Category Archives: Ward Events

Blackrock Harbour Square and Park Project

Kieran's Council Work, Ward Events

Cork City Council proposes to redevelop the public realm in the vicinity of Blackrock Harbour. The project aims to build on Blackrock’s unique character as an urban village centre and enhance its potential for increased levels of business, recreation and leisure activity.

 

The project aims to improve the public realm and create a safe, open and attractive pedestrian space. A Public Park will be created within the Ursuline grounds with access provided from Blackrock Road and Church Road. Traffic calming measures will be installed to promote appropriate vehicle speeds. Traffic and parking lanes will be rationalised and new street furniture, lighting etc will be provided.

 

Particulars of the proposal will be available for   inspection at the:-

Reception Desk, Cork City Council, City Hall, Cork from Friday, 28th June 2013 until Monday, 12th August 2013, between the hours of 9.00am and 4.00pm, Monday toFriday.

 

Submissions and observations dealing with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area in which the proposed development is situated, may be made in writing in an envelope clearly marked “Blackrock Harbour Square and Park Project” to the Roads Design/Construction Division, Room 331, City Hall, Cork, before 4.00pm on Monday, 26th August 2013.

NOTICE UNDER PART VIII (

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 15 August 2013

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

704a. Former Donnybrook Woollen Mills, built 1866

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent,  15 August 2013

Kieran’s Heritage Week, 17-25 August 2013

 

National Heritage Week is upon us again at the end of next week (17th – 25th August). It’s going to be a busy week. I have set up a number of events. They are all free and I welcome any public support for the activities outlined below.

Sunday 18 August 2013 –Making a Venice of the North, Exploring Eighteenth Century Cork City (new tour), explore a world of canals, and eighteenth century Cork society, meet at City Library, Grand Parade, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).

Monday 19 August 2012 – Shandon Historical Walking Tour, Discover one of the City’s key historical quarters; learn about St Anne’s Church and the development of butter market and the Shandon Street area, meet at North Gate Bridge, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).

Tuesday 20 August 2013- Blackpool Historical Walking Tour, From Fair Hill to the heart of Blackpool, learn about nineteenth century shambles, schools, convents and industries, meet at North Mon gates, Gerald Griffin Avenue, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).

Thursday 22 August 2013 – From a Workhouse to a Hospital, The Story of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Discover the history of the workhouse, meet at entrance gate, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).

Friday 23 August 2013, “Where the future and the past meet, A historical walking tour of Mahon, to mark the 100th anniversary of Dunlocha Cottages” (new tour), meet at Blackrock Garda Station, top of Avenue De Rennes, Mahon, 7pm (free, duration: 1 ½ hours).

Sunday 25 August 2013,  Douglas Historical Walking Tour, Discover about the sailcoth and woollen mills, meet at St. Columba’s Church Car Park, Douglas, 2pm (free, duration: two hours).

The story of Douglas and its environs seems to be in part a story of experimentation, of industry and of people, and social improvement; the story of one of Ireland’s largest sailcloth factories is a worthwhile topic to explore in terms of its aspirations in the eighteenth century;  that coupled with the creation of 40 or so seats or mansions and demesnes made it a place where the city’s merchants made their home it and also these suburban spaces make for an interesting place to study in terms of ambition. Those landscapes that were created still linger in the environs of Douglas Village.

The District of Douglas takes its names from the river or rivulet bearing the Gaelic word Dubhghlas or dark stream. As early as the late thirteenth century King John of England made a grant of parcels of land, near the city of Cork to Philip de Prendergast.  On 1 June 1726, Douglas Sail Cloth Factory was begun to be built. Samuel Perry and Francis Carleton became the first proprietors. The factory is said to have been founded by a colony of Huguenot weavers from Fermanagh. The eighteenth century was a golden age for wooden sailing ships, before the 1800s made steam and iron prerequisites for modern navies and trading fleets.  The era was also a golden age too for maritime exploration, with the voyages of James Cook amongst others opening up the Pacific and the South Seas.

Indeed by 1810, William West in a travelogue of Ireland states that upwards of 1,000 hands were employed in the extensive concern belonging to Messrs Besnard & Sons, who also at a short distance had an extensive ropeworks. They had several grants for sailcloth and spindles through the Napoleonic Wars. In 1817, Peter Besnard (eldest son of Julius) was appointed Inspector General for the provinces of Leinster, Munster and Connaught in succession to Charles Duffin. There were also industries also at Dunmanway and Innishannon where up to 60,000 people were employed in Ireland.

The Besnard family discontinued flax spinning before 1830, but they continued to work in the linen trade. In 1824, Besnard and Herrick with an address in Perry Street, Cork were large shippers of brown and white linen and beetled hollands. The firm was in business until at least 1830, and up to that time were apparently the most influential shippers in Munster.  By 1837, the business had declined owing to English competition, but the manufacture was being carried on, together with a trade in cordage (cords or ropes, especially the ropes in the rigging of a ship), which was held in high repute.

After a gap of 40 years the Patent Hemp Spinning Company of Wallis and Pollock, Douglas introduced mechanised flax-spinning into the area. They established themselves within the former Douglas sailcloth factory, erected scotching machinery and encouraged flax cultivation. They destroyed the eighteenth and nineteenth century buildings and a new multi-storey flax-spinning mill at Donnybrook was designed and built by the Cork architect and antiquarian, Richard Bolt Brash, for Hugh and James Wheeler Pollock in 1866. Its essential design was modelled closely on contemporary Belfast mills. Its main enclosing walls were built with Youghal brick and are externally faced with Ballinhassig (Ballinphellic) Brick.

In 1883, the factory changed production from flax spinning to woollen manufacture become apparent, when the mill was producing Cork tweeds. In 1889, the mill was bought by James and Patrick Morrogh and R A Atkins, the High Sheriff of Cork. In 1903, the mill employed 300 people, many of whom were housed in the 100 company-owned cottages in Douglas.  To learn more, come along on the walking tour!

 

Captions:

704a. Former Donnybrook Woollen Mills, built 1866 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, Kieran’s Heritage Week, 17-25 August 2013

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

703a. John Rocque's Map of Cork, 1750

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, 

Cork Independent, 8 August 2013

Kieran’s Heritage Week, 17-25 August 2013

 

National Heritage Week is upon us again at the end of next week (17th – 25th August). It’s going to be a busy week. I have set up a number of events. They are all free and I welcome any public support for the activities outlined below.

Heritage Open Day, Saturday 17 August 2013 – Historical Walking Tour of Cork City Hall; Learn about the early history of Cork City Council; discover the development of the building and visit the Lord Mayor’s Room, 11am, free but ticketed, contact The Everyman Palace, 0214501673 (duration: 75 minutes). The current structure, replaced the old City Hall, which was destroyed in the ‘burning of Cork’ in 1920. It was designed by Architects Jones and Kelly and built by the Cork Company Sisks. The foundation stone was laid by Eamonn de Valera, President of the Executive Council of the State on 9 July 1932.

Heritage Week:

Sunday 18 August 2013 –Making a Venice of the North, Exploring Eighteenth Century Cork City (new tour), explore a world of canals, and eighteenth century Cork society, meet at City Library, Grand Parade, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).

For nearly five hundred years (c.1200-c.1690), the walled port town of Cork, built in a swamp and at the lowest crossing point of the River Lee and the tidal area, remained as one of the most fortified and vibrant walled settlements in the expanding British colonial empire. The walls served as a vast repository of meanings, symbolism, iconography and ideology, as well as symbols of order and social relationships. However, economic growth as well as political events in late seventeenth century Ireland, culminating in the destruction of the city’s core in 1690, provided the catalyst for large-scale change within the urban area. The walls were allowed to decay and this was to inadvertently alter much of the city’s physical, social and economic character in the ensuing century. By John Rocque’s Map of Cork in 1759, the walls of Cork were just a memory- the medieval plan was now a small part in something larger – larger in terms of population from 20,000 to 73,000 plus in terms of a new townscape. A new urban text emerged with new bridges, streets, quays, residences and warehouses built to intertwine with the natural riverine landscape. New communities created new social and cultural landscapes to encounter, several of which are explored on my tours for this year’s heritage week.

The 1759 Map is impressive in its detail. John Rocque (c.1705–62) was a cartographer and engraver of European repute. He could count among his achievements maps of London, Paris, Berlin and Rome. In Britain, his many projects included plans of great gardens, several county and provincial city maps and a great and a great, highly innovative, survey of London which resulted in a 16-sheet map of London and its immediate hinterland (1746), and an immense 24-sheet map of the city itself (also 1746), laid out at a very large scale close to 200 feet to an inch.

 

The unofficial title of the Venice of the North was given to Cork in the eighteenth century. This was a type of branding exercise, a cultural code in a sense, a reference by native and foreign merchants that Cork was part of several cities in northern Europe (Saint Petersburg, Amsterdam, Bruges, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Hamburg, and Manchester) that contained canals, all compared to the enduring connection with water in Venice, Italy over many centuries. Cork and other cities in northern Europe were to be conditioned by ideas of the ideal city tradition. During the post medieval centuries European artists and engineers began to represent political and social ideas and concepts in graphic terms. In truth, this encouraged planners to imagine the ideal port city as a complete unit of which the river, harbour, or canal was an integral part, conceptually and figuratively. This tour explores these ideas and how they influenced perception and culture in growing eighteenth century ‘Venices of the North’ such as Cork.

Kieran’s other tours are:

Monday 19 August 2012 – Shandon Historical Walking Tour, Discover one of the City’s key historical quarters; learn about St Anne’s Church and the development of butter market and the Shandon Street area, meet at North Gate Bridge, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).

Tuesday 20 August 2013- Blackpool Historical Walking Tour, From Fair Hill to the heart of Blackpool, learn about nineteenth century shambles, schools, convents and industries, meet at North Mon gates, Gerald Griffin Avenue, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).

Thursday 22 August 2013 – From a Workhouse to a Hospital, The Story of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Discover the history of the workhouse, meet at entrance gate, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).

Friday 23 August 2013, “Where the future and the past meet, A historical walking tour of Mahon, to mark the 100th anniversary of Dunlocha Cottages” (new tour), Blackrock Garda Station, top of Avenue De Rennes, Mahon, 7pm (free, duration: 1 ½ hours).

Sunday 25 August 2013,  Douglas Historical Walking Tour, Discover about the sailcoth and woollen mills, meet at St. Columba’s Church Car Park, Douglas, 2pm (free, duration: two hours).

Further details from Kieran McCarthy can be got, if needs be at 0876553389.

 

Caption:

703a. John Rocque’s Map of Cork 1750 (source: Cork City Library)

Blackrock Historical Walking Tour, Saturday 27 July 2013

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

 

As part of ongoing community project into the local history of the south-east ward, Cllr Kieran McCarthy will conduct a historical walking tour of Blackrock Village on Saturday 27 July 2013, 2pm, leaving from Blackrock Castle (approx 2 hours, free event).

 

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.

 

Cllr Kieran McCarthy noted: “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; 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.”

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, Historical Walking Tour of Blackrock, 27 July 2013

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

700a. Dunlocha Cottages, 2013

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 18 July 2013

Historical Walking Tour of Blackrock, 27 July 2013

 

On Saturday 27 July 2013, I am running a historical walking tour of Blackrock Village (free, meet 2pm, Blackrock Castle, approx two hours). Within the story of Blackrock and its environs, one can write about a myriad of topics from its connection to the river and the harbour to its former mini demesne type landscape in the nineteenth century to its heart of a small village of hard working labourers and fishermen who struggled to survive.

This year as well, the residents of Dunlocha Cottages are celebrating the centenary of the cottages being built in 1913. They plan to host an event on Saturday 24 August to mark it. The cottages were developed by the Cork Rural District, which existed through Public Health Acts of the late 1800s giving them authority to improve public health in the areas they represented and Labourers Acts of the late 1800s, which them authority to clear slum like areas and build new houses for the poorer classes.

            Searching through newspapers and Cork street directories reveals that the Cork Rural District comprised 65 representatives from 30 areas in Cork’s metropolitan area (averaging two representatives per area). Their work was funded by a portion of the rates of ratepayers in the city and county. On two of Dunlocha Cottages are two plaques to Richard Wallace and Daniel Coakley, which serve to remember the two councillors involved in pushing for the creation of the cottages. According to the census of 1911, Richard Wallace lived in Blackrock and was a reputable carrier agent for the Cork Macroom Railway with his office at Marlboro Chambers, (that lovely red bricked building with YMCA inscribed on it). He was 37 years of age, was 13 years married to Elizabeth with three young kids, 11, 9, and 3.  In 1911, Daniel Coakley, lived in Ballinure, was 58 years of age, 35 years married to Hannah, with six grown up children in their twenties. Daniel was a market gardener in Ballinure in Mahon. The Blackrock rural district area was a large one and extended from Mahon through Blackrock, Ballintemple and Ballinlough to the Cross Douglas Road.

            Both Richard Wallace and Daniel Coakley were busy public representatives. In the three years previous to the opening of the cottages, Wallace was a member of the Board of Guardians in the Cork Union on Douglas Road and was quite well aware from that as well what was needed to improve the poverty of his constituents. Daniel Coakley was the same through his work as a hard slog market gardener. In 1913, at the heart of Blackrock Village and environs was a slum-like centre. Over 2,500 people lived in over 400 houses. Several decades earlier ninety families are recorded as living in one roomed cottages, 260 in two rooms and just over 200 in three or more rooms, the average number of persons to a bed were three. The census of 1911 shows a tight knit community with a myriad of occupations, 64 registered fishermen, and several involved in agricultural labour, shipping, carpentry, smithies. In other words there was a hard working population who strove to provide for young families. The average age of heads of households of Blackrock in the 1911 census was between 40 and 45.

            As early as April 1910, Daniel Coakley remarked at a district council meeting that land needed to be bought in Blackrock to provide spaces for new houses to relieve some of the conditions. However, buying property was expensive and the proposal to buy a field called Jameson’s Field in Blackrock was expensive. From 1910 through to the end of 1913, the field was to be a common item on the agenda of the District Council.

            The field was named after Richard Longfield Jameson who had leased the property from the Chatterton family of Castlemahon in the nineteenth century plus then sublet it again; both the Chattertons and Richard lost their lands through the collapse of their rent schemes during the time of the great famine. The Chatterton family suffered financial problems and lived more frugally in Dorset and, from 1852 at Rolls Park in Essex. However the name of Jameson stuck. The lands were sold off by the Encumbered Estates project in the post Great Famine years. Richard Longfield Jameson had several valuable houses, and premises, situated on the South Mall, Morrison’s Island, Queen Street and Logan Street in the City of Cork. His property was sold in fifteen lots. By 1910, the lands in Blackrock were the property of Dr Edward Magner, a medical doctor, living in Ballinure, who had a practice on the South Mall. During 1910 at various meetings of the district council, the protection and enhancement of people’s lives seem to fuel the passion of Richard Wallace and Daniel Coakley.

            By the time Dunlocha cottages were built, the number of cottages the Rural District Council had built in previous years was nearly 1,400 and they had 85 in hand including the Jameson Field project. In the bigger picture, nationally, since 1866 5,500 houses had been built accommodating 4,600 families at a cost of £700,000 or about E.45m in today’s money. In otherwords, the Cork Rural District Council was a key runner in Ireland in the provision of new cottages.

 

Caption:

700a. Dunlocha Cottages, 2013 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, Cork Independent, 27 June 2013

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

697a. John F Kennedy's motorcade travels through St Patrick's Street, 28 June 1963

 

Kieran Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 27 June 2013

Freedom, Hope and JFK

“There was a great assembly from all parts of Cork when President Kennedy visited the City yesterday on his Irish whirlwind visit and it will go down as one of the most memorable receptions so far. From an early hour spectators began crowding the sidewalk and streets gaily decorated with the entwined flags of the two countries” (Journalist, Irish Independent, 29 June 1963).

On Friday 28 June, I’m giving a tour of Cork Docklands leaving from Kennedy Park at 7pm (free). The tour aims to mark the visit, fifty years ago to Cork, by US President John F Kennedy. On 28 June 1963, he spent the morning in Cork where he received the Freedom of the City. He later left the city by helicopter from Monahan Road and from what in time became known as Kennedy Park. I was not around in 1963 but walking around Cork City Hall, there are several memorials to him. His visit to the city can be explored in the newspapers from the time and in film (google the youtube footage “John F. Kennedy in Cork, Ireland, June 28th 1963”),

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDbsxWGsebc.

A recent debate in Cork City Hall’s council chamber provided food for thought as Kennedy’s legacy was spoken about. In his trip to Ireland, he was just coming back from Berlin where on 26 June, 1963, he gave a historic speech to a crowd in front of the Berlin Wall. The speech was given in response to the Cold War and the tension between the non-Communist countries and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union built the Berlin Wall as a way to keep people from fleeing to non-Communist countries, mainly West Berlin. Kennedy praised the character of the people of Berlin in their pursuit for freedom.

JFK took office during one of the most turbulent times in American history. The Cold War between democracy and communism was becoming more confrontational, and the United States and the Soviet Union possessed enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world many times over. In American cities, racial tension was rising. Growing numbers of black Americans had begun to demonstrate for equal treatment under the law, and white segregationists promised to deny these rights, using violence if necessary. As he struggled with the complexities of foreign and domestic politics, Kennedy sometimes fell short of his idealistic rhetoric. A self-proclaimed supporter of civil rights, he moved forward slowly on the issue until 1963, when racial violence forced his hand. An advocate of peaceful development abroad, he hastened America’s descent into the Vietnam war, a conflict that would end countless lives and bitterly divide his nation. His assassination on 22 November 1963, in Dallas, Texas, marked a bloody conclusion to his presidency, but accelerated his coronation as a martyred prince of American politics. In death, he became a cultural icon. The idealism that Kennedy evoked did not die with him. Although Kennedy failed to realize his promise, he left a legacy of hope.

Perhaps it was a message of hope that he carried on his visit to Ireland and to cities such as Cork on his way back to the US from Berlin in June 1963. Indeed, he received the freedom of Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Wexford. President Kennedy’s itinerary meant that helicopter was his means of transport on trips through the country. The Minister for External Affairs, Mr Aiken and the American Ambassador, Mr McCioskey travelled in the President’s helicopter. The Minister for Industry and Commerce Jack Lynch travelled in another helicopter and visiting pressmen and officials travelled in two similar craft.

The rain, which had been threatening during the morning held off for the commencement of his visit. As the President alighted at Collins Barracks, a pipe band drawn from the 4th Batallion, Limerick under Sergeant Walter O’Sullivan. The President gave the crew cut White House security men an unexpected problem when he arrived in Cork. Flanked on both sides by security men, he suddenly changed course and went to a window at Collins Barracks where a group of Army nurses were waving frantically and calling “Mr President”, Mr. President. With a broad grin he strode across to them and with an outstretched hand greeted them individually.

Half an hour before President Kennedy arrived in Cork, an emergency call went out from the secret service that one of the two open cars to be used in the procession had broken down. Twenty minutes later a Cork firm had supplied a black 1937 Rolls-Royce. As the motorcade progressed towards the city centre the crowds thickened. Again and again his car had some difficulty in getting through and had to stop more than once. The effective crash barriers in Parnell Place stood up well to surging crowds and all Cork wanted to get a glimpse of the smiling young President as he was brought through the streets.

In McCurtain Street a large banner erected by the ITGWU spanned the roadway issuing ‘céad míle fáilte’ to the President. One of the biggest crowds was the foot of Patrick’s Hill where Gardai had trouble holding back the crowds. On more than one occasion thousands surged forward in an attempt to reach the President’s car but the Gardaí succeeded in maintaining a narrow passage, which was just big enough to allow the procession through.

At Cork City Hall the Cork Lord Mayor, Alderman Seán Casey, TD, opened his address to Kennedy by noting “You stand for the weak against the strong, for right against might”. Continuing the Lord Mayor noted that Kennedy was receiving the honour “in token of our pride that this descendant of Irish emigrants should have been elected to such an exalted office and of our appreciation of his action in coming to visit the country of his ancestors; as a tribute to his unceasing and fruitful work towards the attainment of prosperity and true peace by all the people of the world, and in recognition of the close ties that have always existed between our two countries”. The Freedom of Cork casket was decorated with celtic designs and on the lid the arms of Cork were engraved. On the front was the American Eagle Crest and on the back of the crest of the Kennedy family.

In a well measured speech, one of Kennedy’s key points referred to Ireland’s hope and mission for freedom through the ages: “So Ireland is still old Ireland but it has found a new mission in the 1960s and that is to lead the free world to join with other countries in the free world to do in the 60’s what Ireland did in the early part of this century and indeed has done for the last 800 years and that it associate itself intimately with the principle of freedom”.

As the crowds swelled outside City Hall to get a glimpse of the President, Kennedy’s motorcade struggled as it made its way to Monahan Road to reach his helicopter for his return flight to Dublin. Despite the troops drawn from Collins barracks and Sarsfield Barracks and the 1st Motor Squadron, the public seized their opportunity here and swarmed around the presidential helicopter and gave him a send-off that equalled anything he received to that date on his Irish visit.

Links, more information and more pictures on this story can be seen at my blog www.kieranmccarthy.ie

Caption:

697a. John F Kennedy’s Motorcade travels through St Patrick’s Street, 28 June 1963 (source JFK Presidential Library, USA)

 

Further information:

http://www.jfk50ireland.com/

http://www.jfk50.org/