane, and former Cork resident, will discuss human rights across the world. historians such as Luke Dineen and Laurence Fenton will also contribute to various topics.
Former Supreme Court Justice Catherine McGuiness will debate the ongoing use of Direct Provision, where over 4000 people still remain trapped in a lecture entitled “Direct provision – not the Answer!” Mrs Catherine McGuinness will speak at the Firkin Crane on Friday 29 July at 7.30pm.
The story of extraordinary Wallace Sisters will be told by Anne Twomey of the Shandon Area History Group on Saturday 30 July at 2.30pm at the Maldron Hotel. Now a lifeless vehicular short cut, St. Augustine Street in Cork City is barely noticed by many people these days. One might be surprised to learn that many of the most famous names in the revolutionary Ireland 1915 to 1922 came and went with regularity through this street. For at number 13 Brunswick St (later 4 St. Augustine St.) was located the small shop of Sheila and Nora Wallace. During the War of Independence these firm engaging sisters went about their day to day shop keeping business and provided a perfect cover for what was a vast beehive of revolutionary activity emanating in their shop.
Located behind their small traditionally fronted tobacconist and newspaper shop with holy pictures and statues in the window and labour pamphlets on the shelves lay nothing less than the Head Quarters of the Cork No 1 Brigade of the Irish Volunteers and I.R.A. It was effectively the intelligence centre of the IRA where messages were efficiently received and delivered by a huge network of women and men – it was in effect an IRA intelligence General Post Office!
Events as they are confirmed can be viewed on www.motherjonescork.com
Captions:
854a. Mary Harris, aka Mother Jones (source: Cork City Library)
854b. View from St Anne’s Church Shandon of Firkin Crane and Shandon area, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
Summer is well and truly upon us. So the first set of walking tours are set out below. Don’t forget that Heritage Week begins on Saturday 20 August. Put it in the diary if you have a passion for all things Cork history.
Monday 25 July 2016 – Blackrock Historical Walking Tour with Kieran, From Blackrock Castle, learn about nineteenth century life and a fishing village, castles, convents and industries, meet in courtyard of Blackrock Castle, 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes St Michael’s Church of Ireland).
The earliest and official evidence for settlement in Blackrock dates to c.1564 when the Galway family created what was to become known as Dundanion Castle. Over 20 years later, Blackrock Castle was built circa 1582 by the citizens of Cork with artillery to resist pirates and other invaders. In the early 1700s, the prominent Tuckey family, of which Tuckey Street in the city centre is named, became part of the new social elite in Cork after the Williamite wars and built part of what became known in time at the Ursuline Convent. The building of the Navigation Wall or Dock in the 1760s turned focus to reclamation projects in the area and the eventual creation of public amenity land such as the Marina Walk during the time of the Great Famine. The early 1800s coincided with an enormous investment into creating new late Georgian mansions by many other key Cork families, such as the Chattertons, the Frends, the McMullers, Deanes and the Nash families, amongst others. Soon Blackrock was to have its own bathing houses, schools, hurling club, suburban railway line, and Protestant and Catholic Church. The pier that was developed at the heart of the space led to a number of other developments such as fisherman cottages and a fishing industry. This community is reflected in the 1911 census with 64 fisherman listed in Blackrock.
Wednesday 27 July 2016 – Sunday’s Well Walking Tour with Kieran, From Wise’s Hill to the heart of Sunday’s Well learn about the development of an eighteenth century suburb, historic churches, gaol, and the early origins of the Mardyke, meet at Old Wise’s Distillery House, North Mall, 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes at Shaky Bridge).
This tour begins at the elegant house at the junction of the North Mall and Wise’s Hill, which was the residence of the distiller Francis Wise. It is a beautiful detached five-bay three-storey former house, built c. 1800, now in use as a university building. The building retains interesting features and materials, such as the timber sliding sash windows, wrought-iron lamp bracket arch, and interior fittings. The North Mall distillery was established on Reilly’s Marsh around 1779, and by 1802 the Wise brothers were running the firm. Whiskey production was another significant industry in Cork from the late eighteenth century.
Across the river channel, the complex of buildings known as the Lee Maltings, now the home of the Tyndall National Institute, forms one of the most significant surviving industrial sites in Cork city dating back to the eighteenth century. They were the largest water-powered flour and corn milling installation to become established on the north channel of the River Lee, and was also the last flour mills within the city to rely solely on water for milling.
Thursday 28 July 2016 – Ballinlough Historical Walking Tour with Kieran, From the heart of Ballinlough along, learn about nineteenth century market gardens, schools, industries, and Cork’s suburban standing stone, meet outside Beaumont BNS, Beaumont 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes at Ballinlough Community Centre).
With 360 acres, Ballinlough is the second largest of the seven townlands forming the Mahon Peninsula. If you think of its geographic location on a limestone ridge over-looking the river and harbour and the name Baile an Locha – settlement of the lake – that is where the name could come from, a settlement overlooking the nearby Douglas estuary. There is a lot of early history in Ballinlough from the standing stone in Ardmahon Estate to the Knight’s Templar church and graveyard site to the former big houses of the area, the last remnants of the market gardens. Then there is the sporting heritage such as Flower Lodge and Cork Constitution.
Friday 29 July 2016 – Blackpool Historical Walking Tour with Kieran, From Fair Hill to the heart of Blackpool, learn about nineteenth century shambles, schools, convents and industries, meet at the North Mon gates, Gerald Griffin Avenue, 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes on St Mary’s Road).
The walking tour weaves its way from the North Mon into Blackpool, Shandon and Gurranbraher highlighting nineteenth century life in this corner of Cork from education to housing to politics, to religion, to industry and to social life itself. Blackpool was the scene of industry in Cork in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for industries such as tanning through big names such as Dunn’s Tannery and distilling through families such as the Hewitts. The leather industry at one vibrant in Blackpool with no fewer than 46 tanyards at work there in 1837 giving employment to over 700 hands and tanning on average 110,000 hides annually.
Captions:
853a. Sunday’s Well, c.1900 (source: Souvenir of Cork & Killarney: with 19 illustrations, complete with letterpress, see Cork City Library).
853b. The Marina, Cork, c.1900 (source: Souvenir of Cork & Killarney: with 19 illustrations, complete with letterpress, see Cork City Library).
In continuing to commemorate the year 1916 and the wider social history of Cork City and region, this week one hundred years ago a meeting of the Poor Children’s Excursion Committee was held on 12 July, in the Council Chamber, Municipal Buildings or the old City Hall. The committee oversaw an annual and impressive practice whereby on one day each year over 4,000 poor children were brought to Claycastle Beach at Cork’s Riviera town of Youghal. The annual event was established sometime circa 1893. It was run by Cork Corporation and funded by Cork businesses and the committee was chaired by the Lord Mayor of the day. The event seems to have fallen away circa 1923/1924 but the interest in the education and well-being of impoverished children in the city remained in the Council Chamber – in terms of developing a children’s library in the City Library and the discussions that ensued about the provision of playgrounds in new social housing estates in the 1920s and 1930s.
The Lord Mayor who presided for the 1916 excursion event was Thomas C Butterfield. At the 12 July meeting in 1916, Mr H Dawson acted as honorary secretary in the absence of Mr J Hackett. Mr Dawson announced that the railway company had written to say that they would be able to provide the trains for the excursion on Wednesday, 26 July, on the same terms as the previous year. He further stated that the collection of subscriptions from local business so far had realised £80, but they required £200 more.
The minutes of the July meeting, available in the Cork City and County Archive, record that the Lord Mayor noted that he hoped that citizens would respond as generously as in the past to their appeal for funds; “Anyone who had ever seen the joy and genuine pleasure, which the excursion gave to the thousands of little children could scarcely help subscribing. Most of the people in the city whom I would expect to contribute, spent a good deal during the summer months on many excursions to the seaside or other places. If all these deprived themselves of just one of the pleasure trips, and gave the money they would spend on it to the Poor Children’s Excursion, they would be doing a real good deed. It should be remembered that all kinds of food stuffs were very much dearer now, and for that reason more money was required than when the excursions were first held. The circulars and cards had only been recently distributed, and I hope before their next meeting that they would have many favourable replies”. Mr Fawsitt was asked by the Committee to organise the sports activities for the children in connection with the excursion, and agreed to do so. Beamish and Crawford had agreed to give £5 towards the costs as well as 24 complimentary cases of minerals. Messrs Thompsons Bakery had committed to providing 2,000 buns. Mr Carey, a resident in Youghal, annually provided the event with drinking water at the beach. The committee was also heavily influenced by a Ladies Committee, who prepared food for the 5,000 children – sandwiches, cake and sweets.
Nearly two weeks later on 25 July 1916 after 2-3 more committee meetings, the Lord Mayor arrived at the Model School at Anglesea Street to help with the ticket distribution. It commenced at 11am and continued over two hours in which time close on 5,000 boys and girls had secured their pass to the seaside. It is recorded in the Cork Examiner that there was enormous eagerness to secure the “green ticket”, which meant so much to them. From an early hour in the morning the children gathered in the vicinity of the school. Appeals for order were all in vain, and the assurance that there was plenty of time and enough tickets for all had no effect in quietening their excitement or lessening their anxiety of not securing one. The children were arranged into a single file to pass by the gate at which the tickets were handed out by Alderman Meade, assisted by Mr Hackett, Honorary Secretary, and Mr Lyons. The Assistant Bishop of Cork, Daniel Cohalan was also present and followed by Messrs Colburn Fawsitt, O’Leary, Higgins, Lyons, J J Sexton. D Horgan, ex-Alderman, and firemen and police, they soon marshalled the children. At 1pm close on 5,000 boys and girls had been given their tickets. It was regrettable that five children were injured at the distribution of tickets. They were taken to the South Infirmary, where four had to be detained. Their names were – Thomas Callaghan, Shandon street; Bridget Malloy, Monks’ School Lane; Eily Whelan and Victor Hurley, both of St Vincent’s Place. They were badly bruised from the crushing, and suffered from shock.
The following day, Wednesday 26 July, favoured by gloriously fine warm weather, the thousands of poor children were to have a day at Youghal by the sea. The trains ran as follows – 8.50am, 9am, 9.20am, and 9.45am. In these four special trains the excited children could not be quiet, as the steam driven locomotives with their carriages chugged along the northern side of Cork Harbour, through Midleton and onto Youghal’s golden sands, which was a far cry from the slum ridden lanes of Cork’s inner city.
Captions:
852a. Train at Youghal Station, 1920s (source: Cork City Library)
852b. Youghal beach and Railway Station, c.1910 (source: Cork City Library)
July 2016 Historical Walking Tours with Cllr Kieran McCarthy
Monday 25 July 2016 – Blackrock Historical Walking Tour with CllrKieran McCarthy, From Blackrock Castle, learn about nineteenth century life and a fishing village, castles, convents and industries, meet in courtyard of Blackrock Castle, 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes St Michael’s Church of Ireland).
Wednesday 27 July 2016 – Sunday’s Well Walking Tour withCllr Kieran McCarthy, From Wise’s Hill to the heart of Sunday’s Well learn about the development of an eighteenth century suburb, historic churches, gaol, and the early origins of the Mardyke, meet at Old Wise’s Distillery House, North Mall, 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes at Shaky Bridge).
Thursday 28 July 2016 – Ballinlough Historical Walking Tour withCllr Kieran McCarthy, From the heart of Ballinlough, learn about nineteenth century market gardens, schools, industries, and Cork’s suburban standing stone, meet outside Beaumont BNS, Beaumont 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes at Ballinlough Community Centre).
Friday 29 July 2016 – Blackpool Historical Walking Tour withCllr Kieran McCarthy, From Fair Hill to the heart of Blackpool, learn about nineteenth century shambles, schools, convents and industries, meet at the North Mon gates, Gerald Griffin Avenue, 7pm(free, duration: two hours, finishes on St Mary’s Road).
Kieran’s Heritage Week, 20-27 August 2016
Sunday, 21 August 2016, Eighteenth Century Cork, Branding a City: Making a Venice of the North; historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy; meet at the City Library, Grand Parade, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)
Monday 22 August 2016, The Victorian Quarter; historical walking tour (new) with Cllr Kieran McCarthy of the area around St Patrick’s Hill – Wellington Road and McCurtain Street; meet at Audley Place, top of St Patrick’s Hill, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)
Tuesday 23 August 2016, Cork Docklands, historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy; Discover the history of the city’s docks, from quayside stories to the City Park Race Course and Albert Road; meet at Kennedy Park, Victoria Road, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)
Thursday 25 August 2016, The City Workhouse, historical walking tour (new) with Cllr Kieran McCarthy; learn about the workhouse created for 2,000 impoverished people in 1841 (the year 2016 marks the 175th anniversary of the site), meet at the gates of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)
Friday 26 August 2016, The Walk of the Friars; historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, explore the local history from Red Abbey through Barrack Street to Friars Walk; meet at Red Abbey, Mary Street, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)
Saturday 27 August 2016, Fitzgerald’s Park; historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy; learn about the story of the Mardyke to the great early twentieth century Cork International Exhibition, meet at band stand 2pm, note the afternoon time (free, duration: two hours)
In the press in early July 1916 focus was placed on the importance of labour in agricultural activities. Grass was being cut and in a time of World War 1 labour was scarce. The need for labour was also an issue, which kept the organised conscription of Irish people away from being a reality in Westminster statute books. Despite this, many labourers had volunteered to go to the frontlines. One body, which promoted the importance of agriculture, the interests of its community and its multiple facets was the Munster Agricultural Society. They are still going strong and just after finishing their successful summer show this year in their contemporary grounds in Curaheen.
However, on this week, one hundred years ago – on 4 July 1916 – the members of the Society opened their annual two-day Summer Show in Ballintemple. The show opened under glorious weather conditions. The Cork Examiner reported of the day; “it is indeed very gratifying to find that its sphere of usefulness continues. No doubt many obstacles and difficulties had to be overcome in the past by the members of the Society as they worked in the most untiring fashion and a few years ago the institution became not alone one of the most important in the country, but also one of the most successful”. The newspaper journalist continues to comment on the worries connected with the war. It was feared by the society that the fixtures conducted at different periods of each year would have to be abandoned, but with the “enterprise which has always characterised their work, the members of the Society decided in the interests of the agricultural community, and with the object of advancing their pursuits to continue the shows. It was only natural with the shortage of all classes of stock in the country, that entries were small at the fixture due to the war”.
From 1891 onwards, as the County of Cork Agricultural Society developed its home in a corner of the Cork Park Racecourse, it was dependent on the success of its shows and the subscriptions and voluntary contributions of its members. They worked in close association with the Department of Agriculture and the County Cork Committee of Agriculture and received grants from them for prize funds. In 1908 the name of the County of Cork Agricultural Society was changed to the Munster Agricultural Society.
Arising from World War I, the minutes of the Munster Agricultural Society (in the Cork City and County Archives) reveal several issues raised at committee meetings. There was a high dependency on exporting livestock, dairy and poultry produced for the British market. However, in 1915 the detained cattle at the ports was of serious concern for Irish agriculture creating serious hardships for farmers across the country. Instability in transport routes set in as sea channels became blocked and boats harnessed for military operations. The previous agricultural boom was reversed as declining prices set in. The war brought unemployment amongst agricultural labourers and less work for small farmers. The society struggled during the war years to attract farmers to their shows and sales. As an incentive, in the same year 1915 a sale of bulls was introduced into the spring show of cattle, and the total sales amounted to £800. In the year 1917 it was decided to amalgamate the cattle and horse shows and to hold it in the summer and to hold a show and sale of bulls and pigs in the spring.
The aims of the Munster Agricultural Society though were set against the national backdrop of change in Irish agriculture. The Department of Agriculture reports from 1916, available to read in the Boole Library in UCC, reveal that the decline in tillage farming began after the Great Famine. Ploughed land reduced from 4.4m acres in 1849 to 2.4m in 1916. Cultivation of cereal crops, mainly wheat, oats and barley, went from 3m acres to 1.3m acres, with the greatest decline of wheat growing in Leinster and Munster. Acreage under grain was halved, while at the same time, land in pasture doubled, alongside the growing numbers of horses, mules and asses. Land use shifted from crops to livestock. By 1916, 79 per cent of the average income for farmers came directly from livestock and only 20 per cent from crops. Cattle numbers rose from 2.7m in 1848 to 5m in 1914, and the livestock sector accounted for 75 per cent of total agricultural output in that same year.
Between 1910 and 1914 cattle numbers increased by twenty per cent, enabling the development of creameries to over a 1,000 throughout the island. Dairy co-ops also grew with around 350 operating in 1914. Agriculture in Ireland was also influenced by increasing commercialisation. Changes in transport, rail, shipping, technological progress in machinery such as milk/cream separators, and the growing use of statistical information for rationalisation and policy initiatives, moved farming toward an industrial pursuit.
Increasing urbanisation also encouraged a more market-led approach. Between 1845 and 1914 the ratio of the population living in towns of 1,500 or more doubled. Production and prices became connected with supply and demand, and Irish agriculture also contended on international markets with countries such as the United States, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Captions:
851a. Cork Showgrounds, Ballintemple, c. 1929 (source: The Story of the Munster Agricultural Society by Kieran McCarthy)
851b. Call for support for Farmers Red Cross Fund during World War I (source: Munster Agricultural Society Archives)
Continuing to explore the conversations in Cork post Easter 1916, this day, 100 years ago, the trial of Dublin born Sir Roger Casement (1864-1916), ended its process of interrogation. Between the afternoon of 20 April and the afternoon of 21 April 1916 he attempted to land 20,000 guns and ammunition at Banna Strand, County Kerry through a vessel called SS Libau but adapting the name of a real neutral merchant Norwegian ship called the SS Aud. The ship on being escorted into Cork Harbour by the British Navy was scuttled by its German Naval Officer Captain Karl Spindler.
On 30 June 1916 Sir Roger Casement was found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death (on 3 August) in Pentonville Prison. The newspapers of the day including the Cork Examiner all wrote about the tense silence when each of the three judges finished their questioning. It was nearly three o’clock in the afternoon when the jury retired. In a few moments they sent out for the ‘original’ code, and for a copy of the indictment. These were supplied to them, but the Lord Chief Justice refused to send them a copy of the evidence, which they also asked for. At this time the court was crowded, barristers in wig and gown standing all over the floor of the court, the public, including many ladies in the smartest of summer dress, being packed in the galleries. Casement had disappeared from the dock. Then followed the long wait of close upon an hour whilst the judges had left the bench.
At ten minutes to four the judges returned. The jury soon followed, and Roger Casement again entered the dock. Here was a man who had spent 20 years in sub-Saharan Africa, including over a decade working for the British Foreign Office and was a consular official in Brazil for seven years. The names of the jury having been called over, they were asked if they were agreed upon a verdict. The foreman said they found the prisoner guilty. Casement was asked by the Crown if he has anything to say why sentence of death should not pass upon him according to law. All eyes were on the prisoner, but he remained perfectly clam, and read a long statement, which he had prepared twenty days previously – the main gist of which was that he objected to the jurisdiction of the court. He was then sentenced to death by hanging.
Sir Roger Casement was in the British Consular service for 18 years, and was appointed British Commissioner to investigate the methods of the rubber collection and treatment of the primitive Indian tribes in the region known as Putumayo, on the Upper Amazon, a region dominated by the Peruvian Amazon Company. The publication of his report in July, 1912, which revealed the systemic perpetration of appalling atrocities committed by the Peruvian agents of the company occasioned profound indignation throughout the civilised world. He relinquished the Consul-Generalship at Rio de Janeiro in 1913.
The O’Brien Press 16 Lives series (2016) commemorates the 16 men executed after the Easter Rising. The author Angus Mitchell of 16 Lives, Roger Casement outlines that Casement took an active part in the Home Rule controversy in Ireland on behalf of the Nationalist cause. He became a member of the Gaelic League in 1904. He was a skilled and determined networker in the lead-up to the Easter Rising, counting committed republicans Alice Milligan and Bulmer Hobson as close friends. His acquaintance with the historian Alice Stopford Green introduced him to the medieval scholar Eoin McNeil, the German Philologist Kuno Meyer, and a busy circle of nationalist intellectuals in London. He regularly visited the house Gaelic League Organisers, Robert and Sylvia Lynd, in Hampstead.
As the Home Rule crisis escalated, Casement resigned from the Foreign Office and he devoted his energies openly to Irish independence. After the founding of the Irish Volunteers in 1913, Casement spoke at recruitment rallies across the country and accompanied Pádraig Pearse, Tomás MacDonagh and Eoin MacNeill in building up the movement. In late July 1914, by then in the US, he heard about the successful landing at Howth by Erskine Childers and Mary Spring-Rice. His significant role in the planning of this venture gave him access to the inner circle of Clan na Gael, and in November 1914, with the support of the IRB executive, he arrived in Berlin to promote and explain the Irish struggle, both politically and intellectually. His efforts to recruit and train an Irish Brigade, from among the Irish born British army prisoners of war in Germany, failed. In April 1916, returning to Ireland, Casement was captured at an old Ringfort near Banna Strand and stood trial for high treason.
On 3 August 1916, Casement was hanged in Pentonville Prison. His body was returned to Ireland in 1965 and despite his wishes to be buried in his ancestral home in Antrim, he was buried in Glasnevin, Dublin. As for the Aud, it now lies in 36 metres of water in Cork Harbour and is very broken up. There are a number of boilers to be seen as well as well as thousands of bullets strewn on the sea floor. Two of its fully restored anchors are now located at Tralee’s Brandon Conference Centre.
Captions:
850a. Roger Casement, 1864-1916 (source: Cork City Library)
850b. Photograph of The Aud, c.1916 (source: Cork City Museum)
On Saturday, 25 June 2016, 12noon, Cllr Kieran McCarthy, in association with the Friends of St Finbarr’s Hospital, will give a public historical walking tour of the hospital grounds (meet at gate). The walk is free and takes place to support the summer bazaar of the Friends. Cllr McCarthy noted: “St Finbarr’s Hospital, the city’s former nineteenth century workhouse, serves as a vast repository of narratives, memories, symbolism, iconography and cultural debate, this year the site is 175 years old”. When the Irish Poor Relief Act was passed on 31 July 1838, the assistant Poor Law commissioner, William J Voules came to Cork in September 1838 to implement the new laws. Meetings were held in towns throughout the country. By 1845, 123 workhouses had been built, formed into a series of districts or Poor Law Unions, each Poor Law Union containing at least one workhouse. The cost of poor relief was met by the payment of rates by owners of land and property in that district.
In 1841 over eight acres, were leased to the Poor Law Guardians from Daniel B. Foley, Evergreen House, Cork. Mr. Foley retained an acre, on which was Evergreen House with its surrounding gardens, which fronted South Douglas Road (now a vacant concrete space). The subsequent workhouse that was built on the leased lands was opened in December 1841. It was an isolated place, built beyond the City’s toll house and toll gates. The Douglas Road workhouse was also one of the first of over 130 workhouses to be designed by the Poor Law Commissioners’ architect George Wilkinson.
In continuing to present a broad profile of life in Cork in 1916, this week one hundred years ago, the city and region lamented the death of the Bishop of Cork Thomas Alphonsus O’Callaghan (1839-1916). He passed away on 14 June and the newspapers for days after were filled with information spreads of his life, work and funeral. His role in supressing the 1916 rising contribution in Cork was limited as he was ill at the time and he sent his Assistant Bishop Cohalan to the Volunteer Hall on Sheares Street. However he is still a gentleman worth recalling. He set up the industrial school model and also funded some very beautiful churches in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Born in the South Parish, Cork, in 1839, at the age of eighteen years, Bishop Thomas O’Callaghan entered the Novitiate of the Dominicans at Tallaght, and elevated to the priesthood in 1864. He spent six years after that teaching in the convent at Tallaght, and then returned to Cork. Before his appointment as Prior of San Clemente he was in the house of the Order at Claddagh, Galway, and St Catherine’s, Newry He returned to his native city to the exalted office of Co-adjutor-Bishop to Bishop William Delaney in 1884.
Both Bishops Delaney and O’Callaghan were advocates of educational reform. They determined that Cork would be the location of a model industrial school run by a Catholic order, and they saw it as an important step in overcoming the years of discrimination against Catholics by the governments of those years. It was this ambition that drove them to turn the newly founded St Patrick’s Orphanage into an industrial school in Greenmount. They saw the industrial school system as one that would benefit the children who were being raised in poverty in the Cork area. Because of this drive, the orphanage acquired the status of Industrial School on 14 March 1871. The recent Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse has much to say on the history of the industrial school model and the good and bad of the Greenmount site can be viewed on their report, which can be accessed on their website.
Bishop of Cork Delaney and his successor Bishop O’Callaghan pursued a vast building programme replacing the older stock of churches of the diocese with new iconic edifices for veneration. Architect Samuel Hynes completed much work for the Diocese of Cork and further afield. He was involved in the design of eight churches over a sixteen-year period. The eight churches, somewhat similar in design, created a forum for engaging with the Catholic Church. New schools were also provided in several parishes. Work progressed so well that the diocese became dotted with religious and educational establishments all of which were undertaken at a time of great poverty and hardship. From the Dictionary of Irish Architects at the Irish Architectural Archive one can piece together the church works – new foyer, St Vincent ‘s Church, Sunday’s Well, Cork (1884-85), new church, Glanmire, Co Cork (1893), new church, Blarney, Co Cork (1893-94), two new side altars, St Mary’s Dominican Church, Pope’s Quay, Cork (1895), new church, St Nicholas Church, Blackpool, Cork (1895), new church, St Joseph’s Church, Wilton Road, Cork (1895-97), new parochial house, Caheragh, Dunmanway, Co Cork (1896), new church, Lisgriffin Church, Buttevant, Co Cork (1896-97), church rebuilding, Castletownroche Church, Co Cork (1897), St Joseph’s Oratory, South Charitable Infirmary & County Hospital, Cork (1899), New oratory, Gougane Barra, Co Cork (1901), new choir stalls, pulpit and Bishop’s throne, Cathedral of SS Mary and Anne’s (1901) and additions, St Patrick’s Church, Fermoy, Co Cork (1901).
Samuel Hynes’ convent work included: a new chapel and campanile, Convent of Mercy, Bantry, Co Cork (1877-78), new wing, Convent of St Marie Reparatrice, Summerhill South, Cork (1892), and additions at the Presentation Convent, Mallow (1900). For the pastoral care of young people, a new Diocesan College of St Finbarre, Farranferris, Co Cork was constructed between 1883-85, a new Sisters of Mercy Orphanage, Cobh, Co Cork (1889), a new building, Mount St Joseph, Presentation Brothers Novitiate, Cork (1892), a new Catholic Boy’s Industrial School, Greenmount, Cork (1900) and a new college for the Christian Brother’s, St Patrick’s Place, Cork (1901-02).
Another key event pursued under Bishop Delaney and subsequently by Bishop O’Callaghan occurred when the pilgrimage island of Gougane Barra was leased on 29 January 1873 for 999 years at a nominal rent of one shilling from Protestant landlord Richard Mellifont Townsend, to Bishop Delaney and Parish Priest of Inchigeela, Fr Jeremiah Holland. Townsend reserved exclusive rights of fishing around the island. The Register of Landowners in County Cork 1876 shows that Richard Townsend’s estate totalled 5,977 acres in and around Dunbeacon in Bantry and extended eastwards to Clontaff, a townland near Skibbereen. The giving of such an important site by a Protestant landlord to a Catholic Bishop cannot be understated. In the midst of large Protestant holdings in West Cork creating their own unique cultural geography of inclusion and exclusion. The island was afterwards assigned to Bishop O’Callaghan, Dean Neville and Fr Patrick Hurley, who developed the site further as a key pilgrimage site in the south of Ireland.
Tour notice: Historical walking tour of former workhouse, St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road with Kieran, 25 June, 12noon, free, meet at gate, in association with Friends of St Finbarr’s Garden Fete.
Captions:
849a. Bishop Thomas Alphonsus O’Callaghan, 1839-1916 (source: Cork City Library)
849b. Samuel Hynes, principal architect for the Diocese of Cork and Ross in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (source: Cork City Library)
