Category Archives: Cork History

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 24 July 2014

Cork City Events, Cork History, International, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

752a. Mary Harris aka Mother Jones

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 24 July 2014

The Spirit of Mother Jones, 29 July-1 August 2014

 

Next week sees the third Spirit of Mother Jones Festival, which remembers the life and times of Cork born woman Mary Harris or Mother Jones. She, according to our autobiography, which can be accessed online as well as some of her speeches and some filmed speeches, was an American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent labour and community organiser, who helped co-ordinate major strikes and co-founded the Industrial Workers of the World.

The Cork Mother Jones Commemorative committee was established in 2012 to mark the 175th anniversary of the birth of Mary Harris / Mother Jones in Cork. After a highly successful festival marking that anniversary it was decided to make the festival an annual event marking the life and legacy of Mother Jones. Although famous in other parts of the world, especially in the United States of America where she was once labelled “the most dangerous woman in America”, Cork born Mary Jones (née Harris) – or Mother Jones as she is perhaps more widely known – was virtually unknown and not recognised as yet in her native city.  The festivals and activities of this committee have changed that and now the name of Mother Jones is better known in Cork and beyond.

The Cork Mother Jones Commemorative Committee, in conjunction with Cork City Council commissioned Cork Sculptor Mike Wilkins to create a limestone plaque to honour Mother Jones in the Shandon area of the city, near her birthplace.  This plaque was erected near the famous Cork Butter Market and was unveiled on 1 August 2012 which is the 175th Anniversary of her baptism in the North Cathedral.  Her parents were Ellen Cotter, a native of Inchigeela and Richard Harris from Cork city. Few details of her early life in Cork have been uncovered to date, though it is thought by some that she was born on Blarney Street and may have attended the North Presentation Schools nearby.  She and her family emigrated to Canada soon after the Famine, probably in the early 1850s. Later in the United States, after tragic deaths of her husband George Jones and their four children, she became involved in the struggle for basic rights for workers and children’s rights, leading from the front, often in a militant fashion.

Mary is best known for her fiery speeches against the exploitation of miners; she was utterly fearless, travelling all over America to defend workers and their families.  Mother Jones was one of the best and most active union organizers ever seen in America. She became a legend among the coalminers of West Virginia and Pennsylvania; Mother Jones was fearless and faced down the guns and court threats of the mine bosses. In 1905 she was the only woman to attend the inaugural meeting of the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies). Later she became an organiser for the Socialist Party and continued her defence of workers in industrial disputes across America. She was arrested and jailed in West Virginia for her activities during the Paint Creek, Cabin Creek strikes, but later released following large demonstrations of her supporters. Between 1912 and 1914 she was involved in the “coal wars” of Colorado which led to the infamous Ludlow Massacre, where 19 miners and members of their families were killed. She was imprisoned many times but always released quickly due to huge local support for her activities.

Described as “the most dangerous woman in America”, her cry of “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living” still resonates through history! Her autobiography was published in 1925. She passed away at the age of 93 in 1930 and is buried at Mount Olive Union cemetery in Illinois, where a museum will be erected to her memory shortly. When she died in 1930, she was a legend in her adopted land.  A magazine (Mother Jones) is still published to this day, along with dozens of books and countless references in US Labour History.  She certainly can claim to be the most famous Cork woman in the history of the United States of America.

The spirit of Mother Jones Festival continues this year with a number of writers, film producers and people associated with Mother Jones in the United States. There are concerts, public lectures and discussions held in the Maldron Hotel and the Firkin Crane centre.  One lecture of real contemporary resonance is on Wednesday afternoon 30th July, at the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival, Claire McGettrick, co-founder of Justice for Magdalenes (now JFM Research) will speak at the Firkin Crane in Shandon, Cork,  about the story of the Magdalenes. Claire is an activist, researcher and also co-founder of the Adoption Rights Alliance. She worked as Research Assistant on the project Magdalene Institutions: Recording an Archival and Oral History, which collected the oral histories of 79 interviewees, including 35 Magdalene survivors. The Magdalene Names Project, which is central to Claire’s work with JFM Research, makes use of historical archives to develop a partial, repaired narrative of the lives of some of the women who died behind convent walls, with the aim of creating a lasting memorial to these women.

More information on the Spirit of Mother Jones festival can be seen at:  http://motherjonescork.com/2014-programme/

Caption:

752a. Mary Harris aka Mother Jones (source: Cork City Library)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 17 July 2014

Cork City Events, Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized

751a. Ford Consul Cortina Ad, 1962

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town,

Cork Independent, 17 July 2014

“Technical Memories (Part 83) –Stylising the Landscape”

“Outside the little stream, where the cart wheels were shod I meandered idly by. And the circular platform was still in place. It looked as if the owner had one day got weary of the struggle…then he closed the doors of the little social centre, where the neighbours had met and discussed happenings, far and near, through the generations…some of the craft had survived by adapting their forge to the art of welding and the repair of the new agricultural machinery used in farming: but they were only a minority” (John T Collins, “The Deserted Forge”, Hollybough, 1963).

 

In October 1967, as related in last week’s column, Taoiseach Jack Lynch at the opening of the £2m investment into the Ford Factory on the Marina marked not only change for Ford but also for the motoring population. Lynch during his address related that his government had to cut back on the country’s loss making railway system and spent vast sums on the Irish road networks; “we have had to impose speed limits and complicated systems of traffic control in our towns and cities, while the need to cater for the projected increase in car numbers has been a major factor in the planning of future towns and rural development”. Newspapers like the Hollybough (see above quote), the Cork Examiner and Evening Echo commented on change regularly since the first motor car rolled across the Cork street in the 1910s all the way through to the problem of parking and traffic movement in the 1960s. One I came across recently was the installation of the first set of traffic lights in July 1954 at the junction of Washington Street and the Grand Parade (60 years old since this installation this month). Erected by Messrs Siemens, London, the lights were of a similar type to those being used in some other Irish cities, except that in Cork pedestrian lights were introduced to work in conjunction with the regular lights.

Car dealerships spread and grew with the growth of Irish motoring and there were 87 main Ford dealers in the country in 1966. Fords could record that 11,041 out of 39,546 new car owners chose one of the 12 cars Ford had to offer. The Ford Cortina, introduced in 1962, during its production run was the biggest selling model ever on the Irish market. Next on the range were the Ford Corsair and the Ford Anglia followed by the new range of Ford Zephyr and Ford Zodiac models. The Cork Examiner in October 1967 commented on their affect on the urban and rural landscapes of the country; “Mechanical refinements of independent rear suspension, along with sophisticated styling.. these new cars have become as much of the social scene as their imposing size and impressive appearance would suggest”.

Then there was the sister factory Dagenham in east London, which was the largest motor exporting factory in the world. The first vehicle, a Model AA truck, rolled off its production line in October 1931. In the post war years Dagenham turned its interests to the revolutionary Consul and Zephyr range of cars. Major expansion in the 1950s increased floor space by 50% and doubled production. By 1953 the site occupied four million square feet and employed 40,000 people. An article in the Hollybough in 1954 related that 75 per cent of the Irish in the Dagenham area, circa a total of 3,300 men, were employed there. An old North Monastery boy, Michael J Ronayne, with more than 30 years experience with the company in Cork and Dagenham, was the Chief Engineer in Europe of the Ford organisation. His brother jack was engineer in charge of the building of Gurranabraher and Spangle Hill houses.

As the swinging 60s took hold, Dagenham moved on to a car destined to become one of the favourites – the Ford Cortina. By the time the last Cortina left the line in 1982, the plant had built over three million. In Cork and Dagenham and further afield, Ford technologists, in the search for higher standards, contacted Swedish experts in industrial ventilation and air-handling, Svenska Fläktfabriken. They were world leaders in the complex problems of mining ventilation, they took up a leading role in the equally difficult task of providing the highly specialised conditions for car-body finishing.

The opening of the Cork factory extension in 1967 coincided with ceremonies celebrating the advent of first a tractor factory which sent machines to all parts of the world. With such heritage, service was also of vital importance to the farming community. The ready availability of spare parts from the 38 Ford Tractor Dealers strategically placed throughout Ireland ensured rapid and efficient service for owners and operators of Ford Tractors. In addition, the Agricultural Colleges National Ploughing Championships were initiated in 1966 and sponsored by Henry Ford & Son Ltd., Cork with the intention of stimulating interest in a wider understanding of the skills and values of good ploughing and tillage methods. Prizes of £300 and £150 were awarded to the winners of the Championships. After competitors from all the agricultural colleges had completed qualifying tests under National Ploughing Association rules the successful candidates contested the finals at the National Ploughing Championships.

To be continued…

Captions:

751a. Consul Cortina Ad 1962 (source: Cork City Library)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 10 July 2014

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

750a. An Taoiseach, Jack Lynch cutting the tape with Mr Tom Brennan, Managing Director

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 10 July 2014

“Technical Memories (Part 82) –The Ford Expansion”

 

“For 50 years the Ford Company has been part of the industrial life of this city but of course Fords links with Cork go back much further. The story of Henry Ford, whose father emigrated from Ballinascarty 120 weary years ago is so well-known that much of it is already folklore. Indeed the record of his life and achievements looms large in the history of the development of modern industrial methods, many of which he devised and brought to perfection” (part of speech, An Taoiseach Jack Lynch, Ford Factory, Cork, 11 October, 1967,)

The decade of the 1960s also brought new opportunities to the Ford manufacturing plant in Cork’s Marina. The special supplement in the Cork Examiner in October 1967 describes that it was the post World War II years that really saw the major growth in car assembly. Since 1946, Ford had almost invariably taken around one-third of the car market total and an even higher share of the commercial vehicle figure. Since the 1950s, Ford consistently captured between 25 per cent and 35 per cent of the Irish car market, and between 35 and 40 per cent of the Irish commercial vehicle market. It had an impressive record – taking passenger and commercial vehicles together, it was the best market share of any Ford Company in the world. The Cork Ford Plant turned out the widest range of vehicles under one badge on the Irish market with some 14 different passenger models and a wide selection of commercials. The total Ford area covered 33 acres and the growth of the factory increased more than 200 per cent in the decade between 1956 and 1966. By 1967, it had about 1,000 employees assembling cars and commercial vehicles for use throughout the Republic.

When the Cork plant came to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary in 1967, it was a working celebration. Tom Brennan, who had taken over as Managing Director from John O’Neill in 1959, had persuaded Ford’s European Management to invest £2m in Cork. He believed this was necessary in order to bring car production up to the very highest standards prevailing in Europe. Tom Brennan had first entered the gates of the Ford plant in May 1922, when he was 16 years of age. In his first ten years he worked in various departments in Cork and was transferred to the works in Dagenham in 1932. His top appointment while in England was as Area Sales Manager. He rejoined the firm in Cork in 1955 as General Sales Manager and became Managing Director.

The man Tom Brennan chose to implement the expansion was a fellow Corkman, Paddy Hayes, who, some years later, was to succeed him as Managing Director of Ford of Ireland. The £2m was spent on re-building, re-equipping and modernising the assembly plant, which became not only the largest factory of its kind but also the most modern. Half a million pounds was invested in an ultra modern body-finishing department, with Europe’s largest ‘slipper-dip’ immersion under-coating tank guaranteeing a high-quality base for final paint coatings. The remainder of the assembly plant was completely re-organised, re-equipped and re-housed in new light-alloy, unitary construction buildings covering an area of over 117,000 square feet. This meant two separate final-assembly lines, one for heavy commercial vehicles and the second and major unit for passenger and light commercial vehicles. Incorporated in the new facilities was a parts-and-accessories building holding millions of parts, representing a stock of over 23,000 separate items. The factory extensions virtually reversed the plant orientation since the previous wharf-side entrance was closed and all traffic now entered by Centre Park Road- known locally as Ford’s Road.

The official opening ceremony of the new buildings took place on 11 October 1967. The Taoiseach Jack Lynch, headed the 350 guests at the Marina Plant in the morning and there he cut a tape to symbolise the opening of the modern plant. The plant was blessed by Bishop Lucey. The Taoiseach who was accorded a military guard of honour, and the guests were taken on a short tour of the factory culminating in seeing completed cars driven off the assembly lines. Both were attended to by Thomas Brennan, the Managing Director and Ballincollig born Sir Patrick Hennessy, Chairman of Ford Motor Company, England and Chairman of Henry Ford & Son Ltd. He was educated at Christ Church School in Cork and served in World War I. Joining the new tractor factory in Cork after demobilisation he rose rapidly from his job in the foundry to become production manager and travelled extensively in Europe.

When Fords started in Dagenham Patrick joined them there as Purchase Manager and became General Manager just before the outbreak of the 1939 war. He served on the advisory council of the Ministry of Aircraft Production, and helped in the production of 34,000 RR Merlin engines for the RAF. For his services he was knighted in 1941. When the war ended he joined the board of the Ford Motor Company, became Managing Director in 1948, Deputy Chairman in 1950 and Chairman in April 1956.

To be continued…

 

Caption:

750a. An Taoiseach, Jack Lynch TD cutting the tape with Mr Tom Brennan, Managing Director, and Bishop Lucey on left and Lord Mayor, Pearse Wyse TD on right (source: Cork City Library)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 3 July 2014

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized

749a. Albert Quay terminus, Cork City, 1930s

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 3 July 2014

“Technical Memories (Part 81) –An Auld Acquaintance”

 

Whilst Cork Airport was being built to great acclaim in 1960-61 (see last week), other transport routes also came under scrutiny. The Minister for Transport and Power, Erskine Childers, officially opened Cork’s new bus station at Parnell Place on Wednesday 12 October 1961. The building was blessed by Canon Fehily, Parish Priest of SS Peter and Paul’s Church, in the presence of the then Lord Mayor Sean Barrett TD, the architect J R Boyd Barrett and CIE Chairman Dr C S Andrews. The main contractor was P J Hegarty & Sons from Leitrim Street and its Franki piles were installed by the Irish Piling and Construction Company Ltd (Dublin and Cork). The Franki piling system (also called pressure-injected footing) is a method used to drive expanded base cast-in-situ concrete (Franki) piles.

In the course of his address Minister Childers praised CIE’s expansion of its modern road services. He also referred to an end of an era – CIE’s decision to close the railways of West Cork. He said that criticisms of rail closures were often based on sentimentalism and that claims that closure would result in heavy expenditure being placed on the region’s roads were exaggerated. Referring to reports and accounts of CIE for 1959/ 60, he noted that the average number of passengers carried on the West Cork trains was 30 and the average goods train was 45 tons, which were not sustainable to keep the line and its branch lines open.

Well known names were associated with the West Cork lines in times past. There was the famous engineer, Charles Nixon, under whose direction Chetwynd viaduct and the two tunnels on the line (Kilpatrick, near Innishannon and Gogginshill near Ballinhassig) were built. No less eminent was his assistant Joseph Philip Ronayne, who after years of engineering in California, was to become MP for Cork, 1872-1876). He was an Irish language enthusiast years and his home at Rushbrooke was called Rinn Ronain and the first two engines on the Bandon line bore Gaelic titles, Sighe Gaoithe and Rith Tinneagh (Whirlwind and Burning Fire). Noted investors were Major North Ludlow Beamish, the Earl of Bandon, T McCarthy Downing, Sir John Arnott, Lord Carbery, J Warren Payne, Colonel Travers, all of whom in their various times furthered the development of the lines. There were also the great men who staffed the trains – drivers, firemen and guards. The Cork Examiner remarked on the last day of the Cork-Bantry train on Friday 31 March 1961; “Whether it was coaxing a steam engine up the long defile at Gleann, west of Dunmanway, on handling the excited holiday crowds at Baltimore and Courtmacsherry, they did their jobs efficiently and without fuss, in all weathers and under all conditions. Never was there a mere loyal band than the railwaymen of West Cork”.

The Cork Examiner on Saturday 1 April 1961 gave a descriptive sentimental account of the last journey of the West Cork line. A Garda squad car trailed the last train on the West Cork line from Cork to Bantry. They were there to quash any violent protest by local residents served by the line and who were against the closure. On board a squad of uniformed Gardaí also travelled, and at every station the blue uniform was present. However, the media did not record violent demonstrations but sentimental ones. Since the first day in 1849, when the Bandon Railway was opened, this was probably the most unique trip ever made on the 112 old line – and the trip was taken by a strong squad of press reporters and photographers and a gathering of representatives of the Irish Railway Record Society as well as many who were making the sentimental journey.

Hundreds of well-wishers crowded the platform at Albert Quay. Children sought the autographs of the driver Tralee-born Dan Murphy, and the excitement and confusion, which marked the occasion, delayed the start for almost ten minutes. It was just after nine minutes past 6pm when Guard Denis Hannigan waved the green flag and to the double-noted blast of the hooter Dan Murphy eased engine ‘2660-2641’ away from the platform. The Cork Examiner recorded the surrounding fuss; “ Farewell cheers rose, ‘bus rolls’ streamed from the hands of CIE men over the labouring train; the staccato snap of fog signals crushed beneath her wheels, and the mournful wall of locomotive whistles signalled the departure of the last train to West Cork”.

As the train sped through the suburbs the various bridges over-looking the line were thronged. Out then into the country, over the Black Ash bridge, onto the Chetwynd Viaduct, where many a bowl player had been challenged to loft the bridge. Past the picturesque Bandon River through Clonakilty, Desert, Dunmanway, Drimoleague, Aghaville, Durrus Road and journeying onto Bantry. The schedule for the journey was one of continued interruptions by well-wishing local people. Every station was filled to capacity by sightseers, and travellers on this historic occasion and the progress of the train was delayed. On entering Bantry a multitude of fog signals and cheers were heard and as the train pulled out on her solitary lonely trip back to Cork, the hundreds of spectators sang “Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot”.

To be continued…

 

Caption:

749a. Albert Quay Terminus, Cork City, 1930s, part of West Cork Railway Line (picture: Cork City Library)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 26 June 2014

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

748a. Sketch drawing for Cork Airport terminal buildings,1961

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 26 June 2014

“Technical Memories (Part 80) – A Symbolic Airport”

 

Continuing on from last week’s article and focussing on the development of an airport for Cork, the Cork Examiner in October 1961 profiled the development of the airport itself. In the late 1930s the idea of a sea plane base at Belvelly and its mudflats faded out of the picture. British Imperial Airways in conjunction with Pan-American Airways campaigned for a new seaplane base to be built at Southampton for a projected experimental air service between England and New York, via Bermuda. This dampened the hopes of a seaplane base in Cork Harbour. The Cork project was finally abandoned when Foynes was opened a few years later.

Meanwhile, in 1934 a group of aviation enthusiasts formed the Cork Aero Club and one of the principal aims of that body was the establishment of a city airport. In that year members surveyed various likely sites around the city and went into every aspect of the problem. They finally settled on Farmer’s Cross and in the same year, permission was granted by the Minister for Industry and Commerce for the use of Farmer’s Cross, as a regional airport. The Cork Aero Club could not finance the construction of an airport, which they regarded as a State or local government responsibility. In those years, the estimated cost of establishing an airport at Farmer’s Cross was £10,000. That airfield, however, was not then fully licensed because it did not have a sufficient runway to meet with commercial air regulation.

The years passed by with scheme after scheme proposed but nothing materialised. Foynes seaplane base prospered; Rinneanna Airport and Dublin Airport were opened but nothing was happening in Cork. The outbreak of the war in 1939 added to Cork’s wait. In the mid 1940s, it began to emerge that Farmer’s Cross was not considered suitable as the site for an airport in Cork. Ahanesk, which had been favoured in preference by the British experts several years previously, came into the news. This location of four to five hundred acres, just one mile west of Midleton, seemed to possess all the necessary requisites and preliminary survey work had been carried out by the County Council in the past.

The Department of Industry and Commerce sent observers to Cork to check on meteorological conditions over a period to determine from that aspect the most suitable site for an airport. They began their work at Ahanesk, avoided Farmer’s Cross and continued at nearby Ballygarvan. During the wait in the 1950s, the Cork Airways Company was established and they took over the Farmer’s Cross airfield from the Cork aero Club. In May 1948, the Farmer’s Cross airfield was officially opened by Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave. With a small set-up the airfield needed funding of £50,000 to extend to create a longer runway space. This finance was not forthcoming.

On 18 January 1954 the Department finally announced that the airport would be located at Ballygarvan, four miles south of the city. Three years later in September 1957, the land commission began to acquire land in the vicinity of Ballygarvan to the extent of approximately 420 acres. Once the formalities of taking over the land had been completed, contracts for the construction were signed and the work began. The top of Lehanagh Hill, six hundred feet above sea level, began to change its appearance as the bulldozers went to work levelling the site, skimming the tops and filling in the troughs. A million cubic feet of earth was shifted and the two 15-feet wide runways, one 6,000 feet and the other 4,300 feet, were laid on their twelve-inch deep bed of re-inforced concrete. A new concrete approach was also laid. The buildings began to be constructed, which included the control tower, offices, terminal building, restaurant, customs hall, and viewing balcony. The design and construction of the airport was entrusted to the Civil Aviation Section of the Department of Transport and power was also granted to them to manage the airport. The high quality graded aggregate and concrete products were supplied by William Ellis & Sons, Ballyvolane.

The first plane landed at Cork Airport on 12 October 1961. She was an Aer Lingus Fokker Friendship, piloted by two of the company’s senior captains, which was on a test flight. Captain Kelly Rogers noted to the press that because the airport was situated on a hill over the city, the approaches were very clear. The object of the flight was to test the route and the landing facilities at the airport, as well as to gain familiarity with the approaches.

Cork airport was opening officially on 16 October 1961 by the Taoiseach, Seán Lemass. He was also on the first plane to land at the new airport. He was greeted on his arrival by the Lord Mayor of Cork, Anthony Barry, TD and the Minister for Transport Erskine Childers. It was a busy day with operationally with twelve flight movements, six in and six outbound. Four of the planes landed were Aer Lingus and two were Cambrian Airways – these being the two operating companies.

To be continued…

 

Caption:

748a. Sketch drawing for Cork Airport terminal buildings, 1961 (source: Fifty Years have Flown, The History of Cork Airport, 2011)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 19 June 2014

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

747a. Belvelly Castle, Great Island, Cork harbour overlooking the mudflats

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 19 June 2014

“Technical Memories (Part 79) – A Field of Enterprise”

 

The new airport in Cork symbolises our purpose and will help us in our desire to have the world see us as a modern progressive state, coming rapidly and fully into line with all others in modern equipment and facilities. There are no longer any doubts about the importance of air transport development or about our ability to achieve standards of proficiency as good as the best in any field of enterprise. Both as a symbol of our progress and of our purpose, and as an important contribution to the already buoyant economy of Cork, the coming into operational use of Cork Airport is a proper occasion for celebration (Seán Lemass, Cork Examiner, Tuesday morning, 17 October 1961, p.1).

Returning to exploring technical education and industrial progress in the decade of the 1960s, the opening of Cork City Airport was an enormous symbol of progress. Opening his address at the airport Taoiseach Seán Lemass said the opening would have a stimulating effect on the industry and trade of County Cork. He spoke about the effects to be experienced in every sector of economic activity and about the benefits of tourist traffic. He hoped that in many areas of the county, those engaged in the many businesses, which catered for holiday makers would prepare themselves for the increase in numbers which could be confidently expected. He also noted of a financial stimulus in the form of grants and loans for hotel extensions, some 24 hotels and four guest houses in Cork City and county has extended their accommodation by about 100 additional rooms.

The Cork Examiner in its special supplement the day after the opening related the evolution of the dream towards having an airport. One interesting throwback was presented that back in 1933, Richard O’Connor, one time Cork County Surveyor envisaged Cork Harbour as the obvious choice for a North European terminal airport. Unique in its geographical position as the most westerly harbour in Europe, situated on the track of the north Atlantic steamship routes and equipped to accommodate large liner traffic, the harbour was ideally situated for such a project. In those days, although the Atlantic had been crossed by an aeroplane, commercial crossings existed only in the minds of engineers. The popular belief was that by the late 1930s the crossing of the Atlantic by seaplane services would become an accomplished fact. In the light of those circumstances, it was essential that Cork’s airport should be set up at once if advantage was to be taken of liner traffic, so that air routes would be accomplished before the seaplane crossing of the Atlantic became practical business.

The main objective of the scheme was to gain control of English and continental transatlantic mail services and it was hoped and believed that a proportion of passenger and light goods traffic would, in the ordinary course, follow the mail routes. During those years in the mid-thirties, representatives of many of the principal British and European air lines came to Cobh to meet and board all fast east-bound Atlantic liners. The purpose of these visits was to facilitate American and other air-minded travellers by arranging for air transport to be ready when they landed later at Liverpool, Southampton, Cherbourg, Hamburg or elsewhere. At such places at that time there were fully equipped airports and aerodromes and it was felt that there were exciting prospects if the proposed facilities at Belvelly could save time from one to three days in getting to destinations in Europe.  

Richard O’Connor produced an ambitious plan for an airport to be built on the mud flats of Belvelly from which would radiate air routes to Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Liverpool, Hull, Rosslare, Pembroke, London and Cherbourg. The plan regarded it feasible to reclaim an area of 460 acres at Belvelly by constructing dams and suitable tidal sluices. This scheme proposed to construct runway measuring from three quarters of a mile to a mile and a quarter in length. The control buildings were to be on Fota Island where there was ample room for future expansion. The site was examined by land and from the air by several experienced airmen. Travellers disembarking from the liners at Cobh were to be brought the five miles to the airport. Side by side with Belvelly was to be a seaplane base at Cobh, with communication between seaplane and liner by fast motor tender.

In 1934, a sub committee consisting of representatives of the Cork Corporation, County Council was formed which accumulated a lot of data which they forwarded to President DeValera. The Local Authorities Airport Committee was set up and its first task was to engage a British firm of consultants to make a survey of the possibilities and prospects of establishing seaplane and airplane bases in Cork. In 1936, the consultants reported back. The report reiterated the belief that the seaplane would oust the aeroplane and that a good seaplane base might be of “even more ultimate importance to Cork City, where nature afforded the possibilities of such a base, than a good aerodrome which was immediate and permanent requirement”. The project continued to be debated and was never realised due to financial reasons.

To be continued…

 

Captions:

746a. Belvelly Castle, Great Island, Cork Harbour overlooking the mudflats, which were to be the site of an airport in the late 1930s (picture: Kieran McCarthy).

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 12 June 2014

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

746a. Walled town of Cork, c.1575

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 12 June 2014

Kieran’s City Walking Tours, 17 & 20 June 2014

 

My summer walking tours of Cork City centre continue and conclude next week Tuesday evening, 17th June and Friday evening, 20th June. The tours begin at the National Monument on the Grand Parade, at 7pm on those evenings and explore the City Centre’s early development on a swamp. The tour costs e.5 per person and children under 12 are free. No booking is required, just turn up on the evening.

One of the aspects of the city’s development addressed on the walking tour is the walled town of Cork. Access into walled settlement was via three entrances; two well-fortified drawbridges with associated towers and an eastern portcullis gate. Access from the southern valley side was via South Gate Draw-Bridge while entry from the northern valley side was through North Gate Draw-Bridge. Various depictions of the walled town show menacing symbols of power at the top of the drawbridge towers where the dismembered heads of executed criminals were placed as a warning to the other citizens contemplating crime. The severed head was placed onto a spike and this was slotted into a rectangular slab of stone. Legend has it that one of the stone blocks still exists and today can be seen at the top of the steps of the Counting House in Beamish and Crawford Brewery on South Main Street. Other methods of execution involved been hung at Gallows Green, a location on the southern valley side near to the southern road leading into town. The site is now marked by Greenmount National School and the Lough Community Centre.

The third entrance overlooked the eastern marshes and was located at the present day intersection of Castle Street and the Grand Parade. Known as Watergate and comprising of a large portcullis gate, this opened to allow ships into a small quay, located within the town. On both sides of this gate, two large mural towers, known as King’s Castle and Queen’s Castle controlled its mechanics. Today, the place-name Castle Street echoes their former presence. In 1996, when new sewage pipes were been put in place on Castle Street, work was halted when Cork archaeologists found two stone rubble portions of the rectangular foundation of Queen’s Castle. A further section was discovered in 1997. Through these excavations, sections of the medieval quay wall were also discovered on Castle Street. The importance of Watergate is also reflected in the city’s contemporary coat of arms, which shows two castles (King’s and Queen’s) and a ship in between, with a Latin insignia, “Statio Bene Fida Carinis”, meaning a safe harbour for ships.

In the last three decades, a substantial amount of archaeological excavations have taken place within the former area of the walled town and many facets of the townscape and society have been revealed. In particular, several sections of the lower courses of the town walls have been discovered along with parts of streets, laneways, housing and even the remains of citizens. The Pacata Hibernia depiction of the medieval town dates to circa 1585-1600 and shows the wall encompassing an oval shaped settlement. The walled defences, 1,500 metres in circumference, were to provide security for its inhabitants up to 1690. In a present day context, if one starts on the corner of the Grand Parade and the South Mall, on the city library side, the walls of the medieval town would have extended the full length of the Grand Parade, along Cornmarket Street, onto the Coal Quay, up Kyrl’s Quay to the North Gate Bridge. From here they would have extended up Bachelor’s Quay as far as Grattan Street, then turning southwards, the walls would have followed the full length of present day Grattan Street as far as present day Clarke’s Bridge. The walls then followed the course of the River Lee back to the starting point. Much of the town wall survives beneath the modern street surface and in some places has been incorporated into existing buildings. The wall was composed of two stone types, limestone and sandstone, types, which have been used down through the ages in Cork buildings from warehouses to churches. Sandstone deposits are common on the northern hills overlooking Cork while limestone deposits are common under the southern hills.

On the wall, at regular intervals were mural towers, which projected out from the wall and were used as lookout towers by the town’s garrison of soldiers. The walled town of Cork extended from South Gate Bridge to North Gate Bridge and was bisected by long spinal main streets, North and South Main Street. These were the primary route-ways and compared to today, these would have been much narrower but followed an identical plan.  In the early half of the life of the walled town, the majority of the houses overlooked the main street and running perpendicular to North and South Main Street were numerous narrow laneways, which provided access to the back gardens or burgage plots of the latter dwellings. Comprised of individual and equal units of property, burgage plots extended from the main street to the town wall. The sizes of these plots were carefully regulated by owners, tenants and borough charters.

More on the walking tour and keep an eye…

 

Caption:

746a. Walled town of Cork, c.1575 (source: Cork City Library)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 5 June 2014

Cork City Events, Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, Uncategorized

745a. Recent re-opening of Fitzgerald's Park, May 2014

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,  5 June 2014

 

Kieran’s City Walking Tours, June 2014

 

This year I bring the summer walking tours of Cork City centre back during the month of June, on Tuesday evenings, 10th, 17th, and Friday evenings, 13th & 20th. The tours begin at the National Monument on the Grand Parade, at 7pm on those evenings and explore the City Centre’s early development on a swamp. The tour costs e.5 per person and children under 12 are free. No booking is required, just turn up on the evening. Further information if needed can be attained from me at 0876553389.

 

The tour is based on my publication Discover Cork, which was published eleven years ago as a guide to the city’s history. In this book I outline the city’s development and it opens with eminent Cork writer Daniel Corkery’s account of the city in his The Threshold of Quiet (1917) which highlights well the physical landscape of Cork City:

“Leaving us, the summer visitor says in his good humoured way that Cork is quite a busy place…as hundrum a collection of odds and ends as ever went by the name of city – are flung higgledy piggledy together into a narrow double-streamed, many bridged river valley, jostled and jostling, so compacted that the mass throws up a froth and flurry that confuses the stray visitor…for him this is Cork”.

 

One of the distinct questions that arises out of his narrative relates to the query, who could have built such a landscape. It was a combination of native and outside influences, primarily people that shaped its changing townscape and society since its origins as a settlement. The city possesses a unique character derived from a combination of its plan, topography, built fabric and its location. Indeed, it is also a city that is unique among other cities, it is the only one which has experienced all phases of Irish urban development, from circa 600 A.D. to the present day.

 

       The settlement began as a monastic centre in the seventh century, overlooking a series of marshy islands on which the present day city centre grew and flourished; it was transformed into a Viking port and the advent of the Anglo-Normans led to the creation of a prosperous walled town; it grew through the influx of English colonists during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and suffered the political problems inherent in Irish Society at that time; it was altered significantly again through Georgian and Victorian times when reclamation of its marshes became a priority along with the construction of spacious streets and grand town houses; its docks, warehouses exhibit the impact of the industrial revolution; and in the last one hundred years, Corkonians have witnessed both the growth of extensive suburbs and the rejuvenation of the inner city.

 

       Perhaps, the most important influence in the city’s development is the River Lee, an element which has witnessed the city grow from monastic Cork through the Celtic Tiger City of the twenty-first century. Originally, the city centre was a series of marshy islands, which the Irish for the city, “Corcaigh” translated marshes reflects. The river splits into two channels just west of the city centre, and hence flows around the city centre, leaving it in an island situation. The urban centre was built on the lowest crossing point of the River Lee, where the river meets the sea. Built on the surrounding valleysides of the River Lee, the city’s suburbs are constructs of the twentieth century where a spiralling population dictated Cork’s expansion beyond its municipal boundaries.

            Spliced with the city’s physical development is the story of its people and their contribution in making Cork a city whose history is rich and colourful. The characters are astute, confident, and are often rebellious, a distinctive trait of Corkonians through the ages and are remembered in Cork songs, statues, street-names and oral tradition. Corkonians make Cork unique. Their characteristics have been noted through the centuries, from visitors to antiquarian writers. All agree that its people are warm and very sociable. Joking is an essential characteristic of Corkonians. As one antiquarian, Byran Cody in 1859 put it, conversational power is the test of intellectual culture in Cork. A Corkonian is a good talker and the conversation is usually seasoned with spicy anecdotes and pleasant bits of scandal.

 

           A walk through St Patrick Street or affectionately known as ‘Pana’ will reveal the warmth of its people, the rich accent, the hustle and bustle of a great city. As Robert Gibbings, poet and writer put it in 1944, “Cork is the loveliest city in the world, anyone who doesn’t agree with me either was not born there or is prejudiced. The streets are wide, the quays are clean, the bridges are noble and people that you have never met in your life stop you in the street for a conversation”. Not only can each person tell you a story about Cork but its streets, buildings and bridges also do. They echo the rich historic and cultural development of the acclaimed southern capital of Ireland.

 

 

 

Caption:

 

745a. Recent re-opening of Fitzgerald’s Park, May 2014 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Historical Walking Tour of St. Finbarre’s Hospital, 7 June 2014

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

On next Saturday, 7 June 2014, 12noon (meet at gate), Cllr Kieran McCarthy, in association with the Friends of St Finbarr’s Hospital, will give a public historical walking tour of the hospital grounds with particular focus on its workhouse past. The walk is free and takes place to support the summer fete 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”. 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 eight acres, 1 rood and 23 perches 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.