A walk around some of my head space – Great to be involved in this “Person to Person” article in tonight’s Echo ahead of National Heritage Week next week, https://www.echolive.ie/corklives/arid-40936976.html
The City Hall tour on Saturday 13 August is booked out but all the rest require no booking and all are free!
Here is the link to all my historical walking tours starting this Sunday, 14 August, http://kieranmccarthy.ie/?page_id=122677 tours! Game on!
Tours of Douglas and Rochestown respectively and across to Shandon and St Patrick’s Hill are part of Douglas Road Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy’s upcoming National Heritage Week programme. The Week takes place from Saturday 13 August to Sunday 21 August.
Cllr McCarthy noted; “It’s great to be back to physical tours after a hiatus of two years with Covid. So far this summer, my tours across the city’s suburbs for locals, in particular, have been very busy. Certainly, the Covid period and this post Covid era has brought a renewed interest in people’s local areas and their development and sense of place. The tours I have chosen for Heritage Week this year are all important areas in the city’s development plus all have a unique sense of place and identity. I will host seven tours and all are free. There is no booking required bar the one for Cork City Hall for Cork Heritage Open Day”.
Kieran’s National Heritage Week
All tours are free.
Saturday 13 August 2022, A Tour of Cork City Hall as part of Cork Heritage Open Day, 10am, meet at entrance at Anglesea Street entrance (90 minutes, booking required from 3 August at Cork Heritage Open Day website with Cork City Council).
Sunday 14 August 2022, Cork Through the Ages, An Introduction to the Historical Development of Cork City; meet at the National Monument, Grand Parade, 6.30pm (2 hours, no booking required).
Monday 15 August 2022, Shandon Historical Walking Tour; explore Cork’s most historic quarter; meet at North Main Street/ Adelaide Street Square, opp. Cork Volunteer Centre, 6.30pm (2 hours, no booking required).
Tuesday 16 August 2022, The Northern Ridge – St Patrick’s Hill to MacCurtain Street; Historical walking tour of the area around St Patrick’s Hill – Old Youghal Road to McCurtain Street; meet on the Green at Audley Place, top of St Patrick’s Hill, 6.30pm (2 hours, no booking required; finishes on MacCurtain Street).
Thursday 18 August 2022, Views from a Park – The Black Ash and Tramore Valley Park, historical walking tour in association with the KinShip Project; meet at Halfmoon Lane gate, 6.30pm (90 minutes; no booking required).
Saturday 20 August 2022, Douglas and its History, historical walking tour in association with Douglas Tidy Towns; Discover the history of industry and the development of this historic village, meet in the carpark of Douglas Community Centre, 2pm (no booking required, circuit of village, finishes nearby).
Sunday 21 August 2022, The Battle of Douglas, An Irish Civil War Story, historical walking tour, meet at carpark and entrance to Old Railway Line, Harty’s Quay, Rochestown; 2pm, (free, 2 hours, no booking required, finishes near Rochestown Road).
As noted in my flyer to houses in Donnybrook and in (some of- photocopying issues!) my Maryborough Woods flyers this week, I note I will host another Q & A meeting on Friday 22 July 2022, 6.30pm, Ballybrack Woods.
The meeting is on the flat green area by the stream at the proposed site of the bridge, next to the central tree in the picture.
Last week’s meeting was targeted at the social media market but I got alots of emails and calls during the week recommending another meeting for those not on social media.
So Many thanks to the flyering team yesterday and today. Over 1500 houses were flyered. We put in alot of steps 
And there may be people on social media who missed the meeting last Friday, are seeing this, and want to attend
But if you are concerned and are up to speed with the bridge proposal, don’t leave your submission to someone else.
It doesn’t have to be an epic submission, but why the woods is important to you.Make your submission here: https://busconnects.ie/cork/
We Can and we Will stop this together.#saveballybrackwoods#savethemangalaView the scale of the Mangala bridge proposal and what it impacts here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDkqzvd8qe8
My thanks as well to all those I met last evening at the public meeting on Boreenmanna Road, and the calls and emails that came into from the Shamrock Lawn area today.
Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy has announced his free historical walking tours for July, which have a focus on historic streets, lakes, and woodlands. He will conduct walks across the area of Shandon, The Lough area, and also around the Rochestown area.
Cllr McCarthy noted: “The Rochestown tour is one I first ran just before Covid and focusses on Irish Civil War known as The Battle of Douglas. The three day battle occurred from 7-10 August 1922. In particular, the battle sprawled across the heart of Rochestown Road to Garryduff. Across fields and woodlands, Anglo Irish Treaty supporters faced off against Anti-Treaty forces. It was part of the largest seaborne landing of the Irish civil war and was aimed at taking Cork City. General Emmet Dalton of the National Army or Irish Provisional Government led 800 troops, with two artillery pieces and armoured cars, all of whom landed at Passage West”,
“Coupled with the Civil War heritage there are also some great heritage assets in Rochestown from the old railway line platform to the Capuchin Friary off Monastery Road, no mind the surrounding heritage of the big houses and their estates which once stood in areas such as Monsfieldtown, Belmont and Garryduff”, concluded Cllr Kieran McCarthy.
Kieran’s July Tours:
Saturday 2 July 2022, Shandon Historical Walking Tour; explore Cork’s most historic quarter; meet at North Main Street/ Adelaide Street Square, opp Cork Volunteer Centre, 2pm (all tours free, duration: two hours, no booking required).
Friday evening, 8 July 2022, The Lough and its Curiosities; historical walking tour; meet at green area at northern green of The Lough, entrance of Lough Road to The Lough, Lough Church end; 6.45pm.
Saturday 16 July 2022, The Battle of Douglas, An Irish Civil War Story, historical walking tour with Kieran, from carpark and entrance to Old Railway Line, Harty’s Quay, Rochestown; 2pm.
Create your own model boat from recycled materials and bring it along for judging at the Lough.
The entrant(s) will be placed in categories or levels, of which there are three, 4-6 years olds, 7-11 years olds and 12-15 year olds.
All model boats must be brought to the Lough at 18:30 on Thursday 9 June for display, launching and adjudication. There will be prizes for the best boats and all prize-winning boats will be exhibited during this year’s Cork Harbour Festival 3-13 June, at Cork City Library.
This event is being run in association with Meitheal Mara and The Old Cork Waterworks.
Register now: Cllr. Kieran McCarthy’s Make a Model Boat Project 2022 – Cork Harbour Festival
An update on the Old Railway Line greenway was given to Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy at last Monday’s City Council meeting.
The Contractor is currently working within the old Blackrock Station. During the course of these works it was necessary to undertake additional conservation and repair work to boundary walls, platforms and adjoining structures. The full extent of this work only became apparent when the overgrowth was fully removed.
Cllr McCarthy noted: “A good few people are asking about the delays to the re-opening of the Old Railway line walk. I questioned the Chief Executive at the last Council meeting and it has been the conservation works around the old Blackrock platform, which has delayed the works. On pulling back the vegetation, the damage on the masonry was worse than expected. I realise that many people are anxious to get back to using a much loved community space. It’s down to a few short weeks now before it’s re-opening”.
Completion works for the new access ramp between the Greenway and the Marina (i.e. through Holland Park) is scheduled to commence in late 2022 as per the original programme. The work on this ramp is staggered to allow for the settlement of the earthwork’s embankment.
The last remaining section of the Passage Greenway Project Phase 1 is scheduled to be fully open to the public in mid-July. The Contractor is likely to have some remaining off line works to complete beyond this date such as the completion of snags etc however this work will not affect users of the Greenway.
Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy has announced his historical walking tours for May, which have a focus on the hills and views of Cork. He will conduct walks across the area of Tramore Valley Park, St Patrick’s Hill area, and also around the Barrack Street area. The Tramore Valley Park tour will explore the development of the area from being a swamp through to being a landfill and then onto being an artificial mound to enable the development of a park. All of Kieran’s tours are free and no booking is required.
Cllr McCarthy noted: “Cork’s Tramore Valley Park is an exciting addition and recent initiative of Cork City Council. It is great to be able to revisit the cultural heritage of the park and its surrounds with the Kinship arts project this month. Historically William Petty’s 1655 map of the city and its environs marks the site of Tramore Valley Park as Spittal Lands, a reference to the original local environment and the backing up of the Trabeg and Tramore tributary rivers as they enter the Douglas River channel. We are lucky that there is also really interesting perspectives on the area recorded through the ages, which have been great to research”.
“Walking across the park, one can feel the tension in its sense of place, a place haunted and engineered by its past and teeming with ideas about its future. Of course, there are green spaces scattered across the city but none with the same scale of development and story as the 160 acre site off Kinsale Road. This is a site where the city’s environment has also been a regular topic of debate across local newspapers and in the city’s council political chamber”, concluded Cllr McCarthy.
Kieran’s May Tours:
Saturday 14 May 2022, The Northern Ridge – St Patrick’s Hill to MacCurtain Street; Tour around St Patrick’s Hill – Old Youghal Road to McCurtain Street; meet on the Green at Audley Place, top of St Patrick’s Hill, 2pm (free, duration: two hours, no booking required).
Sunday 22 May 2022, Views from a Park – Tramore Valley Park, historical walking tour in association with the KinShip Project; meet at Halfmoon Lane gate, 2pm (free, duration: 90 minutes no booking required).
Saturday 28 May 2022, The Friar’s Walk; Discover Red Abbey, Elizabeth Fort, Barrack Street, Callanan’s Tower & Greenmount area; Meet at Red Abbey tower, off Douglas Street, 2pm (free, duration: two hours, no booking required).
Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy has welcomed “Our City, Our Future”, third draft of Cork City Development Plan, which has gone out to public consultation It which provides an overarching framework to help shape the transformation of the City over the next six years by supporting the creation of 20,000 homes and 33,000 jobs.
Cllr McCarthy noted: “It provides an exciting and opportunities driven transformative blueprint for Cork as the city sets out upon an exciting phase of growth and change – with sustainability, quality of life, social inclusion, and climate resilience at the plan’s core. This is the first City Development Plan to include the new city areas such as Douglas, Donnybrook and Rochestown taken in under the 2019 city boundary extension. So there has been a chance to consolidate thinking on improving the quality of life not just in those areas but also in the inner suburbs of Ballinlough, Ballintemple, Blackrock, Mahon and South Docklands”.
At a meeting of Cork City Council on 15 March 2022, the Elected Members considered the Draft City Development Plan and the Chief Executive’s Report on submissions received. It was resolved at that meeting by the Elected Members of Cork City Council to amend the Draft Cork City Development Plan 2022-2028.
Cork City Council Chief Executive, Ann Doherty said: “This next phase of public consultation follows widespread listening and engagement with stakeholders in the first and second rounds of public consultation. I’d like to thank everyone who made a submission to date. We have engaged with a broad church of stakeholders reflecting the diversity of Cork City and the work of the Elected Members on the ground in our city’s communities and this engagement has been integral to the whole process.”
Cork City Council invites submissions on the Proposed Alterations to the Draft Development Plan. This is the third stage of formal public consultations. Submissions can be made online at https://consult.corkcity.ie/
The Draft Cork City Development Plan 2022-2028 is available to view at www.corkcitydevelopmentplan.ie
Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy is to restart his free historical walking tours during the month of April. This month’s tours will be of South Docklands, Fitzgerald’s Park, and The Marina. Cllr McCarthy noted; “It’s been a long wait since the last walking tours I conducted for the general public. It’s been a long two and a half years. In the meantime, I have pursued more research of some of my area tours and have posted them up under my revised history trails section on my Corkheritage. ie website”.
“My Marina tour is one I have tried to sharpen and get more information on and reflect more on its development. The three areas I am re-starting with are all relatively close to each other, but do have their own unique sense of place, their own cultural and built heritage, their own historic angles, and add their own stories to how the city as a whole came into being”, concluded Cllr McCarthy.
Full details of Kieran’s April tours are below,
▪ Saturday 9 April 2022, Cork South Docklands; Discover the history of the city’s docks, from quayside stories to the City Park Race Course and Albert Road; meet at Kennedy Park, Victoria Road, 2pm, as part of the Cork Lifelong Learning Festival (free, duration: two hours, no booking required).