On next Saturday, 7 June 2014, 12noon (meet at gate), Cllr Kieran McCarthy, in association with the Friends of St Finbarr’s Hospital, will give a public historical walking tour of the hospital grounds with particular focus on its workhouse past. The walk is free and takes place to support the summer fete 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”. 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 eight acres, 1 rood and 23 perches 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.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 29 May 2014

“Historical Walking Tour of the Old Cork Workhouse,

 St Finbarr’s Hospital”

On Saturday, 7 June at 12noon in association with the Friends of St Finbarr’s Hospital and their summer garden fete, I will conduct a historical walking tour of the hospital (free; meet at gate) and in particular its workhouse past. I have always admired the view from the entrance gate onto the rolling topography extending to beyond the southern boundaries of the City. Here also is the intersection of the built heritage of Turners Cross, Ballinlough and Douglas. These are Cork’s self sufficient, confident and settled suburbs, which encompass former traditions of market gardening to Victorian and Edwardian housing on the Douglas Road. Then there is the Free State private housing by the Bradley Brothers such as in Ballinlough and Cork Corporation’s social housing developments, designed by Daniel Levie, on Capwell Road. Douglas Road as a routeway has seen many changes over the centuries from being a rough trackway probably to begin with to the gauntlet it has become today during the work and school start and finish hours.

Standing at the gate of St Finbarr’s Hospital reflecting on all the above histories and memories above begs the question on how do you even blend these in to a tour without leaving your audience behind. With mid nineteenth century roots, the hospital was the site of the city’s former workhouse but as such here is one of Cork’s and Ireland’s national historic markers. Written in depth over the years by scholars such as Sr M Emmanuel Browne and Colman O’Mahony, what has survived to outline the history of the hospital are many in-depth primary documents. What shines out are the memories of how people have struggled at this site since its creation in 1841. Other topics perhaps can also be pursued here such as the history of social justice at the site, why and how society takes care of the vulnerable in society and the framing of questions on ideas of giving humanity and dignity to people and how they have evolved over the centuries.

The key feature of this tour or trail is the story of the hospital and an attempt to unravel its memories. The Hospital serves as a vast repository of memories, symbolism, iconography and cultural debate. It has plaques, ruins and haunted memories. Standing at the former workhouse buildings, which opened in December 1841, there is much to think about – humanity and the human experience. The architect to the Poor Law Commissioners in Ireland from 1839 until 1855 was George Wilkinson. George was born in 1814, a son of W.A. Wilkinson, carpenter and builder of Witney, Oxfordshire. His younger brother William Wilkinson was also an architect.  In 1835, following the Poor Law Amendment Act of August 1834, which provided for the construction of 350 workhouses in England and Wales, Wilkinson won the competition for designing the workhouse at Thames, Oxfordshire. During the next three years, while he was still in his early twenties, he designed many other workhouses in Oxfordshire and elsewhere in England and Wales.

In July 1838 with the passing of the Act for the More Effectual Relief of the Destitute Poor in Ireland the workhouse system was extended to Ireland. According to the provisions of the act, 130 workhouses were to be built. Whereas different architects had been able to compete for workhouse commissions in England and Wales, the Poor Law Commissioners proposed that in Ireland the Board of Works should be given sole responsibility for all the workhouses. When this proved impossible for legal reasons, they invited Wilkinson and two other architects to submit designs for a prototype Irish workhouse. On the strength of his experience in Wales “under circumstances, and with materials not very dissimilar from what exist in Ireland”, in January 1839 Wilkinson was appointed the Commissioners’ architect in Ireland, responsible for the design and erection of all 130 Irish workhouses. He was to be paid a salary of £500 per annum and provided with a full-time assistant and a clerk, to be paid £150 and £100 per annum respectively.

Nearly all the workhouses, accommodating between 200 and 2000 persons apiece, were designed in a Tudor domestic idiom, with picturesque gabled entrance buildings which contracted the size and comfortlessness of the institutions which lay behind them. New workhouses opened at a steady rate, and in April 1843 Wilkinson reported that 112 were finished. By this time his staff had increased to seven assistants and two clerks. By 1842, Wilkinson reported that his team had drawn up 5,200 sheets of large drawings. By April 1847 all 130 workhouses were complete in 130 Unions.

With its association with the memory of the Great Famine, there are also many threads of the history of the Douglas Road workhouse to interweave – the political, economic and social framework of Ireland at that time plus the on the ground reality of life in the early 1800s – family, cultural contexts, individual portraits. In the present day history books in school, the reader is drawn to very traumatic terms. The recurring visions comprise human destruction, trauma, devastation, loss. One can see why the Great Famine is more on the forgetting list than on the remembering one. More on the walking tour…

Caption:

743a. Sunset rays on the memorial plaque and boundary wall of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Blackrock Historical Walking Tour, Sunday 25 May 2014

As a contribution to marking the jubilee celebrations of St Michael’s Church in Blackrock Cllr Kieran McCarthy will conduct a historical walking tour of Blackrock Village on Sunday 25 May, 2pm (starts at Blackrock Castle, two hours, free). Officially blessed on 7 June 1964 by Bishop Lucey, the church replaced the first edifice which had been burnt down in 1962. The architect of the new church, Mr James Rupert Boyd Barrett by 1964 had nearly half a century of practice under his belt and had designed many major buildings throughout Ireland, including the Department of Industry and Commerce in Dublin, four new churches in Cork and ten new churches in the Diocese of Kerry by the early sixties. At the official opening he was bestowed upon by Papal Order the Knight-Commandership of the order of St Sylvester. The contractor Mr John Sisk, the foreman Joe Murphy and the quantity surveyor Mr Coveney all worked hard to create as Bishop Lucey alluded to an edifice of huge skill and art and “a monument of faith”. The firm of Sisk alone had experience in church building over a period of 110 years previously and had built 60 churches including two cathedrals.

Cllr Kieran McCarthy notes: “A stroll in Blackrock is popular by many people, local and Cork people. The area is particularly characterised by beautiful architecture, historic landscapes and imposing late Georgian and early twentieth century country cottages to the impressive St Michael’s Church; every structure points to a key era in Cork’s development. Blackrock is also lucky that many of its former residents have left archives, census records, diaries, old maps and insights into how the area developed, giving an insight into ways of life, ideas and ambitions in the past, some of which can help us in the present day in understanding Blackrock’s identity going forward.”

Cllr Kieran McCarthy’s ‘Make a Model Boat Project’, 1 June 2014

Cllr Kieran McCarthy invites all Cork young people to participate in the fourth year of McCarthy’s ‘Make a Model Boat Project’. All interested must make a model boat at home from recycled materials and bring it along for judging to Cork’s Lough on Sunday afternoon, 1 June 2014, 2pm. The theme is ‘legends’ and is open to interpretation. The event is being run in association with Meitheal Mara’s Ocean to City, Cork’s Maritime Festival and the Lifetime Lab. There are three categories, two for primary and one for secondary students. There are prizes for best models and the event is free to enter. Cllr McCarthy, who is heading up the event, noted “I am encouraging creation, innovation and imagination amongst our young people, which are important traits for all of us to develop”. See www.kieranmccarthy.ie under community programme for more details.

Former Workhouse Site, St Finbarr’s Hospital, Saturday 7 June 2014

On Saturday, 7 June at 12noon in association with the Friends of St Finbarr’s Hospital and their summer garden fete, Cllr Kieran McCarthy will conduct a historical walking tour of the hospital (free; meet at gate) and in particular its workhouse past.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 15 May 2014

“Historical Walking Tour of Ballinlough”

Next Sunday, 18 May, I conduct a walking tour of Ballinlough (2pm meeting outside Beaumont National Schools). 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 alot 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.

Walking through Ballinlough, people talk about their affinity for the place’s tranquillity and its green areas. They speak about how Ballinlough sits on a suburban ridge overlooking the river and harbour area and faces further afield to the architectural beauty of Cork’s Montenotte and St Lukes. Ballinlough also has the view of County Cork’s southern ridges and troughs. Perhaps it was the view and good land that led the area’s first recorded resident Patrick Meade to settle in the area. In records from 1641, Ballinlough was written as Ballynloghy and Patrick, a Catholic, had 144 acres of profitable land. The Meades were originally from the west coast of England. On arrival in Cork, they built themselves into the fabric of the key merchant families of the city along with families such as the Roches, Goulds, Coppingers, Sarsfields, Galways and Tirrys. The history books note that the Meade family had a castellated mansion near the present day Clover Hill House.

During the Cromwellian wars, Patrick Meade was dispossessed of his property. William Tucker had the caretaker’s lease on the property through Oliver Cromwell. Subsequently, the 144 acres were given to Alexander Pigott. The Pigotts came from Chetwynd in Shropshire and initially came to Ballyginnane beyond present day Togher. In time, they re-named this area Chetwynd. Colonel William Piggott was in Oliver Cromwell’s army and was rewarded further with land across Cork’s southern hinterland. Indeed in the early 1660s, the population of Ballinlough was recorded in a census as having 30 souls (more on the tour).

In 1792, when Beamish & Crawford was first established, William Beamish resided at Beaumont House, which was then a magnificent period residence situated on Beaumont Hill. During their tenure at Beaumont House the philanthropic spirit of the Beamish family was well known. The name Beaumont is the French derivative of Beamish meaning a beautiful view from the mountain or a beautiful view. Ballinlough House, one of several large mansions in the area, was built c.1860 by George Gregg. The house had 21½ acres of parkland and the adjoining crossroads were named after the family. In time 15 acres of the land were sold off to create Silverdale. In 1850 Griffith’s Valuation of property in Ballinlough, 49 individual land holdings are listed. The surnames included McGrath, Dennis, Hare, Pigott, Angleton, Barrett, Barry, Callaghan, Coughlan, Delany, Donovan, Hayes, Keeffe, Keohane, Lavallin, Love, Lyons, O’Mahony, Meade, Noonan, Reid, Regan, Riordan, Silke and Smith. Quarrying, lime-burning, brick-making, and market gardening were the most frequent occupations in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the 1901 census Ballinlough townland had 17 market gardeners.

In the 1930s Ballinlough, at the western end of the Blackrock Parish, had grown in population to the point where could no longer be sustained by St Michael’s Church in Blackrock.  Bishop Cohalan in addressing this situation decided a second church was needed in this part of Ballinlough. The result was the building of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Ballinlough which was built in the townland of Knockrea and was opened and blessed in September 1938. In 1958, it was accorded parochial status.

Up to 1966, the parish was in the jurisdiction of Cork County Council but from the extension of the county borough of Cork in that year, it has been in the jurisdiction of Cork City Council. Over the 20^th century the area of Ballinlough parish experienced a transition from largely rural settlement with open fields to suburban sprawl, from solitary housing to extensive parks and estates. Southview, Lee’s Terrace, Cogan’s cottages and lower Ballinlough village were the earlier examples of terrace houses. In the 1920’s Haig Gardens, Bryan’s Terrace and Douglas terrace were provided for the families of ex-servicemen who had fought on the British side in World War I. Bradley Brothers Builders built Carrigeen and Pic-du-Jer in the 1930s. These were followed by the parks of Browningstown, Belmont, Sundrive, Somerton and Hettyfield. The 1950s coincided with the construction of Beechwood, Ardfallen, Glencoo, Seamus Quirke and Our Lady of Lourdes Parks. Ardmahon, Lakelawn and South Lodge were constructed in the 1960s and Shrewsbury and Carrigmore in the 1970s. To give an idea of the growth that occurred: In 1911, there were 10 houses in Browningstown, in 2013 there are 515 houses – that is enormous growth for the area, which also makes it a great area to try and research and understand.

More on the walking tour… (also check out my book, Journey’s of Faith, Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Ballinlough, Celebrating 75 Years, available in the Church office)

Caption:

741a. Aerial view from roof of Our Lady of Lourdes Church roof of bell tower and Ballinlough Road (picture: Kieran McCarthy)