The rediscovery of the tram tracks at Blackrock Pier has created much enthusiasm and many historical questions. Some of the answers may be below:

 The tram tracks will be re-incorporated into the pier regeneration project.

Whose vision was it?

   Circa 1897 the Corporation of Cork planned to establish a large electricity generating plant. The plant would provide public lighting and operate an electric tramcar extending from the city centre to all of the popular suburbs.

   The site of the new plant was on Monarea Marshes (now the National Sculpture Factory) near the Hibernian Buildings.

   The Electric Tramways and Lighting Company Ltd, was registered in Cannon Street, London and had a close working relationship with eminent electrical contractors, the British Thomson-Houston Company. This latter English company were appointed the principal contractors.

Who built the street track?

   The street track was completed by William Martin Murphy, who was a Berehaven man, but with a company in Dublin (the Dublin 1913 lockout employer). Murphy was the first chairman of the Cork Company.

   Leading Cork housing contractor, Edward Fitzgerald, soon to become Lord Mayor of Cork, completed the building of the plant. To provide proper foundations for the large plant, extensive quantities of pitch pine were sunk under the concrete.

   Mr Charles H. Merz, one of British Thomson-Houston’s up and coming engineers, supervised the electric tramcar system. He became the secretary and head engineer for the Cork operation. Merz was a native of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and arrived in Cork during the laying of track and near completion of the plant.

What were the termini?

  Cork was to become the eleventh city in Britain and Ireland to have operating electric trams. Four of the six suburban routes were complete for the line’s commencement.

 The eventual termini included Sunday’s Well, Blackpool, St. Luke’s Cross, Tivoli, Blackrock and Douglas.

When did the tram car system officially open?

 Eighteen tramcars arrived in 1898 for the opening, which occurred on 22 December.

How many trams were in operation in Cork City at the turn of the twentieth century?

   By 1900, 35 electric tram cars operated throughout the city and suburbs.

 For 33 years, the Cork electric trams wandered the city and its suburbs, and provided a needed service and employment for 260 employees.

Describe a tram car?

    These were manufactured in Loughborough, U.K. All were double deck in nature, open upstairs with a single-truck design. There were minor variations in many of the cars. Six of the trams had a luxury design. They had a longer roof and their ends were curved, which provided extra seating upstairs and a cover for the driver and conductor. Passengers on the lower level sat on two long slated timber seats. Upstairs, there were short seats at either side of a central passageway.

   Most tram cars could hold at least 25 people upstairs and 20 downstairs. However, in rush hour situation, some trams were known to have carried 70 citizens. However, a key rule on the tram was that nobody could sit or stand on the driver’s front platform.

What was the fare?

 Circa 1900, a single fare to any of the suburbs served by the trams was one penny. The fare did rise up to three and half pence by 1910 but had dropped to two pence by 1930.

What colour were the tram cars?

  In the early years of the twentieth century, large white indicator boards at the front of the trams identified their destination. These had the initials of the terminus or where the tram was travelling. For example, Blackpool was shown by B.P. and Douglas by D.S. In the second decade of the 1900s, small rectangular plates in different colours replaced the boards.

  Each displayed the full name of the destination. The name was located over the numbers and on the side of the cars as follows; Douglas–white; Blackrock-brown, Tivoli-yellow; Sunday’s Well and Summerhill-red and Blackpool-dark blue.

    To identify clearly the trams at nights, the relevant officials fitted lighted bulbs of the different colours. Instead of a brown bulb for Blackrock, a green bulb was used.

Where did the company complete their repairs and alterations?

 Repairs and alterations to any of the tramcars were completed at the Albert Road depot. A special tramway watering tram car sprayed water from its large attached tank on both sides of the track in order to keep the durst down. A number of tower wagons, pulled by horses, also operated on the various lines to give access to workers to fix any cables if necessary.

Were there any track problems?

    On the majority of the routes, there were outbound and city bound tram tracks. However, on a number of routes, especially the Douglas and Blackrock routes, single-track sections were in operation. Thus, when the driver reached the end of the loop and therefore, the entry to a single-track section, he left his platform.

    The driver then went to a box on an adjacent pole, flicked a switch, which turned on a light on the pole at the other end of the track. This warned any drivers of any approaching trams. Of course, this is also the first evidence for electric traffic lights in Cork. Problems were encountered with several reports of trams having to reverse or passengers changing trams for the convenience of the relevant drivers.

Who used the trams?

   In the first decade of the 1900s, the electric trams did played a large part in providing much needed public transport. Professional men living in the suburbs and working in the city used the service regularly.

   Young recruits used the service to travel to Victoria Barracks, so that they could train for the Boer War (1899-1900). The International Exhibition, which graced the lands of the Mardyke in 1902 / 1903, coincided with the trams working overtime as Corkonians packed into the cars to travel out the Western Road.

   Hurling and Football matches at the Cork Athletic Grounds, located near the Marina brought much business on Sundays on the Tivoli and Blackrock lines. Many citizens would travel to Tivoli to catch a regular ferry service across the river.

What happened the trams?

    From 1925 onwards, a new form of public transport appeared on the streets in Cork that of the motor bus. In 1926, Captain A.P. Morgan, retired officer of the British Army, financed and introduced four Daimler double decker 44 seater buses.

  City Commissioner, Philip Monahan, later to be an eminent City Manager, governed the motor bus affairs. Soon buses were running form the city centre to the south west, south east, south and north western suburbs.

    The electricity supply as a private development in Cork was hindered by the Irish Free State’s Shannon Scheme –  hydro-electrification plant of the late 1920s.

   New tarred roads replaced muddy suburban and urban roads. Thus, cycling without severe struggling became more possible for Corkonians.

    On 30 September 1931, the final abandonment of the trams occurred. Fireworks, cheering and souvenir collecting were all aspects of general public’s final goodbye.

Key sources of information:

    A detailed history of the trams can be found in Walter McGrath’s (1981) Tram Tracks Through Cork, available to consult in the City Library on the Grand Parade. Also check out the online newspaper archive for the Irish Examiner at www.irishnewspaperarchive.com.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 21 July 2016

 Summer Historical Walking Tours

   Summer is well and truly upon us. So the first set of walking tours are set out below. Don’t forget that Heritage Week begins on Saturday 20 August. Put it in the diary if you have a passion for all things Cork history.

 Monday 25 July 2016 – Blackrock Historical Walking Tour with Kieran, From Blackrock Castle, learn about nineteenth century life and a fishing village, castles, convents and industries, meet in courtyard of Blackrock Castle, 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes St Michael’s Church of Ireland).

   The earliest and official evidence for settlement in Blackrock dates to c.1564 when the Galway family created what was to become known as Dundanion Castle. Over 20 years later, Blackrock Castle was built circa 1582 by the citizens of Cork with artillery to resist pirates and other invaders. In the early 1700s, the prominent Tuckey family, of which Tuckey Street in the city centre is named, became part of the new social elite in Cork after the Williamite wars and built part of what became known in time at the Ursuline Convent. The building of the Navigation Wall or Dock in the 1760s turned focus to reclamation projects in the area and the eventual creation of public amenity land such as the Marina Walk during the time of the Great Famine. The early 1800s coincided with an enormous investment into creating new late Georgian mansions by many other key Cork families, such as the Chattertons, the Frends, the McMullers, Deanes and the Nash families, amongst others. Soon Blackrock was to have its own bathing houses, schools, hurling club, suburban railway line, and Protestant and Catholic Church. The pier that was developed at the heart of the space led to a number of other developments such as fisherman cottages and a fishing industry. This community is reflected in the 1911 census with 64 fisherman listed in Blackrock.

 Wednesday 27 July 2016 – Sunday’s Well Walking Tour with Kieran, From Wise’s Hill to the heart of Sunday’s Well learn about the development of an eighteenth century suburb, historic churches, gaol, and the early origins of the Mardyke, meet at Old Wise’s Distillery House, North Mall, 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes at Shaky Bridge).

   This tour begins at the elegant house at the junction of the North Mall and Wise’s Hill, which was the residence of the distiller Francis Wise. It is a beautiful detached five-bay three-storey former house, built c. 1800, now in use as a university building. The building retains interesting features and materials, such as the timber sliding sash windows, wrought-iron lamp bracket arch, and interior fittings. The North Mall distillery was established on Reilly’s Marsh around 1779, and by 1802 the Wise brothers were running the firm. Whiskey production was another significant industry in Cork from the late eighteenth century.

   Across the river channel, the complex of buildings known as the Lee Maltings, now the home of the Tyndall National Institute, forms one of the most significant surviving industrial sites in Cork city dating back to the eighteenth century. They were the largest water-powered flour and corn milling installation to become established on the north channel of the River Lee, and was also the last flour mills within the city to rely solely on water for milling.

Thursday 28 July 2016 – Ballinlough Historical Walking Tour with Kieran, From the heart of Ballinlough along, learn about nineteenth century market gardens, schools, industries, and Cork’s suburban standing stone, meet outside Beaumont BNS, Beaumont 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes at Ballinlough Community Centre).

   With 360 acres, Ballinlough is the second largest of the seven townlands forming the Mahon Peninsula. If you think of its geographic location on a limestone ridge over-looking the river and harbour and the name Baile an Locha – settlement of the lake – that is where the name could come from, a settlement overlooking the nearby Douglas estuary. There is a lot of early history in Ballinlough from the standing stone in Ardmahon Estate to the Knight’s Templar church and graveyard site to the former big houses of the area, the last remnants of the market gardens. Then there is the sporting heritage such as Flower Lodge and Cork Constitution.

Friday 29 July 2016 – Blackpool Historical Walking Tour with Kieran, From Fair Hill to the heart of Blackpool, learn about nineteenth century shambles, schools, convents and industries, meet at the North Mon gates, Gerald Griffin Avenue, 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes on St Mary’s Road).

    The walking tour weaves its way from the North Mon into Blackpool, Shandon and Gurranbraher highlighting nineteenth century life in this corner of Cork from education to housing to politics, to religion, to industry and to social life itself. Blackpool was the scene of industry in Cork in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for industries such as tanning through big names such as Dunn’s Tannery and distilling through families such as the Hewitts. The leather industry at one vibrant in Blackpool with no fewer than 46 tanyards at work there in 1837 giving employment to over 700 hands and tanning on average 110,000 hides annually.

Captions:

 853a. Sunday’s Well, c.1900 (source: Souvenir of Cork & Killarney: with 19 illustrations, complete with letterpress, see Cork City Library).

853b. The Marina, Cork, c.1900 (source: Souvenir of Cork & Killarney: with 19 illustrations, complete with letterpress, see Cork City Library).

July 2016 Historical Walking Tours with Cllr Kieran McCarthy

 Monday 25 July 2016 – Blackrock Historical Walking Tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, From Blackrock Castle, learn about nineteenth century life and a fishing village, castles, convents and industries, meet in courtyard of Blackrock Castle, 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes St Michael’s Church of Ireland).

Wednesday 27 July 2016 – Sunday’s Well Walking Tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, From Wise’s Hill to the heart of Sunday’s Well learn about the development of an eighteenth century suburb, historic churches, gaol, and the early origins of the Mardyke, meet at Old Wise’s Distillery House, North Mall, 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes at Shaky Bridge).

 Thursday 28 July 2016 – Ballinlough Historical Walking Tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, From the heart of Ballinlough, learn about nineteenth century market gardens, schools, industries, and Cork’s suburban standing stone, meet outside Beaumont BNS, Beaumont 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes at Ballinlough Community Centre).

 Friday 29 July 2016 – Blackpool Historical Walking Tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, From Fair Hill to the heart of Blackpool, learn about nineteenth century shambles, schools, convents and industries, meet at the North Mon gates, Gerald Griffin Avenue, 7pm(free, duration: two hours, finishes on St Mary’s Road).

Kieran’s Heritage Week, 20-27 August 2016

Sunday, 21 August 2016, Eighteenth Century Cork, Branding a City: Making a Venice of the North; historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy; meet at the City Library, Grand Parade, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)

Monday 22 August 2016, The Victorian Quarter; historical walking tour (new) with Cllr Kieran McCarthy of the area around St Patrick’s Hill – Wellington Road and McCurtain Street; meet at Audley Place, top of St Patrick’s Hill, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)

Tuesday 23 August 2016, Cork Docklands, historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy; 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, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)

Thursday 25 August 2016, The City Workhouse, historical walking tour (new) with Cllr Kieran McCarthy; learn about the workhouse created for 2,000 impoverished people in 1841 (the year 2016 marks the 175th anniversary of the site), meet at the gates of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)

Friday 26 August 2016, The Walk of the Friars; historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, explore the local history from Red Abbey through Barrack Street to Friars Walk; meet at Red Abbey, Mary Street, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)

Saturday 27 August 2016, Fitzgerald’s Park; historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy; learn about the story of the Mardyke to the great early twentieth century Cork International Exhibition, meet at band stand 2pm, note the afternoon time (free, duration: two hours)

  On Saturday, 25 June 2016, 12noon, Cllr Kieran McCarthy, in association with the Friends of St Finbarr’s Hospital, will give a public historical walking tour of the hospital grounds (meet at gate). The walk is free and takes place to support the summer bazaar of the Friends. Cllr McCarthy noted: “St Finbarr’s Hospital, the city’s former nineteenth century workhouse, serves as a vast repository of narratives, memories, symbolism, iconography and cultural debate, this year the site is 175 years old”. When the Irish Poor Relief Act was passed on 31 July 1838, the assistant Poor Law commissioner, William J Voules came to Cork in September 1838 to implement the new laws. Meetings were held in towns throughout the country. By 1845, 123 workhouses had been built, formed into a series of districts or Poor Law Unions, each Poor Law Union containing at least one workhouse. The cost of poor relief was met by the payment of rates by owners of land and property in that district.

   In 1841 over eight acres, were leased to the Poor Law Guardians from Daniel B. Foley, Evergreen House, Cork. Mr. Foley retained an acre, on which was Evergreen House with its surrounding gardens, which fronted South Douglas Road (now a vacant concrete space). The subsequent workhouse that was built on the leased lands was opened in December 1841. It was an isolated place, built beyond the City’s toll house and toll gates. The Douglas Road workhouse was also one of the first of over 130 workhouses to be designed by the Poor Law Commissioners’ architect George Wilkinson.