Easter 1917 coincided with the commemoration of the rising a year earlier. Up to early 1917, the Volunteer organisations appeared to have dissolved but release from English gaols saw companies of Volunteers re-organising and training. In January 1917, the Cork volunteers in their hall at Sheares Street began to regroup under Tomás MacCurtain. Close police attention led to MacCurtain’s leadership being short-lived as he was arrested again. He left behind two battalions which had been built up, comprising eight companies each. Demands were given by British Authorities for the closing of the Volunteer Hall. The Volunteers remained until the doors were closed by force on 4 June 1917 and several arrests were made.
MacCurtain’s arrest was not the only one in February 1917. Terence MacSwiney was also arrested and both were brought to the Military Detention Barracks, where two other Volunteers Sean Nolan and Peadar O’Hourihane were also present. On 23 February 1917, all four were taken to Arbour Hill Barracks in Dublin. Here they were served with deportation orders condemning them to be exiled out of Ireland for an unspecified period to small English towns, free to roam them but not to return to Ireland. Tomás and Peadar were sent to Ledbury in the County of Hereford, north of Bristol and MacSwiney and Nolan to nearby Bromyard. On Easter Monday 1917. they marked the first anniversary of the Easter 1916 Rising in Dublin in their own way. Terence and his wife to be Muriel Murphy were planning their wedding day for June 1917.
Meanwhile across the country, small volunteer companies marked the first anniversary. In Dublin, on Saturday 13 April 1917 the Sinn Féin flag of orange, green and white was hoisted over certain public buildings – the old Post Office wall near Nelson’s Pillar on O’Connell Street, the AOH (American Alliance) offices in North Frederick street, and Boland’s Mills. In O’Connell Street, large numbers of young people gathered and some were noted by police to have taken to the streets breaking windows and resisting police arrest.
A day later on Sunday 14 April in Cork it is recorded by the Cork Examiner that four hundred processionists, many of whom wore Sinn Fein badges and rosettes, marched from the North Cathedral to Cork City Hall. At the Cathedral, a memorial service was held for persons who were killed arising out of the 1916 Easter Rising. During the ensuing march, the Volunteers sang the marching song of the Sinn Féin volunteers and also an Irish version of Easter Week.
At City Hall, some persons had already entered the building, and hauled down the municipal flag replacing it by the Sinn Féin ones. The processionists sang Irish songs, saluted their flag and retraced their steps to the National Monument on the Grand Parade. The parade movements were watched by fifty police, under District-Inspector Walsh, who appealed to the ringleaders of the demonstration to disperse quietly. The police approached the mob with drawn batons and were received with a fusillade of stones. The police noted of the disorder that half the rioters were women, who served as a screen for the ringleaders. The police made a combined baton charge and dispersed the mob in all directions. The Sinn Féin flag was hauled down from City Hall by the police, but was later retrieved by Volunteers and was run up again and flew for the rest of the day over City Hall.
By Sunday 22 April 1917, Bishop Cohalan, sent a letter to the priests of the Diocese for his concerns about further rebellion to be read out following letter was read at each Mass in the City’s churches. He had concerns that on a few occasions after memorial masses, processions to the National Monument were taking place; “I am reluctant to interfere with liberty on the street. The stoppage of a procession or demonstration can easily become an undue interference with liberty…a procession from a Church does not necessarily imply irreverence to the Holy Sacrifice of the mass…But processions after the memorial masses would lend to conflict and disorder in the streets. And I appeal to you all, priests and people, to remember the reverence which is due to our place of worship, and, above all, to the Holy Sacrifice, and to see to it that there shall be no procession or demonstration which might lead to disorder, no matter by whom caused, in connection with the Memorial masses”.
Examples were made of Sinn Fein Volunteers by British authorities. The Cork Examiner on 26 April 1917 records the findings of a District Court-martial held at Cork Barracks into charges made against Patrick Higgins, 70 Dominick street, John Healy, 32 Evergreen street, and Jonnies Courtney. 95 Hibernian Buildings. The accused were charged with having on 7 March 1917 at the Sinn Fein Hall on Sheares Street, taking taken part in drilling without having a permit from the competent military authority. Each of accused was found guilty, and Higgins was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment with hard labour whilst Healy and Courtney each were sentenced to three months’ imprisonment with hard labour.
Cork 1916, A Year Examined (2016) by Kieran McCarthy & Suzanne Kirwan is now available in Cork bookshops.
Cork City History Tour (2016) by Kieran McCarthy is also available in Cork bookshops.
Captions:
891a. Terence MacSwiney and his wife Muriel Murphy, c.1917 (source: Cork City Library)
891b. National Monument on the Grand Parade, c.1917 (source: Cork City Through Time by Kieran McCarthy & Daniel Breen)
Cork’s young people in Blackrock and Mahon are invited to participate in the ninth year of Cllr Kieran McCarthy’s Community Talent Competition. The auditions will take place on Sunday 23 April 2017 between 10am-5pm in the Lifetime Lab, Lee Road, Cork City. There are no entry fees and all talents are valid for consideration. The final will be held on Sunday 7 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).
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”. Continuing Cllr McCarthy highlighted the strengths of the project; “Over the eight years of the project, many auditionees have passed through our doors – singing, acting and performing; we have tried to give young people pointers in developing their talents further; many are just taking the first step and many have carried on developing and enjoying their talent through local stage and performance schools; My team and I are very proud as well that several of our auditionees are now professional musicians, singers and even magicians with young careers burgeoning. Further enquiries/ details on the Community Talent Competition can be got from the talent show producer (RSVP), Yvonne Coughlan at rsvpireland@gmail.com.
Cork Independent, 13 April 2017 The Wheels of 1917: The Carpenter’s Call
The history of Cork unions and the labour movement is not an overly researched topic in Cork history, but relationships between employers and employees regularly appear in the newspapers across the years. This month, one hundred years, coincided with strikes and union meetings in the city. A dispute on pay between the Cork Carpenter’s Society and the Builder’s Federation was ongoing. A fully attended meeting of the Builder’s Federation was held on 2 April 1917 with the proceedings being private. The situation was discussed at length and the meeting approved of the reply drafted to the declaration of the carpenters. A Cork Examiner article on 3 April 1917 reveals that it was hopeful that the matter would be resolved: “a much more hopeful aspect is believed to prevail, and the hope is expressed that the spirit of broadmindedness, which is being displayed on both sides at present will have a good effect; the time is ripe for mediation, and that it would be a great pity if the present favourable opportunity were allowed pass, with the danger of the delay giving rise to a more embittered situation”.
The members of the Cork Masons and Plasterer’s societies also struck work on 2 April 1917, the former on a demand equivalent to an increase of 9s a week in their wages, and the latter equivalent to an increase of 6s a week. Both bodies pointed out that their claims were made independently of the Carpenter’s Society. The builders’ attitude in reference to the masons’ demand was that they were prepared to grant them a war bonus of 3s a week and an increase of wages represented by 6d a day subject to a guarantee, to abide by certain modifications of rules. They offered similar terms to the plasters as from 2 April and promised that when “certain matters in the course of settlement with another trade body” were adjusted, their demand would be fully considered.
A week later, the masons, plasterers, builders’ labourers, and munition workers on strike attended public meetings hosted by the Lord Mayor, Thomas C Butterfield to speak about arbitration measures. At the meeting of 8 April it was discussed that the men involved have already appointed their arbitrator, and the masons would soon appoint theirs. The Chairman, Mr P Lynch, was glad to be able to announce that negotiations were proceeding with a view of bringing the dispute to an end and breaking the resolve of employers in the building trade; “If the employers in the building trade had been left lo themselves he was convinced that there would have been no trouble between the men and employers, but unfortunately outsiders intervened and tried to force the employers in the building trade to smash the men’s union. I trust that the men would be able to return to work next week after winning a successful but short fight”. On the motion of Alderman Cllr Kelleher, a resolution was unanimously adopted, hailing the attempts being made to bring about an amicable settlement, between employers and employees.
By 16 April 1917, the outcome of many discussions was that a joint conference of the representatives of the South of Ireland Master Builders Association and the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners under the chairmanship of Captain Fairbairn Downie at 4pm, at the Cork National Shell Factory on Corn Market Street, now the Bodega. After an exhaustive discussion of all the phases of the dispute, arbitration under Captain Downie was unanimously agreed to. The employers present were Messrs T Goodall of Cork Timber and Iron Co, Ltd and William O’Connell, of Messrs W O’Connell and Son and Charles F Hayes of Messrs Meagher and Hayes.
On 30 April, Captain Downie published his proposed award scheme, which did settle the dispute; Working hours to work were to be from 8am to 6 pm from Mondays to Fridays inclusive with an interval of one hour from 1 pm to 2 pm for dinner. Working hours on Saturday were to be 8 am to 1 pm; all carpenters and joiners would work 50 hours per week. Overtime from 6 pm to 9 pm was to be paid time and a quarter. Half an hour for refreshments was to be allowed, and the time to be mutually agreed upon. From 9 pm to 12 midnight was to be paid time and a half, and from midnight to 6 am, was to be double time, with one hour break by arrangement. The rate of wages was to be l0d per hour as and from the 1 April, 1917, until the first day of May, 1917. From that date the wages were to be increased by a further halfpenny per hour, making a total rate of wages from that date to be 10½ d per hour all the year round. Country money was to be paid at the ratio of 1s 3d per day. The sum of 3s was to be added if working on two different jobs in the one week. Train fares to and from jobs were to be paid by the employer. However, a workman leaving his job in the country without permission, or through misconduct, was not to be paid his return fare.
Captions:
890a. The operative society of Masons & Bricklayers have been residents of Carpenters Hall on Fr Mathew Quay since 1950, before that they were residents in Mechanics Hall from 1870, which was used by the volunteers during the Irish War of Independence (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
890b. Carpentry tools on display at Cork Carpenter’s Hall during a recent Cork Heritage Open Day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy has welcomed the decision by Cork City Council Library Service to join the Sierra National Local management system. The Council’s data for stock and for patrons, to is now contained on a national system, in terms of acquisitions, catalogue and circulation of books. Cllr McCarthy noted though that despite the potential of accessing books from across the country there are still some areas to bed in. “Some concerns have been raised by the Council’s library service and City Librarian. The SMS messaging system for patrons is not yet working in a satisfactory manner. There are concerns about data protection – incorporating personal data taken from the City Council database and incorporated into a national database. There are unnecessary restrictions on teenagers seeking to borrow books for e.g school projects. There is uncertainty about the new fine system. An unnecessarily high limit on items, which patrons may reserve (12 items)”.
Cllr McCarthy has called for ongoing cost benefit analysis of the new system; “Early indications show a heavy draw on Cork City Council library stick from patrons around the country; for every two requested by Cork City library patrons. There are five requests for Cork City library’s stock by patrons outside of Cork City. However, to be able to get books from any part of the country is a great asset to have; it is just important that the burden of cost is properly funded at national level. Cork City Libraries have been under a lot of funding pressures in past years, with staff levels not being renewed due to cutbacks and libraries like that planned for Mahon not getting off the ground”.
Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy has welcomed the decision by Cork Public Museum to join the Museum Standards Programme for Ireland. The Museum officially applied to the programme in September 2016. The Museum was accepted into the programme two months ago and thus began a 3-5-year process to achieve interim and then full accreditation.
Cllr McCarthy noted: “The Museum will need to survey and evaluate its current practices and structures in order to measure them against the standards and guidelines expected by the Heritage Council. This will determine areas of operation that need to be improved and professionalised. The process will involve a closer working relationship between the museum management and various City Council directorates. There will also need to be investment in staffing structures, equipment and building maintenance/ refurbishment to successfully meet 34 standards. Museum staff would have access to training and large bursaries and form part of a national network of participating and supportive museums/ organisation”.
Continuing Cllr McCarthy welcomed the potential of the programme in attaining national funding to protect museum collection plus the outreach potential. “Cork City Council has very good and dedicated curators operating the museum, who have created sterling exhibitions over the last few years and are real champions of Cork’s heritage. The programme will help increase our educational and social outreach capabilities that will form part of a wider agenda to make the city’s collections more accessible to all. This programme will help Cork Public Museum re-connect with the local community by becoming a place that local people relate to, participate in, engage with and ultimately be proud of. If local people visit and enjoy the museum, then tourists will follow”.
My first public walking tour for 2017 returns to the Victorian Quarter – Sunday 9 April 2017, Historical Walking Tour of the Victorian Quarter, From Fever Hospital to Street Grandeur, meet at the green (Bell’s Field) at the top of St Patrick’s Hill, 2.30pm, free, 2 hours. The tour is part of the Lifelong Learning Festival.
In a world where globalisation reigns, more than ever place matters. The Victorian Quarter is a new branding by traders within MacCurtain Street environs and Cork City Council to describe a historic corner of Cork, which was built up during the time of Queen Victoria and espouses the good, the bad and the ugly of Cork History. One is dealing with immense scenic perspectives – book ended by the epic St Patrick’s Hill view to the west, Kent Station to the east and river and port frontage to the south. There is something to be said about how the street and buildings are carefully balanced and placed on a steep carved out sandstone ridge to the north – an important story of strategic engineering, which appears in earnest behind the waterfall feature behind Greene’s Restaurant.
The area comprises gorgeous, original and well invested architecture with rich stories. Its historical DNA is rooted in old Cork but this was the Cork that emerged in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries where the city was branding itself as one of the Venices of the North and the Athens of Ireland in terms of cultural output. When the Corporation of the time invested in planning St Patrick’s Bridge in 1787, it opened up this quarter for development – this was also the decade that brought us the first south docklands plan and the chain the Lord Mayor wears. The 1790s coincided the creation of St Patrick’s Hill – a hill-up avenue from Bridge Street, which aligned with an old windmill now incorporated into Audley House. The decade also coincided with an early MacCurtain Street– back then known as Strand Street and later King Street.
One by one, some of Cork’s greatest stories and architectural structures were added. The tragic Fever Hospital was constructed in 1802 with all that is left today being the Fever Hospital steps. Built between 1801 and 1806 and designed initially by John Gibson, Collins Barracks was once called Royal or Cork Barracks with the largest parade ground in western Europe. Summerhill Road was laid out between 1801 and 1832 as well as a myriad of new residences; these provided the catalyst for the creation of St Patrick’s Church and the first of three St Luke’s Church – St Patrick’s and St Luke’s witnessed their foundation stone laid in the 1830s. St Luke’s Church’s was consecrated in 1837 whilst St Patrick’s Church opened in 1848 – the portico of St Patrick’s echoing the Greek and Roman temples of Central European urban civilization.
The Cork Dublin Terminus & tunnel opened in 1856 – the tunnel was part of an elaborate railway system from Dublin to Cork – in its day one of the major features of engineering in western Europe.
Trinity Presbyterian Church was opened at the foot of Summerhill in 1861 – but Cork’s Presbyterian cultural heritage is 300 years old this year.
The building that Cork’s 96FM occupies first opened its doors in 1888. In the mid nineteenth century, the Vincentian Fathers maintained a seminary at Saint Patrick’s Place in Cork, known as the Cork Diocesan Seminary. In 1888 a new seminary with residential accommodation was completed at Farranferris, and the Vincentian ecclesiastical students transferred there. The then Bishop of Cork, Dr O’Callaghan, invited the Christian Brothers to take charge of the St. Patrick’s Place establishment. The Christian Brothers and Scoil Mhuire or St Angela’s are all part of the educational heritage of the quarter.
The elaborate twelve-bay five-storey structure building, which hosted Thompson’s Bakery was erected about 1890 as well as the seven bay three storey Victoria Buildings. In the 1970s Thompsons output tops 20,000,000 products per annum. The company employed 250 men and women. It distributed Thompsons famous bread throughout Munster and the confectionery was sold throughout Ireland, with depots in Waterford, Dublin, Athlone, Galway, Westport and Limerick. Thompsons vans were a very familiar sight throughout 40 routes Munster and 10 national routes, and numbered in the region of 60.
Thompson’s was soon followed by the Baptist Church building in 1892, the Great Southern and Western Railway Cork Terminus in 1892 and the Metropole Hotel in 1897 financed by the Musgrave Brothers.
In 1897 Dan Lowry opened the building as a luxurious new theatre called The Cork Palace of Varieties, the 120th anniversary of which the Everyman will celebrate this year in their annual programming. Then there is the story of famous Hadji Bey sweet shop post the Cork International Exhibition 1903. The Colliseum cinema, which opened in September 1913 began a social revolution – and the eventual construction of a necklace of cinemas, which were to blossom over the ensuing twenty years.
And the list goes on and on; and as I’m saying these there are possible readers screaming– what about that topic, what about this one; but that is what the public walking tours are trying to bring to the surface – lost stories within familiar places, we all call home.
Captions:
889b. 889a. King Street, now MacCurtain Street, c.1910 (source: Cork City Library)
889b. Map of St Patrick’s Hill 1801 (source: Cork City Library)
This week, one hundred years ago at Cork City Hall, the distribution of 100 certificates to the successful pupils of the Cork Municipal School of Music for the Session 1915-1916 took place. Lord Mayor Butterfield and the Lady Mayoress presided over a large attendance. Locally there was great pride in the School. Over the previous years, students at the school had won many distinctions at various examinations and the school frequently published celebratory public notices in newspapers like the Cork Examiner. All of them were attempts to keep music as a key subject on the agenda of national technical education as well as keeping funding streams in place and helping with fundraising for a new school building. In March 1917, the chairman of the School Committee, Mr P Curtis noted that through publicity he was attempting to showcase the “true value of the school and the talent of the pupils produced” through tuition in pianoforte, violin, cello, organ, voice, elocution, theory of music, harmony, orchestration and choral work.
The Cork School of Music was established in 1878 at 51 Grand Parade with four rooms catering for an initial enrolment of 161 students and a staff of five. In the year 1900, the Committee of the School decided to seek more suitable premises, and a move was made to 8 Morrison’s Island. Three years later during the in winter of 1903 operations were transferred to a large house at 13 Union Quay (being replaced by two new buildings in time, one opening in 1956 and the other in 2007).
Union Quay in Guy’s Directory of Cork for 1903 lists a variety of different trades. It had a number of vintners – Edmond Heaphy (no.1), Mary Fleming (no.2), John O’Connor (no.3) and William Drinan (no.4) – as well as businesses such as the Cork Co-operative Creamery Federation Ltd (no.5), D Williams’ Union Quay Carriage Works (no.s 6-7), T E Jacob & Co Ltd, flour and meal store (no.8), Newsom & Sons Ltd sugar store (no.9), Constabulary Barrack (no.9a), Thomas O’Brien auctioneer and valuer, horse, cattle, and sheep repository (no.s 10-11), W Dalton’s Cork Electric Bakery (no.12), Richardson Bros, manure Depot and Johnson & Co Ltd, cement manufacture (no.14), John Fitzgerald’s corn stores (no.s 16-17), Madden Michael, vintner (no.19), and J O’Connor’s City Saw mills (no.20).
In the 1903-1904 annual report on technical education in the city, only a portion of no.13 Union Quay was used as a school of music – the remainder being allotted to a kitchen equipped for twenty students, a plumber’s workshop, a painter’s and decorator’s room. A beginning was made in the formation of a small botanical garden in the grounds attached to the buildings.
By 1917 the teachers at the school were internationally known – Cambridge scholar William Henry Hannaford taught pianoforte and theory with Wilberforce Franklin of voice production, Signor Ferrouccio Grossi of violin, viola, and conductor of orchestra, Theo Gmür, of the organ, sight-singing, and conductor of choral clans; Michael O’Grady taught Irish National Music and traditional Irish singing with E Rawlinson of violoncello, P Minton of the clarinet, Mrs W Franklin of elocution, Miss Swaffield of pianoforte and Miss Anna O’Donoghue. The superintendent was Miss Mary Barker.
Some background can be gleamed on the background of the above teachers. For example, the organ teacher Theo Gmür was Swiss born. His obituary for 1929 reveals he came to Cork City as a young man, and rapidly gained a reputation as organist and choirmaster. His first appointment was at SS Peter and Paul Church, where he remained as director of the choir up to the time of his death. He became prominent by his active work at the Cork Young Ireland Society’s concerts, City Hall concerts, the Cork Municipal School of Music Choral Society, the Cork Musical Club and Cork Operatic Society. Gmür was musical director of the Cork International Exhibition of 1902 and 1903 and was an Honorary Academician of Trinity College, London, was one of the members of the preliminary committee of the Feis Ceoil, Dublin and was an examiner for many famous colleges.
The March presentation of certificates in 1917 coincided with the hosting of a public concert of orchestral selections, piano duets, violin soles and solo singers. At the interval in the concert, Mr P Curtis, Chairman of the committee of the School, addressed the audience. He was glad to report, that for the year 1914-15 the number of students increased to 439 from 312. He read from the examination report by Dr Annie Patterson (organist with St Anne’s Church, Shandon), which praised the practical musical education on offer to students. He referred to special distinctions gained by students of the School during the past session. Mr T J Collins, tenor, was singled out. During the concert, he received an ovation for his singing of the Prologue from Pagliacci. He had during the year won the O’Mara cup and gold medal in singing at the Feis Ceoil in Dublin.
Mr J L Fawsitt committee member, noted that the School deserved the support of the citizens, and had the committee more money, much more could be done. He appealed to the citizens with financial means; “Rise to the occasion and give the School a building, which would be a credit to Cork and ample space to accommodate all the young Cork artists, who would throne their halls in the near future”.
Cork 1916, A Year Examined (2016) by Kieran McCarthy & Suzanne Kirwan is now available in Cork bookshops.
Cork City History Tour (2016) by Kieran McCarthy is also available in Cork bookshops.
Captions:
888a. Union Quay, c.1910 (source: Cork City Library)
888b. Union Quay, c.1917 from Goad’s Insurance Map (source: Cork City Library)
Cork Independent, 23 March 2017 The Wheels of 1917: The Question of Reform
This week, one hundred years ago, coincided with the release of the Annual Report of the Chief Inspector of Reformatory and Industrial Schools in Ireland for the year 1915. Summarised in the Cork Examiner, some insights were given into the structure of such schools. The full report is also digitised as part of the online archive project on British Parliamentary Papers on Ireland, 1801-1922. Some 14,000 items have been digitised by the University of Southampton. In recent years the stories and realities of these schools are also well documented by the report (2009) of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse or the Ryan Report, which is online at www.childabusecommission.ie. These offer a comprehensive voice to the structure of processes carried out. However, from a family tracking perspective, archives are scattered between religious orders and the HSE making it difficult to track relatives from past archives even when personal sensitivity are considered.
Industrial and Reformatory institutions were run by religious orders and funded by the public. From the Industrial Schools Act of 1868 to the eventual decline of industrial schools in 1969, over 105,000 children were placed in this state care system. By the 1915 report, there were five reformatories and 66 industrial schools in Ireland. Eight of the latter were for boys under ten years of age, who were then transferred to senior schools. The number of committals to the boys’ and girls’ reformatories increased during the 1915 year, and was in excess of the number committed during the previous two years. The Chief Inspector describes the process for committal for juvenile offenders; “offenders were often only committed when they appear several times before a court, and when unfortunately, they had become fit cases for committal to a reformatory. It would naturally be better that when children are in danger of being led into criminal courses that they were at once taken away from their surroundings and sent to an industrial school”.
In his report, the inspector stressed that being sent to such institutions was not implying committees were guilty of a crime; “Committing a child in one of the former does not imply in any way that he or she is guilty of any criminal offence, or has any tendency towards crime. Amongst children liable to be sent to an industrial school are those under fourteen years of age who may be found begging or receiving alms in any street or premises, whether or not there is any pretence of singing, performing or offering anything for sale; those found wandering and not having any home or settled place any of abode or visible means of subsistence; those not being orphans, found destitute; children under the care of parents or guardians of drunken or criminal habits, and orphans found destitute”. The inspector outlined his perspective that such institutions were to protect destitute children in society; “children will be seen from the foregoing that the purpose of the industrial schools is to provide protection for children who may be destitute or on the way, owing to their surroundings, of lapsing into criminal habits. The reformatories are intended to reclaim young persons who have been found guilty of offences against the law, and to enable them to learn to be useful members of the community”.
An account was given by the inspector of a section for training in domestic science and economy, which were located at four of the industrial schools for girls of the age of sixteen years, and upwards. The Inspector writes about such courses as being set up to provide training to young women who wish to earn a livelihood as household servants. There was he noted; “a desire to undergo a course of sound training in housekeeping, after the expiration of their ordinary period of residence at these schools”.
One hundred years ago, the two industrial schools in Cork were the Greenmount Industrial School for boys and the girl’s industrial school of St Finbarr’s, which was based within the Good Shepherd Convent complex at Sunday’s Well adjacent its Magdalen Asylum and Laundry. Information on the St Finbarr’s school is difficult to source. There is a report of the “Inter-Departmental Committee to establish the facts of State Involvement with the Magdalen Laundries (2013)”, which mentions St Finbarr’s Industrial School but nothing substantial. There is work to be pursued on its history and realities.
The Ryan Report outlines a detailed historical timeline of Greenmount Industrial School. By the turn of the twentieth century, it was certified to take in 200 boys and work was progressing at the grounds so that it would become a farm proficient of giving the boys training in farm work, and at the same time provide food for the School and additional income from the sale of farm produce. The School was constructed on eight acres of land, and the staff and boys in the School began cultivating the surrounding land. The Presentation Brothers continued to develop the farm. They purchased much of the surrounding land at the turn of the century, and the adjacent farm comprised approximately 39 acres by the early twentieth century.
Greenmount also had two further farms located at Lehenagh, on the outskirts of the city. It is recorded in the School annals that the Management decided to sell these farms because of difficulties arising in the day-to-day management of them. The Department of Education records described the farm: “The farm attached to this school has an area of 39 acres. It is used to supply milk and potatoes to the institution. Fifteen cows are kept and the feeding for these is grown on the farm”.
For more information on the Irish Industrial Schools and sources for families, see www.childabusecommission.ie.
Captions:
887a. Map of Greenmount Industrial School and surrounds, 1949 (source: Cork City Library)
887b. Ruin of Good Shepherd Convent, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
Cork’s young people are invited to participate in the ninth year of Cllr Kieran’s McCarthy’s Community Talent Competition’. The auditions will take place on Sunday 23 April 2017 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 on Sunday 7 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).
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 got from the talent show producer (RSVP), Yvonne Coughlan, email: rsvpireland@gmail.com.
