Independent Councillor Kieran McCarthy wishes to remind the public on the public consultation, which remains open till 2 November for proposals by Cork City Council to continue restricting vehicular access to The Marina. The proposal is to close the Marina to cars 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, from its junction with the northern entrance of Páirc Uí Chaoimh to its junction with Church Avenue.
Cllr McCarthy noted: “To open up public consultation on the pedestrianisation of The Marina is very welcome. Up to this year and for many years previously, the pedestrianisation process had been a goal of local councillors and many local residents, and in fairness to Roads officials and the Director of Operations they have responded to public calls”.
Cllr McCarthy continued: “During Covid-19 lockdowns, the pedestrianisation of the road as a temporary measure was the life-saver for many people who needed the outlet to walk and just take time-out during the 2km and 5km restrictions. I have had much correspondence by locals and other Corkonians calling for the continuance of the pedestrianisation beyond the phase 1 temporary measures. Many have emphasised to me the importance of this historic tree-lined avenue to public health and recreational use. However, I have also received correspondence from those who wish to tweak some of the parts of the pedestrianisation proposals. It is important that everyone gets their voice heard on the future of the Marina”.
Submissions on the proposal may be made via this online consultation portal, https://consult.corkcity.ie/. Alternatively, the documents will be made available for inspection by appointment at Reception Desk, Cork City Council, City Hall, Cork to Monday 2 November 2020 from 9am to 4.30pm. Please phone 021-4924000 in advance to arrange an appointment. Representations may be also be made in writing to “Senior Executive Engineer, Traffic Operations, Room 339, City Hall, Cork”. The closing date for receipt of submissions is on or before 5pm on Monday 2 November 2020.
This week, Cork remembers the centenary of martyred Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney. A colossus in Cork history Terence has attracted many historians, enthusiasts and champions to tell his story. His story is peppered with several aspects – amongst those that shine out are his love of his family, city, country, social bonds, language, comradeship, and hope – all mixed with pure tragedy.
In many ways, the end of his 74 day hunger strike changed the future public and collective memory narrative of Cork history forever. Each generation since his death has marked his contribution, reflected on its history, and have made sure that his memory will not be forgotten about and that his legacy will live on.
In our time, never before have ideas such as social bonds, family, comradeship and hope being so important as we journey through our challenging COVID times. There is much to learn from Cork 100 years ago and from some of the positive characteristics of society that imbued such a time.
One aspect, which is most welcome in 2020, is the continuous local history writing of new angles on the lives and experiences of those involved with the Independence struggle. The city is blessed with historians who spend each year retelling the story of the war but who also go out into communities and local schools, refreshing the stories amongst the older community and engaging the next generation.
Such latter scholars are also pushing for more scholarship on the time. There is still much work to be done in mining into Terence’s key works, his writings, perceptions and learning from his legacy. His book Principles of Freedom inspired many to rise up against British control in the late 1920s and 1930s. He was also a playwright, poet, founder of the Cork Dramatic Society with another of Cork’s famous literary sons Daniel Corkery. Terence wrote five plays with themes around revolution, democracy and freedom. Terence McSwiney was also a son, a husband, a father and a brother. The journey his relatives had to go through during his hunger strike also need to be explored more. The story of his sisters and their involvement in the local Cumann na mBan with the Cork Cumann’s story being told more and more, and this is most welcome.
Terence was also a proud Corkonian. His speech, when elected Lord Mayor on 30 March 1920, made reference to Cork’s place as one of Ireland’s first cities – indeed his call to work together for Cork’s advancement is one, which transcends every Corkonian generation and ever more important in the times we find ourselves in the at the moment; “Our spirit is but to be a more lively manifestation of the spirit in which we began the year to work for the city in a new zeal…to bring by our administration of the city glory to our allegiance, and by working for our city’s advancement with constancy in all honourable ways in her new dignity as one of the first cities of Ireland, to work for, and, if need be, to die for”.
I have been blogging about the centenary of the War of Independence in Cork in 1920 on my website at www.corkheritage.ie, which contains links to my newspaper articles and pictures. My work attempts to provide context to this pivotal year in Cork’s history. My blog pieces also explores Cork in 1920 and how the cityscape was rapidly becoming a war zone. Risky manoeuvres by the IRA created even riskier manoeuvres as ultimately the IRA took the war to the RIC and Black and Tans. Reading through local newspapers each day for 1920 shows the boiling frustration between all sides of the growing conflict. Tit-for-tat violence became common place.
Earlier this year I released a new book Witness to Murder, The Inquest of Tomás MacCurtain with John O’Mahony. The last time Tomás’s inquest in full was published was in the Cork Examiner between 23 March 1920 and 18 April 1920. Despite the ordeal and daily fallout from the interviews, over time the fourteen hearing sessions have not overly been revisited by scholars of the Irish War of Independence. The verdict has been highlighted on many occasions by many historians, but the information of the inquest has never been overly written about or the narratives within it explored.
What I have learned so far through my journey trying to understand the War of Independence in Cork is that the narrative is not black and white – it’s not a full on “them versus us” narrative – but very nuanced with all those involved living in a small city, where everyone knew each other – where harsh decisions on life and death needed to be made.
The public commemoration of the centenary of Terence MacSwiney may be lessened due to COVID this year. But there is an onus on all those who have championed his story to reflect this week on his sacrifice and also on the men and women, who fought for Irish Independence one hundred years ago. Many put their lives on the line and many were killed for what they believed in. Each one of their stories is an important one. Terence and Tomás MacCurtain may be the duo who annually receive much attention in our city but I have seen through my engagement in local communities the many War of Independence medals in personal collections, which are treasured, and the many stories still waiting to be told. There is still much work to do to try to understand Cork and Ireland of 1920, which defined how Cork and indeed Ireland approaches its national history narrative in the present day and going into the future.
The voices of those who were on the frontline of the War of Independence must not be forgotten but learned from – they all add up to the sense of pride amongst its public have but also to the many complexities and nuances of the history of our southern capital, and what makes it lovingly tick – with all its positives and ongoing challenges.
Cllr Kieran McCarthy is a local historian and is an Independent member of Cork City Council. His heritage website is www.corkheritge.ie
Douglas Road Councillor Kieran McCarthy has been blogging about the centenary of the War of Independence in Cork in 1920. His website at www.corkheritage.ie contains links to his newspaper articles and pictures. Kieran’s work attempts to provide context to this pivotal moment in Cork’s history. The centenary of Terence MacSwiney’s death after his 74-day is fast approaching on 25 October and Terence also once lived at Eldred Terrace on Douglas Road with his wife Muriel. Kieran notes: “Terence is truly a colossus in Cork history who has attracted many historians, enthusiasts and champions to tell his story. His story is peppered with several aspects – amongst those that shine out are his love of his family, city, country, language comradeship, and hope – all mixed with pure tragedy. In many ways, the end of his 74 day hunger strike changed the future public and collective memory narrative of Cork history forever”.
Continuing Kieran details: “The blog pieces also explore Cork in 1920 and how the cityscape was rapidly becoming a war zone. Risky manoeuvres by the IRA created even riskier manoeuvres as ultimately the IRA took the war to the RIC and Black and Tans. Reading through local newspapers each day for 1920 shows the boiling frustration between all sides of the growing conflict. Tit-for-tat violence became common place”.
Earlier this Kieran released a new book Witness to Murder, The Inquest of Tomás MacCurtain with John O’Mahony. The last time Tomás’s inquest in full was published was in the Cork Examiner between 23 March 1920 and 18 April 1920. Despite the ordeal and daily fallout from the interviews, over time the fourteen hearing sessions have not overly been revisited by scholars of the Irish War of Independence. The verdict has been highlighted on many occasions by many historians, but the information of the inquest has never been overly written about or the narratives within it explored.
16 October 2020, “After the iconic Monkey Puzzle Tree in Mahon was blown down, Cork city councillor Kieran McCarthy, UCC’s Dr Eoin Lettice, O’Callaghan Properties and St Michael’s Credit Union joined together to ensure locals with fond memories of the tree could take part of it home”, Cork residents snap up pieces of iconic monkey puzzle tree, https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-40066755.html?fbclid=IwAR10JaNQzs_WdaOmwS8N3QKWSaERlqUQoxK70RBw4Ikqc1QIRDpl1aShjFI
Great to have a slot on The Business (show) on RTE Radio 1 yesterday speaking about the history of Cork in 1920 and the creation of the Irish International Trading Corporation (Cork).
“The future around Brexit remains unclear for Irish exporters. This week hauliers in the UK learned of potential two day delays at a de facto border in Kent. We could probably learn a thing or two from the 100 year old history of the Irish International Trading Corporation, based in Cork. Kieran McCarthy has been looking at their history”.
https://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/html5/#/radio1/21840558
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 24 September 2019
Launch of Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project 2020-21
Covid-19 has brought many challenges to every part of society and never before has our locality being important for recreation and for our peace of mind. In the past few months more focus than ever has been put on places we know, appreciate and even on places we don’t know but now depend on as we remain grounded in our neighbourhoods and corners of Cork City.
Against the backdrop of Covid-19, the Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project 2020/21 (Cork City Edition) launches in its 19th year and is open to schools in Cork City. Funded by Cork City Council. The Project is an initiative of the Cork City Heritage Plan.
The project is aimed at both primary and post primary level. Project books may be submitted on any aspect of Cork’s rich past. The theme for this year’s project is “Living Through History”, which is a nod to the historic pandemic we are living through.
The Project is open to schools in Cork City at primary level to the pupils of fourth, fifth and sixth class and at post-primary from first to sixth years. There are two sub categories within the post primary section, Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate. The project is free to enter. A student may enter as an individual or as part of a group or a part of a class entry.
Co-ordinated by myself, one of the key aims of the Project is to encourage students to explore, investigate and debate their local heritage (built, archaeological, cultural and natural) in a constructive, active and fun way. Projects on any aspect of Cork’s rich heritage can be submitted to an adjudication panel. Prizes are awarded for best projects and certificates are given to each participant. A cross-section of projects submitted from the last school season can be gleamed from links on my website, www.corkheritage.ie where there are other resources, former titles and winners and entry information as well.
Students produce a project on their local area using primary and secondary sources. Each participating student within their class receives a free workshop in October 2020. The workshop comprises a guide to how to put a project together. Project material must be gathered in an A4/ A3 size Project book. The project may be as large as the student wishes but minimum 20 pages (text + pictures + sketches). Projects must also meet five elements. Projects must be colourful, creative, have personal opinion, imagination and gain publicity before submission. These elements form the basis of a student friendly narrative analysis approach where the student explores their project topic in an interactive and task-oriented way. In particular, students are encouraged (whilst respecting social distancing) to attain material through visiting local libraries, engaging with fieldwork, making models, photographing, cartoon creating, and making short snippet films of their area. Re-enacting can also be a feature of several projects.
For over eighteen years, the project has evolved in exploring how students pursue local history and how to make it relevant in society. The project attempts to provide the student with a hands-on and interactive activity that is all about learning not only about heritage in your local area (in all its forms) but also about the process of learning by participating students. The project is about thinking about, understanding, appreciating and making relevant in today’s society the role of our heritage, our landmarks, our oral histories, our environment in our modern world for upcoming citizens. So, the project is about splicing together activity on issues of local history and heritage such as thinking, exploring, observing, discovering, researching, uncovering, revealing, interpreting and resolving.
The importance of doing a project in local history is reflected in the educational aims of the history curricula of primary and post-primary schools. Local heritage is a tool, which helps the student to become familiar with their local environment and to learn the value of it in their lives. Learning to appreciate the elements of a locality, can also give students a sense of place in their locality or a sense of identity. Hence the Project can also become a youth forum for students to do research and offer their opinions on important decisions being made on their heritage in their locality and how they affect the lives of people locally. I know a number of students who have been involved in the project in schools over the years who have took their interest further and have gone on to become professional tour guides, and into other related college work.
The project is open to many directions of delivery. Students are encouraged to engage with their topic in order to make sense of it, understand and work with it. Students continue to experiment with the overall design and plan of their work. For example, and in general, students who have entered before might engage with the attaining of primary information through oral histories. The methodologies that the students create provide interesting ways to approach the study of local heritage. Students are asked to choose one of two extra methods (apart from a booklet) to represent their work. The first option is making a model whilst the second option is making a short film. It is great to see students using modern up todate technology to present their findings. This works in broadening their view of approaching their project.
This project in the City is free to enter and is kindly funded by Cork City Council (viz the help of Niamh Twomey, Heritage Officer) Prizes are also provided by the Old Cork Waterworks Experience, Lee Road, Learnit Lego Education, and Sean Kelly of Lucky Meadows Equestrian Centre, Watergrasshill (www.seankellyhorse.com). Overall, the Schools’ Heritage Project for the last eighteen years has attempted to build a new concerned generation of Cork people, pushing them forward, growing their self-development empowering them to connect to their world and their local heritage. Spread the word please with local schools. Details can be found on my website, www.corkheritage.ie.
Captions:
1067a. Project page on the local history of the Vikings in Cork from Our Lady of the Lourdes NS student 2019/20 (picture: Cllr Kieran McCarthy).
1067b. Gameboard on Cork historical landmarks created by Eglantine National School student 2019/20 (picture: Cllr Kieran McCarthy).
Covid-19 has brought many challenges to every part of society and never before has our locality being important for recreation and for our peace of mind. In the past few months more focus than ever has been put on places we know, appreciate and even on places we don’t know but now depend on as we remain grounded in our neighbourhoods and corners of Cork City.
Against the backdrop of Covid 19, the Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project 2021 (Cork City Edition) launches in its 19th year and is open to schools in Cork City. Funded by Cork City Council. The Project is an initiative of the Cork City Heritage Plan.
The City Edition of the Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project (est. 2002/03) is aimed at both primary and post primary level. Project books may be submitted on any aspect of Cork’s rich past.
http://corkheritage.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2021-City-Brochure.pdf
“The flooding around the Atlantic Pond is a huge source of concern for users of the amenity. The Atlantic Pond is as busy as The Lough in terms of frequent visitors and also is a site of high biodiversity value. So pressure is high on us local public reps to secure a solution for the flooding. I spoke with the City Council Engineer on site in the last few mornings. The drainage team present, as well as the contracted marine scuba diving engineer team, have only just found the much corroded and collapsed large iron flap/ gate, which leaves water in and out under the Marina Walk.
The large broken iron flap/gate section with its enormous pipe is 1970s in date and it is this pipe the scuba diver went down into safely last Friday morning. The pipe connects into the much larger 1840s engineering section which can be seen through tree and old stone arches in the eastern section of the Atlantic Pond. As it is a specialised engineering job, the City Council have estimated that the cost of repair is anywhere between e30,000 and e50,000. They have applied to central government for such emergency funding and await the government’s response. In the meantime, the engineering resolution is estimated at another fortnight at least. I will keep my pressure on a resolution.
The inadvertent flooding though has brought a huge focus by City Engineers on the historic construction and engineering of the Atlantic Pond. With my historian hat on, the Atlantic Pond was one of the city’s greatest engineering projects of early nineteenth century Cork and has stood the test of time for nearly 180 years. Its story is one of innovation and forward thinking. In 1843, City engineer Edward Russell was commissioned to present plans for the reclamation of the south sloblands, some 230 acres extending from Victoria Road to the river front with the proposed aim of creating an enormous public park and some building ground.
The task proposed was epic as the slobland undulated and when the tide was in, various areas of the slobland were more solid than others. Edward Russell’s eventual published plan in December 1843 proposed the extension and widening of the dock like Navigation Wall creating the Marina Walk, to manage the flow of tidal water entering the land by installing sluice gates, sluice tunnels and embankments.
Edward’s proposal for further reclamation of the South Sloblands did happen as well as the construction of a holding pond – a reservoir of six acres in size with sheeting piles driven in underneath it and possesses ornamental features to the general public. The latter became known as the Atlantic Pond and still possesses its Victorian sluice gates and tunnels to facilitate the drainage and exclusion of water. The Great Famine and post economic fall-out took away the opportunity for the public park but in 1869 after twenty years of further drainage and land reclamation, business man John Arnott leased the south sloblands from Cork Corporation and it was converted into the Cork City Park Race Course. In 1917 the heart of its space was converted into the Ford Tractor Manufacturing Plant but the central road of the racecourse was retained – Centre Park Road.
It’s clear what Cork Engineers built in the 1840s has lasted for near 180 years without any issue. There is enormous value in such an amenity. It is important now that finance is found to secure the use of the Atlantic Pond amenity for future decades”.
