Category Archives: Cork History

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, ‘West Cork Through Time’, 21 November 2013

Cork History, Landscapes, Uncategorized

718a. West Cork Through Time, title page by Kieran McCarthy and Dan Breen

Article 718- 21 November 2013

“Kieran’s New Book – West Cork Through Time”

 

One cannot but be drawn in – taken on a journey in West Cork. The use of postcards in my new book, co-written with Dan Breen, Assistant Curator in Cork City Museum, are an attempt to illuminate this region’s past. This book is ambitious in its aims as it takes the reader on a journey into one of the most dramatic landscapes of Ireland. 

West Cork is known for many aspects, its scenery, its serenity, its culture and its people. The book explores 100 postcards of the West Cork region from one hundred years (c.1913) and follows in the footsteps of photographers to retake the same scenes in the present day. The old postcards, sourced from the collections of Cork City Museum, represent many memories and representations of the West Cork region. These postcards were sold to visitors and locals a century ago. In their day, they were never neatly packaged in one publication nor could one ever buy them all in one go in a particular place.

The book takes the reader from Bandon to Castletownbere through the changing and the non-changing face of landscapes and seascapes and provides an insight into the uniquenesses of the region. The necklace of towns and villages are all linked together through a striking section of Ireland’s coastline, over 320 kilometres in length, encompassing a raw coastal wilderness with expansive inlets continuously being eroded away by the Atlantic Ocean. With exquisite coastal scenery, add in undulating inland landscapes criss-crossed by mountains, hill, streams and rivers, imposing old world air villages and the visitor finds a discovery at every bend of the road.

Researching West Cork, the visitor discovers that each parish has its own local historian, historical society, village/ town council, tidy towns group, community group and business community who have inspired the creation of heritage trails and information panels, each asserting why its area has a strong sense of place and identity and why it should be visited. Relics from the past also haunt the landscape with prominent landmarks ranging from Bronze Age standing stones to ivy clad ruined houses and castles, churches and big houses, to cultivated farmlands. All add to the spectacle that is West Cork.

The winding roads bring the visitor on an experience through landscapes, many of which are frozen in time for centuries. There are places that charm, catch and challenge the eye especially in the quest to retake photos on hundred years on. Chapter 1 begins with an exploration of what could be described a gateway country into West Cork; the towns of Bandon and Clonakilty were all founded 400 years ago and are central to a ribbon of market towns and villages in their vicinity such as Dunmanway and Drimoleague. All are set against the backdrop of a raw glaciated mountainous landscape and the Bandon river valley and its tributaries.

Chapter 2 explores the settlements and views along the coast from Courtmacsherry to Mizen Head, which is Ireland’s south-westerly point. Here are multiple beaches, large bays, rocky inlets, islands and many twists in the coastal roads that the visitor endures in the attempt to explore this landscape. Chapter 3 details the regional pilgrimage site of Gougane Barra. According to legend, Cork City’s patron saint, Finbarr, is said to have had a monastery on an island in the middle of the area’s lake at the base of the Shehy Mountains. Many pilgrims have visited this peaceful site over many centuries. Some have left their mark more than others, in terms of raising funding and acquiring human resources to enhance the collective memory of Finbarr through the construction of pilgrimage cells and oratory.

Chapter 4 leads the visitor on a journey from Bantry to Bere Island. The drama of the landscape here is amazing as coastal roads loom out into the coast and loom back in through tunnelled out rock. To experience the western tip of this study area, Bere Island, on any morning is an experience and breath-taking as the sun or rain or just a few clouds can change the character of the location. Chapter 5 explores the Cork-Bandon and South Coast Railway, which cut a route into the heart of West Cork one hundred years ago, and provided a means of goods transportation and a slow method or enjoying the countryside, especially in an age where the car and even good quality roads were rare.

In all, this book, through pictures of the old and new, comprises a myriad of stories of different shapes, patterns and colours just like a painter’s palette of colours.  Every picture presented is charged with that emotional sense of nostalgia – the past shaping and inspiring present thoughts, ideas and actions. However, this book only scratches the surface of what this region has to offer. West Cork in itself is a way of life where generations, individuals and communities, have etched out their lives. It is a place of discovery, of inspiration, a place of peace and contemplation, and a place to find oneself in the world. There is even more to offer the tourist today than there was a hundred years ago. What’s the best way to see West Cork – travel through it, sense it and enjoy it!

West Cork Through Time is available in any good Cork book shop and on Amazon. It is published by Amberley Publishing, UK.

 

Caption:

718a. Front cover of West Cork Through Time by Kieran McCarthy and Dan Breen

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 14 November 2013

Cork History, Uncategorized

717a. Ration book, 1944, source Clare Museum

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 14 November 2013

Technical Memories (Part 61) –Re-Rationing Éire

 

Many people contributed to the success of the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute through the years. The obituaries in the Cork Examiner and Evening Echo on 20 November 1945 for Dean Patrick Sexton, a member of the governing committee of the institute reveal a learned man who placed a huge emphasis on role of education in society. One of his greatest achievements was the building of St Patrick’s National School for boys on Ballyhooly Road, considered at the time as one of the most modern and best equipped schools in the country.

At least once a week Dean Sexton visited the four national schools in his parish of St Patrick’s. He taught the children music for the mass. He was also a founder member of the Christian Brothers’ College Past Pupils’ Union and was Vice-President of that body. The Dean was one of those who introduced the Catholic Boy Scout and Catholic Girl Guide movements to Cork. He was chairman of St Patrick’s Scout Committee and Vice President of the Scout Diocesan Council since 1930, and he was largely responsible for the campaigning and fundraising for a fine Scout headquarters on Summerhill North.

A look at the news stories around November 1945 reveals a country trying to rebuild its own economy – to move forward from a time of rationing. During a speech by Seán Lemass TD, Minister for Industry at the Retail, Grocers, Dairy and Allied Trades Association in Dublin, he pointed out that a fall in the cost of food would not be effective unless there was also a reduction in the prices of fuel and clothing. Butter and sugar rationing would be continued into 1946 whilst the importation of tea was governed by British suppliers who were still experiencing export problems; According to Lemass “the three main essential foodstuffs still scarce are butter, sugar and tea…the retention of the present six ounce butter ration for the whole of the present winter instead of a temporary increase to eight ounces for three months as in last winter is due to our decision, of which the Dáil and the public unanimously approved to ship the largest possible quantity to Europe in relief of stress arising from the war”.

Similar discussions on garages being able to fix cars and petrol rationing were discussed in the local newspapers. On 30 October 1945 the Evening Echo ran the story that the prospect of the early resumption of private motoring was being warmly welcomed by proprietors of garages. One proprietor told one reporter that quite a number of private owners had already taken out licences for private cars that had not been driven since a prohibition order against petrol and gas use from 1942. They were ensured that their particular vehicles were going to have first claim on the garages for tuning up for the road. One of the greatest difficulties of all was that of the supply of batteries; the vast lying-up period made them useless or either through neglect on the part of the owners.

Basic petrol rations were restored to private motorists from 19 November 1945 and an extension carried out of bus services up to 11pm in Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Galway. The monthly ration for private cars was eight gallons, for cars under 10 hp, ten gallon for cars of 10hp and upwards but less than 16 hp and upwards. For motorcycles, the allowance was two gallons for a lightweight bicycle and four gallons for a heavy weight bicycle. Doctors, clergymen and persons who were on special professional allowances were allowed to retain their allowances. Another interesting note comes from a mention on the 22 November 1945 in the Cork Examiner and the work of erecting the first traffic islands in Cork City. The bases of some of the demolished air raids shelters on the Grand Parade formed the foundation for the first of these islands.

In this time of rebuilding there was a need for engineers and for construction personnel right not only across Europe but also across Ireland as the country attempted to plan ahead. Certainly the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute was well placed to respond to these needs.  For example at a Cork Harbour Board meeting on 8 November 1945, discussion took place on the city’s quays and wharves and how they had outlived their “period of usefulness”. It was proposed to embark on a large scheme of reconstruction and re-organisation – it was noted that the methods of handling cargoes were deemed antiquated and obsolete. The chairman, T. O’Shea argued; “we lag behind Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford, and we are a long way behind Belfast. If we are to survive as an overseas port, we must rebuild our deep-water quays. We must be able to swing ships at Cork, and we must have faster and more up-to-date methods for discharging cargoes”. Days later at the annual meeting of the Cork Chamber of Commerce, on 12 November 1945, a proposal was discussed regarding calls to government to build both aerodrome and seadrome facilities to be made available in the neighbourhood of Cork Harbour – as alternatives to those in existence at Rineanna and Foynes on the Shannon Estuary and Collinstown in Dublin.

To be continued…

 

Caption:

717a. Ration book, 1944 (source: Clare County Library)

McCarthy’s Cork Docklands Walking Tour

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

Cllr Kieran McCarthy’s tour of Cork Docklands takes place on Saturday 9 November leaving at 2pm from Kennedy Park on Victoria Road (free, two hours).  Some of the themes covered in the talk will be the development of such sites as the Marina and the Atlantic Pond and how they came into being, and the historic structures that still exist in the area. Much of the story of Cork’s modern development is represented in their environs. The origin of the current Docklands is a product of centuries of reclamation and negotiation of swampland.

Cllr McCarthy noted: “Ever since Viking age time over 1,000 years ago, boats of all different shapes and sizes have been coming in and out of Cork’s riverine and harbour region continuing a very long legacy of trade. Port trade was and still is the engine in Cork’s development. To complement the growth of the port, extensive reclamation of swampland took place as well as physical infrastructure quays, wharfs and warehouses.  I’m a big fan of the different shapes of these wharfs, especially the timber ones that have survived since the 1870s. Perhaps the theme that runs through the new walking tour is connections. The tour explores very interesting sites such as Jewtown, Hibernian Buildings, the old electricity power station, the Gas Works, the Docks, the old City Park Racecourse, the early story of Fords, and Kennedy Park. All these topics are all about connecting the city to wider themes of exportation and importation of goods, people and ideas into the city through the ages”.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 7 November 2013

Cork History, Uncategorized

716a. Dean Patrick Sexton

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 7 November 2013

Technical Memories (Part 60) – Apostles of Education

 

During late summer before the walking tour season, the column focussed on life in the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute in the 1930s and early 1940s. Like most organisations, World War II had a profound effect on the organisation in terms of funding cutbacks. Despite that, the Institute provided a range of day and nights courses in a variety of subjects. Guy’s Directory of Cork in 1945 lists the following: Engineering – motor car engineering, electrical engineering, chemistry and physics, building construction, carpentry and joinery, cabinet making, plumbing, botany and gardening, Materia Medica, typography, tailors’ cutting, domestic science, machine knitting, shirt-making, telegraphy, telephony, pharmacy, flour milling, power machine work, and continuation courses.

In the archives for the VEC in the Cork City and County Archives, regular conversaziones are listed at the Institute. For example at one of three evenings in October 1945 (15th, 16th and 17th), the principal speaker Professor Alfred O’Rahilly, President of UCC (since 1943) spoke about the importance of vocational education. It is unrecorded what he said but a week earlier as noted in the Cork Examiner Professor O’Rahilly, at the conferring of degrees in UCC, he commented that there were difficult economic times ahead coming out of war torn Europe and that developing professions should concentrate on quality rather than on quantity. With reference to British restrictions on the employment of doctors, the professor argued that there was room in Ireland for more doctors and for a greater medical service and also room for expansion in the other professions. The annual output of medical men from the English and Scottish colleges, he described was about 2,000, and this figure was maintained during the war years. In addition, there were some 20,000 doctors in the British army and it was contemplated that about 8,000 of these would be demobilised before Christmas 1945. Hence, British medical graduates were given preference to jobs. In this light, this made the search for jobs for Irish medical graduates very difficult in Britain.

On the challenge of emigration in the country, O’Rahilly argued that it was not that UCC wished to cater for an export market but that “in a small country like this, the matter was one outside our control; we would wish as far as possible to give preference to our home professions…all we can do here is to equip our graduates not merely with the technical knowledge which they require as professional men and women, but to look to give them as well a proper philosophy of life. So that when they leave this country they will be lay apostles to carry with them something more than mere laboratory or classroom techniques”.

Guy’s Directory of Cork for 1945 lists J F King as the principal of the institute. The committee overseeing it included its chairman, Mr William Ellis as well as members Alderman James Hickey, Alderman Richard S Anthony, TD, Alderman Jeremiah R Connolly, Councillor C Connolly, W Furlong TD, P J O’Brien, Right Rev Dean Sexton PP, Very Rev Dean Babington, Rev Bro H S Byrne, Rev Bro Austin, Michael Egan, James Crosbie, and James Barry. The chaplain was Canon Edward J Fitzgerald who is recorded in the VEC minute books as providing a yearly mass at the start of the September term in the South Chapel for students of the Institute in the 1940s. He was parish priest in the South Chapel from 1924 to 1948. He was the son of Sir Edward Fitzgerald, Lord Mayor of Cork (1901-1903). In May 1955, when the parish of Ballinlough was constituted a separate parish from Blackrock, Canon Fitzgerald became its first parish priest.

One of the Institute’s committee members Dean Sexton, who offered a huge contribution to the Institute died on 20 November 1945. According to the Evening Echo on that evening, the Right Rev Monsignor Patrick Sexton received his early education at the North Monastery and at Christian Brothers’ College, where he was one of the first pupils. He studied for the priesthood at St Finbarr’s Diocesan Seminary and at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where he was ordained in June 1896. He served at the Dunboyne establishment for about three years where he took out his degree of Doctor of Divinity. His grasp at theology was recognised when he was appointed to All Hallows College, Dublin as Professor of Dogmatic Theology.

Sexton became well known that when the Presidency of Farranferris came up in 1906, and he took the position. During his seventeen years as President he effected many improvements in the college where he took an active interest in every aspect of its welfare. In June 1923 Dr Sexton was appointed Pastor of Blackrock. However after three months, on the death of Rev Dean Shinkwin, Sexton was made parish priest of St Patrick’s Parish and became Dean of Cork. He was in Berlin at the outbreak of World War II, when he was researching German methods of education. On the night war was declared, he was taken into custody but released soon again on condition of reporting to the police every three days. He crossed into neutral Holland four months after his enforced stay in Berlin.

To be continued…

Caption:

716a. Dean Patrick Sexton (source: Cork City Library)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 31 October 2013, Docklands Historical Walking Tour

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

715a. Docklands, Rebel Cork Week Concert, October 2013

 

Kieran’s Our City Our Town Article,

Cork Independent,  Thursday 31 October 2013

 

Docklands Walking Tour

 

 

 

On Saturday 9 November, at 2pm I will conduct a historical walking tour of Cork Docklands (free), meet at Kennedy Park, Victoria Road. The tour will take in the city’s docks, Albert Road/ Jewtown/ Hibernian Buildings and speak about the development of Centre Park Road. One aspect of this area are the old Cork Showgrounds, located there since 1892. In 2010, I was involved in penning a book with the Munster Agricultural Society on its heritage, its old name in the nineteenth century being the County of Cork Agricultural Society.

 

From 1857 till 1890 the shows of the County of Agricultural Society were held in the ground of the Corn Market (now the site of Cork City Hall). In the early months of 1890, the informality of attaining the Corn Exchange premises from the trustees turned to formality. There was a concern over finances and responsibility over outstanding costs arose between the County of Cork Agricultural Society and the Corn Market Trustees. That was resolved by the Society’s AGM of 22 March 1890 but uncertainty of using the space remained. Those issues were also coupled with lack of space for development. There was sufficient room for an ordinary Cattle Show but when the Society, following the lead of other cities, increased its operations and adopted the idea of holding horse-jumping contest, the enclosure in the Corn Exchange was too limited.

 

In late February in 1891, double booking occurred at the Corn Exchange on the days of the annual show. As work was already being carried out in terms of advertising and organisation, the committee decided not to move the time but investigate another location. A letter was read from Mr Daly, secretary from the Cork Park Race Committee who stated that their committee would be happy to give the society the use of their premises for which they would charge £25 and that they would even give a donation of £10 toward the show fund. The motion was proposed by Sir George Colthurst and seconded by Captain Newenham. Permission was received from the trustees to open an office at the Corn Exchange to receive entries. A series of temporary buildings were constructed at the Cork Park Racecourse.

 

At a post show discussion on 1 August 1891 at a general meeting led Mr A Ferguson, former chairman proposed that a permanent show yard be erected in a portion of the Cork Race Park with grounds 20 acres in extent. The general committee agreed to appoint a deputation to discuss the matter with the Corporation of Cork. The deputation comprised General Davies, Sir George Colthurst, A Ferguson, D Ahern, L Beamish, Crawford Ledlig, R.L. Longfield, Jason Byrne and A.J. Warren. The Corporation of Cork was approached as the site was on their land.

 

Initially, there was no immediate response from the town clerk by mid-September 1891. By October there was some formal discussion between parties. Mr. Bass, the society’s solicitor was instructed to write to the town clerk and inform him that on no account would the society take a lease unless they were given a free hand to use the ground as they sought fit. By early November 1891, there was still no lease forthcoming from the corporation. By 14 November 1891, Mr Bass recommended that the society should form themselves into a limited liability society in order to raise the money required for the erection of the new buildings. A sub-committee was subsequently formed to investigate the matter and reported back on 28 November 1891. By early December 1891, the society decided that the clause with reference to the loan fund should be altered and that the society should not undertake to pay back any part of the money raised by voluntary contribution.

 

By mid-December 1891, all society members were sent a circular with a copy of the scheme and a request asking for a subscription. A deputation was sent to the Royal Dublin Society asking for a grant towards the new buildings. There was no success there. The secretary was further directed to write to the secretary of the North East Agricultural Society for some information as to the new buildings which they were erecting. Mr S French proposed on 23 January 1892 that a premium of £10 for the best plans for the new show yard be given. The idea was accepted.  The three gentlemen nominated to adjudicate on the plans for the new show yard reported that eight plans were submitted for the competition. They selected two marked respectively – “Native Industry” and “Fiat Pistetia Ruat Coelum”. The second (‘Fiat’) was adopted. The author of the successful design was Mr John Leslie O’Hanlon, Darmouth House, Upper Leeson Street, Dublin. He was subsequently invited down to meet the directors of the new company.

 

On 3 March 1892, the memorandum of agreement between the limited company and the society was adopted and in early 1892, the company obtained a lease from Cork Corporation of 27 acres of reclaimed land and the first stages of the show yard was built. More on the above can be got from my 2010 book on the Cork Showgrounds (available from the Munster Agricultural Society, 021 480 1919).

 

 

Captions:

 

715a. Recent Rebel Cork Week Concert, Cork Docklands, October 2013 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 24 October 2013

Cork History, Landscapes, Uncategorized

714a. October light at St Finbarre’s Cathedral, Cork

 

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, Cork Independent, 

Eighteenth Century Cork Walking Tour

Thursday 24 October 2013

 

The weather is still relatively mild, so the next historical walking tour is on Saturday 26 October 2013 –Making a Venice of the North, Exploring Eighteenth Century Cork City, explore a world of canals, and eighteenth century Cork society, meet at Cork City Library, Grand Parade, 2pm (E.5, duration: two hours).

The tour is bound with the demise of the walled town of Cork in the early 1700s. For nearly five hundred years (c.1200-c.1690), the walled port town of Cork, built in a swamp and at the lowest crossing point of the River Lee and the tidal area, remained as one of the most fortified and vibrant walled settlements in the expanding British colonial empire. However, economic growth as well as political events in late seventeenth century Ireland, culminating in the Williamite Siege of Cork in 1690, provided the catalyst for large-scale change within the urban area. The walls were allowed to decay and this was to inadvertently alter much of the city’s physical, social and economic character in the ensuing century.

By the mid-eighteenth century, Cork was a prosperous, wealthy city. In 1732, Edward Lloyd, an English travel writer, wrote that the population of the city was 40,000 and that the shops were ‘neatly fitted and sorted with rich goods’. In addition, there were a lot of new buildings being constructed and many others being reconstructed. Lloyd detailed that the city had a large export trade with almost 59,000 barrels of beef exported from Cork per annum – half the full total for Ireland.

A report by two unnamed touring Englishmen in 1748 noted that the economy of Cork was booming and that provisions of all kinds were available at reasonable prices. These included meat, fish, fowl, fruits such as strawberries, and tubers. The main fish sold in the city market was salmon, turbot and crayfish. The main trading exports comprised beef, hides, butter and tallow (animal fat), which were been sent to all parts of the known world. The gentlemen mention that during the previous slaughtering season, between mid-August and Christmas 1747, a total of 90,000 black cattle were killed. Restrictions on exports such as wool were easily circumvented through illegal black-market trading. Their closing remarks on Cork are very interesting – they noted Cork people had no recognizable accent, which points to a great mix of nationalities residing and trading in the city.

Whereas the merchant classes were enjoying the profits of growing trade links, life for the lower classes was not as easy. In 1730, the population was 56,000; by 1790 the population of the urban area had increased to 73,000. This was a significant increase in a relatively short period of time; 100 years earlier, in 1690, the population had been just 20,000.

This population explosion caused many social problems. Crime was a serious issue for the city. In the early 1740s Mayor Hugh Winter employed fifteen watchmen to walk around the city at night between eleven o’ clock and sunrise to protect the citizens. Eleven o’clock was the city’s curfew, and any person caught outdoors after that time faced prosecution or expulsion. Robbery was common, with money and clothing often reported missing. Items such as silk, lead, swords were targeted by thieves too, and the raiding of cellars for food was also common. There were two gaols in the eighteenth-century city, one overlooking South Gate Bridge and the other overlooking North Gate Bridge. These gaols housed debtors and malefactors.

Another huge problem was the number of destitute children left homeless on the streets. On the western side of the south suburbs was a long row of cabins called the Devil’s Drop. Here, the doors were thronged with children with little or no food. The origin of the name Devil’s Drop is unknown, but probably refers to the degrading conditions in which the inhabitants lived. On 12 March 1747, a poor house was opened on what is now Leitrim Street.

Floods were common in the city and caused great damage. Rare high tides and flooding forced the inhabitants of the city to pass from house to house in boats. This had even happened even in the middle of North and South Main Street. Houses and warehouses on the quays had to be protected from flooding every winter by blocking up doors.

In stark contrast to these descriptions of misery, Smith also detailed the expansion of the city in previous decades. In particular, he highlighted the building of the many quays, the most notable being the Custom House Quay (now Emmett Place), the Coal Quay or Ferry Quay, Kyrl’s quay and the North quay (now Pope’s Quay). The largest canal in the city was that which is now covered by St Patrick’s Street – picture the footpaths on this street as the location of the old quaysides and the road as a canal. The Grand Parade was made up of three quays: Tuckey’s Quay (outside Argos), Post Office Quay (outside the City Library) and the Mall (on the site of the old Capital Cineplex).

 

Caption:

714a. October light at St Finbarre’s Cathedral (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Eighteenth Century Cork Walking Tour, Saturday 26 October 2013

Cork City Events, Cork History, Landscapes, Uncategorized

 

The weather is still relatively mild, so the next historical walking tour is on Saturday 26 October 2013 –Making a Venice of the North, Exploring Eighteenth Century Cork City, explore a world of canals, and eighteenth century Cork society, meet at Cork City Library, Grand Parade, 2pm (E.5, duration: two hours).

The tour is bound with the demise of the walled town of Cork in the early 1700s. For nearly five hundred years (c.1200-c.1690), the walled port town of Cork, built in a swamp and at the lowest crossing point of the River Lee and the tidal area, remained as one of the most fortified and vibrant walled settlements in the expanding British colonial empire. However, economic growth as well as political events in late seventeenth century Ireland, culminating in the Williamite Siege of Cork in 1690, provided the catalyst for large-scale change within the urban area. The walls were allowed to decay and this was to inadvertently alter much of the city’s physical, social and economic character in the ensuing century.

 

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, 17 October 2013

Cork City Events, Cork History, Uncategorized

713a. Perkin Warbeck

 

 

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, Cork Independent

Rebel Cork

Thursday 17 October 2013

 

Cork Rebel Week, the most talked about event in recent months, is upon us. One of the national flagship projects of The Gathering it focuses on what defines Cork as a place. There are many answers to that and even more questions. The collective memory of the city has many stories that are constantly republished, narrated amongst individuals and communities from legends such as St Finbarr to famous buildings to Cork’s GAA prowess. However perhaps it is the concept of being rebellious in its dealings through the ages that defines the essence of Ireland’s second and always ambitious city. But what does rebel Cork actually mean?

 I always think that it’s a city that does not overly market its past despite its role in everything from early Christian Ireland to eighteenth century butter and beef markets to the Irish War of Independence. It always seems that the history of the city is either not ready for public consumption or that as a city we hold back from celebrating it. That being said the sense of place of Cork, a city built on a swamp with steep hills hosting its suburbs, built in the middle of the river adds to the charm of what Cork is all about.

When all is taken into account, perhaps the sense of rebelliousness in the city is bound up with its sense of charm which is written about much in tourist literature and also tends to be a foundation pillar in its history – a city whose keen interest in economics through many centuries created merchants who continually honed their skills to be the best they could and to be imaginative and ambitious in their aims convincing others that this small city had something to offer in the Atlantic corridors of business and empire building and in time empire destruction. Creating a port infrastructure on a swamp, one can still admire buildings like the Port of Cork, the timber wharves, some intact, some crumbling – but for all that heritage, the city is very picky in what should be remembered – the river and the harbour still call for a new sense of re-imagining – rowers and swimmers have shown how the water determines some of the sense of place of the city. I say this maybe because I do feel the city has turned it back on the waterways and the second largest natural harbour in the world.

Many of city’s old buildings, which are derelict, also call for a new re-imagining especially those located in areas where the local history itself is rich.  We have all passed areas in our respective neighbourhoods where you’d pass and go I’d wish someone would do that place up and celebrate what an area stands for. Despite the city’s failings, a walk through its different suburbs reveals a place of different layers of history and exciting connections to not just the City’s local history but Irish and European as well.

If a sense of charm is one key pillar, the search for the historic origins of the term Rebel Cork is rooted in a city legend that in 1493 Perkin Warbeck, the Pretender for the English throne, came to Cork. He was well received by the Mayor and then allegedly was crowned as Richard IV of England in Christ Church on South Main Street. The story is bound up with the Wars of the Roses, (1455–85), in English history i.e. a series of violent dynastic civil wars. Fought between the Houses of Lancaster and York for the English throne, the wars were named many years afterward from the supposed badges of the contending parties: the white rose of York and the red of Lancaster. Both houses claimed the throne through descent from the sons of Edward III. In the English magazine History Today, several contributors through several publications note that in the aftermath of the Wars of the Roses, Henry’s position remained precarious, as doubts persisted over his questionable claim to the throne taken after defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. Perkin Warbeck’s web of deception began when he arrived in Cork, the seventeen-year-old servant of a Breton merchant. His confession alleges that after modelling the elegant silks that his master was selling, some locals insisted he must be Richard of York, the younger of the two princes Richard III was believed to have slain in 1483. Warbeck embarked on a conspiracy against the incumbent Henry VII to take back the crown.

On 5 October, 1497, Perkin Warbeck’s capture in Beaulieu by Henry VII’s troops marked the end of his ‘reign’ as the self-proclaimed Richard IV and revealed him as the imposter he really was. It was then that he finally confessed that he was not Edward V’s brother, as he had declared for six years, but was in fact descended from a Tournai boatman. By pursuing a number of conspiracies intended to oust Henry, Warbeck had been a major thorn in the king’s side ever since he was mistaken – deliberately or otherwise – for the Duke of York in 1491. Where did it all start – Cork and that just one of several intriguing stories that the citizens have woven through the ages.

 

Caption:

713a. Perkin Warbeck (source: History Today)

 www.corkrebelweek2013.com