Category Archives: Kieran’s Council Work

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 1 May 2014, Historical Walking Tour

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

740a. Section of Grand Jury Map of Cork City, 1811

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 1 May 2014

“Historical Walking Tour of Ballintemple”

 

The first of three walking tours I wish to present in early summer takes place on Sunday, 4 May and is of Ballintemple (2pm, meet inside Ballintemple graveyard, opp. O’Connor’s Funeral Home, Boreenmanna Road, two hours, free). Ballintemple as a settlement hub is one of the earliest in the city that came into being. Urban legend and writers such as Samuel Lewis in 1837 describe how the Knight’s Templar had a church here, the first parish church of Blackrock: “At the village of Ballintemple, situated on this peninsula, the Knights Templars erected a large and handsome church in 1392, which, after the dissolution of that order, was granted, with its possessions, to Gill abbey. At what period it fell into decay is uncertain; the burial ground is still used”. The graveyard is impressive in its collection of eighteenth century and nineteenth century headstones. It has a series of low uninscribed gravemarkers in its south east corner. There are also many inscribed headstones with smiling faces with one inscribed with ‘Remember Death’. The graveyard remains an undiscovered corner of the city with much of its family histories unresearched and unpublished.

The earliest references to the Knight’s Templar church are shrouded in myth in Ballintemple. Perhaps all is known a rough date of dissolution. Michael J Carroll’s book “The Knights Templar and Ireland” describes some of their background in Europe and in Ireland. The Knights Templars or The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon were one of the most controversial organisations in medieval European history.  Formed in the early 12th century in obscure circumstances they were shrouded in secrecy for their 190 year history.  Their initial aim was to break with traditional non violent ethos of religious orders and take up arms to protect the recently captured city of Jerusalem. They also vowed to protect Pilgrims visiting holy sites in the Middle East.  They became famous initially due to their military exploits but during the crusades but in 13th century they gained more fame and in some cases notoriety for creating a medieval Banking empire.

The Knights Templars are said to be in Ireland before 1177, the Anglo-Norman invasion.  In time it is reputed that they gained lands in Clontarf in Dublin, Carlow, Louth Kilkenny, Sligo and several other locations where they built houses or preceptories.  By 1308, they possessed Irish lands worth over £400 per annum. They had tenants on their lands who ploughed, planted crops, created pastures, cut down trees and cleared wooded areas.  The right to cut down a forest was a special privilege granted by the English King at that time, so the Templars had special privileges. Workers were paid in goods or in kind for their work but later were paid two pennies per week.

In the main base in Dublin, the Templar master was an officer of the English crown and one of the auditors of the Irish exchequer. He sometimes acted as mediator in disputes between the Anglo-Normans and the Irish chiefs. He travelled to London once a year to make a full report to the English Master of the Temple at which time proceeds of the various estates were handed over. The high respect that Templars were held in resulted in circa 1220, the government of Henry III giving instructions to the English Viceroy of Ireland that all taxes, duties and income from Ireland should be handed over to the Templars and Hospitallers. They were also required to take up military posts if called upon.

The Templars could not partake in warfare against other Christians – so avoided war with Irish Chieftains. They were free from many legal customs. They were free from military duties and Irish feudal customs. They were immune from customs to support infrastructure, free from export duties, free from all tolls at every market, bridge, roadway and sea, free from tolls for their own markets. They had complete criminal and civil jurisdiction over their tenants and vassals and the power to punish those found guilty of carrying out a criminal act against them. They had use of pits and the gallows.

Their dress in peace consisted of a long, white robe, having the cross of St. George on the left shoulder, and worn after the manner of a cloak or mantle; a cap, turned up, such as heralds call a ‘cap of maintainance’, covered the head; and the staff or abacus of the order, having at its extremity an encircled cross, was borne in the right hand. Their dress in war did not differ materially from that of the knights of that period, except the distinctive cross, the badge of the order being emblazoned on the cuirass, and the Agnus Dei was displayed on their banners.

Their superior, elected for life, chosen by the order and styled the grand master, took rank as an independent prince. Immediately under him were the preceptors or priors, each ruling over his peculiar district, and subject to the grand master and the statutes of the order. The number of the knights’ companions were unlimited; they were each attended by two esquires, who were usually candidates for admission into the order, into which none were enrolled but those who could prove their nobility of descent for two generations.

More on the walking tour…

Caption:

739a. Grand Jury Map of Cork, 1811 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

McCarthy’s Forthcoming Community Events

Arts, Cork City Events, Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Events

 

 

Cllr McCarthy’s Community Talent Competition 2014

 

Cork’s young people are invited to participate in the sixth year of Cllr Kieran’s McCarthy’s Community Talent Competition’. The auditions will take place on Sunday 27 April 2014 between 10am-5pm in the Lifetime Lab, Lee Road. There are no entry fees and all talents are valid for consideration. The final will be held over one week later on Saturday 10 May. There are two categories, one for primary school children and one for secondary school students. Winners will be awarded a perpetual trophy and prize money of €150 (two by €150). The project is being organised and funded by Cllr Kieran McCarthy in association with Red Sandstone Varied Productions (RSVP). Further details can be got from the talent show producer (RSVP), Yvonne Coughlan, 085 1798695 or email rsvpireland@gmail.com.

 

 

Kieran’s Gramophone Recital

Kieran will present this month’s Ballinlough Gramophone Recital this Thursday evening, 24th April, 7.30pm at Balinlough Pastoral Centre next to the church. He will play and sing songs from the musicals. All welcome.

 

 

Kieran’s Historical Walking Tour of Balintemple

The first of three walking tours Kieran will present in early summer takes place on Sunday, 4 May and is of Ballintemple (2pm, meet inside Ballintemple graveyard, opp. O’Connor’s Funeral Home, Boreenmanna Road, two hours, free). Ballintemple as a settlement hub is one of the earliest in the city that came into being. Urban legend and writers such as Samuel Lewis in 1837 describe how the Knight’s Templar had a church here, the first parish church of Blackrock: “At the village of Ballintemple, situated on this peninsula, the Knights Templars erected a large and handsome church in 1392, which, after the dissolution of that order, was granted, with its possessions, to Gill abbey. At what period it fell into decay is uncertain; the burial ground is still used”.

 

Forthcoming

–          Mahon Historical Walking Tour, Sunday 11 May, 2pm meet Blackrock Garda Station, top of Avenue De Rennes (two hours).

–          Ballinlough Historical Walking Tour, Sunday 18 May, 2pm, meet Beaumont National Schools, (two hours)

–          McCarthy’s Make a Model Boat Project, 2pm, Sunday 1 June, The Lough, in association with the Ocean to City Maritime Festival.

Kieran’s Question to the City Manager and Motions, Cork City Council Meeting, 14 April 2014

Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

 

Question to the Manager:

To ask the manager for an update on the revamp of Boole House on Bachelor’s Quay? (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)

 

Motions:

 

That the Council look at the dangerous section of road at the cul-de-sac hill and entrance to Beaumont Park on Silverdale Ave opposite house no 32, 34 and 36. The problem is that some drivers parking on the hill going to the park or up to Beaumont school don’t apply their hand break properly. Three times in about 6 months, cars have come down the hill in reverse and knocked down the pillar and wall dividing no 32 and 34 (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).

 

That the footpaths in Baltimore Lawn, Douglas Road receive urgent repair work; some are major trip hazards (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 10 April 2014

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

736a. Heritage relationships, Grand Parade boardwalk with Holy Trinity Church and Parliament Bridge, 17 March 2014

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 10 April 2014

Cork City Heritage Plan, 2014-2018

 

The new Cork City Heritage Plan (2014-2018) is an action plan and sets out a series of realistic and practical actions to protect conserve and manage the city’s heritage over the next five years and a methodology on the implementation of these actions. The draft reports outlines that Cork City’s heritage is diverse, vibrant and can be seen all around us. It includes archaeology, built heritage, natural heritage and cultural heritage together with our archives, museum, libraries and other collections. Other important elements of our heritage include landscapes, geology, and parks. It also includes local history and folklore, turns of phrase and accents, local customs and traditional food.

Cork City Heritage Plan 2007-2012 was the first plan of its kind in Cork City. The plan had four principal objectives and there were forty seven actions covering all aspects of heritage protection and focusing on built heritage, archaeology, cultural heritage and natural heritage. Perhaps the more successful elements were the hands-on elements such as Heritage Open day, which recently won Best Interactive Event for National Heritage
Week 2013. Other successful actions included publications e.g. a Guide to the Record of Protected Structures and A Guide to Nature in the City (which is very much worthwhile googling and downloading to read), Surveys and Studies e.g. the Bridges of Cork City, Development of Heritage Trails in Cork City, Training e.g. Seminar on Ironwork in Cork City, Museum Basics, Events e.g. Cork Heritage Open Day and Heritage Week, and annual projects such as the Cork City Heritage Grants Scheme and the Discover Cork Schools Heritage Project.

The new draft plan does not contain actions on every aspect of heritage, as this would be impossible to achieve in five years. A conscious decision was made by the diligent Heritage Officer Niamh Twomey to keep to a realistic number of actions and in so doing 30 priority actions were identified. However, the draft plan calls for the public to respond to it. Niamh rightly comments that “heritage is more than just the individual material assets and environment of a place. It is also about the relationship between all these elements and the people of Cork City. In truth heritage is all of these things. It is what we as a community have inherited from the past and it is what defines our city, making it unique and separate from any other place”.

Stand on any public space in Cork and one can view is a city of contrasts and is a mixture of many varied cultural traditions. As the draft plan denotes; “ The heritage of Cork City maps and mirrors this diverse and continuous change in Cork and its citizens, from the Vikings through to the Victorians and into the modern day. It is this heritage which helps make Cork City the vibrant and interesting place it is today”. All elements of heritage can be experienced in Cork City. The archaeology of the city can be seen in the medieval street pattern of the North and South Main Streets, the historic graveyards such as St Joseph’s and St Finbarr’s and medieval and early post medieval structures such as Red Abbey Tower and Elizabeth Fort. Cork’s industrial archaeology and historic remains still survive in the contemporary City e.g. the Butter Market in Shandon and the bonded warehouse in the Port of Cork.  Natural heritage has also always thrived in Cork, no doubt due to its estuarine and wetland origins. Many mammals, birds, invertebrates and wild plants have adapted to life alongside humans in our urban landscape.

There are four objectives of the draft heritage Plan. Firstly, caring and managing our heritage is at the core of what the plan sets out to do. This is achieved through promoting best practice and encouraging the care, conservation and protection of our heritage. Secondly, the need for better communication of the heritage message was one of the clearest outcomes from the heritage plan review process. Good communication is required to raise awareness of heritage issues and garner public support for the protection and care of our heritage while also facilitating greater enjoyment of Cork City’s rich heritage for everyone. Heritage events will play a key role in attracting more people to explore and enjoy their heritage.  Thirdly support education, research and training is key. Learning more about our heritage by collaborating with collecting and research institutions and bodies and commissioning research which adds to our knowledge, is important, as is providing training opportunities for those interested in managing their local heritage.  The fourth objective is to increase level of community activity for heritage and forge stronger links with business and tourist interests. Heritage groups and organisations, dedicated individuals and local communities play a key role in caring for and raising awareness of our heritage and in adding to our knowledge of our heritage.

The draft Cork City Heritage Plan is available to download from www.corkcityheritage.ie/newsandevents or by contacting the Heritage Officer at heritage@corkcity.ie or tel. 021 4924086. The closing date for comments is Friday 25 April 2014.  Please forward all submissions in writing to Niamh Twomey, Heritage Officer, Cork City Council, City Hall, Cork. 

 

Caption:

 

736a. ‘Heritage relationships’, Grand Parade boardwalk with Holy Trinity Church and Parliament Bridge, 17 March 2014 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 4 April 2014

Cork City Events, Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, Uncategorized

735a. Illustration of central industrial hall, Cork International Exhibition 1902

 

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 4 April 2014

Talk on Cork’s Exhibitions

Next week on Wednesday morning, on 9 April, as part of Cork Lifelong Learning Festival, I present a public lecture on a history of Cork Exhibitions (10.30am, Meeting room, Church of the Real Presence, Curaheen).  Cork has had three exhibitions (1852, 1883 & 1902/3) and one fair (1932). All put the city in a highly visible place in Irish public life and in the popular imagination. All developed social tools to push forward an ideology, representation and symbolism that marked Cork’s and Ireland’s place in the British empire under British rule and in the context of the 1932 fair in the early twentieth century.

The exhibitions were the brain child of Cork’s social elite. The exhibitions became a marketing strategy where spectacle and culture merged. Aesthetics of architecture, colour, decoration and lighting were all added to the sense of spectacle and in a tone of moral and educational improvement. The events also aimed to consolidate ideologically and extend the authority of the city’s corporate, political and scientific leadership. Each stand in its own way promoted ideas about the relations of the Cork city and other nations, the spread of education, the advancement of science, the nature of domestic life and the place of art in society.

The 1902 exhibition, for example, had several hundred exhibits on display from May to October in the Mardyke in prefabricated timber buildings. The main categories of exhibits included a women’s section, raw materials section, geological specimens section, natural history section, modern science section, archaeological and historical section, raw materials industrially treated section, forestry section, educational section and a nature study section. By the close of the Exhibition, over one million people had visited the Cork site. The newspapers of the day wrote about the exhibition enchanting and diverting the masses from more serious matters such as unemployment and housing conditions.

The ideals and symbols of the exhibitions were even magnified for their opening day where the Exhibition organisers sought to embrace the wider public. The Cork exhibitions presented a national narrative of modernity – how the fusion of Irish national values were reflected and materialised. The opening day on 1 May 1902 was observed as a general holiday. The large drapery houses remained closed till 2 pm by which the procession had passed through the thoroughfares. From an early hour, people anxious to watch the spectacle densely crowded advantage points. Special trains ran on all the railway systems converging on the city. Previous to the procession, various trades, national bodies, city bands and county contingents formed in Anglesea Street at the Municipal Building

A lavish opening ceremony marked the opening outlined key speeches that were made. The Concert Hall possessed comfortable seating accommodation in the auditorium for two thousand persons, while the organ loft afforded ample room.  The opening speeches embraced a forward looking universalising future, a creative entrepreneurialism, the quest to create a spectacle of technological innovation whilst engaging a national past.  They asserted difference while maintaining internal communication within an Empire culture.  

 

The Cork Examiner noted of the canata “The Building of the Ship” being performed. The canata had been especially composed for the Leeds Musical Festival of 1886 and was written by Henry Wadeworth Longfellow and composed by John Francis Barnett. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a commanding figure in the cultural life of nineteenth-century America. Born in Portland, Maine, in 1807, he became a national literary figure by the 1850s, and a world- famous personality by the time of his death in 1882. Henry Wadeworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include Paul Revere’s Ride, The Song of Hiawatha and Evangeline. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy.

The story of the Building of the Ship poem deals with the Master who heard his merchant’s word with delight and who designed the model of a ship of modern mould, built for “freight and yet for speed, a beautiful and gallant craft, which was to be completed by a youth, “the heir of desterity”, who when he had built and launched the ship, was to receive the hand of the old man’s daughter. The vessel was to be built of “cedar of Maine and Georgia Pine”- indicating the northern and southern states of the US – and the “ Union” was to be her name.

The whole process of construction is elaborately and eloquently described, how the heavy hammers and mallets were plied until at length at the mast head the stars and stripes unrolled and all is finished and the bridal day is the day of the launching. The poem concluded; “Then, too sail on, O Ship of State, Sail on, O Union, strong and great”. The poem was read in Cork to symbolise the unity of purpose of Industrial Ireland – north and south – how the project was built up and how on its completion it was publicly launched with the best wishes of all classes of the community, with the hope that it may be “safe from all adversity”. These sentiments are also echoed in the origins of many of the stands at the 1902 Exhibition, with many coming from the southern and northern Ireland (more at the lecture).

 

Caption:

735a. Illustration of central industrial hall, Cork International Exhibition, 1902 (source: Cork Museum)

Draft Cork City Heritage Plan 2014-2018

Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized

The draft Cork City Heritage Plan 2014-2018 is now available for public comment. 

 
The Cork City Heritage Plan is an action plan and sets out a series of realistic and practical actions to protect conserve and manage our heritage over the next five years and a methodology on the implementation of these actions.  The formulation of what is the second Heritage Plan for Cork City presents an opportunity to build on the achievements of the previous plan and to renew the efforts to protect, manage and promote Cork City’s heritage. The aim of the draft Cork City Heritage Plan 2014-2018 is “To protect and promote the heritage of Cork City and to place the care of our heritage at the heart of the community”
 
Organisations and individuals are invited to make submissions and express their views and opinions on what they believe are key heritage issues in the city and what they would like to see in the new Heritage Plan.
 
The draft Cork City Heritage Plan is available to download from www.corkcityheritage.ie/newsandevents  or by contacting the Heritage Officer at heritage@corkcity.ie or tel 021 4924086
 
The closing date for comments is Friday 25th of April 2014.  Please forward all submissions in writing to
Niamh Twomey, Heritage Officer, Cork City Council, City Hall, Cork, Or email to heritage@corkcity.ie

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 27 March 2014

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

734a. Model of Blackrock Castle from student in St Vincent's Secondary School, Cork

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 27 March 2014

Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project 2014

 

This year marks the eleventh year of the Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project co-ordinated by myself. The Project for 2014 culminated recently in two award ceremonies for the project. It  is open to schools in Cork City and County- at primary level to the pupils of fourth, fifth and sixth class and at post-primary from first to sixth years. A total of 48 schools in Cork took part this year. Circa 1600 students participated in the process and approx 220 projects were submitted on all aspects of Cork’s history.

One of the key aims of the project is to allow students to explore, investigate and comment on their local history in a constructive, active and fun way. The emphasis is on the process of doing a project and learning not only about your area but also developing new personal skills. Students are challenged to devise methodologies that provide interesting ways to approach the study of their local history. Submitted projects must be colourful, creative, have personal opinion, imagination and gain publicity. These elements form the basis of a student friendly narrative analysis approach where the students explore their project topic in an interactive way. In particular students are encouraged to attain primary material through engaging with a number of methods such as fieldwork, interviews with local people, making models, photographing, cartoon creating, making DVDs of their area.

Students are to experiment with the overall design and plan of their projects. It attempts to bring the student to become more personal and creative in their approaches. Much of the work could be published as local heritage / history guides to people and places in the region. For example a winning class project this year focussed on the history of the Church of the Annunciation, Blackpool, researched it, mapped out its memories through interviewing local people.

This year marks went towards making a short film or a model on projects to accompany history booklets. Submitted DVDs this year had interviews of family members to local historians to the student taking a reporter type stance on their work. Some students also chose to act out scenes from the past. A class in the city this year chose to narrate their own film on what it is to be a Cork Citizen. Another group created a short film on University College Cork and Fota House.

The creativity section also encourages model making. The best model trophy in general goes to the creative and realistic model. This year the best model in the city went to a model of St Anne’s Church, Shandon, which complemented her creative booklet. Indeed models of Cork churches featured this year in several projects. In the county, the top model prize went to students from Scoil Aban Naofa, Baile Mhuirne who re-created different archaeological monuments associated with St Gobnait.

Students are encouraged to compare and connect the past to their present and their immediate future. Work needs to involve re-imagining what life may have been like. One of the key foundations in the Project is about developing empathy for the past– to think about attitudes and experience in the past. Interpretation is also empowering for the student- all the time developing a better sense of the different ways in which people engage with and express a sense of place and time.

Every year, the students involved produce a section in their project books showing how they communicated their work to the wider community. It is about reaching out and gaining public praise for the student but also appraisal and further ideas. Some class projects were presented in nursing homes to engage the older generation and to attain further memories from participants. Students were also successful in putting work on local parish newsletters, newspapers and local radio stations and also presenting work in local libraries. This year the most prominent source of gaining publicity was inviting parents and grandparents into the classroom for an open day for viewing projects or putting displays on in local community centres and libraries. 

Overall, the Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project attempts to provide the student with a hands-on and interactive activity that is all about learning not only about your local area but also about the process of learning by participating students. The project in the city is kindly funded by Cork Civic Trust (viz the help of John X Miller), Cork City Council (viz the help of Heritage Officer Niamh Twomey), the Heritage Council. Prizes were also provided in the 2014 season by Lifetime Lab, Lee Road (thanks to Meryvn Horgan), Sean Kelly of Lucky Meadows Equestrian Centre Watergrasshill and Cork City Gaol Heritage Centre. The county section is funded by myself and students. A full list of winners, topics and pictures of some of the project pages for 2014 can be viewed at www.corkheritage.ie and on facebook on Cork: Our City, Our Town. For those doing research, www.corkheritage.ie has also a number of resources listed to help with source work.

Forthcoming lectures with Kieran; Wednesday 2 April, 7.30pm South Parish Historical Society at St John’s College, talk on the River Lee; Wednesday, 9 April, 10.30am, Meeting room, Church of the Real Presence, Curaheen, talk on Cork’s Great Exhibitions.

Caption:

734a. Model of Blackrock Castle, from a student in St Vincent’s Secondary School (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

First Call: Cllr Kieran McCarthy’s Community Talent Competition 2014

Arts, Cork City Events, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized, Ward Events

Cork’s young people are invited to participate in the sixth year of Cllr Kieran’s McCarthy’s Community Talent Competition’. The auditions will take place on Sunday 27 April 2014 between 10am-6pm in the Lifetime Lab, Lee Road. There are no entry fees and all talents are valid for consideration. The final will be held over one week later. There are two categories, one for primary school children and one for secondary school students. Winners will be awarded a perpetual trophy and prize money of €150 (two by €150). The project is being organised and funded by Cllr Kieran McCarthy in association with Red Sandstone Varied Productions (RSVP). 

Cllr. McCarthy noted: “The talent competition is a community initiative. It encourages all young people to develop their talents and creative skills, to push forward with their lives and to embrace their community positively”. Further details can be attained from the talent show producer (RSVP), Yvonne Coughlan, 085 1798695 or email rsvpireland@gmail.com.