Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent– 7 March 2013

Technical Memories (Part 47) – A Magna Carta of Hope

On Thursday 12 June 1930, the delegates attending day two of the Irish Technical Congress were entertained to dinner by the Cork reception committee. In the Victoria Hotel, Cork, Mr Jeremiah Hurley, President, Cork Workers’ Council, proposed the toast of Technical Education. He opened his speech by commenting that technical education in Ireland was not of a recent growth. As history recorded he noted,“in the very earliest times in Ireland they had very highly skilled technicians in stone work, metal work, and on parchment”. He gave the example of the Cross of Cong, which was unique example of metal work, which was “unrivalled in the world”. The stonework on Cormac’s Chapel on the Rock of Cashel and beautiful penmanship and illumination of the Book of Kells were a tribute he commented “to the skill of the early technicians, and which had no rival in this age of wonders”.

Mr Hurley believed the future of the country was very bright, and he looked to the new Vocational Education Bill as the “Magna Carta of Technical Education”. He believed that the country would again lead in the “art of peace”, as it had done before the Irish War of Independence. Technical education he expressed was “really the hope of the country”.

Mr William Ellis, Chairman of the Cork Municipal committee of Technical Instruction, in his toast reminded the audience that before the Department was established, Brother Dominic Burke, in the North Monastery School had established trades classes for the technical training of the working class children who then frequented the North Monastery; “Much of the skill and distinction which Cork tradesmen of an earlier generation achieved was due to the practical training provided by the Christian Brothers in Cork”.

Mr Ellis also recalled the powerful advocacy of a distinguished Cork Vincentian, Father Dowling, who “crusaded throughout the land, for very many years”, urging the promotion of technical education in all populous centres of technical education. He also paid tribute to Arthur F Sharman Crawford, who he noted had “much faith in the possibilities of technically educated Corkmen that he gave generously of his wealth and freely of his time to the lay the foundations soundly and widely of Technical Education in our city”.

Speaking from his experience as a worker Mr Ellis held that the advancement of technical instruction was full of “weighty possibilities” in Cork City. He spoke about the establishment of Fords, the largest single industry in the whole country, which aimed when fully working, to employ more than 7,000 men. Around it, he hoped that subsidiary metal and other industries would arise, “each affording fresh outlets for native skill and enterprise”. He wished for future vocation education schemes to be based on the existing manufactures and trades of each locality and on industries suited to such localities. The scheme of technical education in Cork must aim, he argued, to be linked to the large development of the engineering and mechanical trades. He outlined that classes must train the rising generation to be skilled electrical and mechanical engineers. This would make them not only “valuable assets to Messrs. Fords’ great industry in Cork and to other existing industries, but make them so noted for their skill and industry so that other employers will be encouraged to start metal and other allied trades in Cork, and so make our city an important engineering centre”.

Mr Ellis also referred to the completion of the National project- the Shannon Hydro Electric Scheme; “It is more than a coincidence that the new Vocational Education Bill should be introduced just as the Shannon electricity is being made for all parts of the country. There is, I am certain, bound to be a great development in the electrical trades of the country; indeed that development had already begun”. Technical education, he described, could not fail to be of practical help, both to the master electrician and to his workman and apprentice. Commenting on the scourge of emigrating tradesmen, he noted: “The sooner we train our own journeymen to be electrical engineers the sooner we will stop importing qualified men, and exporting as emigrants our own gifted but untrained youths”. In all the centres of technical education, classes he argued should be provided to promote electrical trades.

Mr Ellis claimed in his toast that the age of steam was largely responsible for the “herding” into towns and cities of enormous masses of people who were met with far from ideal conditions in factories and warehouses;“This period drew our people from the land, from the beautiful healthy countryside, into the crowded and unhealthy industrial districts in our cities and towns. As a consequence, our country suffered both by the loss of good health amongst its industrial cases, and by the loss of wealth from the decline of tillage and industry in rural districts”. He felt and hoped that the age of electricity would see a movement of the people from the cities and towns back to the countryside.

To be continued…

Wanted: looking to talk to people about their memories who attended the “Crawford Tech”, c.1930-c.1970, contact Kieran, 087 655 33 89

Caption:

681a.   Congress Standing Committee, June 1930, Mr J.F. King, Principal, Crawford Technical Institute, back row, last gentlemen on right; Mr William Ellis, second from right, front row  (picture: Cork City Library)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 28 February 2013

“Technical Memories (Part 46) – Pitchforking Inefficiency

Delegates, gathering in Cork for the 1930 Technical Education Congress, were also shown what Cork had to offer. In the evening of day 1 on 11 June, the delegates, at the invitation of the Cork Reception Committee made a trip around Cork Harbour. Calling at Cobh on the return journey they visited St Colman’s Cathedral and at night attended a concert in the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute.

On day two of a three day congress, the afternoon discussion reveals insights into ideas that in time were to become major policies for vocational education in Ireland.The discussion on the Vocational Education Bill was opened by Fr Cotter, parish priest, Tipperary, who said the Bill as he understood it submerged the small technical committees into general County bodies, such as the County Councils. In Tipperary they had a very small technical body, composed of representatives from Tipperary town and the rural district adjoining. The management the Tipperary Technical School had been successful and a great deal of that was due to the work of the secretary and the local committee. He was afraid that if they were submerged into a general committee of the whole County Council, the personal contact would be lost. He did not think that a general committee, such as the County Council, working far away from the school in Tipperary, would have the same influence over the school as the local committee. He believed the Bill should be broadened so as to continue the extent local supervision and knowledge.

Mr O’Sullivan from Tralee highlighted another problem that existed in his town. They were an urban area with a highly developed scheme of technical education. They did not want to go in under a County scheme. He suggested that there should be some provisions under the Bill, which would prevent the Minister of Education from forcing a scheduled urban area to come into a County scheme- in other words, a provision, which would protect the urban area.

Mr Thomas Patrick Gill, former President of the Irish Technical Instruction Association, expressed the view that the smaller urban area committees did work successfully. However, through a sheer lack of accommodation, they were obliged every session to turn away hundreds of young people who were clamouring for admission. The figures every year had been growing, and the 1930 figures compared with the pre-war years (1912-13) were higher than ever. In Cork the increase in the demand for admission to the Technical School, as compared with 1912-13, was 54 per cent. In Limerick it was 39 per cent, in Waterford 41 per cent, in Drogheda, it was 37 per cent, and in Sligo 29 per cent. In some places the increase was particularly high. In Dublin it was no less than 228 per cent. In Galway, it was 201 per cent. The average increase for all the leading technical education institutes in the Free State was 118 per cent.

Miss Breen from Kerry felt that the Bill was a step in the right direction. However she thought that the financial set-up was a concern. She noted that ratepayers were not able to bear any more expense and the scheme should be financed from a central fund. It was also suggested that the secretaries of the County Councils should not be executive officers. She did not think there was one secretary of a County Council who knew anything about technical education, or about any other kind of education; she noted that: “inefficients should not be pitchforked into important positions of that kind”.

Writer and teacher Daniel Corkery, who spoke on behalf of the Irish teachers, referred to the necessity for setting aside a fourth part of the rate levied for technical education every year for adult education, by which he meant education to all students over sixteen years of age. He detailed:“it should be more obligatory on every Vocational Education committee to set up at least one sub committee to look after adult education, and at least one organiser of continuation adult education should be appointed in each county. There was a danger that not only would adult education be neglected, but that it would be thrown aside”. Commenting on the fact that not a word of Irish appeared on the programme of that congress, Daniel Corkery said that the number of pupils attending the classes in Irish conducted by the Cork County Technical Committee was equal to the number attending all the other classes, conducted by that committee.

Cork committee member William Ellis alluded to the fact that music was not included in the Bill originally. It was a resolution from the Cork Borough Committee which was instrumental in having it included. In Cork he noted there had been a School of Music, which was established over 52 years previously. It was only recognised in 1928 by the Department of Education. Dublin had a similar school for some years. In the committee stage of the Bill, Mr R S Anthony TD got the word “music” inserted in it. Miss Breen, a delegate, said she had no objection to the Cork and Dublin School of Music benefitting so long as other places were included in the Bill.

To be continued…

Wanted: looking to talk to people about their memories who attended the “Crawford Tech”, c.1930-c.1970, contact Kieran, 087 655 33 89

Caption:

680a. St Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent,  21 February 2013

“Technical Memories (Part 45) – Away from Drudgery

“The new Vocational Educational Bill, which replaces in the greater part of the country the Acts of 1889, 1891, and 1899 is in many respects a revolutionary measure, and it will be your duty during the Congress to consider its merits and demerits, and how far the changes which are proposed therein will affect your particular area” (Mr P Bowen, President of the Irish Technical Education Association, 11 June 1930, Cork).

At the Cork Congress in 1930, 46 technical instruction committees from the Free State were present with 10 from Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Ministry of Education was represented. Rev Dr Dowse, Bishop of Cork noted: “The Congress unites the whole of Ireland, North and South”.

Mr P Bowen, President of the Irish Technical Education Association, spoke at length at the congress. Responding to the new Vocational Education Bill he noted of the provision of Technical Education in any country: “It is almost automatically connected with the industries of the country and the success or failure of the industries has a vital effect on the provision of the associated technical training”. He stressed that home industries needed support and encouragement; “A vigourous campaign for the support of home-manufactured needs to be waged”. He gave the example of the first industrial Development Association, which was inaugurated in Cork. That example gave a lead to other districts to establish similar associations. By the aid of such associations, local industries gained the support they deserved and “supplied a field for the absorption of the youth trained in the technical schools”.

Mr Bowen also referred to the teachers of Irish. In his view many had laboured for years in the teaching of the national language, often voluntarily without remuneration and “at considerable inconvenience, before being employed by committees”. Their work was a national work and a labour of love. The position of these teachers under the new Bill was not very clearly provided for. “It would be well if the Department of Education gave facilities for the training of these teachers in other subjects on the curriculum of Continuation Education, particularly as owing to the abolition of the special rate for Irish under the Bill”.

In the matter of curricula for continuation education, the free scope was welcomed by Mr Bowen. He detailed the importance of teaching craftsmanship to young people: “The encouragement of craftsmanship was very desirable at an early age and the inclusion of some craft in the programme of work for both boys and girls would help considerably to develop the individual tastes and inclinations of the student”. Indeed D J Coakley, Principal of Cork Chamber of Commerce, in a speech after Mr Bowen outlined the potential of Cork’s youth. He detailed that in Cork City there were 37 primary schools with an enrolment of 14,500 students, 12 secondary schools with an enrolment of 1,670 students, 1 day trades preparatory school with an enrolment of 130 students, 4 municipal schools with an enrolment of 3,200 students. University College Cork had an enrolment of 600 students whilst the Munster Institute comprised 50 students. There were also a number of private schools.

Mr Edward Morton, Head master of City of Dublin Technical Schools, Kevin Street, contributed a paper on the Electrical Equipment of Technical Schools”. Mr Morton treated the subject from the point of view of equipment for the teaching of the simple principles of electrical engineering, as applied in the electrical trades and the general principles of electrical engineering practice. The point of interest lay in whether it was essential to equip certain schools for electro-technology classes, and if so to what degree.

After Morton’s Speech, Dr T A McLaughlin, Managing Director of the Electricity referred to a special exhibition which his board had fitted up in Cork institute. He described that the domestic section was equipped “with all those appliances which definitely take the drudgery out of a woman’s work at home, enabling her to carry out her household duties with the minimum of physical effort”. He spoke about how the old type of kitchen with its coal range and the consequent dirt and dust and labour was being replaced by a clean electric kitchen. The electric washing machine replaces the wash tub and the “drudgery” associated with it; “An electric motor does the washing in a tenth of the time “without the exercise of human labour”. Commenting further he noted; “An electric vacuum cleaner replaces the sweeping brush, and numerous small electric appliances take over the other tasks in the home”.

Dr McLaughlin felt that the domestic economy of Ireland’s technical schools should be equipped with electrical appliances and that female students should be taught the elementary factors in the electric wiring of a home, the use of electric fuses and how to replace them; “I suggest to you that the technical schools in our towns and villages should take the lead in teaching womenfolk how their sisters in other lands have solved the problem of house-work in this modern age. The homes of our towns and villages will be the better and happier for elementary scientific management”.

To be continued…

Wanted: looking to talk to people about their memories who attended the “Crawford Tech”, c.1930-c.1970, contact Kieran, 087 655 33 89

Caption:

679a. Advert for ESB exhibition, Crawford Municipal Technical Institute (source: Cork City Library)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent,  14 February 2013

“Technical Memories (Part 44) – A Bill of Change

The 1930 Technical congress at the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute provided a very useful forum to discuss the Vocational Education Bill of that year.  The bill would affect changes to 69 technical schools across the country. The overall total of 2,500 students was deemed a low attendance and was considered to reflect the low demand for technically-trained people in Ireland.

At the heart of the bill it was proposed that new committees would administer continuation and technical education for 14 to 16 year-olds. At the congress, continuation education was defined as “general and practical training in preparation for employment in trades”, while technical education was described as “pertaining to trades, manufacturers, commerce and other industrial pursuits”. The new committees were to be charged with the duty of setting up and maintaining vocational schools.

The bill proposed that every scheduled urban district would have their own vocational education scheme and every county would have a county vocational education one. A committee was to represent every vocational education area. The committee for a rural or urban district vocational education area would consist of fourteen members elected by the local government council. Not less than five nor more than eight would be people who are members of a council. A committee would consider all such representations made to it by persons resident in its area who had an interest and experience in educational matters, and by persons concerned in local manufactures, trades and industries. A voice would also to be given to persons qualified to represent the views of employers and employees in matters of educational interest relating to districts.

The budget of a committee would come from a portion of the rates from the local Council or the fund that was put aside as part of the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878 and /or the poor rate. A vocational education committee could, in accordance with a scale prepared by it and approved by the Minister, fix and charge fees for attendance at all or any schools and courses of instruction maintained or provided by it under the proposed Act.

Every vocational education committee would on or before the 1st day of December in every local financial year, prepare and submit to the Minister an estimate. When the Minister considered an annual scheme he would issue to the vocational education committee a certificate authorising such committees to demand from the rating authority for the vocational education area of such committee a financial contribution. The Minister may, out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas, make grants to vocational education committees in aid of expenditure under annual schemes in accordance with regulations made by the Minister and with the approval of the Minister for Finance.

Every course of instruction provided under the committee would consist, in the case of a compulsory course, of one hundred and eighty hours of instruction in each local financial year.  Every parent of a young person resident in a district to which the continuation section was applied to would make sure that young persons attend for instruction in continuation education (unless there is a reasonable excuse for not so doing). It was proposed that if a parent did not comply with a warning duly served on him under this section, he was obliged, to cause the young person, to whom such warning relates to, to attend for instruction (unless the parent satisfied the Court that he had used all reasonable efforts). If the parent was guilty of an offence under this section; in the case of a first offence, they would be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty shillings and, in the case of a second or any subsequent offence, to a fine not exceeding forty shillings.

On the vocational side of the new Act, it was proposed that it would be the duty of every employer of a young person to send them for instruction. The local technical school was to contribute to the expenses incurred by persons resident in its area in obtaining technical education at schools or courses within or outside their area.

Mr P Bowen, President of the Irish Technical Education Association, in his keynote address on day one of the Cork congress noted that the provision of continuation education, as well as technical education, and the compulsory powers embodied in the Bill, provided a long felt need. The financial provisions would enable committees to make sure their work was more effective and useful.  He deemed that the bill was an “instrument, which would enable teachers to further education in general”. It would help to link up primary education in the country with both secondary and technical education. He critiqued that it would take a number of years before the general policy outlined in the bill would become fully effective, and many difficulties would have to be overcome during the years following. The two main difficulties, he detailed, were a lack of a sufficient supply of teachers to deal with the increased numbers of students, and secondly, the lack of suitable accommodation, particularly in the country areas.

To be continued…

Wanted: looking to talk to people about their memories who attended the “Crawford Tech”, c.1930-c.1970, contact Kieran, 087 655 33 89

Caption:

678a. Capwell Road, 1933, discussed in previous articles (source: Cork City Library)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 7 February 2013

“Technical Memories (Part 43) – A Bill in Question

By early June 1930, industrial unrest was being talked about at the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute. An article published in the Cork Examiner on 11 June 1930 notes a letter being read out at the committee meeting, which asserted the gripes of part-time teachers. They would not resume work for the next session if there was any reduction on the existing rate of remuneration, which as agreed the previous year included 20 per cent advance on the pre war basic rate.

At this June meeting the programme of instruction was also presented, which was the same as the previous year with the addition of a course in sanitary science. The committee anticipated that there would be a number of public health appointments in the future and the course was to be held with a view to qualify candidates. The course was to be conducted by a doctor and it was suggested to comprise 30 lectures. Mr King, the principal, proposed that a fee of £25 be paid by interested participants. After regular business, the committee members made final arrangements for the reception and entertainment of the delegates to the Technical Congress in Cork in the institute on 11-13 June 1930.

The Irish Technical Congress was an annual assembly of teachers, members of various county and urban committees, and others interested in the technical or vocational side of education. The year 1930 coincided with the Vocational Education Bill which was before the Oireachtas in Dáil Éireann. The Cork Examiner on 12 June 1930 details that the Bill proposed to recast the entire system which for many years was under control of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, but in 1924 was taken over by the Department of Education. The editorial notes;” At the same time, it may have been just as well that the consideration of the whole scheme of vocational education should be put back until the present time, thus allowing time for the easing off of the early enthusiasms…the country is in calm mood today and even the enthusiasts of seven years ago, having learned important lessons by experience, are less inclined to rush matters”.

Professor John Marcus O’Sullivan, Minister for Education, visited Germany in Easter 1928 and visited a range of facilities for the study of the education question in that country. In a subsequent follow up paper he noted that he met German educationalists who described: “We have lost everything in the war, but the one thing left to us is the youth of the country and their proper education- we are determined to make the most of these two things”. In February 1929 Minister O’Sullivan, in a keynote speech in Listowel Co. Kerry, noted that Ireland had not suffered in the same way as Germany, but the German statement could be applied to Ireland. Irish people, he asserted had brains, imagination and ability which, trained in the proper way, was one of the biggest assets the country had. The Minister was convinced that Technical Education ought to be looked upon as “important as primary, and as honourable as secondary and university education and not as a Cinderella amongst the different branches of education,and  not as a luxury to occupy people’s evenings”. In his opinion, which was also based on extensive interviews with Irish technical institutes, no country could afford to lag behind in the matter of training; “if they had not a properly trained population in craftsmanship they could not have a successful nation”. He hoped that a system would be developed whereby boys and girls between the ages of 14 and 16 years would be compelled to attend continuation schools. It was hoped to introduce a part-time system of compulsory attendance for those who were employed and a whole time attendance for those who were not employed. He hoped to get rid of the general claim that technical education did not play any part in the country’s industrial training. He also hoped to evolve a system, which would play a real part in the “promotion and welfare of Ireland’s industries”.

In the 12 June 1930 editorial in the Cork Examiner, the journalist admitted that the system of agricultural and technical education initiated under the Act of 1899 had done a great deal for the country but it was not sufficient for modern requirements. He asserted: “In every country more and more attention is being given to the practical training of young people in the scientific principles of the occupations or trades, which they intend to follow, and not only is instruction given in the underlying principles, but actual workshop training is provided…rule of thumb methods no longer serve the purpose of either the skilled worker or the so-called unskilled man”.

The editorial notes that the new Bill was aimed at providing the necessary facilities for rural and urban areas; The bill was a complicated measure calling for serious reflection: “The teachers and members of Technical committees now meeting at Cork should be better able than any others to form opinions as to its merits or defects, and recommendations they make in connection with it should receive careful consideration from the Government of the Free State”.

To be continued…

Wanted: looking to talk to people about their memories who attended the “Crawford Tech”, c.1930-c.1970, contact Kieran, 087 655 33 89

Caption:

677a. Professor John Marcus O’Sullivan, Minister for Education, 1926-1932 (source: Cork City Library)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 24 January 2013

“Technical Memories (Part 41) – O’Rahilly’s Lament”

 “I have no use for ideas in themselves- they must be translated into life or literature. Too many of us are quick on the uptake but might be slow on the output” (Professor Alfred O’Rahilly, 10 October 1927, lecture to the members of the Economic and Literary Society of the Cork Municipal School of Commerce).

Professor O’Rahilly’s lecture in one sense gives an insight into his personal thoughts on the problems of the Irish Free State. Indeed, much of what he noted in his lecture has echoes in any age of Irish history, no mind in his time. Some of his ideas are thought provoking at any rate to refer to especially in building the story of the more social theory side of technical education in Cork. In his lecture entitled “Efficiency” he noted that he was not much of a believer in brains, which he had found “did not count for very much in life at all”. He believed in character, grit, will power, and ‘spunk’. He believed not so much in the man but in his capacity for getting out what was in him. He commented that most people only owned a very small bit of themselves, and that bit they had no control over. He noted that he had met printers to carpenters, who were as good “as any man”, but they lacked power of concentration. Some people he noted “just go along with half minds on the jobs”. What was required he commented was to be all there- the majority of the people, he believed, were “half-witted and need to have their minds mobilised for the work in hand”.

Professor O’Rahilly had seen much change in Ireland in years previous to his lecture. He had led Irish delegations to the International Labour Organization conferences in 1924, 1925 and 1932, and took on a conciliatory role in trade union and employers disputes in Munster. Standing as a candidate in the Cork Borough for Cumann na nGaedheal, he was elected to the 4th Dáil at the 1923 general election. He resigned in 1924. He had became Registrar of University college Cork in 1920, and held the post until 1943 when he became President of the University. He spent a year, in 1927, at Harvard studying social and political theory. Indeed he had a huge interest in adult education as advocated by one of his biographers Denis O’Sullivan in 1989. O’Rahilly would in time set up an adult education programme that extended university education in social and economic subjects to a much wider audience.

In his 1927 lecture O’Rahilly noted that the primary motive force in life should be religious and social. In a country like America he observed that the “mere exercise of power seemed to be an end in itself and seemed to enable them to be efficient in a sense. Through the mere exercise of power they were looking for money, enjoyment, Ford cars, and pictures”. He did not think that was desirable and it was not very applicable to a “poor country” like Ireland.

Referring to obvious cases where a sense of social obligation was not sufficiently present, O’Rahilly went on to instance the Irish political system, about which there was a great deal of discussion at that time. He noted: “In a lot of ways we must only admit we deserve it; we know we have not been carrying out these things with the high sense of public duty that we should do…Our obligations should not be to the candidate for the position, but to the people he is going to serve who are very often poor people. Their bounden duty was to vote for the man who was efficient but very little of that was found in the country…They [politicians] had a solemn obligation to the public and to the poor but they had little consciousness of it. The first thing necessary was the motive force that would drive them on and give them something to live for”. However, he followed this up by commenting that the “social sense cut both ways”. Those elected had also got to live and work in the country; They were not unique. They were not sports or supermen. They were not capable of working in isolation from their party fellows; “Even Newton or Einstein had first to master the accumulated store of knowledge and only by piecing together what other men had thought and done”.

In a wide ranging lecture, Professor O’Rahilly found that a great number of Cork men were receptive to new ideas. With a strong theme of what Americans were doing in America, he finished up his delivery speaking about the national diaspora and their potential; “let us not forget that the greatest of them all are the millions of our kith and kin beyond the seas…we have got to close up our ranks and make a united appeal; I do not mean a begging expedition…they are willing to organise on the other side, and there are three or four big business men who would gladly place their services at the disposal of their country if asked, but they never were”.

To be continued…

Wanted: looking to talk to people about their memories who attended the “Crawford Tech”, c.1930-c.1970, contact Kieran, 087 655 33 89

Caption:

675a. Professor Alfred O’Rahilly, UCC (source: Boole Library, UCC)

Kieran’s our City, Our Town Article, 10 January 2013

“Technical Memories (Part 39) –Guiding the City’s Future”

“In this world of change, no city can remain for long in a stationary condition. Either it must be in a state of expansion, alteration or deterioration…it is the highest degree desirable that there should be in existence a wisely prepared town plan, which will not only guide its future growth, but also so control its existing mass that no change can be made except by way of improvement (Cork: A Civic Survey, 1926)”

In December’s column, I highlighted the work by the committee of the Crawford Technical Institute in heading up the compilation of the report Cork A Civic Survey in 1926. In this survey, three clearly dilapidated housing areas of Cork are mapped out- one west of Shandon Street, the north western corner of the city centre island, and the property to the south west of St Finbarr’s Cathedral. All three except parts of the northern area were older parts of the city. The survey noted that there was not that much dilapidated property in the island to the east of North Main Street but those houses should be cleared out at the earliest opportunity, and no housing rebuilding under taken in the area. The space should be fully allocated for shopping and business purposes. The survey also questioned whether residential rebuilding should take place in the low lying and flood prone neighbourhood of Henry Street and Grattan Street.

In the city there were 12,850 houses inhabited by 15,469 families, giving according to the total population about five persons in a family and an average of six persons per house. A large proportion of the population was crowded into tenements and small houses. The number of tenements was 719 with 2,928 families. The tenement population was around 8,675. Nearly one-ninth of the total population lived in tenements and on average 12 families could live in a house meant for one family.

In the Civic Survey classification, under first class tenement structures 2,499 people or 839 families lived in 194 houses, which appeared to be structurally sound; they were not in good repair but were capable of being put in good repair. Under second class tenements, 6,114 people or 2,038 families lived in 512 houses, which were so decayed or so badly constructed as approaching the borderline of being unfit for human habitation. Under third class tenements 222 people or 61 families lived in 13 houses unfit for human habitation, and incapable of being rendered fit for human habitation. In the small house category, there was 9,649 people living in 2,329 second class houses. There were 211 people living in 54 third class houses.

The survey acknowledged that the redistribution of people was so large that it might naturally take years to accomplish (which it did). It was hoped that the progress would be more rapid than in Liverpool where it took 20 years to demolish and rebuild a similar number of houses. One of the chief aims of the survey was that the rebuilding should not be done piecemeal as a series of isolated schemes, but as part of a general scheme of town planning and redistribution of the population.

The survey outlined that one of the opportunities was the availability of land on the south of the river for re-housing as well as for an extension of the city bounds. During the compilation of the Survey, the City Commissioner Philip Monahan as well as his city engineer Stephen Farrington and Cork architect, Daniel Levie engineered and designed the start of a new slum clearance programme. Capwell Road comprised 148 houses of short terraces of four houses set at 16 houses per acre. The homes were mainly four-roomed. In the summer of 1925 the Capwell site was acquired by Cork Corporation by deed of transfer from Richard Morgan. By Christmas 1925 20 men were employed on relief work for 2/3 weeks clearing the site, preparatory to the actual building. On 14 May 1926 11 tenders were received for the Capwell development, ten from local builders and one from a Dutch firm of builders. Fifteen of the houses were built by the Cork Builders Worker’s Guild and 144 were built by Messrs. Meagher and Hayes. By 25 February 1928 the scheme was complete and money was deposited towards purchase of the Capwell houses. Under the housing scheme £14,000 had been received. The 148 occupiers are listed in a document in the Cork City and County Archives. The money received from Capwell was devoted to the development of another housing site at Turners Cross and the announcement was made that it was expected that tenders for the building of 150 more houses would be invited.

The architect for the Turners Cross developments and those to come that were connected with Cork Corporation, Daniel Levie played an active part in the Cork Civic Survey of 1926. He was a member of the Munster Fine Arts Council for many years. He was also a founder member of the Cork Rotary Club. His firm’s collection of drawings was subsequently acquired by the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, and is now in the Cork City and County Archives.

To be continued…

Caption:

673a. Civic Survey map of heavy slum areas in Cork, 1926 (source: Cork A Civic Survey, 1926)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article

Cork Independent, 20 December 2012

“Technical Memories (Part 38) –The Genius of Place”

As noted last week, in March 1922, the Cork Housing and Town Planning Association was formed. In the Dictionary of Irish Biography D.J. Coakley (D.J. or Daniel John), Principal of the Cork School of Commerce became honorary secretary of the association. Under the direction of Professor Patrick Abercrombie, D.J. organised a survey of Cork city, a report on which was published as Cork: A Civic Survey in 1926. This work was built on the back of a booklet for the Cork Incorporated Chamber of Commerce & Shipping under the title Cork, Its Trade and Commerce (1919), which is said to have achieved an international circulation. As an aside D.J. was one of the five sons of John Coakley, a farmer in Donoughmore, Co. Cork. D.J. lived at 5 Newenham Terrace, Cork.

Different committees were formed to deal with different sections of Cork’s civic survey. The groundwork was headed up by a sub-committee from the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute and well known Cork Architects. All gave valuable assistance. Diagrams were prepared by Alec G. Jenson. Professor Patrick Abercrombie and Sydney Kelly, both working in Liverpool were invited and agreed to act as special advisors to the Survey. The UK National Biography for Professor Patrick Abercrombie reveals an architect whose recurrent pre-occupation was with the human side of his profession- his concept of a town as primarily the setting for human life, rather than a mere pattern of roads and land uses.  In general, his work through his career strongly emphasised the need to preserve and underpin the traditional character of each locality. Abercrombie was also influenced personally as an architect by the École des Beaux Arts in Paris and particularly by Baron Georges-Eugéne Haussmann (1809-1891) whose city planning of Paris he admired. Hence Abercrombie had an interest in creating wide boulevards and pubic squares, where the emphasis was on the public.

Abercrombie’s interests are indirectly highlighted in the introduction of the Cork Civic Survey, published in 1926. It set out it aims clearly: “One of the results of a Civic Survey should be that the genius of the place emerges, and the artificial control to which it submits is thus not an arbitrary or foreignly conceived yoke, but rather a sympathetic course of direction. To adopt another simile, the Survey is the diagnosis of the symptoms for which the Town Plan is the prescriptive remedy.”

The introduction reflects that there is a multitude of smaller forces at work in shaping the city of Cork; “it has not been progressive in the recent past; if rightly directed, should put a slow and steady growth in future years”. The survey denotes that Cork exists to fulfil a number of diverse purposes; “The creation of the Irish Free State with its impulse towards devolution, should tend to make it more markedly a provincial capital with possibilities of specialised growth”. Cork was, at the same time, a sea port, a distributing centre, market town, manufacturing city, residential area and educational centre. The Survey denotes that each of these aspects has made “characteristic impression, but without orderliness”.

On matter of trade, the Civic Survey outlines a decline in trade: “Changes in the nature of trade have for years been sapping the city’s nineteenth century prosperity, while political upheavals had a bad effect upon the city’s finances. In order to progress a greater civic self-consciousness it  is essential that a knowledge be attained of the physical facts of the city, of its blemishes and how to remedy them-in short, a proper Town Planning Scheme is needed. During the past decade many local problems have arisen.”

The introduction praises the work that went into attaining and building the Ford Factory in 1917 and how it had set the “seal of industrialism” on what had been the city’s race course known as “The Park”. The survey claims that the burning of Cork four or five years previously opened up a series or problems which the city was not equipped to meet. Street improvements might have been made if the Council had had the necessary plans and powers. The introduction outlines that the postponement of the re-building of the City Hall was fortunate as proper consideration needed to be made in relation to its position in the city. and its relation to the future development of the whole City.

The survey reveals the question of a new cattle market, which opened up a big problem of traffic and communications by rail, road, and water; “A site chosen merely by methods of opportunism, is likely to become a nuisance rather than a gain to the City”. The City’s housing problem is also set out; “Slums are the breeding ground of disease, political as well as physical. They are a source of danger and of expense to any community. To build even much better houses on the sites that are, or may become unsuitable is merely to provide a heritage of slums for the next generation. Re-housing, to be affective, must be planned on a comprehensive scale. The right sites must be found, and the right services and communications.

To be continued in the new year…Happy Christmas to all readers of this column and thanks for the support during the year, Kieran Mc

Caption:

672a. Professor Patrick Abercrombie, c.1944 (source: National Biography, UK)