Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 8 May 2014

“Historical Walking Tour of Mahon”

     Next Sunday afternoon, 11 May at 2pm, I present a historical walking tour of Mahon (start Blackrock Garda Station, Ringmahon Road). The walking tour explores the rich heritage of the Mahon Peninsula.  John Windele’s Guide to the South of Ireland in 1844 notes that the grounds between the Castle and the Douglas River are called the ‘Ring’ because of the Irish word “Reen” which means a promontory. He attributes Ringmahon Castle to a branch of the old Irish sept of the O’Mahonys, who anciently held large possessions in the vicinity and left their name Mahony or Mahon to the present day area.

The first documented evidence for a settlement in the area of Ballintemple-Blackrock relates to the medieval order of Knights Templars, who established a large and ornate church in the district in 1392. This church was taken down in the 1540s during the reign of King Henry VIII. In addition, from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century, three mercantile families, who traded within the medieval walled town of Cork, the Galway, Coppinger and Roche families possessed large tracts of land in the vicinity. Those latter families were but three of several very important and influential families in Cork who were closely involved in trade with Britain, the European Continent and in the 1600s in the Americas. The Galway family in particular marked their presence in Blackrock by constructing Dundanion Castle, a tower house, which was built circa 1564 and lived in by various occupants until 1832. Blackrock Castle was built circa 1582 by the citizens of Cork with artillery to resist pirates and other invaders. Ringmahon Castle is depicted on a map of Mahon about 1660 as well as the Castles of Blackrock and Dundanion.

        In the early 1690s, the Galway, Coppinger and Roche families had their lands forfeited during the Williamite wars in Ireland. Their lands in the Ballintemple area were placed under the ownership of the English Parliament in association with the Corporation of Cork. In 1750, an account of the Blackrock district by Charles Smith, historian, detailed that there were several suburban retreats comprising large houses with elaborate gardens and plantations and occupied by the merchant class – gentry. Smith compared the banks of the River Lee as having very similar features but on a smaller scale to the banks of the Seine in Paris and the Thames in London. This is reflected in 1779 in Taylor and Skinner’s Road Maps of Ireland where several houses are marked as well as naming their owners – the Allens, the Sweets, the Busteeds, the Hairs and the Tavis family. Blackrock Road was shown as the principle thoroughfare.

In the early nineteenth century, large numbers of middle class citizens working and living in the overpopulated inner city decided to separate their place of work from their place of residence. For example in the Mahon Peninsula, the construction of Ringmahon House was part of this trend. It was symbolic of the aspirations of the original owner James Murphy and of the flexibility of the standard Georgian design. A great book by Donal and Diarmuid Ó Drisceoil on Murphy’s brewery alludes to the Murphy family being merchants in the City of Cork as well as being authors, brewers, distillers, inventors and parliamentarians. The profits generated by the various enterprises were invested in bricks, mortar and land. Apart from Ringmahon, the Murphys also built the grand residence of Ashton in Blackrock. Northside locations that were built by the Murphys consisted of Clifton at Montenotte, Belleville and Hyde Park on Glanmire Road; Vosterburg, Montenotte. Suburban locations comprised Lauriston, Glanmire, Myrtle Hill House, Tivoli Road; Annemount, Glounthaune. Harbour locations comprised Tivoli House, Bellevue in Passage West, Little Island House, Inchera House in Little Island and Norwood in Rushbrooke.

       James Murphy (1769-1855) built Ringmahon House. He was the eldest son of Jeremiah (1745-1802). Jeremiah was a Cork based merchant who achieved much success in the leather industry in the late eighteenth century. At that time tanning became an important industry in the late 1700s and early 1800s. In the early nineteenth century, there were forty-four tanyards employing over four hundred people in the City of Cork.

        James Murphy was born in 1769 at Coolroe in the parish of Carrigrohane. James married Mary Galway in 1792 and resided at Morrison’s Island, Cork where his twelve children were born. James was a merchant, an importer and a ship-owner. In partnership with his brother Nicholas, they were handling teas, pepper, coffee, indigo, rum and both raw and refined sugar. All were imported from their relevant countries of origin.  In 1825, James Murphy with his brothers set up Midleton Distillery. Two years later, he took over the business interest of his brothers and changed its name to James Murphy & Co. James Murphy had twelve children, Jeremiah, John, Edward, Nicholas, Henry, Francis James, Daughters Kate and Anna Maria. They were all born on Morrison’s Island. James Murphy moved to Blackrock sometime after 1818. The move coincided with James attaining a 21-year lease of Ringmahon Castle and grounds from William Crawford, the brewer in 1820.

More on the historical walking tour…

Caption:

740a. Section of Grand Jury Map of Cork City, 1811 (source: Cork City Library)

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 12^th 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 13^th 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)

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)